My Perfect Expansion
I have been thinking about this a lot. I don't really like the idea of 20 team conferences. I do however like the idea a four 16 team conferences with 2 divisions each. This would create a kind of pennant race to win the division to make it into the playoffs. Regular season means everything still and teams actually have to earn their way in. I despise a team losing its division or conference, but we give them a do over to play for the national title. I truly feel teams should have to earn their way in and a slip up shouldn't be excused when other teams won their way in. The first round of the playoffs will be the conference championship games with the winners going on to play in the CFP. It could either be set as 2 conferences annually opposite of each other or the conference winner matchups would rotate each year or seed the final 4 after the conference championship round. This format could also be the precursor to the two 32 team super conferences that the winner of each play for the national title, kind of like the AFC and NFC in the NFL. The B1G and SEC are set. The ACC can have Notre Dame and West Virginia and then the Pac 12 and Big 12 merge into one conference. It works out pretty well with only schools like TCU, UC, BYU, and Boise St still looking in from the outside.
Below are my conference alignments that is as close to my perfect scenario. If the best of group of 5 create a 16-team conference, then it would probably be needed to create an 8-team playoff after the conference championships with 5 conference champions and 3 at larges. I hate at larges, but I know that is appealing to the playoffs only matter crowd and it could be compromise, but not my ideal way to do it. The best thing about this, are these 4 conferences could actually have a chance to exist based on the current landscape. Of course, if the B1G and SEC expand to 20 each, then all that thought is over.
BIG 10 SEC ACC BIG PAC
East East North Central
Indiana Alabama Boston College Baylor
Maryland Auburn Louisville Colorado
Michigan Florida Notre Dame Iowa St
Michigan St Georgia Pitt Kansas
Ohio St Kentucky Syracuse Kansas St
Penn State South Carolina Virginia Oklahoma St
Purdue Tennessee Virginia Tech Texas Tech
Rutgers Vanderbilt West Virginia Utah
West West South Pacific
Illinois Arkansas Clemson Arizona
Iowa Louisianna St Duke Arizona St
Minnesota Mississippi St Florida St Cal
Nebraska Missouri Georgia Tech Oregon
Northwestern Oklahoma Miami Oregon St
Wisconsin Ole Miss North Carolina Stanford
UCLA Texas North Carolina St Washington
USC Texas A&M Wake Forest Washington St
Warning, this post looks like garbage on a phone.
Yeah....
I knew a fair good number of Michigan Dames, say.
Gentlemen never tell…
For me it works in landscape on my phone
It's just plain hot garbage no matter where it exists.
Perfect expansion...maybe.
Perfect presentation...ah...maybe juuuusssssttt a bit lacking. Right Ueck?
My eyes!!! The goggles do nothing!!!!
Turn your phone sideways.
It’s not worth even that slight effort.
Yeah, it’s readable in landscape, at least on an iPhone.
In landscape you get Michigan St. and Michigan State.
A table might have worked better.
I thought this thread was going to about 19 lbs added during COVID -19.
Oh shit, I must've gotten it twice then.
And COVID pounds are immune to dieting and exercise. THEY DIDN'T TELL US ABOUT THAT! Lying M-F'ers.
BTW...I remember when the avatar previously known as the President of Russia was replaced by the President of Ukraine. Now the previously known avatar returns shirtless riding a Detroit Lion? I am left medicating my mental state with ample quantities of Bourbon and contemplating what exactly this shirtless riding of a Detroit Lion says about the rider.
That vaccine turned me into a chow hound and a drunk!
What is the point of posting something that has absolutely zero chance of happening?
He's warming up. Got to get ready to compete in the sea of "my very important thoughts on things" posts that are as much of a staple around here as Brian's weird score predictions once football season starts.
Only trailed by the "why do we call the bad plays instead of more good plays" threads and the always popular "the officials OBVIOUSLY hate Michigan" posts following our first defeat.
And what about the B1G Home Office and its blatant favoritism for all things Columbus? And that arguments first cousin...Warde is a pussy who will not stand up for Michigan.
Don’t forget the money cannon
Because this looks like ass on my phone, it looks like you’ve got 4-team pods:
UM, ND, Florida, Iowa St
OSU, Syracuse, Kentucky, Kansas St
This is not good.
We do play ND and Florida more than we play Purdue so makes sense
Overtaking ass on your phone?
The biggest problem with this is the notion that someone from that absolutely garbage Pacific division would automatically get into the "playoff" every year.
Another major problem is the idea that USC and UCLA made the jump to the Big 10 only to end up playing an all Big 10 West schedule.
I'm not good at prognosticating, but i think the idea behind the super conferences was to put all the biggest dogs together. I'd love a playoff based on regionalization, but i don't think that's in the cards short term. But also i dunno jack.
The reality is, the B12 and Pac10 are D-E-D dead. They will string along, get 50% of the $$$ the SEC and B10 get.
The smart play if for UNC/UVa/GT/UWash/ND and Stanford or Duke join the B10. FSU/fuckall can go to the SEC.
