I had worked on a college realignment with an emphasis on men's basketball instead of football (https://csnbbs.com/thread-915335-post-17...17240497). The goal was to group top basketball schools together, renew old rivalries, and create somewhat geographically friendly conferences. I also wanted to keep the number of teams small, capping these conferences at 10 teams each so teams will play each other more often.

So I wondered what if I decided to apply the same principles but made football the #1 sport instead? Yes, football is the #1 sport considered in college realignment now but I also wanted to make the conferences smaller and more geographically friendly. I decided that the conferences would be conferences of 10 and conferences would play full round robin play. Hopefully if the conferences are chosen carefully the number of non conference rivalry games like Florida/Florida State would be minimized as well. If you try to get most of the better teams in better conferences, you can increase the value of the better conferences and get better games for TV purposes as well.

So here are the conferences:

In my men's basketball conference, the top conference was the ACC with Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Louisville. In college football, of course it's all about the SEC where I combine the two premier teams of college football, Alabama and Clemson. They also keep Georgia and Florida.

Oklahoma and Texas will not be joining the SEC in this scenario. They will lead their own conference which I will call the Southwest Conference (SWC). Because there were too many teams in the SEC, I moved LSU to the SWC.

Of course Ohio State will be part of the Big Ten along with Michigan and Penn State. Notre Dame probably won't want it in real life but in fantasy world I want them in the Big Ten so they are here.

These are the "big" conferences.

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, South Carolina, Tennessee

Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Wisconsin

SWC: Arkansas, Houston, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech

The next level would have to be the Clemson less (and Florida State less) ACC and the trimmed Pac "10".

The Pac 10 will cut their two irrelevant, little brother, and academically challenged schools, Oregon State and Washington State.

Pac "10": Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington

The ACC lost their three southern most schools and Notre Dame and Pitt are Big Ten members. They still have the four North Carolina schools and two Virginia schools at its core. They can stay "Atlantic" by keeping Northeast schools Boston College and Syracuse and adding dumped Big Ten members Maryland (former ACC member) and Rutgers.

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

We also have the old Big 8 schools minus the Oklahoma schools (SWC) and Colorado (Pac 10). I wanted to pair Iowa with Iowa State. Minnesota will also come along for the ride. Northwestern was also left out of the Big 10 so they can find a home here. That gives them eight schools so they need two more. This is a conference where they have to go to be stretched geographically so they add BYU and Boise State.

Big 8: Boise State, BYU, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern

This certainly won't be at the level of the SEC or Big Ten but it might be comparable to the ACC.

Finally, the new "AAC" winds up with the "leftovers" although they tend to be a closer geographic group than the current AAC.

AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Florida, Vanderbilt, West Virginia

There are plenty of other scenarios. If Oregon and Washington really feel they want to keep Oregon State and Washington State, Colorado and Utah go to the Big 8 and Boise State and BYU remain on the outs. Maybe the ACC could dump Boston College and Syracuse and go with Kentucky and Louisville. If the southerners have their way, they'd probably want Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisville. Assuming Colorado and Utah stay in the Pac 10, could the Big 12 grab Kentucky and Louisville? If these conferences stay in place for men's basketball, while we would love to see Kentucky and Louisville play North Carolina and Duke, Kentucky and Louisville playing Kansas isn't bad either. Feel free to share your ideas!

(02-13-2021 10:22 PM)schmolik Wrote:  I had worked on a college realignment with an emphasis on men's basketball instead of football (https://csnbbs.com/thread-915335-post-17...17240497). The goal was to group top basketball schools together, renew old rivalries, and create somewhat geographically friendly conferences. I also wanted to keep the number of teams small, capping these conferences at 10 teams each so teams will play each other more often.

So I wondered what if I decided to apply the same principles but made football the #1 sport instead? Yes, football is the #1 sport considered in college realignment now but I also wanted to make the conferences smaller and more geographically friendly. I decided that the conferences would be conferences of 10 and conferences would play full round robin play. Hopefully if the conferences are chosen carefully the number of non conference rivalry games like Florida/Florida State would be minimized as well. If you try to get most of the better teams in better conferences, you can increase the value of the better conferences and get better games for TV purposes as well.

So here are the conferences:

In my men's basketball conference, the top conference was the ACC with Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Louisville. In college football, of course it's all about the SEC where I combine the two premier teams of college football, Alabama and Clemson. They also keep Georgia and Florida.

Oklahoma and Texas will not be joining the SEC in this scenario. They will lead their own conference which I will call the Southwest Conference (SWC). Because there were too many teams in the SEC, I moved LSU to the SWC.

Of course Ohio State will be part of the Big Ten along with Michigan and Penn State. Notre Dame probably won't want it in real life but in fantasy world I want them in the Big Ten so they are here.

These are the "big" conferences.

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Miami, South Carolina, Tennessee

Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Wisconsin

SWC: Arkansas, Houston, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech

The next level would have to be the Clemson less (and Florida State less) ACC and the trimmed Pac "10".

The Pac 10 will cut their two irrelevant, little brother, and academically challenged schools, Oregon State and Washington State.

Pac "10": Arizona, Arizona State, California, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington

The ACC lost their three southern most schools and Notre Dame and Pitt are Big Ten members. They still have the four North Carolina schools and two Virginia schools at its core. They can stay "Atlantic" by keeping Northeast schools Boston College and Syracuse and adding dumped Big Ten members Maryland (former ACC member) and Rutgers.

