SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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July football is all about your imagination and I let mine run free on a subject that is a sore point with me: the geographical make-up of conferences and in particular Syracuse’s plight of being a sort of guest in a southern conference and stuck in a division with three national championship contenders. I’m also concerned about schools being thrown in with schools that have obviously greater resources and having a hard time competing with them. Conferences should be between schools that are natural geographical rivals, recruit in the same areas, have similar resources and problems. I’m not anticipating that what I describe will ever come to pass. I’m just imagining things as I think they should be.
The perfect size for a conference is nine teams: you play everybody once in football and twice in basketball with an equal number of home and away games. In my fantasy, the NCAA cancels all current conference affiliations and declares that every Division 1 football school must be in a nine team conference consisting of their most natural football rivals, based on location and type of school. Then everybody makes logical decisions based on my priorities, (like I say, this is a fantasy). What would the result look like?
I decided to create 12 nine team conferences, (108 schools). I dropped some schools that emerged from what is now FCS and would have a much better chance to compete for a championship there. A couple of those teams have been FBS for a while and even had a bit of success here but I needed to cut it down to 108 teams and somebody had to go. I didn’t attempt to give the leagues a name. I just numbered them 1 to 12 and thought about certain geographical areas. The last few stretch geographical boundaries a bit more as I was looking to find a place from certain schools. (There’s some duct tape on this.) The championship would, of course, be decided in a playoff. Ties would be broken by the head to head games, (and there would always be one). Three way ties could be decided by combined points in the three games. Then you got to in conference point differential, etc. etc. Then the 12 conference champions would be ranked by some method, (stats, polls or a combination of both). The eight lowest ranked champions would play in the first round at the field of the higher ranked team in early December. The eight remaining teams would be matched up in bowls. Then you get the Final four and then the championship game. Both would take place in one of the major bowl sites on an alternating basis.
1) Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, Army, Navy, Rutgers, Temple, Pittsburgh, West Virginia
2) Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Clemson, South Carolina
3) Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, U of Miami, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State
4) Louisiana State, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Baylor
5) Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Tennessee
6) Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri
7) Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, Southern California, UCLA, Hawaii (Hey, my brother teaches there!)
8) Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Utah, Utah State, Arizona, Arizona State
9) Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, Memphis, Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Northwestern, Vanderbilt
10) New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP, Boise State, Nevada, UNLV, Fresno State, San Jose State, San Diego State
11) Akron, Bowling Green, Kent State, Miami U., Ohio U. Toledo, Western Michigan, Ball State, Northern Illinois (I had to drop out a couple teams to get to 9. Eastern Michigan hasn’t done much in football and I don’t like Central Michigan.)
12) Marshall, East Carolina, Central Florida, South Florida, Arkansas State, North Texas, Rice, SMU, Louisiana Tech
A month from now, we have to deal with reality. In July, we can just dream.
The perfect size for a conference is nine teams: you play everybody once in football and twice in basketball with an equal number of home and away games. In my fantasy, the NCAA cancels all current conference affiliations and declares that every Division 1 football school must be in a nine team conference consisting of their most natural football rivals, based on location and type of school. Then everybody makes logical decisions based on my priorities, (like I say, this is a fantasy). What would the result look like?
I decided to create 12 nine team conferences, (108 schools). I dropped some schools that emerged from what is now FCS and would have a much better chance to compete for a championship there. A couple of those teams have been FBS for a while and even had a bit of success here but I needed to cut it down to 108 teams and somebody had to go. I didn’t attempt to give the leagues a name. I just numbered them 1 to 12 and thought about certain geographical areas. The last few stretch geographical boundaries a bit more as I was looking to find a place from certain schools. (There’s some duct tape on this.) The championship would, of course, be decided in a playoff. Ties would be broken by the head to head games, (and there would always be one). Three way ties could be decided by combined points in the three games. Then you got to in conference point differential, etc. etc. Then the 12 conference champions would be ranked by some method, (stats, polls or a combination of both). The eight lowest ranked champions would play in the first round at the field of the higher ranked team in early December. The eight remaining teams would be matched up in bowls. Then you get the Final four and then the championship game. Both would take place in one of the major bowl sites on an alternating basis.
1) Syracuse, Boston College, Connecticut, Army, Navy, Rutgers, Temple, Pittsburgh, West Virginia
2) Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Clemson, South Carolina
3) Georgia, Georgia Tech, Florida, Florida State, U of Miami, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi, Mississippi State
4) Louisiana State, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Texas Tech, Baylor
5) Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Kentucky, Tennessee
6) Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Iowa State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri
7) Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, California, Southern California, UCLA, Hawaii (Hey, my brother teaches there!)
8) Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado, Colorado State, Brigham Young, Utah, Utah State, Arizona, Arizona State
9) Louisville, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, Memphis, Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Northwestern, Vanderbilt
10) New Mexico, New Mexico State, UTEP, Boise State, Nevada, UNLV, Fresno State, San Jose State, San Diego State
11) Akron, Bowling Green, Kent State, Miami U., Ohio U. Toledo, Western Michigan, Ball State, Northern Illinois (I had to drop out a couple teams to get to 9. Eastern Michigan hasn’t done much in football and I don’t like Central Michigan.)
12) Marshall, East Carolina, Central Florida, South Florida, Arkansas State, North Texas, Rice, SMU, Louisiana Tech
A month from now, we have to deal with reality. In July, we can just dream.
