While we're on the subject of dream conferences, I would absolutely positively love to see UGa, FSU, and VT in the same conference together. This doesn't go with my earlier post, but it is a dream I have. 8-)

Ok, this dream conference is for all you northeasterners:
It's going to be called the NEC (Northeastern Conference) and it will have these members:
East Division
Boston College
UConn
Syracuse
Rutgers
Pittsburgh
Penn State
Maryland
Navy (FB only)
Notre Dame

West Division
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Purdue
Indiana
Wisconsin
Northwestern
Illinois

enjoy!!

I have always felt that one of the problems with the mid majors have been the fact that geographically they are far flung, especially C-USA, the WAC, and the Sun Belt. My idea would move teams around on a geographic basis. *NOTE* This is not taking in account any teams that may or may not be affected by an NCAA ruling that may or may not be implemented.

Take the southern C-USA teams

Louisville
Memphis
UAB
ECU
South Florida
Southern Miss
Tulane

Add southern teams from the MAC,WAC, Sun Belt, and Indy ranks

La Tech
Central Florida
Mid Tenn State
Arkansas St
Troy State

And set them up like this

East

ECU
Cent Fla
South Fla
UAB
MTSU
Troy State


West

Louisville
Memphis
Southern Miss
Tulane
La Tech
Arkansas St

You still have La-Monroe and La-Lafayette to play with...but 14 teams in a football conference is way too much.

Cincy takes UCF's place in the MAC. With them being an Ohio schools, being in a conference with other Ohio schools makes far more sense than them being in a conference with teams from Florida, Texas, and Louisiana.

Take the Southwest C-USA teams

TCU
Houston

Add the Southwest teams from the WAC

Tulsa
UTEP
Rice
SMU

And the Southwest teams from the Sunbelt

New Mexico St
North Texas

This gives you 8 teams. With La-Monroe and La-Lafayette still available..you can add them in here and have 10. A little un-balanced..but still workable.

With the remnants of the WAC and Sunbelt you have a seven team conference that is somewhat more of a geographical fit. The problem is when dealing with teams from the west central and rocky mountain states is the fact that the schools are dispersed over a wide area.

Idaho
Boise St
Fresno St
Hawaii
Nevada
San Jose St
Utah St



This is not perfect by any means..and I'm sure ya'll will gut it..but that's my idea.

Catdaddy2402,

Your idea look oks to me. :) The point you missed is that almost ALL college presidents are LIBERAL. :'( The common sense of a liberal is in inverse proportion to how smart or important that they think they are. (Note movie stars talking politics.) Your idea makes too much sense for a liberal to accept. ;D

FBfan

FBfan,

My brain hurts . . . it's definitely tough to figure out. One of these days I will sit down and figure out the BCS formula, and think of a way to tweak it to encourage solution of some of the problems we see no matter how we reshuffle the board, especially for the mid-majors. As far as that "conference/division winner" factor, maybe it could be as simple as a tie-breaking factor. An ace-in-the-hole just in case Miami and UGA are neck and neck for the #2 spot. Well, that'd be pretty rare though. Back to the drawing board . . .

catdaddy,

I think you are dead on about the southern mid-majors. Of all the scenarios we bounce aroudn I think that is the most likely to happen in the long run. I think sooner or later we're gonna see some movement with the WAC/MWC schools, and the same w/ TCU looking to move into the Big 12 (if they keep this up a few more years, they certainly deserve a spot). I could see Iowa St. and/or Missouri moving out of the Big 12 (If PSU leaves the Big 10 for the BE, I'm sure the BE would make a serious puch for both schools to get up to 12). If that happens, Colorado St. and TCU would have a legit shot at moving up in the world. At any rate, with or wihtout TCU, I see So Miss, ECU, Memphis, and probably Louisville in a conference with USF, possibly UCF, and definitely La Tech. There are enough southern teams scattered in the mid-major conferences, as you noted, to fill out a southern mid-major conference. If some fall into IAA, there are others (especially the Louisiana teams) that can be moved up. I think interest and attendance, from a footbal perspective, would be better for this league anyway.

Your scenario makes me wonder what will happen to Marshall. Maybe the best of the MAC merge with Cincy as well as Marshall? Or does Marshall join the Southerm mid-majors, or possibly try for the BE? As much as BE fans might hate this, I'd love to see Marshall in there. One bitter rival (WVa), and another potentially bitter rival (Va Tech) already in-conference. Ticket sales certainly wouldn't suffer.