B12 and Pac10 have to consolidate to have any chance of survival. Any school that can get into the B10 or SEC needs to do so yesterday.
It works out pretty well with only schools like TCU, UC, BYU, and Boise St still looking in from the outside.
How does TCU (already in the Big 12) UC and BYU (both already agreed to join the Big 12) get left out in this?
Yea - this is contraction. Expansion would be like 72 teams, 8 x 9-team divisions. I dunno that's kinda like the older conferences i guess.
I’m old school, and love the tradition of college sports. The landscape and historical rivalries are a thing of the past - and, it’s certainly a “race for media markets and payouts”.
I definitely believe teams should “earn their way in” to the college playoff, and my definition of that is - if a team is a member of a conference, they must be that conference’s champion. Both the BCS and CFP Playoff Committee, in my opinion, devalued conference championships with their decisions / selections - and that resulted in the “beauty contest” that the Playoff selection is today.
Wrong. Bad. Dumb.
Anything that keeps Michigan, MSU, PSU, and OSU together is Dave Brandon-level stupid.
I like two protected rivals and then new teams every year with a round robin format. This way you would play teams like Minnesota, Nebraska, Purdue and Illinois more frequently. I would also be in favor of dumping Rutgers and Maryland in favor of Duke and North Carolina. May not be much difference in football, but most of the other sports would be an upgrade. Academics would also be a plus
Uh, wasn’t there a significant academic scandal at North Carolina a few years ago?
And Duke fans? I know a few. What an entitled, narcissistic slice of humanity.
I’ll keep Maryland and Rutgers (and the NYC and DC markets).
What’s the “best” size for a conference? Twenty teams - two ten team divisions - with no crossover games? A “regular” schedule of nine conference games to determine the division champ with a CCG between the two division winners. So, three OOC games - followed by a nine game division schedule / season?
Will the conferences agree to not schedule powerhouses like Mercer, The Citadel, Austin Peay, Chattanooga, Western Carolina, etc?
No one cares - they will do what they want. Peons called "fans" have no input.
I think there will be more B1G teams like Stanford, Oregon, Cal, and Washington. May be even a few ACC teams. Outside chance ND will joint
I still like geography and would prefer we just blew the whole thing up and started over with one of two models.
College Football Championship League (*Super Conference Model*) - 64 Teams
North
1. Cincinnati
2. Illinois
3. Indiana
4. Iowa
5. Iowa St.
6. Louisville
7. Michigan
8. Michigan St.
9. Minnesota
10. Missouri
11. Ohio St.
12. Nebraska
13. Northwestern
14. Notre Dame
15. West Virginia
16. Wisconsin
East
1. Boston College
2. Clemson
3. Florida
4. Georgia
5. Georgia Tech
6. Maryland
7. Miami
8. NC State
9. Penn St.
10. Pitt
11. S. Carolina
12. Syracuse
13. UCF
14. UNC
15. Virginia
16. Virginia Tech
South
1. Alabama
2. Arkansas
3. Auburn
4. Baylor
5. Florida St.
6. Houston
7. Kentucky
8. LSU
9. Memphis
10. Mississippi St.
11. Oklahoma
12. Oklahoma St.
13. Ole Miss
14. TCU
15. Tennessee
16. Texas A&M
West
1. Arizona
2. Arizona St.
3. Boise St.
4. BYU
5. Cal
6. Colorado
7. Oregon
8. Oregon St.
9. Stanford
10. Texas
11. Texas Tech
12. UCLA
13. USC
14. Utah
15. Washington
16. Washington St.
12 game regular season, 9 in division + 1 against every other division.
8-team playoff (all 4 division champions + next 4 highest ranked team overall)
--------------------
College Football Championship League (*Pro Model*) - 48 Teams
Northern College Football Conference (NCFC)
1. Michigan
2. Ohio St.
3. Notre Dame
4. Michigan St.
1. Boston College
2. Penn State
3. Pitt
4. W. Virginia
1. Cal
2. Oregon
3. Stanford
4. Washington
1. BYU
2. Colorado
3. Kansas or Oklahoma St.
4. Utah
1. Nebraska
2. Iowa
3. Minnesota
4. Wisconsin
1. Virginia
2. Virginia Tech
3. UNC
4. NC St.
Southern College Football Conference (SCFC)
1. Arizona
2. Arizona St.
3. UCLA
4. USC
1. Texas
2. Texas A&M
3. Oklahoma
4. Arkansas
1. Florida
2. Florida St.
3. Miami (FL)
4. UCF
1. Alabama
2. Auburn
3. LSU
4. Ole Miss
1. Clemson
2. S. Carolina
3. Georgia
4. Georgia Tech
1. Louisville
2. Kentucky
3. Tennessee
4. Missouri
12-game regular season
H/A vs teams in your division (6 games)
1 game in every other division in your conference (5 games)
1 "other-conference" or non-conference game
16-team playoff (8 per conference...6 division champions in each division + 2 at-large in each division)
I also think it would be really exciting to take the next 48 or 64 teams (including adding top FCS schools if they deserve to be in the mix)...duplicating whatever model is selected for the top tier, and doing the exact same thing for the next level.
