In my fantasy world the Pac would lose the 4C schools to the Big 12, but hold onto Washington and Oregon and then backfill with SDSU, UNLV, and Hawaii. To round out the Olympic sports membership the conference would also add UC Santa Barbara as a non-football member.

The Big 12 would also add Memphis and USF.

The MWC would backfill with SMU, UTSA, and Rice.

The AAC would backfill with Texas State, Georgia State and Army (football only).

After these moves the football membership counts of the affected conferences would be:

Pac: 9
Big 12: 18
MWC: 12
AAC: 12
Sun Belt: 12

And finally, Hawaii would sign long-term agreements to play OOC football games with Fresno State and SJSU. Gotta keep those rivalries going!

I would like to see the ACC GOR hold until 2036. I think it’s the most purposeful and successful conference agreement ever designed. It’s working as designed.

The pac12 will resolves itself here shortly. There after the only thing that will hold entire constitution of all conferences together is the ACC GOR.

SEC stays as is.

ACC stays as is

BIG grabs Washington and Stanford.

Big12 grabs Cal, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon

Pac12 grabs San Diego state, Colorado State, SMU, Rice , Boise

I just want Memphis to get added to whatever M conference that exists.

Honestly, let's get a little crazy. The Powers at be realize that rivalries are profitable and important to fans to the point there are about 72-80 Power teams that play a semi-independent schedule.

You're required to play at least 10 Power teams where the 1st tier of your schedule is rivalry games (regardless of conference) played annually or increased frequency. Once rivalry games are determined and filled out, the rest of the schedule can be filled with conference games (maybe split up teams into 4-8 conferences agreed on by the leaders or use the current conferences) and then everyone gets up to 2 cupcakes (maybe 1 of the 10 games is left open for teams to schedule a Power team H&H if they choose to).

Since conference schedules may be a little uneven, allow a 13th game in place of CCGs where 1 game to be a scheduled H&H amongst the Power teams or use overall record or CFP Rankings to determine the top 2 for each conference.

Maybe the Power teams breakaway financially to where all teams is paid evenly (or reasonably close) during the regular season and then teams get rewards for postseason success. I'm not gonna speculate on the CFP format until specifics are determined since this is a quickly thought up idea with no meat to the idea (yet).

So for Ohio St., Penn St. and TTUN are our rivals, and then play 7-8 games against B1G opponents with maybe an increased frequency with Illinois and maybe maybe mixing in some games with Cincinnati so we'd likely play other teams in conference more frequently. In the SEC and maybe some ACC teams on the other hand, you'd see teams play 4-8 rivals so they're less likely to play other teams as much. USC probably plays UCLA, Stanford, and Notre Dame, maybe Cal, and then probably plays 5-6 B1G opponents maybe leaving a game for non-conference for like Washington and Oregon (if not in the B1G). Texas is interesting because they definitely play Arkansas, Oklahoma, and A&M (SEC will make you two play), but then there's Baylor, TCU, Texas Tech, and Rice. Do they play them all annually or rotate probably 2 per season and fill the rest with SEC games (likely the latter)?

I'd like to see UIndy move up to D1 and join the OVC. Would give them 8 for football, 12 for basketball, and 10 for baseball.

Break everyone up into 4 tiers, based on whatever metric you want. Sagarin, FPI, SRS, RPI, a mixture of all. Whatever. Rank them 1-133 (134 once Kennesaw moves up). Since neither number breaks into 4 well, put the biggest number into tier 4. So at 134, go 32 in each of the first 3 tiers and 38 in tier 4.

From there, you play 3 inside your tier, 2 against each other tier, then 3 games you can schedule on your own. Inside each tier, 1 game is a random, national type game and the rest are regional. Let a central scheduling committe or lottery system decide who plays who. The 36 of the 38 tier 4 teams will miss out on playing a full complement of 9 games(12 against each of the top 3 tiers)....this gives them either an extra shot at tier 4 or against FCS teams. This keeps base schedules nationwide fairly even while also forcing teams to play a little tougher schedule if they're a contender and get a break if they aren't.

Tell me it wouldn't be fun to see an Ohio State schedule that looks like (tiers based on 2022 SRS from college football reference):

Notre Dame- tier 1
Alabama- tier 1
Minnesota- tier 1
Wisconsin- tier 2
Baylor- tier 2
Nebraska- tier 3
Arizona State- tier 3
Northwestern- tier 4
Rice- tier 4
Michigan- rival
Penn State- rival
Illinois- old school rival

That's 11 P5 games, but also at least last year 10 that should be wins. But that schedule looks A LOT more fun to me as a fan than playing the likes of Rutgers, Maryland, and Indiana every year with Iowa's inept offense and Arkansas State and Toledo as non conference games.

