If both Miami and FSU are in the ACC, I doubt they'd be placed together.

How about:

Miami
Maryland
WVU
Virginia Tech
Duke
Virginia

Georgia Tech
Clemson
NC State
UNC
FSU
Wake

I think this is more balanced and keeps more traditional rivals together. Also it's more balanced for basketball.

I don't think you'd have to worry about divisions for hoops. Everybody will go to the ACC tourney anyway, so the teams can be simply seeded 1-12 with the top 4 getting first round byes. In fact that's how the BigXII does it--divisions in FB but not in BB.

Personally I like the more geographical divisions in FB. I'd love to see Tech play FSU, Clemson, AND Miami every year. This is especially true since we're expanding the stadium next year and we'll need the big matchups to fill it up.

The idea of combining the ACC and BE seems to be popular. :) The question is which conference raids the other! ??? My spin is this:

Big Atlantic Conference

Clemson, FSU, GT, Maryland, Miami (FL), Pittsburgh, VA,
VT, and WVU


East Coast Conference

BC, UConn, Duke, UNC, NC St, Rutgers, Wake Forest,
and the non FB schools of the BE


The BB schools and the FB schools could each have their own conference, and both would be strong in their sport. Of course the ECC would NOT be BCS!

Also, the ACC needs a thread. I would think that it would be second only to the BE thread. Until then, this thread is here for all of you ACC fans. If you plan to raid the BE for teams, then this is the right thread anyway!

FB

My realignment plan--although not very possible--is one that would allow a playoff where every team has a fair shot and creates a regional emphasis on college
football.

Division I-A becomes just 72 teams--the 62 in the current "BCS" conferences and 10 "mid-majors" that have carved out a niche in big-time college football.
These 72 teams are divided into 8 conferences of 9 teams each. This allows for every team to play each conference member.

Each of these conferences sends its champion to the College Football National Playoff--an 8 team mega-event which could be played in the existing major bowls or a first round home-field play.

The 10 teams from "mid-major" conferences included in this realignment are Fresno State, Utah, BYU, Colorado State, TCU, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, Marshall, and Louisville. These teams have succeeded in becoming major players with less raw material.

The conference breakdowns are as follows:
Washington, Wash. St., Oregon, Or. St., Cal, Stanford, Fresno, USC, and UCLA
Arizona, Ariz. St., Utah, BYU, Colorado, Colorado St., Kansas, K-State, and Nebraska
Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, OU, Ok.St., LSU, and La Tech
Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Tennessee, Vandy, Ole Miss, Miss. St., and Southern Miss
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Iowa St., Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Purdue
Michigan, Mich. St., Ohio St., Penn St., Pitt, Temple, Rutgers, Syracuse, and BC
Maryland, W. Va, UVA, Va Tech, UNC, NC State, Duke, and WF
Miami, FSU, Florida, Georgia, Ga Tech, S. Carolina, Clemson, Alabama, and Auburn.

These conferences are very regionalized and REQUIRE teams to win their conference to advance to the playoffs. I feel this would create an even stronger ferver among fans--having to beat all the teams in their region of the country to win it all.

Surprisingly, halfway through this season, the records of each of these conferences are very similar, excluding the FL-GA-ALA-SC conference.

This system puts each and every team on a level playing field before anyone plays a game. Utah offers everything Miami does--a chance to play "the big boys", a tie-in with a spot for the national championship, and nationwide exposure. There would no longer be lesser conferences filled with lesser teams.

if this is just for fun, let me posit this conference:

NORTH:
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Syracuse
Notre Dame
West Virginia
Boston College

SOUTH:
Miami
Florida State
South Carolina
Southern Miss
Louisville
Virginia Tech

sounds like a killer conference, right? actually, it's a list of 12 major 1-A independents in 1988. 4 of the top 5 teams that year were on this list (notre dame, miami, florida state, west virginia).

i am in favor of conference realignment and expansion, but sometimes i miss those days. every major conference had its own bowl (sugar, cotton, rose, orange, gator, etc) and the best independents were often the opponents. it was unfortunate that selections were often made the week before thanksgiving (recall in 1990 when virginia was #1 in the country, was selected for a bowl and promptly lost 3 of its next 4), but i liked it a lot better than i do the bcs.

OrangeAfroMan
We may not be on the same page, but we are singing from the same hymnal! ;) I like giving TN the free ride that FSU and Miami (OH) have been getting :) . Are you rocky-top orange?

The AL-FL-GA-SC is too tough, (Nice revenge though ;) )
and the MD-VA-NC conference is a joke ;D . Take one from each state of these conferences and send the third FL school to play TN.

Sbro
One thought that I had was for some company to give a trophy to the independant FB team with the most wins against other indepentants, or with the best percentage with a 7 or 8 game minimum. Unfortunatly, the dot com boom is a bust, since the trophy would make the independants into a virtual conference! [pun intended :) ]

P.S. I would have replied sooner, but I didn't want to be every other post.
FBfan

If the new standards for D1A and the cost of the Marx9 tax (Title IX is a tax on expenses!) cause D1A to shrink enough, there is room for a playoff would serious realignment!

