OT: CFB Realignment (Opinion Thread)

[khoock]

I have noticed that my affinity for college football has waned over the past few years (I used to be a fanatic). I think a lot of it has to do with these crazy and ridiculous conferences. I have started to enjoy annual matchups with Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota but still feel no appeal to playing Illinois, Indiana, Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland, Purdue, etc. And its not just bc some of them are bad teams as I had no problem playing Iowa St, Kansas, K-State, etc from the Big 8/12. I really just miss the regional appeal of conferences. 

 

So I decided to give myself what I want... via X-box 360 and NCAA Football '14. I simulate college football seasons with my realigned conferences listed below. I roll with seven 10-team conferences that include all P5 teams and a couple top notch G5 programs. Everyone plays the same amount of conference and non-conference games and theres no silly conference championship games. Here are my idea for conferences (ironically, Nebraska gets stuck in the least regionally sound conference due to the small amount of Midwest and Mountain West programs):

 

ACC: Clemson, South Carolina, North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Louisville 

Big 12: Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston, LSU, Arkansas

Big East: Connecticut, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Penn St, Rutgers, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Big Ten: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, Illinois, Northwestern, Michigan, Michigan St, Ohio St

MWC: Iowa, Iowa St, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, K-State, Colorado, BYU, Utah, Boise St

Pac: Washington, Washington St, Oregon, Oregon St, UCLA, USC, Cal, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona St

SEC: Miami, Florida St, Florida, UCF, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St

 

Would absolutely LOVE to see something like this in real life.

[HuskerFever]

The AAC would be very upset...

 

[khoock]

35 minutes ago, HuskerFever said:

The AAC would be very upset...

 

Lol I use the AAC in the video game as the "Big East". Thought the Big East conference name was more fitting since the teams are actually all on the East coast or in the Northeast

[jayschool]

WARNING: Quarantine time on my hands alert.

 

This is my favorite CFB fantasy, with seven 11-team conferences based mostly on region and tradition. Call it the Super League.

• WEEK ZERO games scheduled last Saturday in August against lower-division teams at Super League home stadiums. Revenue generator for lower-division teams, so Nebraska would host a round of teams from year to year like South Dakota, Wyoming, NDSU, Northern Iowa, etc. Also guarantees seven home games for revenue and a 13th game for everybody instead of meaningless bowl games at end of season.
• 2-game non-conference schedule among the Super League (1 home/1 away) to help with seeding later for possible wild card. Scheduled by Super League to create suspense, such as last year's conference champions playing or last-place teams from previous year facing off.
• 10-game conference season determines conference champions.
• Relegation to lower division if a team finishes 0-12. Replaced by champion and other top teams of the Secondary League, which consists of the MAC, the Sun Belt, the Big Sky, Mo Valley, Mountain West remnants, and all those ArkLaTex and Carolina schools trying to compete currently in Division I.
• Seven champs plus five wild cards make the 12-team playoffs.
• 5 vs. 12, 6 vs. 11, 7 vs. 10, 8 vs. 9 in first-round games played first Saturday of December at home field of lowest-seeded team.
• First round of playoffs in lieu of conference title games.
• Winners play top four seeds third Saturday in December at four of the New Year's Six sites.
• Semifinals played as they are now, at the other two New Year's Six venues on New Year's Day
• Finals played second Monday of January at rotating neutral venues

 

Wouldn't be a bad double-round-robin for basketball either.

 

SEC	ACC	Big Ten	Big XI	Pac-11	SWC	Big East
Florida	Virginia	Illinois	Colorado	Arizona	Arkansas	Louisville
Georgia	Virginia Tech	Indiana	Iowa State	Arizona State	Texas	Penn State
South Carolina	Miami	Iowa	Kansas	UCLA	Texas A&M	Boston College
Tennessee	Florida State	Michigan	Kansas State	USC	TCU	Pittsburgh
Kentucky	Georgia Tech	Michigan State	Missouri	Stanford	Baylor	Syracuse
Vanderbilt	Clemson	Minnesota	Nebraska	California	Texas Tech	West Virginia
Alabama	North Carolina	Northwestern	Oklahoma	Oregon	Houston	Temple
Auburn	NC State	Notre Dame	Oklahoma State	Oregon State	Memphis	Cincinnati
Mississippi	Wake Forest	Ohio State	Utah	Washington	UCF	Navy
Mississippi State	Duke	Purdue	BYU	Washington State	USF	Army
LSU	Maryland	Wisconsin	Colorado State	Boise State	Air Force	Rutgers

Edited June 12, 2020 by jayschool

[Handy Johnson]

That’s all well & fine, but what I miss is getting up on a Saturday morning & DRIVING to an away game at Lawrence, Manhattan, Ames etc. Imagine if yer a West Virginia alum now in the Big XII, unless yer loaded, yer DONE going to away games... 

[jayschool]

10 hours ago, Handy Johnson said:

That’s all well & fine, but what I miss is getting up on a Saturday morning & DRIVING to an away game at Lawrence, Manhattan, Ames etc. Imagine if yer a West Virginia alum now in the Big XII, unless yer loaded, yer DONE going to away games... 

Move to Chicago.