RE: A5 at 32 teams, who makes the cut ...?
While a 32 team A4 isn't going to happen, something short of that could. And it wouldn't require breaking up the NCAA.
The length of the ACC's GoR complicates matters, but only if some of their members are invited to join a new, football centric conference. If the ACC were to be left intact, I could see how (though it's still a longshot) a new 24 member national conference might be possible. The key here is that one or more media companies would have to do the inviting, and they would want to have the creme de la creme spanning coast to coast.
Here are the four 6 team divisions I come up with that meet those criteria.
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Pacific Division: Stanford, Oregon, USC, Washington, UCLA and California.
Southwest Division: Oklahoma, LSU, Texas A&M, Texas, Missouri and Arkansas
South Division: Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Florida, Ole Miss and Tennessee
North Division: Ohio State, Wisconsin, Michigan St, Penn St, Michigan and Iowa
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This conference would eschew any post season championship tournament except for its own 8 team CCG. They would play a regular season conference schedule of 8 games with a 5-1-1-1 format. The 8 game schedule allows them all to continue rivalries with teams from other conferences, many, if not most, of which would have strong TV appeal. It also provides an opportunity for most of the 24 teams to reach bowl eligibility despite their brutal conference schedule.
The establishment of this new conference leaves a number of schools capable of earning recognition as Mythical National Champion despite not playing the top teams from the new conference in the post season. The ACC and remnants of the B1G and Big 12 absorb the four SEC teams not invited to the new conference. The PAC backfills with top western teams and the AAC remains intact. With Notre Dame, this group is a powerful second tier in its own right, looking like this:
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PAC: Washington St, Oregon St, Arizona, Arizona St, Utah, Colorado, Boise St, BYU, San Diego St and Fresno St
B1G: Nebraska, Minnesota, Nortwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Maryland, Rutgers and Vanderbilt
Big 12: Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma St, Kansas, Kansas St, Iowa St, West Virginia, TCU and Mississippi St
ACC Atlantic: Florida St, Miami, Clemson, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Pitt and Syracuse
ACC Coastal: Virginia, Virginia Tech, UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Boston College
American: USF, UCF, Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, Houston, SMU, Memphis, Tulane, Tulsa and Navy
Independent: Notre Dame
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The champions of each of these six conferences/divisions (the P6) plus two teams selected at large would conduct their own 8 team post season tournament. Given the strong possibility that the champion of the new 24 team conference would have two losses, it's quite possible that the winner of the P6 tournament would be able to overtake them in polls and/or other rankings like Sagarin, Massey, etc. to claim a national championship.
The only thing left is to come up with a name for the new conference. Any suggestions?
(This post was last modified: 08-13-2019 12:18 PM by ken d.)
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A5 at 32 teams, who makes the cut ...?
