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It's going to happen eventually. Face it, it WILL happen. I just hope they go in the right direction and be smart with this.
As of now, realignment is finished for now. But when it picks back up, what NEEDS to happen is to just have 8 conferences with 16 teams. I know this idea has been thrown out before, but this is my interpretation. This is what I see happening:
The Big XII breaks up... So, that leaves 10 schools up for grabs.
Those 8 of those 10 Big XII shools are grabbed by 4 of the surviving conferences. The PAC 12 gains 16 by taking Texas, T-Tech, OU and Oklahoma St. The ACC takes West Virginia to join up with former Big East rivals, also beefing the number up to 16. The Big Ten gets their 16 by adding both Kansas schools. And the SEC, choosing one more Texas school, takes TCU. This leaves out Baylor and Iowa St.
The PAC 16, B1G, SEC, and ACC are the "Big Four", each with 16 schools. The remaining schools in the other conferences see this and know that they'd have to do something to try to compete. So the C-USA, American, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and the Independents all form 4 conferences of 16 teams themselves.
The American Athletic Conference decides to become somewhat of a mini-NFL, creating one 2 conference league with 16 teams and 4 divisions. Of course, the NCAA rejected the idea, so instead, the AAC split into two conferences to represent the east and west. This would spawn the U.S. Athletic Conferences (E.U.S.A.C & W.U.S.A.C.) taking what is in the AAC and some of the remaining schools. The Mountain West basically becomes the W.U.S.A.C. and C-USA mostly making up the E.U.S.A.C.
With a few FCS schools moving up, it made it possible for the Sun Belt and MAC to have 16 schools in the conference as well. The MAC became the "Rust Belt Conference", as an opposite to the Sun Belt.
At the time, the College Football Playoff was expanded to 6 schools with consideration of making it an 8-team playoff. Seeing how there were now 8 "Super Conferences", it made sense to have 8 teams in a playoff, but the NCAA and the conference presidents knew instantly that there would be some deserving teams left out, so instead of 8, the powers that be decided to bite the bullet and make it a full 16 team playoff. No more, no less. There are no more independent schools and each conference has a title game.
The playoffs are set to where the conference winner will play one of the selected 8 teams in the first round (technically the playoffs start with the conference championship games, but I digress) and it's still set up to where one side of the bracket features the #1 seed while the other side features #2.
The First Round takes place at the home field of the top seed. The 2nd round takes place in 2 selected neutral fields, both sites hosting 2 games each. The Final Four would take place in 2 of the rotating bowl games that is now being used for the current format. The playoffs begin the 2nd week of December.
Here are the conferences and the playoff set-up.
B1G
- West // Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Kansas, Kansas St.
- East // Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St., Rutgers, Maryland
SEC
- West // Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St., Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, TCU
- East // Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mizzou, UCF
W.U.S.A.C.
- Mountain // Iowa St., UTEP, UTSA, New Mexico, Wyomming, Colorado St., Air Force, BYU
- Pacific // Boise St., Idaho, UNLV, Nevada, Fresno St, SDSU, Hawaii, Utah St.
Sun Belt
- East // Charlotte, Mid Tenn St., FIU, FAU, Georgia St., Troy, USA, Southern Miss.
- West // SJSU, Texas St., Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas St., N. Texas, NMSU, Sam Houston St.
Rust Belt
- East // ODU, UMass, Temple, Buffalo, Appalachian St., Marshal, Kent St., Akron
- West // NDSU, NIU, Ball St., EMU, CMU, WMU, Toledo, Bowling Green
^^^Nice work JJG! That looks like a good plan to me. If it's going to happen anyway, I like the 8 conferences with 16 teams concept. Keep it simple, every team would have a conference spot and a chance at getting into the playoffs/national championship. When realignment starts again, I just hope the NCAA will do something like this, something that actually makes sense...lol.
It's going to happen eventually. Face it, it WILL happen. I just hope they go in the right direction and be smart with this.
As of now, realignment is finished for now. But when it picks back up, what NEEDS to happen is to just have 8 conferences with 16 teams. I know this idea has been thrown out before, but this is my interpretation. This is what I see happening:
The Big XII breaks up... So, that leaves 10 schools up for grabs.
Those 8 of those 10 Big XII shools are grabbed by 4 of the surviving conferences. The PAC 12 gains 16 by taking Texas, T-Tech, OU and Oklahoma St. The ACC takes West Virginia to join up with former Big East rivals, also beefing the number up to 16. The Big Ten gets their 16 by adding both Kansas schools. And the SEC, choosing one more Texas school, takes TCU. This leaves out Baylor and Iowa St.
The PAC 16, B1G, SEC, and ACC are the "Big Four", each with 16 schools. The remaining schools in the other conferences see this and know that they'd have to do something to try to compete. So the C-USA, American, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and the Independents all form 4 conferences of 16 teams themselves.
The American Athletic Conference decides to become somewhat of a mini-NFL, creating one 2 conference league with 16 teams and 4 divisions. Of course, the NCAA rejected the idea, so instead, the AAC split into two conferences to represent the east and west. This would spawn the U.S. Athletic Conferences (E.U.S.A.C & W.U.S.A.C.) taking what is in the AAC and some of the remaining schools. The Mountain West basically becomes the W.U.S.A.C. and C-USA mostly making up the E.U.S.A.C.
With a few FCS schools moving up, it made it possible for the Sun Belt and MAC to have 16 schools in the conference as well. The MAC became the "Rust Belt Conference", as an opposite to the Sun Belt.