Only downside is it pretty much kills conferences. You can stay together to kind of guide who you play in your set regional tier games, but it would be hard to get a full 8-9 game conference schedule going. But for the fan, I'd think overall this would be so much more fun.

Everyone holds for a few years to better inform future decisions.

(05-21-2023 12:55 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(05-21-2023 12:20 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  Now this is a fun thread.

I'll dream a bit, with help from what's being reported right now, by actual journalists:

1. The Big 12 doesn't attract anyone from the Pac-12. They add Memphis and UNLV to get to 14 schools.
2. The Pac-12 expands more than they initially thought, with SDSU, SMU, Tulane, and Rice to get to 14 schools.
3. The ACC is stuck at 14 schools until the 2030s

This leaves an 10-school AAC lineup: 5 old members (Temple, Navy, ECU, USF, Tulsa) and 5 new ones (UNCC, FAU, UAB, UTSA, North Texas). The AAC's TV deal would plummet, probably close to what the SBC has now (reportedly $2M, according to JMU and ODU reporters).

I don't think many (if any) Sun Belt schools would jump to the AAC in that scenario, given a similar payout. The AAC would be too thin and spread out. Heck, maybe a school like ECU considers jumping the other way in that scenario.


Why not push for App in the AAC? I feel our fan interest would decline a tad if we left Marshall, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Coastal Carolina for Temple, FAU, USF, and UAB.

If SMU, Tulane, Rice and Memphis were to leave the AAC (as in your hypothetical, Yosef), there is a very solid chance that Temple, Navy and Wichita would all say, "That's it. We're gone." And each would have a reasonably appealing exit plan option.

I'm not sure what the remaining eight AAC members (ECU, USF, FAU, Charlotte, UAB, Tulsa, UTSA and UNT) would do at that point. I suppose the league could attempt to lure members from C-USA — as I doubt any Belt programs would be interested.

UTSA + UNT could go to the Mountain West in that scenario. MWC wants to get into Texas, and would need to replace SDSU + UNLV.

That would leave 6: ECU, USF, FAU, UNCC, UAB, and Tulsa.

I'd like to think the Sun Belt goes after ECU + UAB in that scenario.
ECU for the SBC East.
UAB for the SBC West.

I have no idea what FAU, UNCC, USF, and Tulsa would do, as the only 4 remaining.

(05-21-2023 11:41 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(05-21-2023 09:37 AM)esayem Wrote:  We've all been secretly (or not so secretly) rooting for what we want to happen behind the thin veil of predictions more or less. Here is your chance to tell us what you actually want to happen. Let it loose!

I strongly believe Five Major Conferences (we won't even use the term "Power" because it's been hijacked) in college football and Six Major Conferences (Power still works here) in college basketball is what is BEST for those sports. Conferences becoming Super Conferences of more than 16 is no longer a Conference, but a Convention! I don't see the long term feasibility of this anyway because college athletics are much more dynamic than their professional counterparts. Throw in the fact that we are dealing with government institutions for the most part and evidence in the past has shown legislators will not allow an exclusive club; see BCS and fifth bowl. I also believe the ACC GOR will hold based on evidence that has been coming out lately. This is what I believe.



Now for what I would like to see happen…

Outside of total fantasy options, I would like to see:


The Pac 10 remain the Pac 12 with the addition of San Diego State and SMU

The Big XII become the Big XIV with the addition of Memphis and UNLV

The AAC bring in UMass (all-sports), VCU (Olympic sports), and UConn football-only

The MWC replace the schools they lost or not, I haven't given this much thought. I do think it would be cool to see Montana move up because I’ve always liked their program

The A10 invite William & Mary and reunite the Tribe with the Spiders

What I would want is to go back to around 2010, before Nebraska left for the Big 10, but that's not going to happen.

What I would like now, in somewhat realistic options, is for the M3 to become a more stable M2 and the G5 to become the G4 and quit looking at so many move-ups.

Big 10 goes ahead and brings in Washington and Oregon so USC/UCLA are not alone. SEC gets FSU and Clemson as makes sense. Both stop at 18.

