(08-05-2022 06:05 PM)RUScarlets Wrote: The networks have botched it. I don't know what data or algorithms they are using, but it has nothing to do with what is actually taking place on the football field. Believe it or not, Big East football used to make headlines and be front and center on professional sports talk radio some time ago, at least for the big games and not just during peak Schiano years. The fans have gone away... do we just blame demographics for everything?
We need to get back to rivalries and competitive games that count for something. Not Bama blowing out X Y Z team every year en route to the NCG:
They've killed conferences. Regionalized the sport. Torpedoed the Rose Bowl... it's comical what these business analytics guys draw up on their spreadsheets.
1) Get WVU and UC to the ACC... move out FSU/Clemson if the SEC wants them and will pay them and then add UCF.
2) DON'T break up the ACC. As much as I hate the conference, UNC is not a B1G team. Don't kill the basketball for football. Try to make it work with FSU and Clemson and add additional teams without a crazy payout. Pay the big schools on an incentive based pay scale so long as those programs stay in the rules. Agree to third party arbitration between a representative council overseeing NIL/recruitment and individual schools where/when conference bylaws are seemingly transgressed.
3) Form a super conference between the Big 12 and PAC remainders. There are no blue bloods in either conference (especially with additional PAC defections) that no single school stands out to skew the conferences' overall values. Just merge.
4) Don't expand the playoff until we get to P4 or P2 and P2lite at the very least. Once this happens you can easily have a 12 team playoff that will be competitive with conference champs playing for a Bye. I don't see any viable format at the moment aside from heartless subjective rankings that will involve two SEC teams every year vs a B1G team and maybe another party crasher that will be blown out.
I agree with your frustration over the "purity" of the sport and a nostalgia for the old days.
When it comes to major college football (and I admit a bias as a PSU/P5 fan), I think some of your goals could happen in the following way. It might take until the ACC GOR ends...but that's the way glacial change happens in the NCAA.
1. The Big Ten poaches 3-4 more Pac-10 teams (UW, Or, Stanford and maybe Cal). The 4 Corners schools goes to the Big 12.
(Only OrSt and WSU are really left out)
2. The SEC takes best 3-4 Big 12 teams. Probably Kansas, OkSt, Baylor, Colorado...
(The Big 12 is left with 16 schools)
3. The ACC GOR ends. The Big Ten takes UNC, UVA, FSU, and Duke. The SEC takes Clemson, NcState, VaTech, GaTech.
(The ACC is left with just 6 schools...so the Big 12 promptly poaches the remaining schools. Adds UConn and San Diego State to round out 24.)
What are we left with?
Big Ten. 24 teams. 6 on the West Coast. 7 up the Atlantic Coast. Plus the original Big Ten and contingent state Nebraska. It's the elite national conference, but it has regional flavor with old ACC rivals (UMD, UNC, UVA, Duke, FSU) and Pac-12 teams.
SEC. 24 teams. Heavily regional still...nothing north of Virginia. Almost no schools in the Mountain Time Zones. That's the SEC brand. Strong Big 8 flavor though...OkSt, Mizzou, Kansas, OU, maybe Colorado. Strong SWC history...UT, TAMU, Baylor, Arkansas. Some ACC flavor...but teams with long rivlaries in the SEC (Clemson, NcSt, VaTech, GaTech).
Big 12. 24 teams. As national as the Big Ten...but obviously with less elite prestige. But great teams that can compete against the Big 2 leagues. It's a hodge-podge--granted...but it's a hodge-podge with tons of connections and history. BYU, TCU, SDSU with history. UC, Louisville, WVU with history...Syracuse, BC, UConn with history... And then the core Big 12 teams that remained.
*I didn't know what to do with ND. If they want the Big Ten, Cal is out. If they want to remain indy, they'll always have a spot.