A Conference People in the Northeast Could Watch

[wfschrec]

As you said, you picked a lousy example. The Texas example is also of playoff/championship games, often these include other games, too. I live in Texas and football is big! However, using playoff and championship games as measuring stick is intellectually dishonest; regular season does not equal postseason in fan interest. Katy and Pearland had not met in 51 years, but they are less than 50 miles apart, with Houston in the middle. Pearland's stadium does seat about 9,200. Katy's stadium seats about 9,768.

http://www.texasbob.com/stadium/region_index.php?Region=8

Of note: Several high schools around Houston share stadiums with other schools.

For the record, I lived in Jax and, yes, I was well aware that school districts sometimes shut down for the FL/GA game.

Why not you used postseason in GA and like I said due to traveling, cost and other differentials they have regular season games with larger attendance than some of the state championship games ... I work with a high school football official who was a line judge for a huge rivalry game that had over 20k in attendance ... and at any rate its still a high school game ... the fact that you get more at a high school game than a lot of colleges in the NE (championship high school game or otherwise) speaks volumes ... but I supposed under that premise CBA gets 30,000+ fans to see them in the state title game at the Dome right? Not even close .. honestly if you live in the south as you claim you do you cannot even argue about the passion for college football and high school football as compared to the NE ... its not even a question. From where I am north of Atlanta I can drive 5-7 hours in any direction and be at the following programs: UT, Auburn, Alabama, Florida, FSU, UGA, Georgia Tech, South Carolina, Clemson and then there are the lower end programs like Kentucky, Vandy and a handful of others ... the power schools all maintain tremendous fan bases and when they come to town here the city literally changes colors ... you would not believe the number of out of town fans that come to games here ... as I'm sure is the case in Texas ... how you can even argue this point is beyond me.

 

[Miasta]

I would love it if some of the adults in charge would call a conference expansion 'cease fire' and step back and take a look at what makes college football so great. Local and regional rivalries, round-robin scheduling, equal treatment of members, passionate fanbases...and then realize they could make WAY more money by promoting and preserving the quality of the product (rather than by treating it like a series of corporate mergers and acquisitions) by implementing a real playoff that included all of the conference champions plus the best 4 or so teams that failed to win their conference. If they did, there would be plenty of 'inventory' to go around for the major TV players, and the best conferences would still get the most TV money from ESPN and Fox and so forth.

Here is what I imagine would be a great conference breakdown for the northern and eastern parts of the country. I like 10 team conferences. The NCAA could be persuaded at this time, as opposed to in the past, to allow conference championship games for 10 team conferences if conferences wanted them. Also, as a lifelong ACC fan, I always had respect for the old Big East. Had it been done correctly, with better/stronger leadership, the Big East could have been a fine stable conference for its football members as well as its basketball only schools. Unfortunately, the below will never happen, though it would be awesome, IMO -

Big East:
BC
Syracuse
UConn
Rutgers
ND
Navy* (football only)
Penn St
Pitt
WVA
Miami

Providence
Seton Hall
Georgetown
St. Johns
Villanova
Atlantic Coast Conference:
VT
UVA
MD
UNC
Duke
NC State
Wake
Clemson
GA Tech
Fla St.
"USA East:"
Memphis
Louisville
Cincy
Temple
Marshall
ECU
App St.
Charlotte
UCF
USF
The above Big East conference would be formidable, and would take a backseat to no other conference. The ACC would be able to maintain all the things that made it so strong and appealing for all those years, while holding on to several potential football powerhouses. The remaining larger Div. I football playing schools would have a nice enough package to be bid on. It could work, and the quality of the 'product' (college football) would be preserved and strengthened. Too bad those in charge refuse to think along the same lines.