bill dazzle
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RE: College Realignment If Basketball Was the Most Important Sport
(01-25-2021 12:58 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote: (01-23-2021 09:42 AM)schmolik Wrote: Since (men's) basketball is my #1 college sport, I at times get sick of the fact that college football calls the shots and gets in the way of college basketball. The old Big East was broken up as football schools and non football schools for the most part seem to not be able to coexist in the same conference anymore (although there are still key exceptions such as Wichita State, BYU, Connecticut, and Hawaii).
A few years ago I put together an "Ideal College Realignment (Basketball Version)" where I realigned schools for basketball first rather than football first, trying to stack conferences in basketball and also to create more geographic ones. Football doesn't care if West Virginia is in the Big 12 because they only travel once a week but if basketball is the #1 sport they would care more about having to travel to Kansas and Texas in the middle of winter. A football conference would treat Villanova as a second class citizen. A basketball conference would treat Villanova as royalty. Finally, this also includes a common Schmolik theme, bringing rivals back together such as Penn State-Pittsburgh, Florida-Florida State, and Texas-Texas A&M but also other rivals between football schools and non football schools such as Temple-Villanova and Cincinnati-Xavier. If Wichita State can be in a "football" conference for other sports, why can't Villanova or Xavier? My conferences also bring back some "old school" rivalries from the past.
https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2017/...ll-version
Top Tier:
ACC (16):
Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Georgetown, Kentucky, Louisville, Cincinnati, Xavier, West Virginia, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Memphis
(I know I've been big on the ACC's academics but I threw that out for this exercise - West Virginia??)
Big Ten (18):
Boston College, Connecticut, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, Villanova, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Indiana, Purdue, Butler, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin
(The Big Ten for the most part stayed academically elite with the possible exception of Butler).
Second Tier:
SEC (16):
Florida, Florida State, Miami, Central Florida, South Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Clemson, East Carolina, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State, LSU, Arkansas
Big 12 (18):
Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, Houston, SMU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Iowa State, Minnesota, Wichita State, Creighton
The Pac 12 would remain unchanged.
I don't think I was thinking about football when I wrote this but if you remove the non football members (Georgetown and Xavier from the ACC, Villanova and Butler from the Big 10, and Wichita State and Creighton from the Big 12), you get the SEC, Big 10, and Big 12 at 16 teams and the ACC at 14.
The ACC divisions are easy, the Virginia, North Carolina schools and Maryland in one division and the others in the other. The Big Ten could put the eight original Big Ten schools (Iowa and Minnesota were moved to the Big 12) in one division and everyone else in the other division although geographically that would put Notre Dame away from Indiana and Purdue and Ohio State is further East than Notre Dame but would essentially put in the "West" division.
In the Big 12, there are seven former SWC teams (Rice didn't make the cut) and seven former Big 8 members (Colorado stays in the Pac-12) with Iowa and Minnesota coming over from the Big 10. Either Iowa, Minnesota, or one of the Big 8 schools has to go to the SWC division. Good luck choosing.
SEC? You've got the Georgia pairs, the Alabama pairs, the South Carolina pairs, the Mississippi pairs, LSU and Arkansas are probably a pair, you have five Florida schools, and East Carolina by their lonesome. Florida and Georgia most likely have to be together so if you keep all the Florida and Georgia schools together there's only room for East Carolina with them and that puts Clemson and South Carolina with the "West" and Alabama and Clemson are in the same division.
I suggested the remains of the Big East raid the A-10 but considering the remains are St. John's, Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul, and Marquette, what incentive do the five of them have of staying together? The three Eastern schools might just join the A-10 and DePaul and Marquette maybe the Horizon or Missouri Valley Conference (maybe Dayton and St. Louis leave the A-10 and joins them).
I’ll use 1980 as the starting point for my basketball-first conference realignment. The NCAA has announced the expansion of the tournament. The Big East has just formed. I’ll also restrict the conferences to no more than 12 members (just a personal preference).
Big East original members: BC, Providence, UConn, Cuse, StJohns, SHU, Nova, GTown and Pitt. Since football revenues aren’t exploding, the primadonnaish PSU is never created. The BE understands the stability created from massive state universities and invites both PSU and Rutgers. The DrJ and Marcus Camby traditions help UMass secure the final spot.
Big East final: BC, Providence, UMass, UConn, Cuse, StJohns, SHU, Rutgers, Nova, GTown, PSU and Pitt
B10 has no real interest in expanding until it creates its BTN. The BTN needs content and markets...it poaches Kansas and brings Mizzou for rivalry and balance. Flagship, land grant, AAU criteria is proudly heralded and maintained.
Big 10 final: OSU, MI, MSU, IN, Pur, NW, Ill, WI, MN, IA, MO and KS.
SEC doesn’t need a football conference championship, but when the Southwest Conference is breaking-up they jump at the opportunity provided by Nolan Richardson’s Arkansas team. Given that football isn’t as popular, Texas politicians don’t block TAMU’s wandering eye. The SEC needs a 12th member and TAMU fits the cultural standards and opens a huge market.
SEC final: UF, UGA, Aub, Ala, TN, Vandy, KY, Ole Miss, MSU, LSU and TAMU
B8 original: UNL, ISU, Mizzou, KU, KSU, OU, OSU and CU
SWC original: UT, TAMU, Ark, SMU, TCU, Houston, Rice, Bay and TTU
Oklahoma and Texas still want to blend their respective conferences. Defections to the B10 and SEC enable these conference to merge into a larger footprint without too much friction. There is excellent basketball in Okie State, Iowa State, UT-Austin, Houston, etc. that no one doubts that the B12 is a basketball force. The Cougars, of Elvin Hayes and Phi Slamma Jamma fame, always maintain their preeminence. Some of the smaller private ex-SWC members get initially jettisoned during the creation of the B12, but only Rice doesn’t make it back.
B12 final: UNL, ISU, KSU, OU, OSU, CU, TTU, TCU, SMU, Baylor, UT and Houston
PAC expands with Utah and New Mexico.
PAC final: UW, WSU, OR, OSU, Cal, Stan, USC, UCLA, AZ, ASU, Utah and NM
ACC original: UMD, UVA, UNC, NCState, Duke, Wake, Clem and GTech
Politics delays expansion, but USC and VT have the connections when the opportunity arises. Eventually markets and eyeballs are needed to renegotiate/improve some media deal...FSU and Miami are the final entrants chosen by ESPN.
ACC final: UMD, UVA, VT, UNC, NCState, Duke, Wake, USC, Clemson, GT, FSU and Miami.
Replicating the Big East model westerly, a seventh power conference emerges. Cincinnati, Louisville, Marquette and DePaul collaborate to form a redesigned Metro conference. To ensure its basketball prowess, this conference has a large footprint.
Metro final: Temple, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Wichita State, Creighton, StLouis, Marquette, DePaul, Notre Dame and Xavier
If football revenues ever become an issue, the FBS members of the Big East and Metro can collaborate to better manage football issues.
End-of-the-day, there are 84 schools in these seven basketball-driven power conferences. The conferences are somewhat culturally and geographically sensible.
Very well done, Wahoowa84. This actually "feels right" and would have been practical had hoops been the focus as opposed to football.
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