(06-09-2021 02:36 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-09-2021 01:23 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I’ve got a solution to the 11 teams/divisional thing:

East: Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, UCF, USF
West: Memphis, Tulane, Houston, SMU, Tulane

Navy alternates between the 2: Odd years in the East, Even years in the West.

In the years when Navy is in your division, those 5 schools play a 9th conference game.

Doesn't quite solve the problem. Say Navy is in the East this year.
East teams have 5 division games, 4 crossover games x 6 = 24 crossover games
West teams have 4 division games, 4 crossover games x 5 = 20 crossover games

24 is more than 20.

Moving Navy around doesn't do you any good. (Also, Navy does NOT want a 9 game conference slate--9 games plus Army, Notre Dame, Air Force and that's their full slate)

You COULD put Navy back in the West, and have 2 of the other 5 Western teams play an extra conference game.

Or, let's get nuts. Scrap the east-west divisions, go zipper format. Make SMU-Houston, USF-UCF, maybe Memphis-Tulane protected cross-division rivalries. That way when one of those schools plays a 9th conference game, it doesn't sting as much.

(Does Navy still really really care about being in the Western division, or was that about Texas AND San Diego AND Boise State?)

You’re right, the math still doesn’t work.

It’s too bad they can’t just make an arrangement with Navy where they aren’t eligible for the CCG or technically a member of either division but still have them play 5-8 AAC games each year.

Navy is just too valuable to forcibly demote against their will.