(05-07-2015 10:47 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(05-07-2015 10:09 AM)ren.hoek Wrote:  

(05-07-2015 09:51 AM)ken d Wrote:  

(05-06-2015 05:16 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(05-06-2015 08:17 AM)ren.hoek Wrote:  here's how it could work...

The ACC takes 6 from the Big12: Texas, TCU, Baylor, OSU, KState and WVU. ND keeps its 5 game deal with the ACC. The 5 team pods work out very neatly and logically. The ACC's footprint is monstrous and the ACCN will be a rou$ing success.

The SEC takes OU and KU, two highly desirable schools in two new states to the SEC. Basketball improves a good bit with this move.

New ACC-SEC matchups - Texas - aTm, KU-KSU, OU-OSU.

That is 8 schools, enough to dissolve the conference. Sorry TTech and ISU.

I could live with that.

Another way to get 8 schools for dissolution:

Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor and TCU to the ACC for a total of 18 teams.

Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Kansas and West Virginia to the SEC (18 also).

Now there are no schools left that the Big Ten would be interested in. The ACC has shored up its football cred, while the SEC significantly improves in hoops. Combined they have all the major programs in Texas, while the SEC adds Oklahoma, Kansas and West Virginia to its footprint. ESPN is happy. The Big Ten is sad.

I prefer the 20 team ACC rather than the 18 just because 18 pretty much requires a 2 round conference championship tournament (3 division champs, 1 wild card). It would require a rule change with the NCAA and the presidents and ADs have shown a reluctance to lengthen the season. It just seems more far-fetched than 20 teams (I realize that ALL of this is far-fetched). 4 pods of 5 teams makes for nice, neat rotating divisions.

East – BC, Syracuse, Pitt, WV, Miami
Central – VT, UVa, UNC, Duke, Louisville
South – NCSU, WF, Clemson, FSU, GT
West – Texas, TCU, Baylor, OSU, Kansas State

I really like how the pods break out in this scenario – old Big East, old Big12 and 2 old ACCs (plus Louisville). I think Kansas might prefer the ACC over the SEC due to basketball, but putting them in the SEC gives the SEC some much needed basketball power along with OU and putting Kansas State in the ACC gives the ACC some much needed football power along with OSU and the Texas schools.

To be sure that I understand your concept, it appears that you propose that each year one pod will be paired with a second pod to form a division, and the teams in that division will play a full 9 game round robin. They will not play any teams in the other two pods. Each year, the pods will be paired differently on a rotating basis so that each pod will play the other pods once every three years, and will complete a home and home with everybody every six years. Is that correct?

So, in the two years out of three that the East is not paired with the South, FSU would have to play Miami OOC if they wish to continue that rivalry on an annual basis (like UNC and Wake Forest are doing now). In some years, then, FSU could have a nine game division schedule, plus Florida, Miami and Notre Dame OOC.

How would you schedule basketball, with 21 teams in the league? Since you would certainly need to preserve some home and home rivalries, it seems like you would have to skip playing some teams every year or you wouldn't have room for much of an OOC schedule. Or would you divide them into separate divisions that schedule almost as if they were different conferences entirely? That would make the most sense to me.

The concept works, but those divisions do not. You can't split UNC and NC State and FSU-Miami.