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

We also have the old Big 8 schools minus the Oklahoma schools (SWC) and Colorado (Pac 10). I wanted to pair Iowa with Iowa State. Minnesota will also come along for the ride. Northwestern was also left out of the Big 10 so they can find a home here. That gives them eight schools so they need two more. This is a conference where they have to go to be stretched geographically so they add BYU and Boise State.

Big 8: Boise State, BYU, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern

This certainly won't be at the level of the SEC or Big Ten but it might be comparable to the ACC.

Finally, the new "AAC" winds up with the "leftovers" although they tend to be a closer geographic group than the current AAC.

AAC: Central Florida, Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Florida, Vanderbilt, West Virginia

There are plenty of other scenarios. If Oregon and Washington really feel they want to keep Oregon State and Washington State, Colorado and Utah go to the Big 8 and Boise State and BYU remain on the outs. Maybe the ACC could dump Boston College and Syracuse and go with Kentucky and Louisville. If the southerners have their way, they'd probably want Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisville. Assuming Colorado and Utah stay in the Pac 10, could the Big 12 grab Kentucky and Louisville? If these conferences stay in place for men's basketball, while we would love to see Kentucky and Louisville play North Carolina and Duke, Kentucky and Louisville playing Kansas isn't bad either. Feel free to share your ideas!

You left out nearly all, but not all, of the G5's. Very few from the MWC, AAC, C-USA, Sunbelt, or MAC. Of course this is pure fantasy anyway.

Conferences should have 6 schools and play a double round robin in football. Still have 2 OOC games to have 12 games a year.

(02-14-2021 02:46 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  Conferences should have 6 schools and play a double round robin in football. Still have 2 OOC games to have 12 games a year.

6 Team Conferences?

Alabama, Auburn, Florida. Florida State, Georgia, Tennessee (Sorry Georgia Tech and Miami!)

Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh

Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

Arizona, Arizona State, California, Stanford, UCLA, USC

Arkansas, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M

Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin

Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State,, Missouri, Nebraska

Boise State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Wyoming (No one else left up in that area!)

Air Force, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, Utah, Utah State

Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech

Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Vanderbilt, West Virginia

Central Florida, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, South Carolina, South Florida

Boston College, Connecticut, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple

Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV

New Mexico, New Mexico State, North Texas, Texas El Paso, Texas State, Texas San Antonio

Feel free to keep going!

Of course the next obvious move would be to take these 6 team conferences and pair them up into 12 team conferences.

(02-14-2021 03:48 PM)schmolik Wrote:  [quote='MWC Tex' pid='17273618' dateline='1613331972']


6 Team Conferences?



Boise State, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, ?

Idaho would stay in FBS if this was available.

IMO conferences should be two nine team divisions. Four home & away conference games without having to play one or two teams in the opposing division. It's the only way to have a true championship game. It's a crap shoot on who teams gets paired with. One may draw the two best teams the other the two worst. Just have a hard time understanding how that is that an equitable situation. I've never understood the idea of potentially having to beat the same team twice to win a conference championship. If the teams split aren't they actually just co-champs?

(02-15-2021 11:29 AM)AppManDG Wrote:  IMO conferences should be two nine team divisions. Four home & away conference games without having to play one or two teams in the opposing division. It's the only way to have a true championship game. It's a crap shoot on who teams gets paired with. One may draw the two best teams the other the two worst. Just have a hard time understanding how that is that an equitable situation. I've never understood the idea of potentially having to beat the same team twice to win a conference championship. If the teams split aren't they actually just co-champs?

I can see why you would want an even number of conference games because then teams would have the same number of home games and road games. In my first post I had ten games and a nine game conference schedule. Well then half of the teams would play five home games and the other half would play five road games and with round robin play and "one true champion" you can't use the "one division gets the extra home game odd years" rule that exists in the Big Ten and Pac 12 now. The problem with an odd number of teams is that they all can't play conference games in the same week, someone has to be off or play a non conference game every week.

I also think eight conference games is too few. Now you can have eleven team conferences and ten conference games but that might be going too far as it would leave just two non conference games and little room for home and away pairs as a lot of schools depend on seven home games a year. I think nine conference games is the perfect number and if you are able to get the Florida/Florida State, Georgia/Georgia Tech, etc. in the same conference, you should be able to get most schools to agree to nine conference games. Of course this is coming from a Big Ten fan.

But if you want nine team conferences, I'd have to chop one team out of each of my ten team conferences.

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Tennessee (Miami out)

Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin (Purdue out)

SWC: Arkansas, Houston, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech (SMU out)

Pac "9": Arizona, Arizona State, California, , Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington (Colorado out)

ACC: Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest (Boston College out)

Big 8: Colorado, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern (BYU, Boise State out)

New Conference: Boston College, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisville, Memphis, Purdue, Temple, West Virginia

New Conference: Appalachian State, Central Florida, East Carolina, Miami, Mississippi, Mississippi State, South Florida, UAB, Vanderbilt

(Maybe group BC and Miami and put the "Atlantic" schools together and Kentucky and Louisville with the "Southern" schools is another possibility.

You can pair these up.