(12-09-2018 06:57 PM)whittx Wrote:  

(12-09-2018 11:37 AM)ken d Wrote:  My alternate history starts in 2010. The FBS has 120 members going into football season.

Somehow, the B1G, which has 11 members, convinces 4 ACC schools to come over to the Dark Side. They are Virginia, North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech. These schools are all AAU, in states contiguous with each other, and nearly contiguous with Pennsylvania's southern border. Missouri's president keeps his big mouth shut, and the Tigers become the B1G's 16th team.

Faced with the possible breakup of the ACC, Clemson, Florida State, Virginia Tech and NC State petition the SEC, and are approved for membership, matching the B1G.

With SEC membership all but off the table now, the Texahoma Four accept the PAC's offer, encouraged by talks among the three conferences to replace the BCS with a College Football Playoff in which their three conference champions will each get an automatic bid. They are joined by Colorado and Utah, bringing the new PAC West Conference to 16 matching the B1G and SEC.

These are the divisions in what the media begin calling the Power 3 Conferences.

B1G East: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Virginia, North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech.
B1G West: Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.

SEC East: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, NC State, South Carolina, Clemson, Georgia and Florida.
SEC West: Florida State, Auburn, Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, LSU, Arkansas and Vanderbilt.

PAC division: Washington, Oregon State, California, USC, Utah, Arizona State, Oklahoma, Texas A&M.
West division: Washington State, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma State.

Unlike the B1G and SEC, which have a lot of OOC rivalry games, the PAC West opts for a 9 game league schedule, with each team having two protected crossovers. This allows the Texahoma Four, the Cali Four, The Four Corners and the Pacific Northwest Four to play a full round robin within each pod. The zipper arrangement also lets each of the other pods to have one team from the LA area and one from the Bay area every year.

The remaining 72 FBS teams realign into what the media will call the G6, with two independents, Notre Dame and BYU.

The ACC essentially merges with the Big East football schools (who break away from the C7 who get to keep the BE name). The Big 12 replaces its six defectors with TCU, Houston, SMU and Memphis. The Mountain West forms earlier than in the alternate time line, but with exactly the same teams. The G6 now looks like this.

ACC: Boston College, Maryland, Syracuse, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, Louisville, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, Miami, South Florida and Central Florida.

Big 12: Iowa State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State,Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, SMU and Memphis.

MWC: Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV, Wyoming, Boise State, San Diego State, Hawaii, San Jose State, Utah State, Nevada and Fresno State.

C-USA: Connecticut, Temple, Marshall, East Carolina, Army, Navy, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UAB, Southern Miss, and Louisiana Tech.

Sunbelt: Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee St., Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Troy, UL-Monroe, UL-Lafayette, Arkansas State, North Texas, New Mexico State, Idaho and UTEP.

MAC: Akron, Miami (O), Bowling Green, Buffalo, Ohio, Kent State, Ball State, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan.


True to their word, the P3 successfully lead the effort to replace the BCS. The CFP is now a four team playoff among the champions of the P3 conferences plus the highest ranked champion or independent among the G6 schools.

A new bowl group emerges, called the NY6. The Rose Bowl gets first pick from the B1G and PAC West. The Sugar Bowl then gets its pick from the SEC, and the next pick from the PAC West. The Orange Bowl gets the #3 B1G team and the #3 SEC team.

The Mountain West #1 hosts the PAC #4 in the Fiesta Bowl, The ACC #1 hosts the SEC #4 in the Peach Bowl, and the Big 12 #1 hosts the B1G #4 in the Cotton Bowl.


The following schools re-think their pending plans to move up to the FBS after all this realigning is complete. Some decide to stay put, others move ahead. They are:

Appalachian State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Liberty
Massachusetts
Old Dominion
South Alabama
Texas State
UT San Antonio

Whew. That was hard work. But worth it, don't you think?

App State and Georgia Southern still move up within a year or two since they have the fan base and FCS success to justify the move. Liberty eventually moves up because they're Liberty, the school has more money than it knows what to do with it, and it fits their mission of becoming the evangelical Notre Dame.

South Alabama would still move up since they were already in an FBS conference before they added football.
UTSA, UMass. and ODU have potential as programs on the rise.