Then the M3 become the M2. Big 12 absorbs the 8 remaining Pac schools. ACC brings in the 3 eastern Big 12 schools, UC, UCF, WVU. Big 12 gets back to 18 with SMU so they have 9 central time zone schools along with 9 mountain and pacific time zone schools. ACC gets to 16 with UConn. Maybe eventually Notre Dame joins them while keeping a separate fb TV contract and USF becomes #18.

I'd like to go back to the alignment of about 1990, but that's not happening. I'd settle for that of 2010, or Big 12 1.0, but that ship has sailed, as well.

So I'm mostly glad that OU is getting to the SEC. Anything else is gravy.

As Bullet mentions, Clemson and FSU need to get to the SEC somehow. That would make 18. If the SEC expands to 24, we're going to have what amounts to three 8-team or four 6-team groupings. There would be a legacy Big 12 cluster and a legacy ACC cluster under the umbrella of the SEC and their media deal. A&M and Arkansas won't like being directed away from the core SEC schools due to their history in the conference. OU and Texas will be glad to be in a P2 conference.

Fantasy #1: everything backfires. All these decisions that break up the good parts of college football for money somehow (because I think they mostly do/will result in more money). Goose that used to lay golden eggs gone. College football returns to being a fun regional sport.

Fantasy #2: rule by decree course correction/chaos entertainment. Conferences are dissolved, all FBS athletic directors placed in a big hotel conference room full of tables. Most tables have 9 chairs. 2 have 12. There is a chair in the corner (facing the corner) for Notre Dame. And another single chair for Army or somebody. Nobody leaves until we realign all at once. This board sees a couple of days of insane traffic. Vegas makes a mint on predictions. Televise this thing, it'll be like the hunger games. Once again having a former athlete/coach as AD instead of some fund-raiser or media dork will be an advantage.

Future schedules are all erased. New rule says you get 6 home games and 6 away games per year (Hawaii gets a stipend).

New reality.


Less Fantastic Dream: just enough more shuffle for Tech to join AAC or SB.

Stability & Geography.

The top/mid-tier consolidates from 5 to 4 x 18; nobody gets left behind. San Diego St, USF, Memphis, & UConn move up.

Big Ten + Washington & Oregon
SEC + Florida St & Clemson

XII West: Washington St, Oregon St, California, Stanford, San Diego St, Utah, Arizona, Arizona St, Colorado

XII East: BYU, Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas St, Oklahoma St, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston

ACC South: Miami, UCF, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia, Virginia Tech

ACC North: USF, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, UConn, Boston College

Big East - UConn + Notre Dame

The bottom tier consolidates from 5 to 4 x 14; Liberty & 3 FCS call ups are left behind. Sacramento St moves up.

MW West: Hawaii, San Jose St, Sacramento St, Fresno St, Nevada, UNLV, Boise St

MW East: Utah St, Wyoming, Colorado St, Air Force, New Mexico, New Mexico St, UTEP

AAC West: Wichita St/Navy, Tulsa, North Texas, SMU, UTSA, Rice, Tulane

AAC East: Texas St, Arkansas St, La Tech, La Monroe, La Lafayette, Southern Miss, South Alabama

SBC North: Marshall, Temple, James Madison, Old Dominion, East Carolina, App St, Charlotte

SBC South: Coastal Carolina, Georgia St, Georgia Southern, UAB, Troy, FAU, FIU

MAC + Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee

My hope is that this kills off C-USA for good, which should’ve happened in this last round… They’re left with Liberty, Kennesaw St, Jacksonville St, & Sam Houston St, who can go Independent or back to the ASUN/WAC/UAC.

(05-21-2023 02:26 PM)Alanda Wrote:  I just want Memphis to get added to whatever M conference that exists.

I'm with you on that. Tired of being passed over.

In fantasy land, I'd prefer an invite to the SEC where every home game would be a sellout & Memphis would collect the big $$.

Selfishly, I want Mizzou to Big 10. Missouri State to FBS (I don't care between CUSA or Sun Belt). UCM to the OVC.

Outside of my teams, I really want the Big 12 to go all in on being the third power conference and solidify themselves as a basketball power. Add 4Cs. Depending on how big we go with conference size, could add Gonzaga, Creighton, Marquette, and Memphis for 20. Kind of clunky with 17 football schools. Could trade a non football school with SDSU or something.

Personally I would like to see the BIG and the SEC to come to terms of how big they foresee their perspective conferences growing number wise??? If it’s 20 teams then let’s get this over with. The only teams that make sense is 4 teams from the PAC12 and teams from the ACC. The question out of all this is what teams??? Now I don’t think the over all number is 20 teams. I think they’re going to move to 24 possibly 28 teams. This would allow the two power conferences moving the structure of division so to say as well. This would allow the BIG and the SEC to move to let’s say a tier 1 with the Big12 and the ACC along with AAC move to tier 2 and so forth with other conferences. Once this detail comes to light it will be much easier determining who will go where IMO.

