20 Years of Conference Realignment Could Have Been Avoided

[Scooch]

The Big 12 met with the College Football Playoff honchos yesterday and found out that, shocker, it'd be better for them to have a conference championship game:

http://espn.go.com/college-football...ampionship-game-commissioner-bob-bowlsby-says

So who will be the Big 12's 11th and 12th teams you ask? Since a league needs 12 teams to hold a conference championship game. Oh, that won't be necessary, as it is expected that "a proposal to deregulate conference championship games, removing the 12-team requirement, is set to be implemented for the 2016 season."

Sorry Cincinnati and BYU, guess you're out of luck.

Let's all get in the way-back machine and travel to 1990, when the SEC was in talks with South Carolina to expand to 11 teams. The SEC also wanted to hold a conference championship game, but the NCAA told them they needed 12 teams to do that. See, there was a rule the NCAA first devised for Division 3 schools that required a conference to have 12 teams to hold a conference championship, and in their infinite wisdom they decided that rule had to be applied to Division 1 as well.

So, the SEC went and invited Arkansas to be their 12th team, which was a death blow to the faultering SWC (along with much of their membership being involved in outrageous scandals).

The dissolution of the SWC caused Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor (thanks Ann Richards!) to merge with the Big 8 to form the Big 12, a number of teams now codified as magical by the NCAA.

Much of the conference realignment that has occurred ever since has been driven, in large degree, by conferences wanting to hit that magical 12-school membership in order to hold a lucrative conference championship game.

And now, after 20+ years of at times excrutiating machinations, it looks like the NCAA is going to relent and let conferences play a conference championship game with however many number of schools it wants. Which is a decision they could have, and should have made, in 19-freakin'-90 to begin with.

Unbelievable.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Penn State
Pitt
WV
Syracuse
BC
Temple
Rutgers
Va Tech
Miami.

 

[Full_Rebar]

9 team leagues would be ideal for FB and Hoops

 

[TDTOrange]

It may have slowed realignment back in the early to mid 90's. But the most recent round of realignment was driven by media contracts and having as much inventory as possible. I still think the larger conferences would have been pushing to get bigger and we'd be in a similar position today. Maybe the dominoes would have fallen differently, but we'd still have these 12 or 14 school beasts.

 

[Hoo's That]

Penn State
Pitt
WV
Syracuse
BC
Temple
Rutgers
Va Tech
Miami.

And maybe they can get someone like, say Mr. Lambert, to donate a trophy for the winner.

 

[Scooch]

It may have slowed realignment back in the early to mid 90's. But the most recent round of realignment was driven by media contracts and having as much inventory as possible. I still think the larger conferences would have been pushing to get bigger and we'd be in a similar position today. Maybe the dominoes would have fallen differently, but we'd still have these 12 or 14 school beasts.

Sure, maybe.

Although one can argue that it was much easier to go to 14 when you were already at 12. If most of these conferences were at 10 there might have been a bigger mental hurdle to clear to get to 14 quickly.

I mean, one could argue that it made much more sense for the ACC to go to 16 or even 18 schools if it truly wanted mass inventory and geographic dominance. But the Presidents and ADs were not prepared to expand that much, that fast.

 

[elimunelson]

That and Penn St not going to the Big East changed the trajectory of the entire college football landscape.

It'll be very interesting in 2035 when the Sports Minister of the USA returns these teams to geographical roots.

 

[Chip]

I'm sure the decision made a lot of sense when they did it. And again in 2003 when the ACC petitioned and they said no because they had this really important rule in place that was protecting the student athlete.

It's all about the student athlete. You try to have a conference with 10 teams and a championship game, you might as well kick them all out of school because they would fail all of their classes and face other imminent dangers.

 

[OrangeMojo]

I don't like the NCAA

 

[KaiserUEO]

champ games should have a minimum of 12.

espn screwed this all up by worshiping bevo and giving them the farm.

 

[Scooch]

That and Penn St not going to the Big East changed the trajectory of the entire college football landscape.

It'll be very interesting in 2035 when the Sports Minister of the USA returns these teams to geographical roots.

It'll be "Minister of Sport".

That's how the European Socialists do it.

 

[longtimefan]

Penn State
Pitt
WV
Syracuse
BC
Temple
Rutgers
Va Tech
Miami.

In 1990, Penn State was coming off 2 decades of dominating the old East Indies, both on and off the field. Remember, SU's split from the Nits came about in large part because Jake Crouthamel refused to give in to PSU's (Paterno's?) demand that the home-and-home in the upcoming 10 years be 6-4 in Happy Valley. So, Penn State was not about to treat its northeast traditional rivals as equals, as forming a league would have required. Would the addition of Miami (remember VTech was a cipher in 1990) made any difference? Maybe. And if the B1G had come calling, would Penn State have headed off to the Land Grant Assn. anyway?

 

[TDTOrange]

Sure, maybe.

Although one can argue that it was much easier to go to 14 when you were already at 12. If most of these conferences were at 10 there might have been a bigger mental hurdle to clear to get to 14 quickly.

I mean, one could argue that it made much more sense for the ACC to go to 16 or even 18 schools if it truly wanted mass inventory and geographic dominance. But the Presidents and ADs were not prepared to expand that much, that fast.

Maybe they will in 8-10 years when the current deals run out. But it's gotten to the point of diminishing returns when adding in non-P5 teams into your leagues. I'm more worried about one of the larger P5 conferences picking off a frustrated FSU or Texas, etc. and turning the ACC and/or XII into psudo-P5s

Regardless, conference realignment has always happened, and will continue.

 

[NineOneSeven]

Penn State
Pitt
WV
Syracuse
BC
Temple
Rutgers
Va Tech
Miami.

That your ideal conference or...?

 

[HtownOrange]

The NCAA was never designed to actually accomplish anything or to present with reason, only to take money from revenue generating schools and give it to non-revenue generating schools (ala: Robin Hood) while taking a VERY NICE SLICE OF PIE for themselves (ala: Government of your choice). Since the NCAA cannot accomplish the enforcement job they are tasked with, there is no justification for keeping them around.

If we could go back and install a championship game with playoffs, would Miami have left the Big East?