The key is the MAC and CUSA need to be under 12 teams. CUSA is there now. The MAC would need to shrink.

Then plan would be for a bowl game to to pit the 2 best non BCS teams for an automatic bid to the BCS. This game would be the 12th game. It could be expanded to either CUSA-vs-MAC in one game and MWC-vs-WAC or best in west for the 8th spot, or the impossible dream of MAC-vs-BE, CUSA-vs-ACC, WAC-vs-PAC10, MWC-vs-Big 10.

This last would leave a max of six undefeated teams. Designing a playoff, even within the bowl system, would be easy. :)

FBfan

Discussions on the reform thread got me to finally give my grand unification plan. It is too wild to be serious, but maybe it can give somone an idea that might work.

My plan is for the MWC to add the best non BCS team west of the Mississippi each year until it gets to 12. C-USA to add Marshall to make 12. Then on a rotating basis, even years CUSA, odd MWC they will swap their conference champ for the worst team in a BCS conference.

CUSA would rotate between the SEC, ACC and BE, while the MWC would rotate between the PAC10, Big 10 and Big 12. Thus each BCS conference would only swap a team every six years. CUSA and the MWC would also rotate out their bottom teams with the conferences below them; thus becomming an intermediate step into the BCS.

To futher expamd this, the ACC and BE might be expected to grow from this process to 12 teams. A BCS team that goes down to CUSA or MWC and then wins the conference when it is some other BCS conferences turn can return to their old conference when that conferences turn comes if the have winning recond in their new conference. In this case the conference they transfered to would get the new team.

The obvious problems in this plan highlight the difficulty in being fair to both BCS and non BCS conference teams. Does an unbeaten 'mid-major' team deserve a BCS title shot if they did NOT play anyone in the top 20? How many BCS schools could go undefeated in the MAC, WAC, MWC or CUSA? (My guess is 5 to 8 on any given year, but it may be MORE.)

Oh well. I hope this sparks discussion. I do believe that the BCS -vs- non BCS deserves more consideration by the NCAA than giving Vandy ANY more money!

FBfan
ps I don't hate Vandy. I just think that Vandy's current president should be banned from the NCAA!

For now, I'm content to let the BCS stay static (and taking about 90+% of all bowl monies. What I'd like to do is realign the non-BCS conferences so that a playoff system could be established.

I would like to see the 48 best non-BCS teams form four 12 team conferences.

There are five teams that do not seem to have a chance of staying 1-A: San Jose State, Idaho, Louisiana-Monroe Kent State and Eastern Michigan. The sixth that I eliminated was Troy State, because at present they don't have a conference and can't meet the scheduling requirement.

The 48 that remain would be formed geographically into the following four conferences:

Hawaii
San Diego State
Fresno State
Nevada
UNLV
Boise State
Utah State
Utah
Brigham Young
Wyoming
Colorado State
Air Force

New Mexico
New Mexico State
UTEP
Tulsa
North Texas
TCU
SMU
Rice
Houston
Arkansas State
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana (Lafayette)

Northern Illinois
Ball State
Memphis
Middle Tennessee
Tulane
Southern Miss
Louisville
Cincinnati
UAB
East Carolina
Central Florida
South Florida

Central Michigan
Western Michigan
Toledo
Bowling Green
Miami (OH)
Ohio
Akron
Marshall
Buffalo
Army
Navy
Temple

If it should be decided to admit Troy State in place of an Akron or Toledo, then they sould be in the third conference and Ball State moved to the fourth conference.

You want a C-USA fan to respond? ::) I am not sure that there is a C-USA fan. The conference is so screwed up. You have Football first fans and you have Hoops first fans. You have 14 schools all with different agandas covering the mid-west, south and south-west and eastern parts of our country. Some schools participate in some sports and not others and other schools are visa-versa. What a confusing mess.

So my questions is: Is there a C-USA fan, or are there just fans of their approiate member schools?

Anyways here is my "Dream Conference".....

North:

Maryland
Virginia
N Carolina
N C State
Wake Forrest
Duke

South:

Clemson
Ga Tech
Miami
South Florida
Louisville
Fla State

You have regional rivals. All schools participate in all sports. The Fla fertile football recruiting grounds. Teams that will challenge for the Football National Championship and the hoops hot area of Nrth Carolina. This is just the ACC with a little help.

You said "DREAM" Conference... I would love to see ACC hoops at the Sun Dome in Tampa and I think that Miami & USF would add power to the football side of the conference with Louisville adding an excellent football & hoops program to the conference.....

That is my "Dream Conference". It is fun to speculate. 8-)8-) 8-)

JFin,

Interesting post. It sort of fits in to the new survey thread that I hope to post today. If you see it, check it out.

