8 BCS conferences: an idea whose time has come? (Ohio, record, teams)

[edsg25]

At the SBNation website, there was a piece titled "Big East Expansion: Boise State And Advancing The Western Front".

the gist? That the Big East was protecting its flank with its expansion westward, operating on the notion that there can only be six BCS conferences and that precarious sixth slot was a toss up between them and the MWC.

Of course, one could reasonably have added that if it was a tossup, well, why not make both BCS conferences. And if that were the case, why not attempt a number far easier to work with (and indeed the finest number in terms of divisibility open to the BCS) and go 7 + 1 and get 8.

Because eight is ideal.

Eight can include all major conferences and, if possible, let the mid-majors come up with their own championship system (why not....the lower divisions of the NCAA do this and states across the nation offer different levels for championship football and b'ball).

And how easy would it be to get eight out of seven? Pretty simple, I would think. The Big 12 was almost a shotgun marriage of Great Plains and Texas, an unnatural grouping. If the B12 could be broken down into two, based on its historical roots....Big 8 and SWC....that would add up to eight conferences naturally and would transverse the nation coast to coast so that virtually all regions were covered.

That is, if some sanity could return to the sport and everybody got smart and did some very effective revenue sharing to end the horrendous competition between conferences and return each of them to something approaching an original foot print with the age old rivalries and reasonable size (no more than 12 schools).

think of it, with a twist here (maybe Neb and Colo back in with their old Big Eight teammates or perhaps Penn State choosing to go eastern with a strong Big East) or a twist there (BC, Pitt, Syracuse going back to the Big East and all those Texas schools rejoining in a reborn SWC), you could have the nation covered very nicely:

Northeast: The Big East
Southeast: ACC
MidSouth: SEC
Midwest/Great Lakes: Big Ten
Great Plains: Big Eight, resurrected
Southwest: SWC, resurrected
Rockies: MWC
Pacific Coast: Pac qw

Eight conference champs, earning entry into the BCS by the only criteria that should count...winning your conference, seeded into 4 New Years Bowl games. Don't forget: non-conference games are scheduled early in the season, often offer few good match ups, and are really a poor indicator of conference strength. Without a better system, it seems only fair to treat the conferences as equals...you win your conference and your invited to the dance.

And even those could be a tip towards tradition and the beauty of the game. Old style matches, putting conferences where they belong:

Rose: Big Ten vs. Pac 12
Orange: the new Big Eight
Sugar: SEC
Cotton (replacing Fiesta and returning to its old position of one of the 4
flagship bowls): the new SWC.

Then you fill in the other three slots:
Sugar: Big East vs. SEC
Orange: Big Eight vs. ACC
Cotton: MWC vs. SWC

Phoenix doesn't get cheated: it becomes the site of the Western Classic (Rose vs. Cotton winner). Atlanta does the same for the Eastern Classic (Orange vs. Sugar winner). Played one week after bowl games

And the national championship, one week after the two classics, can be held north (indoors) or south, similiar to the Super Bowl.

Is my system perfect? Hardly. But I think it would be real big improvement over the idea of 4 "super conferences" being bantered about today.

[edsg25]

ok, i'll admit it. nobody responded to this long passed thread I started. but let me give this another shot. My premise above was that 8 conferences, spanning the nation, each part of a post-season tournament that begins with the champions of each in four new years day bowl games.

Put in a broadcast revenue sharing contract and you could kill the bad effect that $$ and expanding footprints have on the game.

What might such a conference look like? Here's one suggestion (although hardly etched in stone). These include some that are probably not ready for biggest bracket in college sports but could arguably grow into it. Remember: geography is my most important variable here.

BIG EAST: the northeast
Bring Penn State back to the region where it belongs
Penn State
BC
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Army
Navy
UConn
UMass
Syracuse
West Virginia
Buffalo
Cincinnati

ATLANTIC COAST: the southeast
work with SEC to get the 2 Georgia and 2 S. Car schools back in the same conference
Florida State
Miami
South Carolina
Clemson
Wake
UNC
Duke
NC State
UVa
Maryland
VT
Central Florida

SEC: the mid-South
See note above in ACC; BTW, this was once the SEC
LSU
Tulane
Ole Miss
Miss State
Bama
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Ga Tech
Tenn
Vandy
Kentucky

BIG DOZEN: Midwest
The Big Ten reincarnated.This one has an element of fantasy, pure sentiment, the inclusion of a founding member of the Big Ten, UChicago; never could happen, but just for fun. Chicagoland would love NU vs. U of C
Minnesota
Iowa
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Chicago
Illinois
Indiana
Purdue
Notre Dame
Michigan State
Michigan
Ohio State


MIDLANDS: Great Plains
This is old Big 8 country
Missouri
Iowa State
Nebraska
Kansas
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma
Tulsa
Colorado
Colorado State
Memphis
Louisville

SOUTHWEST: the southwest
Return the glory days to the Lone State State with conference revival
New Mexico
Southern Miss
North Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
SMU
Baylor
A&M
Texas
Rice
Houston
Arkansas

MOUNTAIN WEST: the Rockies
Put together the best you can of the MWC and WAC
Air Force
NM State
Wyoming
Boise State
Utah
Utah State
BYU
Nevada
UNLV
Hawaii
UTEP
Idaho

PAC 12: West Coast
Bring in the central valley and the SD market
Wash State
Washington
Oregon St
Oregon
Cal
Stanford
Fresno St
UCLA
USC
SD St
ASU
Ariz

Worthy, but geographically challenged (well, as far as finding a slot in my set up)
FAU
FIU
UAB
E Carolina

[JJG]

So you're having JUST 12 schools in each conference?

