(07-07-2017 05:42 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: Post your alternate history scenarios here!
Here's the present day alignment of power conferences in an alternate timeline in which the Big East football wing never formed. The SEC added Florida State (before the ACC could) as well as independent Miami, while the ACC expanded north, picking up most of the would-be Big East football schools. The Big 8 was torn apart by the Pac, Big Ten, and SEC. The Southwest Conference lasted a bit longer than in our timeline (OTL), past Ann Richards's tenure as governor. Thus when they were eventually beheaded by the Pac, Houston came along rather than Baylor.
ACC
East: Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
North: Boston College, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Temple
South: Duke, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
West: Cincinnati, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Louisville
Protected crossovers: North Carolina/Virginia, Pittsburgh/West Virginia
Big 16
East: Indiana, Ohio State, Penn State, Syracuse
North: Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Purdue
South: Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska
West: Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Wisconsin
Protected crossovers: Illinois/Northwestern, Indiana/Purdue, Michigan/Ohio State
Pac-16
East: Houston, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech
North: Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State
South: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah
West: California, Stanford, UCLA, USC
Protected crossovers: none
SEC
East: Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Miami
North: Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
South: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
West: Arkansas, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Protected crossovers: Alabama/Tennessee, Auburn/Georgia
Annual interconference matchups
Clemson/South Carolina
Georgia/Georgia Tech
Kentucky/Louisville
Notre Dame/USC
Oklahoma/Texas
Penn State/Pittsburgh
That's an interesting take based on what would have been the most pivotal change in allegiance in realignment.
Let's go back to '91 and say that F.S.U. does decide for the SEC. What next?
Arkansas gets added as the 12th. Clemson who was somewhat interested at the time F.S.U. was talking with the SEC might well have been in the SEC rather than South Carolina and Virginia Tech who was first considered by the SEC in '91 and at the time thought of as being to remote might well have made it 14. With the defection of Clemson and no addition of Florida State the ACC never grows to viability in the world shifting rapidly to football first thinking.
Without the ACC to shelter less valuable football product in the Northeast the Big 10 takes Boston College for the markets and adds Syracuse (still AAU) they begin earlier overtures to Virginia and Maryland to anchor Penn State. By 1996 the next big wave hits. Virginia and Maryland make the move to the Big 10 and Duke and North Carolina head to the SEC.
The SEC now stands at 16:
Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia Tech
Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia,
Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Arkansas, L.S.U., Mississippi, Mississippi State.
The Big 10 at 15 adds Notre Dame who has been looking at the breaking apart of the Big East and has realized that with no ACC in which to hide, and with the Big 12 and PAC being too remote to be economically viable for minor sports, they really have no other option than to thake the money. They keep USC annually and Navy and try a scheduling agreement with the SEC for Southern recruiting exposure.
The B1G now stands at 16:
Boston College, Maryland, Penn State, Virginia
Purdue, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Syracuse
Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern
Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Now the proposed Big 12 which feels shaky market wise knows what they can pick up and survive.
They add 4 to the East for the market exposure:
Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, and South Carolina
Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa State
Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
Baylor, Texas, T.C.U., Texas Tech
The PAC adds nobody initially but eventually feels the pressure and picks up Utah and another (Hawaii, U.N.L.V./Nevada, or New Mexico).
And perhaps more importantly, without Florida State around which to rebuild the ACC and bolster its value, ESPN never gets a toehold with which to monopolize the product in the Southeast, and therefore never starts to pick apart the Big 12, and the LHN doesn't come to fruition, and FOX finally gets into the Southeast with their 50% ownership of the Big 12 T1 & T2 which with the addition of the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina launches its own network which is a joint ESPN/FOX venture. And of course once the Big 10, Big 12, and SEC are all fat and happy at 16 and can see no viable way to really increase their value with the remaining area schools there is peace in the East. Rivalries stay intact. And all the crap that has happened since 1996-7 never existed.
But of course it didn't happen so here we are. But if you wished it had been otherwise there is only 1 entity to blame and it has four letters in its name. They manipulated F.S.U. to the ACC and the rest is history.