(05-21-2023 04:38 PM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(05-21-2023 02:26 PM)Alanda Wrote:  I just want Memphis to get added to whatever M conference that exists.

I'm with you on that. Tired of being passed over.

In fantasy land, I'd prefer an invite to the SEC where every home game would be a sellout & Memphis would collect the big $$.

For real. I think we could at least do what Ole Miss and MSU do in the SEC with the same amount of money.

I'd like College Football to be a single sport conference for all schools. Make a pay for play requirement that caps the College Football Conference around 70 schools. Single unified TV contract like the NFL. Have 10 7 Team Divisions. Play 12 Games - first game against FCS, 6 games against your division, 5 non-conference games. Pay the schools based on TV ratings to encourage Teams to play difficult schedule. 14 Team Playoff - first place and second place in each division qualifies.

(05-21-2023 04:55 PM)Alanda Wrote:  

(05-21-2023 04:38 PM)Atlanta Wrote:  

(05-21-2023 02:26 PM)Alanda Wrote:  I just want Memphis to get added to whatever M conference that exists.

I'm with you on that. Tired of being passed over.

In fantasy land, I'd prefer an invite to the SEC where every home game would be a sellout & Memphis would collect the big $$.

For real. I think we could at least do what Ole Miss and MSU do in the SEC with the same amount of money.

Or better. That's why these SEC along with UTK blocked Memphis membership years back - they didn't want the competition.

ACC adds USF and UConn and go to a relegation league model with the top 8 teams in one division, the bottom 8 in the other. After every year, the bottom 2 of the top division move down, the top 2 in the bottom division move up. The top division get’s 65% of the revenue.

(05-21-2023 05:33 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  ACC adds USF and UConn and go to a relegation league model with the top 8 teams in one division, the bottom 8 in the other. After every year, the bottom 2 of the top division move down, the top 2 in the bottom division move up. The top division get’s 65% of the revenue.

Intraconference P&R -- interesting concept!

If the criteria is “what I want”:

Back to the Future (and I know it will never happen)…

Eastern 10
1. Boston College
2. UConn
3. UMass
4. Syracuse
5. Rutgers
6. Maryland
7. West Virginia
8. Penn State
9. Pitt
10. Cincinnati

ACC
1. Virginia
2. Virginia Tech
3. North Carolina
4. NC State
5. Duke
6. Wake Forest
7. Georgia Tech
8. Vanderbilt
9. Tulane
10. Rice
11. TCU
12. SMU

Big 10 (And I mean 10)
1. Michigan
2. Michigan State
3. Ohio State
4. Indiana
5. Purdue
6. Wisconsin
7. Northwestern
8. Illinois
9. Minnesota
10. Iowa

Big 12 (Really, 12)
1. Texas
2. Oklahoma
3. Oklahoma State
4. Texas Tech
5. Baylor
6. Kansas
7. Kansas State
8. Iowa State
9. Nebraska
10. Missouri
11. Colorado
12. Texas A&M

PAC 10 (11!)
1. USC
2. UCLA
3. Stanford
4. Cal
5. Oregon
6. Oregon State
7. Washington
8. Washington State
9. Arizona
10. Arizona State
11. Utah

SEC
1. Clemson
2. Florida State
3. Miami
4. Florida
5. UCF
6. South Carolina
7. Kentucky
8. Tennessee
9. Alabama
10. Auburn
11. Georgia
12. Ole Miss
13. Mississippi State
14. LSU
15. Arkansas
16. Louisville

Big American
1. Temple
2. ECU
3. USF
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. BYU
7. Colorado State
8. Air Force
9. Wyoming
10. Utah State
11. Hawaii
12. Fresno State
13. San Diego State
14. San Jose State
15. UNLV
16. Nevada
17. Boise State
18. New Mexico

Sun Belt USA
1. Tulsa
2. UTEP
3. New Mexico State
4. North Texas
5. UTSA
6. Texas State
7. Georgia State
8. Middle Tennessee
9. Western Kentucky
10. UAB
11. Charlotte
12. App State
13. Marshall
14. JMU
15. Liberty
16. Old Dominion
17. Coastal Carolina
18. Florida Atlantic

Independents
1. Notre Dame
2. Army
3. Navy