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by JJG

So you're having JUST 12 schools in each conference?

yes. i didn't really make an effort to include the mid-majors, so 96 universities at a BCS type level is something i had in mind. In that sense, I was actually enlarging the field, not shrinking it since I think currently under the BCS system there are a little less than 70 schools (not sure the exact number, but the math would be easy).

given a choice, I wouldn't mind seeing the mid-majors have their own playoff. i think that would be realistic, something akin to the high school set up for b'ball and football championships in many states.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by edsg25

yes. i didn't really make an effort to include the mid-majors, so 96 universities at a BCS type level is something i had in mind. In that sense, I was actually enlarging the field, not shrinking it since I think currently under the BCS system there are a little less than 70 schools (not sure the exact number, but the math would be easy).

given a choice, I wouldn't mind seeing the mid-majors have their own playoff. i think that would be realistic, something akin to the high school set up for b'ball and football championships in many states.

Well, I'm seeing a few Mid-majors in there already, so why not just have all 125?

[jasomm]

Your goal is a good one, but the execution is full of holes. And lacks any practicality.

If you are essentially trying to get a tournament that gives every conference equal opportunity to win the championship, and balance the conferences, there are more realistic ways to do this... like having more than 8 conferences, but only the top performing conferences get their champion into the tournament, and seed it appropriately. One way to do this might be like this.

Another might be to have four Premier bowl conferences (i.e. Rose bowl is always B1G v Pac, Champions Bowl is always SEC v Big##), and those four bowl games are round 1 of an 8 team tournament. Then Conferences align as schools jockey for those specific bowls. This seems to be the way things might go eventually.

This surely isnt how things actually will align, but is an example of how they could with some curve-balls thrown in:


*"Region" might be a more apt term than "Division" here, since those are the two sides of a conference already.

Here the ACC (who already has the orange bowl tie-in) expands to 24 teams with the intent to form both sides of the Orange bowl, and keep ALL of the revenue for its 24 teams. Though it splits into 2 conferences for practical reasons. Also the Fiesta Bowl Division has 4 conferences and picks the 2 best conference champs to play. This raises the chances of getting quality teams for the tournament from the lower rungs of the FBS.

Keep a dozen other bowl games around in December, and you have a good mixture of tradition (renewed in many cases [see ND's conferences schedule]), and preserved in other cases, while instituting a tournament that grants access to any qualified team.

[TVofM]

Schools with big enrollments - MTSU, WKU...etc. need to either step it up to something better than the SunBelt or face falling further into obscurity. They should have joined the MAC years ago when it was talked about. Instead of a MAC east and west, they could have done a north and south. Maybe have Ohio U., Miami, Ball State in the south with WKU and MTSU (Arkansas State is getting serious about football too)

I just don't see how a "Sun Belt" kind of league would survive the 8-conference concept.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by TVofM

Schools with big enrollments - MTSU, WKU...etc. need to either step it up to something better than the SunBelt or face falling further into obscurity. They should have joined the MAC years ago when it was talked about. Instead of a MAC east and west, they could have done a north and south. Maybe have Ohio U., Miami, Ball State in the south with WKU and MTSU (Arkansas State is getting serious about football too)

I just don't see how a "Sun Belt" kind of league would survive the 8-conference concept.

.... you can't just up and join a conference. You have to be invited, first.

No school has any control over where they play, that's up to presidents and conference officials, and... you know.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by JJG

Well, I'm seeing a few Mid-majors in there already, so why not just have all 125?

good question. as population grows, the number of schools that could handle the top rung of college sports (particularly football) grows. You can see this in the addition of schools in a Sun Belt state like Florida.

However, there are limits. I just don't see, for example, schools in the MAC being able to compete with their bigger brothers in the Big Ten. I'd prefer they had a tournament set up of their own.

For the record, I may be pushing the limits a bit with that 96 but I have to say I did so because (1) I think that 12 is the optimum conference size (I'd also like to see an 11 game round robin schedule for 12 team conferences and a championship game only if there is a season's end tie...but that's another issue) and (2) I felt, based on the current set up, that 8 conferences would blanket the nation very nicely.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by jasomm

Another might be to have four Premier bowl conferences (i.e. Rose bowl is always B1G v Pac, Champions Bowl is always SEC v Big##), and those four bowl games are round 1 of an 8 team tournament. Then Conferences align as schools jockey for those specific bowls. This seems to be the way things might go eventually.

yes, that was goal.

as for your set up....nice job. I like the basis of it. you give the six major conferences their due with six of the 8 slots and then make it tougher for the lesser competition to get the remaining two. It's got a nice link to the way the NFL works with the first round bye.

your idea is more inclusive than mine and I do like that. the flip side though: with that extra game, don't you take what is already a dim chance for those mid-majors to turn into mission impossible?