USC would be opposed, sure, but how much weight do we really carry within the conference?

Here’s an interesting blurb about expansion posted on the Big 10 football blog [I don’t think they really play baseball up there], The Rivalry, Esq., which links a recent Chicago Tribune article. What’s really interesting, though, are the comments. Those nutcases believe Texas and Notre Dame are about to jump on board with 3 or 5 other schools and that the Big 10 will immediately be resurrected as the Rightful Football Power, eclipsing the pansy-ass pretenders in the SEC. Smokin’ crack, I guess….

Isn’t it about time Boston College re-joined the Big East, where it belongs? The ACC has some ridiculous geography right now.

This could be easily remedied by, in turn, moving South Florida to the ACC. While USF might not have seemed attractive a decade or so ago, it’s a huge school with a growing program in the heart of the central Florida market.

In other conference realignment thoughts, I know I’m in the minority on this one, but I still wish USC was in the ACC. Yes, it’s an inferior football conference, but it’s a much better fit geographically, and there’s obviously the historic basis for the move.

Having played rugby all through college, I can tell you that it was much easier to travel to ACC schools than SEC ones… pretty much only UGA or UT are tolerable drives. In the ACC, Georgia Tech, all the NC schools, Clemson, and Virginia Tech are all close. That’s 7-2, for those keeping score. It would certainly be of great benefit to our student athletes.

All that being said, my true dream for college sports would be massive conference realignments/creations with some system of promotion/relegation and a playoff, but I know I’m dreamin’ on that one. I’ve drawn up scenarios for this in the past (including all 120 teams) if anyone ever cares to see, and they’re pretty fair if I say so myself.

Many European and other international sports leagues use promotion/relegation, and I believe it to be a superior system. Here in the States, we could even use the ‘bowl system’ for the deciding promotion/relegation games (?).

I also don’t know that a ‘16-team’ league would necessarily be so bad, because it would really be like 2 conferences tucked into 1 overarching union. If all the major conferences did this, we’d certainly be closer to the dream of a playoff. In the current ‘Big Six’ conferences right now, there are 65 teams (66 with Notre Dame). Drop one or two (cough Baylor) and it divides into 4 conferences pretty easily, which also sets up a national semi-final system rather neatly. I’ve thought out how that could break down, and it’d be pretty easy too, were the schools willing to go along with it [though I’m not really for this proposal - I’m just playing devil’s advocate].

Such a scenario would be a quasi-disaster for many teams, however, as the Boise States and TCUs of the world would possibly get the shaft, hence my continued love for a different form of massive realignment involving all Division I teams.

My proposal for 120 teams with promotion/relegation (sorry South Alabama, but I’m not including you here - if/when new teams are added to Division 1, the expansion would be in the lower leagues):

Format Key:
[#] = Conference Number
TEXT = Upper Tier League (lowest seed(s) meets highest team(s) from Lower Tier for promotion/relegation at season’s end)
TEXT = Lower Tier League

1
PACIFIC
Southern Cal, California, Arizona, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, Fresno State, Nevada
COASTAL
Arizona State, Washington, Washington State, San Diego State, Hawai’i, San Jose State, UCLA

2
MOUNTAIN
Bosie State, BYU, Utah, Air Force, Wyoming, Texas Tech, Idaho, TCU
DESERT
UTEP, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico, Utah State, New Mexico State, UNLV

3
SOUTHWEST
Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Houston, Arkansas, LSU
DIXIE
Louisiana Tech, Rice, Tulane, North Texas, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Baylor

4
NORTHWEST
Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa State, Iowa, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas State
PRAIRIE
Illinois, Kansas State, Indiana, Purdue, Tulsa, Boise State, Northern Illinois

5
NORTHEAST
Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Connecticut, Rutgers, Boston College, Virginia Tech, East Carolina, Navy
CONTINENTAL
Temple, Buffalo, Marshall, Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia, Army

6
GULF COAST
Florida, South Florida, Ole Miss, Central Florida, Miami (FL), Alabama, Auburn, Troy
MAGNOLIA
Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Mississippi State, UAB, Southern Miss, Florida State, Memphis

