The other thread got me thinking about what if Division 1 all moved to (or stayed) at ten teams, with conferences able to hold CCGs at ten members. Such a move could have created an earlier playoff. Had conferences moved to ten members in the early 90's, how do you think it would have shaken out?

ACC
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina State
South Carolina
Virginia
Wake Forest

Big Eight
Colorado
Colorado State
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Utah

Big Ten
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Eastern 10 (Split from Big East Basketball)
Boston College
ECU
Miami
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple
Virginia Tech
West Virginia

Independents
Air Force
Army
BYU
Cincinnati
Louisville
Memphis
Navy
Notre Dame
Southern Miss
Tulane

PAC 10
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

SEC
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

SWC
Arkansas
Baylor
Houston
New Mexico
Rice
SMU
TCU
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech

The playoff would work as follows;

Round 1 - Conference Championships
ACC Championship (Rotation of Ericsson Stadium/Jacksonville Municipal Stadium - opened in the 90's, after Carolina/Jacksonville received expansion franchises)
Big Eight Championship (Rotation of Arrowhead Stadium - KC/Mile High Stadium - DEN)
Big Ten Championship (Rotation of Silverdome - DET/RCA Dome - IND)
Eastern 10 Championship (Rotation of Joe Robbie Stadium - MIA/Veterans Stadium - PHI)
PAC 10 Championship (Rotation of Candlestick Park - SF/LA Coliseum - LA)
SEC Championship (Rotation of Georgia Dome - ATL/Legion Field - BIR)
SWC Championship (Rotation of Astrodome - HOU/Texas Stadium - DAL)

Round 2 - Quarterfinals
Big Ten Champion vs. PAC 10 Champion (Rose Bowl - Pasadena)
Eastern 10 Champion vs. ACC Champion (Orange Bowl - Miami)
Top-Ranked Independent vs. SEC Champion (Sugar Bowl - New Orleans)
Big 8 Champion vs. SWC Champion (Cotton Bowl - Dallas)

Round 3 - Semifinals (bid on by host cities)

Round 4 - National Championship (bid on by host cities)

Every conference would be divided into two divisions, with each team playing every divisional foe once (four games) and crossover games within the conference (three games) which would not count towards your conference record (but could be used in tie-breaker scenarios for divisional champions). Every conference team would also have two OOC games (scheduled by individual schools), having a nine-game regular season schedule. Divisional champions would have the best record in the division. The national championship participants would both end up playing thirteen games. Programs like Stanford, USC, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue would still regularly schedule Notre Dame (who would also add Navy and BYU annually), so they would get to continue to schedule nationally. Independents would not have their own conference TV contracts (those would need to be negotiated individually), but they would still have an access spot in this designed playoff.

Thoughts? How would you have done it?

(09-21-2019 03:02 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  The other thread got me thinking about what if Division 1 all moved to (or stayed) at ten teams, with conferences able to hold CCGs at ten members. Such a move could have created an earlier playoff. Had conferences moved to ten members in the early 90's, how do you think it would have shaken out?

ACC
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina State
South Carolina
Virginia
Wake Forest

Big Eight
Colorado
Colorado State
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Utah

Big Ten
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Eastern 10 (Split from Big East Basketball)
Boston College
ECU
Miami
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple
Virginia Tech
West Virginia

Independents
Air Force
Army
BYU
Cincinnati
Louisville
Memphis
Navy
Notre Dame
Southern Miss
Tulane

PAC 10
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

SEC
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

SWC
Arkansas
Baylor
Houston
New Mexico
Rice
SMU
TCU
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech

The playoff would work as follows;

Round 1 - Conference Championships
ACC Championship (Rotation of Ericsson Stadium/Jacksonville Municipal Stadium - opened in the 90's, after Carolina/Jacksonville received expansion franchises)
Big Eight Championship (Rotation of Arrowhead Stadium - KC/Mile High Stadium - DEN)
Big Ten Championship (Rotation of Silverdome - DET/RCA Dome - IND)
Eastern 10 Championship (Rotation of Joe Robbie Stadium - MIA/Veterans Stadium - PHI)
PAC 10 Championship (Rotation of Candlestick Park - SF/LA Coliseum - LA)
SEC Championship (Rotation of Georgia Dome - ATL/Legion Field - BIR)
SWC Championship (Rotation of Astrodome - HOU/Texas Stadium - DAL)

Round 2 - Quarterfinals
Big Ten Champion vs. PAC 10 Champion (Rose Bowl - Pasadena)
Eastern 10 Champion vs. ACC Champion (Orange Bowl - Miami)
Top-Ranked Independent vs. SEC Champion (Sugar Bowl - New Orleans)
Big 8 Champion vs. SWC Champion (Cotton Bowl - Dallas)

Round 3 - Semifinals (bid on by host cities)

Round 4 - National Championship (bid on by host cities)

Every conference would be divided into two divisions, with each team playing every divisional foe once (four games) and crossover games within the conference (three games) which would not count towards your conference record (but could be used in tie-breaker scenarios for divisional champions). Every conference team would also have two OOC games (scheduled by individual schools), having a nine-game regular season schedule. Divisional champions would have the best record in the division. The national championship participants would both end up playing thirteen games. Programs like Stanford, USC, Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue would still regularly schedule Notre Dame (who would also add Navy and BYU annually), so they would get to continue to schedule nationally. Independents would not have their own conference TV contracts (those would need to be negotiated individually), but they would still have an access spot in this designed playoff.

Thoughts? How would you have done it?

maybe back then they would have done it, but I don't think now they would do an automatic placement in the games- where it'd be automatically B10 vs P10 in the Rose Bowl. It'd be 1/8, 2/7, etc.