I personally think a Charlotte/Duke matchup featuring two top 10 teams is actually exciting (rather than a sleepy September Charlotte/Duke matchup featuring two teams who just want to be .500 at the end of the year, bowl-eligible, and have 900 people in the stands).
I'd watch #15 W. Michigan take on #20 North Dakota St. - that would be a fun mid-week match-up.
You create all kinds of new, exciting top 25 games with teams playing for a shot at a championship (albeit, a championship at their division).
I'm a college football nut, but I actually think you could create 3 levels and people would still watch the 3rd tier as well. Especially if it's the "pro model" with 48 teams in each, the 3rd tier would still be full of current FBS teams. But even the 64-team super conference option would have a few.
This would be pretty brilliant.
I like your model but sadly it has as much chance of actually happening as the fever dream proposal from the OP. Here's why:
1. Makes too much sense
2. As long as ESPN controls college football the SEC is going nowhere.
Did you leave Purdue and Rutgers out of that 64-team Super Conference intentionally?
If you put Syracuse in as a replacement for Rutgers, thinking that Syracuse would add more fans in the New York market, then you might want to consider that (1) Syracuse is located about four hours from Manhattan while Rutgers is about an hour from Manhattan and (2) from the 2005 season through the 2021 season, Syracuse football's record is 78-128 and Rutgers football's record is 100-110. In the recent academic year, Rutgers was ranked 48th in the final Directors' Cup standings; Syracuse was 72nd.
Cincinnati has not been included yet Louisville, Pitt and BC are in the ACC North. UCF should also fit somewhere in the ACC or SEC.
It’s becoming too much to properly sort out through a playoff as constituted. There is no way, at this point, to combine the college football regular season and post season to make sense. It’s all jacked up. They need to nuke it and start over. No more half-measures. Cutting regular season games to allow for a much expanded playoff is all that would work.
If not, I’m at the point where I think teams should just play awesome schedules against whoever for the entire season and then just have a BCS-like vote on the two best teams to play for the title. I already legit don’t care about the Playoff and have never watched a title game because it’s weird-neutral-field-Monday-not-at all-college-feeling vibe. I cared far more about the MSU and OSU games last year than I did the Georgia game.
I am arriving at a complete paradigm shift place...one that reflects what I came to believe and value as a player and coach.
My position begins with an abandonment of conferences as we know them. For the major sports of football, basketball and baseball go to a "elite" "National Conference" that begins with the best schools in each sport-from across the nation and a second tier national conference that that offers an opportunity to move up to the elite conference. In football there would be 4 divisions and you begin with the top 36 schools from the previous year. You divide them into each division in a seeded fashion with no consideration to geographic location or rivalry. Each team plays the other 8 division teams plus the team of corresponding seeding from each of the other divisions. (So next year Michigan gets to play Georgia, Alabama and Cincinnati as their out-of-divisions opponents.) The post-season play is for the NC and is NFLish style. The division winners are auto-bids who receive a bye and host the second round. The second place teams host the first round games and there are four wildcards chosen by a committee-there has to be some level of abject controversy to the format. The next year the last place team in each division is demoted to the "second-tier" conference and the division winners from the second tier conferences move up top the "Elite Conference".
You do a similar thing with basketball and baseball. This allows/honors schools who are traditionally strong in individual sports to compete at the highest level in those sports.
Notre Dame deserves to be left out for their hubris. Replace them with UConn or Temple.
IMO, ND may already be in a pretty tight spot. They value their independence in football, and academic achievement. So, in the current (or recent past) state of conferences - the ACC was tenable - pretty solid academics across the membership, good sports presence and variety - which allowed ND to maintain their independence in football by playing five ACC teams per season. And, of course, an independent media contract with NBC - let’s say $35 M per year.
But, that was “yesterday”, what will tomorrow look like for the Irish? The media payout for major conferences is growing - and, rumors for B1G member teams points to a figure solidly more than $50M - perhaps in the $85 to $100M range.
Will the ACC, Big 12, and PAC survive? All three conferences may - with a different look. But, academically, where would the ND alumni want to be - or feel ND fits? First - the new Big 12, is a “no”. The PAC and ACC are definite maybes.
The SEC - hmmm… I don’t think so - I can’t envision ND alumni embracing regular contests against Ole Miss, Arkansas, Mississippi State, South Carolina, etc.. and - of course - the SEC academically (with the exception of a few schools) is not the strata they want to be associated with. Though, it would be great to see an LSU football team coached by Brian Kelly play ND - just for the humor of it all.
That leaves… the B1G. An academic, geographic, and athletic fit. I don’t know when they will join a conference - but, when they do.. it will be the B1G. The ACC will be raided soon - with the B1G being a “coast to coast”conference - with (almost) all schools being AAU members. And, it will be an “equal share” - no special exceptions - you’re one of the conference teams -that’s it - nothing unique. This “being equal” with other B1G schools will be a very difficult “pill” for ND to swallow.