7
SOUTHERN
Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, Clemson, Georgia, North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee State
DOGWOOD
Western Kentucky, Arkansas State, Vanderbilt, Louisville, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest

8
MIDWEST
Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Central Michigan, Ohio, Bowling Green
GREAT LAKES
Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Michigan, Kent State, Akron, Miami (OH)

+

Notable PROS of this Proposal:
- Separates the contenders from the pretenders from the start
- With 8 upper-tier leagues, it is easily divisible into a 16 or 8-team playoff system
- Easier travel on student athletes
- With only 7 upper-tier and 6 lower-tier conference games, there is plenty of room for intriguing out-of-conference (OOC) match-ups
- No more super-conferences that need title games; Instead, every confernce has teams that play a full matrix of games, and the weekend where conference title games historically go could instead be playoff contests

Notable CONS of this Proposal:
- Teams like Michigan and Florida State would theoretically start their first season (if it were theoretically enacted this year) in the lower-tier league based on the previous year’s results, given that they didn’t have a chance to challenge a lower-finishing team from the upper-tier league the year before.
- Historical rivalries and conferences would be somewhat disrupted (no more Florida-Georgia every year as a conference game, though it could still be contested OOC)
- There’s a strong chance this wouldn’t go over too well overall, as it would create chaotic situations in other sports such as basketball. (Assuming it’s not a football-only creation; Hockey has hockey-only conferences and it does just fine)

+

Were this implemented, I’d like to ideally see a 16-team playoff, with upper-tier conference champions hosting the second-seeded team of a nearby conference at home. The Quarter-Finals/Semi-Finals/Championship would then be on a neutral field(s). When it comes to the playoffs, you could either incorporate in the stronger bowls of the old bowl system, set up a selection process, or even put the sites up for bidding with the revenue shared between all teams.

There would also be at least 8, and possibly 16, promotion/relegation games (it could be upper-tier #8 vs. lower-tier #1 and/or upper-tier #7 vs. lower-tier #2), which could be played on campuses or at neutral sites.

To all the bowl-lovers and traditionalists, I’d argue that bowls are slowing becoming mid-season phenomena nowadays anyway, which I actually think is a good thing. Instead of Carolina fans disappointingly trekking to Birmingham to watch the Gamecocks take on UCONN after a bleh season, it’s much more fun to know a year in advance that we’d be playing someone like UNC at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. Just look at all the neutral-site games taking place nowadays - Atlanta’s got one every year between the SEC and ACC, Dallas is hosting 2-3 a year, there’s the traditional Cocktail Party in Jacksonville, the news of the Notre Dame/Army games at Yankee Stadium, Mizzou/Kansas in Kansas City, Mizzou/Illinois in St. Louis, Boise State/Virginia Tech in Washington, etc., etc., etc.

The tourism of the bowl system is an ancient model that’s been slowly (but smartly) changing its dynamics to tantalizing regular season match-ups. Promoters would be wise to continue this trend, as fans love the match-ups, love having a year to plan their travel, and are more excited about early and mid-season games than some of the lower bowls in places like Shreveport in December.

Thoughts?

Texas sounds great in theory, but if you hate traveling to Fayetteville for games, you’re really going to hate traveling to Austin. God forbid you should try to drive. Plus, I don’t ever see Texas wanting to join the SEC. They’re big shots right now. I don’t foresee the Longhorns lining up to play second fiddle to the SEC’s Florida, UGA, and ‘Bama. They also don’t have a single natural rival within the SEC. After a decade, they would basically be Arkansas with a more illustrious history. The SEC and Texas don’t really have anything to offer each other.

When considering if Texas would wan to come to the SEC, ask yourself what Alabama’s motivations would be for jumping to the Big 12. Few and far between. I think some of us are at least a little blinded by SEC homerism (understandable, though it is).

Also, home come no one is mentioning Georgia Tech. They have a pretty strong athletic history as well as historical rivalries with Auburn and UGA?