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I’ve always liked the 7x11 format. 10 Conference Games: 5 home, 5 away. 8-team playoff, 7 highest ranked conference champs + 1 wild-card. B1G/PAC in Rose, SWC in Cotton, SEC in Sugar, etc.

ACC: UVa, VT, WF, DU, UNC, NCSU, ECU, USC, CU, UCF, USF
BIG EAST: Miami, BC, SU, RU, Army & Navy FB-only, UMd, PSU, Pitt, WVU, Cincy (+ UConn/Catholic-5 BB)
B1G: Original 10 + ND
BXII: Original 8 + Utah/Memphis/Louisville
PAC: Original 10 + BYU
SEC: UF, FSU, UGA, GT, AU, UA, OM, MSU, VU, UT, UK
SWC: Texas-8, Arkansas, LSU, Tulane

BYU would have been in the Big 8 over Utah and Colorado State in the early 90s. They aren't polarizing to the Big 8 schools like they would have been to Berkely and Palo Alto.

BYU would be in the Big 8 instead of Colo St and state politics might have seen UTEP in the SWC over UNM. ECU as a member of the Eastern 10 is also debatable.

Overall, I really like it

The east is still so intriguing all these years later. I think you could move Miami, South Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Army, and Navy around in it. It’s more a question of who doesn’t get a seat, and I can see the easy out, ECU, along with a potential shocker in Virginia Tech, too. Is there really room for three PA teams?

The ACC would have invited Miami over South Carolina. Miami really wanted in, but it was so hard to convince the old heads to accept FSU, that it took another 10 years (and Virginia Tech) to get Miami.

(09-22-2019 10:12 PM)MissouriStateBears Wrote:  BYU would have been in the Big 8 over Utah and Colorado State in the early 90s. They aren't polarizing to the Big 8 schools like they would have been to Berkely and Palo Alto.

I agree that our mindset is different today than it was in the early 1990's, but I wouldn't necessarily lay all the opposition to BYU in a new conference to Berkeley or Palo Alto. After the Big 12 added West Virginia to get to 10 teams, there was plenty of speculation that BYU, Colorado State, and possibly Cincinnati would be good pick-ups to get the conference to a truly 12-team league. The Big 12 (formerly Big 8) balked at BYU in part, due to the school's lack of inclusivity as it pertains to gay students. Brigham Young may acknowledge that gay students exist at its Provo campus, but it certainly does not want such students to be open about it. The school also has stringent dating policies with regard to heterosexual undergrads, and it steadfastly refuses to play athletic contests on Sundays. Not surprisingly, BYU is closely tied to and heavily influenced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and that's cause for concern for a majority of college administrators, whether their campuses are public or private; secular or with religious ties.

Even when BYU was in the WAC, a lot of member schools didn't like the idea of the 'Mormon Mission' allowance that the school employed. Many coaches from opposing conference schools were growing in their complaints that a BYU athlete could take off a couple of years to go on LDS Missions, and not lose any eligibility after they came back to campus. Oftentimes the student came back much more 'buff' than when they left school. Several football coaches in the 1980's and 90's didn't think it fair for 18 or 19 year old kids playing against 24 year old juniors (as an example).

Good call on BYU. BYU could easily slide into CSU's spot, who could have stayed behind in the WAC.

would note in the 90's BYU still had Lavell Edwards.....

The one interesting program would be Utah. They were in the swamp at that time.....

(09-23-2019 10:26 AM)stever20 Wrote:  would note in the 90's BYU still had Lavell Edwards.....

The one interesting program would be Utah. They were in the swamp at that time.....

Good point. Some conferences may have been scared to death to take BYU back then since the Cougars employed a pass-happy attack on offense that many, many schools weren't used to seeing. If schools in the WAC/MWC were willing to try an match BYU with that style of play, they usually didn't have the kind of skill players the Cougars always seemed to come up with to be competitive for 60 minutes of play.

Then again, once Edwards retired, BYU's fortunes started to dip in part, because other teams caught up to the Cougars in offensive prowess, their defenses were able to adapt to BYU's offensive schemes, and the fact that everything surrounding the football program changed with such a long-standing coach being gone. Other schools in major sports go through the same thing too once a campus fixture like Edwards decides to hang up the whistle.

Well, who was Colorado sweet on back in the old Big 8/12 days? It was a western school, but I've heard it bounce between both BYU and Utah. Or New Mexico. Or Wyoming, for that matter.

Give the Big 8 schools the reigns in their own expansion (and not Texas politics), and I think it probably goes to Utah or New Mexico. Or, Nebraska takes its foot off the brakes, and Arkansas gets the nod?

I mean it’s an interesting thought experiment but it does ignore that in the age of Television, conferences like the SWC and B8 simply weren’t going to survive, let alone expand in order to fit a nice, clean format

If you had to get to Ten across the board and do so semi-regionally I have to think the original SWC with academic minded UT & A&M, gulf coast UH/Rice, Arkansas, and a roster including private schools BU, TCU, SMU, and Rice would look more fondly on Tulane than New Mexico who they have no history with or cultural ties. There isn’t much history with Tulane but the cultural/institutional fit would be much closer.

Eastern 10 (Split from Big East Basketball)
Boston College
ECU
Miami
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple
Virginia Tech
West Virginia

So back in the day, one of the things that Miami was demanding from the original Big East was the addition of another southern school for Olympic sports. For several years prior to leaving, DaU was complaining about the excessive travel for those sports for conference games. ECU which was a football only in C-USA until 2001 was the only southern school that really fit the bill.