The poll for the "ideal conference size" (https://csnbbs.com/thread-903642.html) was 10 teams. I started a thread where I took all 130 current FBS teams and arranged them in 13 conferences of 10 teams: https://csnbbs.com/thread-904689.html

But for those who voted for or prefer 12 team conferences, this thread is for you. I've arranged teams into 11 conferences of 12 teams meaning I had to promote two FCS teams so I took the two finalists from last season, North Dakota State (go Carson Wentz!) and James Madison.

Here's my list:

The 5 "powers":

Big Ten:
East: Penn State, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame
West: Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota

ACC:
North: Maryland, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, Connecticut, Boston College
South: North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech

SEC:
East: Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Clemson
West: Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville

Big 12:
South: Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, Arkansas
North: Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Iowa, Iowa State

Pac 12:
South: UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado
North: California, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Washington State, Oregon State

I had discussed my reasoning behind these conference alignments in a previous thread: https://csnbbs.com/thread-904641.html

"The Pac-12 was easy, just keep it the same.

I definitely wanted to add Pittsburgh and Notre Dame to the Big Ten. I probably would prefer Maryland or Syracuse to Minnesota but needed Minnesota somewhere and Maryland and Syracuse fit in well with my ACC.

I made the ACC an academic focused conference so West Virginia wasn't welcome and kept it "Atlantic" so no Cincinnati. Most of the football schools moved to the SEC so they wouldn't be objecting to UConn and Temple.

As for the SEC, I had to fit 12 teams in so some teams had to go. I also didn't like to keep Miami out of the ACC or SEC but I had other priorities and Miami's a private school (as is Vanderbilt so they were kept out).

Finally in the Big 12, Texas A&M, Nebraska and Missouri return, Iowa joins Iowa State (essentially taking Colorado's spot as they stay in the Pac-12), and Arkansas joins. I'm not letting Baylor stay. I'm not as against TCU but Arkansas is clearly the higher profile school and they got pushed out of the SEC so they get priority meaning TCU got squeezed out. The Big 12 (and SEC) are exclusively public universities now.

If those are the new "P5", then Temple and Connecticut were upgraded and Baylor, TCU, West Virginia, Miami, Vanderbilt, Mississippi, and Mississippi State were downgraded."

The "tweener":

Magnolia:
East: Miami, Central Florida, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Vanderbilt, Memphis
West: BYU, TCU, Baylor, Houston, Mississippi, Mississippi State

The conference fits the role of the AAC now but is the home for the current P5's bumped out of the P5's. Four of them (Miami, Vanderbilt, TCU, and Baylor) are southern private schools so I thought "Magnolia" would be appropriate as "Magnolia Conference" gets a lot of discussion on CSNBBS. It also is appropriate for the two Mississippi schools to be in a Magnolia Conference even though they aren't private schools because Mississippi is the Magnolia State. BYU (not a P5 but they have to fit somewhere) isn't southern but is a private. As for West Virginia, they have to go somewhere. Cincinnati, UCF, Memphis, and Houston get the "upgrade" from the AAC.

The "minors":

MAC:
East: Buffalo, Kent State, Akron, Ohio, Miami Ohio, Bowling Green
West: Toledo, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Ball State, Northern Illinois

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

AAC:
West: New Mexico State, Texas El Paso, Texas San Antonio, Texas State, SMU, North Texas
East: Rice, Tulsa, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Monroe, Tulane
SB: La, LaM, TexSt (3), CUSA: LaT, NTex, Rice, UTEP, UTSA (5), AAC: SMU, Tulsa, Tulane (3), Ind: NMSt (1)

CUSA:
North: Massachusetts, Army, Navy, Liberty, Old Dominion, James Madison
South: Charlotte, Appalachian State, East Carolina, Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Western Kentucky
SB: AppSt, CC (2), CUSA: Marsh, Charl, ODU, WKy (4), Ind: Mass, Army, Navy, Lib (4), FCS: JMU (1), AAC: EC (1)

Sun Belt:
East: Georgia State, Georgia Southern, South Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee,
West: South Alabama, UAB, Troy, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, North Dakota State
SB: ArkSt, GaS, GaSt, SAla, Troy (5) CUSA: UAB, FAtl, FI, MidTenn, SMiss (5), AAC: USF (1), FCS: NDSt (1)

There really isn't anywhere geographically appropriate to put North Dakota State.

Again, feel free to draft your own 12 team conferences.

Reminding you of the SI 12 team conference realignments:
Pat Forde: https://www.si.com/.amp/college/2020/06/...ealignment
AllSooners: https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/foot...-look-like

I don’t like the idea of cutting WVU, Miami and the MS schools out of the club while leaving in that weak ACC.

Put the MS schools back in the SEC and shift the SC schools to the ACC.

UConn, Temple, Duke, and WF get displaced from the ACC and replaced with Miami, WVU, and the two S.C. schools.

(08-16-2020 06:51 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  I don’t like the idea of cutting WVU, Miami and the MS schools out of the club while leaving in that weak ACC.

Put the MS schools back in the SEC and shift the SC schools to the ACC.

UConn, Temple, Duke, and WF get displaced from the ACC and replaced with Miami, WVU, and the two S.C. schools.

Would make more sense to put UK/Louisville in the ACC and put the Mississippi schools in the West

That version of the SEC would be a dream

Here is my shake up of the ACC and SEC schools forming a 24 team conference in pods of six playing with NO divisions. The North pod would play everyone amongst their pod and play everyone from say the East pod with one schedule OOC game for a total of 12 games. Each year the the North pod would rotate as well as the the other pods so everyone plays everyone in 3yrs instead of scheduling a couple here and there and a bunch of cupcakes every year. Also there will be a Semi games as well as a championship game taking the top four teams of the conference.

North Pod - Louisville, Kentucky, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Vandy

East Pod - Clemson, North Carolina, South Carolina, Duke, NC State, Wake

South Pod - Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Auburn

West Pod - Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State

I also did this as well for the BigTen and Big12 and the PAC12 making the power 5 to a power 3/6 where you basically have two conferences playing under one umbrella so to speak.

If we are willing to rearrange conferences by forcing schools to do what they don't want to do, then I would much rather force them into 9 team conferences than 12. I arranged them into 14 conferences, with 4 schools not making the cut. I'm pretty sure that close to a majority of all schools would be unhappy with the way I arranged them.

If the teams with the highest Sagarin rating in 2019 won their conference round robin, the top 7 champions in my scenario would have been (in order of their rating) LSU, Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Oklahoma, Oregon and Penn State. The bottom 7 would be Utah, Memphis, Central Florida, Appalachian State, Air Force, Florida Atlantic and Buffalo.

Even in this scenario, the 9 team SEC and B1G would still be the Big Dogs, with 3 teams in each ranked in the Top 12 (with Georgia and Florida in Alabama's SEC and Wisconsin and Notre Dame in Ohio State's B1G).

No matter how you rearrange the chairs, the same teams are still going to dominate.