At the time, the College Football Playoff was expanded to 6 schools with consideration of making it an 8-team playoff. Seeing how there were now 8 "Super Conferences", it made sense to have 8 teams in a playoff, but the NCAA and the conference presidents knew instantly that there would be some deserving teams left out, so instead of 8, the powers that be decided to bite the bullet and make it a full 16 team playoff. No more, no less. There are no more independent schools and each conference has a title game.
The playoffs are set to where the conference winner will play one of the selected 8 teams in the first round (technically the playoffs start with the conference championship games, but I digress) and it's still set up to where one side of the bracket features the #1 seed while the other side features #2.
The First Round takes place at the home field of the top seed. The 2nd round takes place in 2 selected neutral fields, both sites hosting 2 games each. The Final Four would take place in 2 of the rotating bowl games that is now being used for the current format. The playoffs begin the 2nd week of December.
Here are the conferences and the playoff set-up.
B1G
- West // Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Kansas, Kansas St.
- East // Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St., Rutgers, Maryland
SEC
- West // Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St., Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, TCU
- East // Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mizzou, UCF
W.U.S.A.C.
- Mountain // Iowa St., UTEP, UTSA, New Mexico, Wyomming, Colorado St., Air Force, BYU
- Pacific // Boise St., Idaho, UNLV, Nevada, Fresno St, SDSU, Hawaii, Utah St.
Sun Belt
- East // Charlotte, Mid Tenn St., FIU, FAU, Georgia St., Troy, USA, Southern Miss.
- West // SJSU, Texas St., Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas St., N. Texas, NMSU, Sam Houston St.
Rust Belt
- East // ODU, UMass, Temple, Buffalo, Appalachian St., Marshal, Kent St., Akron
- West // NDSU, NIU, Ball St., EMU, CMU, WMU, Toledo, Bowling Green
Good work. Very well thought-out.
However, it makes way too much sense for the NCAA to implement it.
I think the teams left out of the Big 4 are really going to have to form a Second Tier National Title. The Big 4 Conferences are going to want to keep more money in-house. The C-USA's and the AAC's and the Mountain West's of the world will not have a spot at the table---even if they deserve one.
I just felt that this should be the way to go. Keep it at 128 schools, have 8 conferences with an equal amount of schools. It just makes sense.
And if a 16 team playoff is just too much, have it at 10 or 12.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bass&Catfish2008
However, it makes way too much sense for the NCAA to implement it.
I think the teams left out of the Big 4 are really going to have to form a Second Tier National Title. The Big 4 Conferences are going to want to keep more money in-house. The C-USA's and the AAC's and the Mountain West's of the world will not have a spot at the table---even if they deserve one.
Sadly, I agree and actually thought of a 2nd National Title as a strong possibility while making this.
I'd hate to see it, but knowing how greedy the presidents of the "Big Boy" conferences are, it wouldn't shock me if it happened.... well, if all of what I just posted happened first, that is.
Nice work. I think the Pac-16 would split in an east/west fashion with the former Big 12 schools, along with CU and Utah joining them and the old Pac-8 schools in the west. Having the Southern California schools and Texas schools together would not be welcomed by the other schools, as it would inevitably limit recruiting access to two of the top 3 areas of the country (SoCal and Texas). The Bay Area is no where near the recruiting hotbed of those places. Besides, logistically it makes better sense.
Nice work. I think the Pac-16 would split in an east/west fashion with the former Big 12 schools, along with CU and Utah joining them and the old Pac-8 schools in the west. Having the Southern California schools and Texas schools together would not be welcomed by the other schools, as it would inevitably limit recruiting access to two of the top 3 areas of the country (SoCal and Texas). The Bay Area is no where near the recruiting hotbed of those places. Besides, logistically it makes better sense.
Yeah, that actually makes sense.
I was just taking what was already there (the North/South set up) and going with it.
There are plenty of things that would have to change in order for this to happen, obviously. Some of which I missed.
Since we would have playoffs, the number of Bowl Games SHOULD be reduced. Instead of 39, there would be 20. I mean, really, there's NO need for any more than that.
I have 11 for the playoffs with 4 of those rotating in and out. Probably should be clear about the "Rotates every 4 years" part.... go ahead and add the Holiday Bowl to that mix, as I didn't see that there would be 7 neutral sites after the 1st Round until just now. Ignore the "every 4 years".
What I want to do with the 7th bowl game is this:
- For the first 5 years of this system, the 7th bowl game would just be another neutral 2nd/3rd round site.
- The second time that particular bowl is used for a playoff spot, it would be the site for the National Championship game. It would continue that way for 5 years and after that, the NCG would go back to the regular bowls used for it.
- for example:
If Notre Dame is forced to give up its true independent status and join a conference as a full and equal member ), it won't keep its affiliation with the ACC; it will instead join the Big Ten.
Is there really any other choice? ND hooked up with the ACC simply because it offered what it wanted; the same as the Big East before that. If the Big Ten were to have granted such partial membership, ND would have jumped to join.
Joining the Big Ten would be a no brainer. ND is in the heart of Big Ten country and has a relationship with the Big Ten for its entire history. Strong relationships with the likes of Michigan, MSU, Purdue, Northwestern, and Iowa.
ND cares about the East Coast; that's where the Big East and ACC connections come in. But today's Big Ten gives ND much more of the east coast coverage it craves:
Rutgers (NYC market)
Penn State (Philadelphia market)
UMd (Washington and Baltimore markets)
what does the ACC offer in competition:
BC (Boston market)……Pitt gives it nothing on the east coast and ND is not looking at the Pgh market
If Notre Dame is forced to join a conference with full status, the Big Ten is where it goes.
but heck, that would work with the neat grid you came up with. The Big Ten already got Marland from the ACC; it can just easily get ND from its partial ACC status.
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