When is a conference not a conference? At some point it gets so big that it doesn't produce the rivalries that are the lifeblood of sports, especially college sports. Then it becomes a sort of mutual fund, with a large group of schools just sharing revenue. What would Kern Tipps think?
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Give me 8 nine team conferences, each representing a sector of the country: The Big East, with the top football schools in the northeast, the ACC, from Virginia to Florida, the SEC for the deep South, the Great Lakes Conference, (the former Big Ten), the Great Plains Conference, (the former Big 8 +1), the Southwest Conference, the Rocky Mountain Conference and the West Coast Conference. You play everyone in your conference, half home and half away for football and a double round-robin for basketball. 8 pennant races, (remember them?) Head-to-head breaks ties. The 8 champions play off for the national championship.
Of course it will never happen for a lot of crummy reasons. But we can dream.
This is part of one of those projects I have been working on, (and off and on again) for a while but I decided to post this because of it's current relevance, (as wishful as it it). My idea was: what would it look like if we took the top 72 football programs in the country, based on the results of this century, and organized them into eight 9 team geographical conferences and then too the top 72 basketball programs not already in the football conference and did the same thing. The championship tournament in football would be the champions of the 8 football conferences and in basketball it would the champions of those eight conferences plus the 8 basketball conferences. Each conference 'pennant' race would thus be part of the national tournament. I've done the football part and have got to get back to figuring out the basketball part. I used the Sagarin ratings to pick the top 72 football teams each year. You get 72 points for #1 in a year, 71 for #2, etc. I totaled up the points for 2000-2020 and came up with these top 72 programs, (and wondered if we'd make the cut - but we did. by the skin of our teeth).
Here are the top 72 college football programs, by the Sagarin rankings, since the year 2000:
Oklahoma 1369
Ohio State 1300
Louisiana State 1283
Georgia 1196
So. California 1187
5
Alabama 1186
Florida 1138
Clemson 1100
Texas 1085
Auburn 1080
10
Florida State 1046
Wisconsin 1043
Oregon 1021
Utah 1020
Virginia Tech 975
15
Notre Dame 974
Michigan 965
Texas Christian 903
U of Miami 900
Boise State 924
20
Oklahoma St. 888
Iowa 884
Penn State 879
Texas A&M 863
West Virginia 834
25
Stanford 826
South Carolina 818
Nebraska 774
Washington 773
Kansas State 764
30
Tennessee 749
Arizona State 714
Texas Tech 694
Oregon State 691
Georgia Tech 679
35
Michigan State 675
Arkansas 673
Missouri 663
Brigham Young 653
California 649
40
UCLA 662
Louisville 648
Mississippi St. 620
Pittsburgh 609
Boston College 605
45
Mississippi 578
No. Carolina St. 545
Washington St. 525
North Carolina 506
Baylor 476
50
Northwestern 454
Cincinnati 444
Minnesota 428
Arizona 420
Maryland 409
55
North Dakota St. 403
Virginia 382
Wake Forest 373
Central Florida 362
Purdue 350
60
Colorado 349
South Florida 349
Iowa State 348
Kentucky 348
Navy 312
65
Fresno State 309
Toledo 266
Rutgers 252
Air Force 251
Syracuse 248
70
App State 230
Houston 223
72
I had considerable suspense about whether SU would make the cut but that 2018 season put us over the top. The power conference teams that didn’t make it: Vanderbilt (208), Illinois (186), Kansas (181), Indiana (159) and Duke (149). Some programs that were once on that level that also didn’t make it: Connecticut (179), Temple (101), Southern Methodist (75), Army (46), Rice (33) and Tulane (21). The non-power conference teams who did make it: Boise State (924), Brigham Young (653), North Dakota State (403), Central Florida (362), South Florida (349), Navy (312), Fresno State (309), Toledo (266), Air Force (251), Appalachian State (230), Houston (223). There were three programs that didn’t start the century as power conference teams but became them and made it: Utah (1020), Texas Christian (903) and Louisville (648). And there was one school that started out not being a power conference teams, became one and then fell below that level, but made it anyway: Cincinnati (444). Of course, this whole thing is just my fantasy but if it were reality, the status of these programs could be reassessed each decade and the alignments adjusted, much as they do in the English soccer leagues. Illinois could go looking for the coach who could pull them out of whatever conference or situation they wound up in. App State would be fighting to retain their position against improved competition.
Upon studying the above, (and looking at a map), I come up with these eight Division 1 football conferences:
1) Boston College, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech and West Virginia
2) Appalachian State, Arkansas, Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
3) Alabama, Auburn, Central Florida, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, U of Miami and South Florida
4) Cincinnati, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Purdue and Toledo
5) Baylor, Houston, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Christian and Texas Tech
6) Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota State, Northwestern and Wisconsin
7) Air Force, Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, Brigham Young, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Utah
8) California, Fresno State, Oregon, Oregon State, Southern California, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and Washington State
Based on the 2020 Sagarin ratings, the football champions for these conferences would have been
1- West Virginia (33rd)
2- Clemson (4th)
3- Alabama (1st)
4- Ohio State (3rd)
5- Texas A&M (7th)
6- Iowa State (6th)
7- Oklahoma (2nd)
8- Southern California (11th)
An 8-team playoff would have had these quarter-final match-ups:
West Virginia at Alabama
Southern California at Oklahoma
Texas A&M at Ohio State
Iowa State at Clemson
More on this project later.