Ty,
It looks like a good dream for the ACC. The ACC, BE, and CUSA all have conflict between the BB and FB schools. That may be what is stopping or slowing some of the realignment. Wouldn't it be nice if they could just split and rearrange according to interest. The BB schools would stop it because they would lose too much money.

FBfan

One of FBFan's ideas really had me thinkings (actually it was two of his ideas. ;D )

I'd like to see the creation of a Southern Ivy Conference and some conferences that have a strong brand of basketball, yet a somewhat weak form of football. Then realign the NCAA football conferences with what's left (which should be pretty good, IMO).

Here's how football would look:

UK and Vandy would be out of the SEC.
WSU, Ore. St, UCLA, Arizona, Cal, and Stanford would be out of the current Pac 10.
Syracuse and UConn would be out of the Big East.
UNC, Duke, and Wake Forest would be out of the ACC.
Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Michigan State would be out of the Big Ten.
KU, ISU, Missouri, and Baylor would be out of the Big 12.
(more to come. These non-BCS programs could take a while to sort out.)

DawgNDuckFan,

I am glad you liked my ideas! :) Thinking about the answers to the new poll thread got me thinking again. ::) Here is an impossible dream. Maybe it can give someone an idea that works. ;)

First, please note that the BB schools did not say much about academics when "helping" a single player could mean the difference between an average team and a great team. Now that the NBA is taking those players out of H.S. and the 3 point shot has make the center a little less important, we are hearing them scream.

Sbro and Catdaddy2402 had some good ideas in there answers to the poll, but the issue of how to get BCS teams to play the better "mid-majors" is still unresolved.
Catdaddy thought that the NCAA would back off b4 too many teams downgraded. He is probably right, but here is another option.

The BB schools are starting to push for higher academic standards. IMHO it is to counter the new higher attendance and non-revenue schlorship requirements that are seen to favor the big time FB schools.

So, the NCAA allows CONFERENCES to adopt either the new attandance/scholarship/home game requirements or a new higher academic standard and the old 1A requirements. Everyone would be happy, but there would be massive realignment. The FB schools in the ACC would probably bolt, possibly with the FB schools in the BE. Vandy, IN etc would probably leave their conferences. You would have a de facto 1B for the BB schools. Your top 50-60 FB teams would be in 4 to 6 conferences and the rest would be in 4 or 5 BB conferences. A BB school would in theory be allowed to get in the play offs, be it would not happen. They would have meaningless bowl games, however.

Oh, well. It is a nice dream! :)

FBfan

FBfan,

I had a thought about some sort of flat (but realtively small) bonus for beating a conference champ, and perhaps even for a division champ. I thought that might encourage teams like Miami to play perennial mid-major powers like TCU, Marshall, Colorado St., or Boise St., since the game would be winnable, but the bonus might be helpful in a tie-breaker. I'm not suggesting that you'd get a bonus for playing a mid-major champ that you wouldn't get for playing BCS champ. Maybe the bonus would be weighted by conference power rating. You'd already get a BSC bonus based on the ranking of the team, so if you beat #2 Tennessee and they won the SEC and the SEC was the best conference, you'd get bonus for beating a #2 team, as well as the highest weigthed bonus for beating a conference champ. If you beat Boise St., you'd get points from beating a (guesswork) #15 team, and for beating a conference champ, with the championship bonus rating 6 or 7. Hope that makes some sense. Anyway, it wouldn't be a very risky game for the very best BCS squads, but it would help them more in the ranking formula than playing a IAA or a IA patsy.

ACCNole2,

Your ideas are causing me to think! You seem to be on the right track in general, but I do not know what the final answer should be.

I started thinking about somehow having some system where playoff teams stayed in their conferences, but played a BCS/PRs schedule as well. Some of the conference games would be PRS games teams would use ooc games for the rest. That way a Marshall would be in a 'virtual conference' with several strong teams.

Exactly how you could accomplish this is beyond me at the moment. Part of the problem would be that the weak BCS teams would NOT be in the mix. They would be treated as ooc games for PRS purposes. That way you would not need to have conference realignment.
Those teams WOULD be angry however! How you let some mid-majors (which I define as 26-75 average yearly ranking) that are not BCS in while 1B's (below 75) out is currently beyond me.


I should probably wait to post this until I figure this out ??? However, if I do that, I may never post it. Maybe, and this is why I am willing to look silly with this post, someone can figure out a way to make something work. I know this idea is to far out of the box to work. I also know that incremental thinking is how we wound up in this mess (no playoff) in the first place. Someone has to think very far out of the box in order to make the other ideas seem reasonable. The final solution could be some combination of this crazy idea, your more reasonable one and probably several others as well.

I hope this idea has not destroyed my creditability. I CAN think reasonably within "the box" when I want to, but if I can get 1 bright but timid soul out there to give his/her idea, they might solve the problem. That would make it all worth while.

FBfan