If C-USA ever splits along north south lines (tough to say what would happen with basketball being a big factor) and if the MWC, Sunbelt, and WAC ever workout some sort of switch/realignment, I think you'd see anew southern mid-major conference. Probably something like this (much of this is based on JFin's suggestions, hopefully I haven't totally misrepresented them)


PLAINS DIVISION
TCU
Tulsa
Rice
SMU
Houston
North Texas or Arkansas St.

DELTA (or Bayou) DIVISION
So Miss
Tulane
Memphis
La Tech
UAB
La Monroe or La Lafayette

Northern teams from C-USA might form their own league, with Louisville and Cincy as their core, maybe bringing in the best of the MAC to form a better regional conference without losing much in talent.

IF the Pac 10 has to expand, they'd have Colorado in their sights. Any chance Colorado would go? Of all the Big 12 schools (and all the BCS schools the Pac 10 has eyeballed) they seem like the best all-around fit. Assuming you also have the Big 10 shopping for another member, how about the following:

Pac 10
North

Washington
Washington St.
Oregon
Oregon St.
Stanford
Cal

South

Colorado
Colorado St.
USC
UCLA
Arizona
Arizona St.

Big 12

North

Air Force
BYU
Kansas
Kansas St.
Nebraska
Utah

South

Texas
Texas A&M
TCU
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.

Big 10 adds Iowa St. and Missouri, PSU leaves to join expanded BE w/ Notre Dame. WAC and MWC merge to form one conference.

The other alternative I could see (if the Pac 10 could deal with the mindset at BYU) is (a better regional fit, and probably more appealing to fans overall):

Pac 10
North

BYU
Washington
Washington St.
Oregon
Oregon St.
Utah

South

Arizona
Arizona St.
Cal
Stanford
UCLA
USC

Big 12
North

Air Force
Colorado
Colorado St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
Nebraska

South

Texas
Texas A&M
TCU (boot Baylor)
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.

Big 10
Great Lakes

Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Illinois
Ohio State

Plains

Indiana
Iowa
Iowa St.
Missouri
Purdue
Wisconsin

Penn State heads to the BE with ND. This seems like the best football arrangement (though the Plains division in the Big 1 could probably be better blanaced, maybe by nutsifing Indiana for Illinois and Purdue for Michigan St.). I don't know what would happen to the ACC, but the SEC, Big 12, Big 10, PAC 10, and BE would all be fairly evenly matched at 12 members, with no one really watered down. The MWC/WAC coulf work something out, as could the remnants of C-USA and the MAC.

Dream conferences and 16 team playoff

Pac 10 stays at 10

Penn State and Notre Dame to BE for 10

Big 10 returns to 10

South Carolina to ACC for 10

Arkansas back to SWC

SEC returns to 10

SWC returns with Arkansas and Texas teams for 10

Big 8 returns and adds Colorado St and another team for 10

Conf USA remains at 10

MWC expands to 10

MAC back to 10

10 BCS conferences with 10 members and 6 at large bids

Playoff replaces useless conference championship games in first round at higher seed teams.

Elite 8 go to the four BCS bowls (Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, Rose)

Final Four and championship game at highest bidding city or cities

Minor Bowls reduced to 16 without conference tie ins providing spots for 32 teams missing playoff. Less than half of 80 divisions 1 schools going to post season is enough.

Is the RPI in BB as complicated as the BCS formula? Would it work for FB? Could a minimum RPI or equalivant be used for bowls or a playoff? BB teams try to schedule tougher teams to help their RPI. A team that won't schedule good opponants does not deserve to get a major bowl bid even if they run the table.

FBfan

The problem with using an RPI for football is when you have a case where teams are required to play by law. (I'm pretty sure Utah and Utah St are required...there was a post a few years ago on another board about the subject that had like 5 or 6 required matchups) I know there are several others, but Clemson and South Carolina are required by state law to play each year in every varsity sport where both schools field teams. In basketball with the number of games one game against your required rival when they suck doesn't hurt as much as it would in football with 11 or 12 games.
Also, basketball tends to set up their schedules in a shorter time frame than football. I know that Clemson already has OOC games set up for 2011 against Auburn and Oklahoma. What happens if both of those schools have a collapse like Oklahoma did during the mid 90's?

Catdaddy2402,
You were making point. BYU scheduled Miss St. in 2001. Miss St. was the 1 good team on BYU's schedule. In 2000 Miss St. was the SEC West champ. In 2001 they were terrible!(and they still almost beat BYU ;) ) SC and Clemson don't have that problem. If Clemson is down, the SEC East WILL provide SC with a top 20 opponant! If BYU wants respect, and a BCS bowl, they need to schedule more than 1 top 30 team a year. By doing a 2 for 1 with 3 major teams every year, they can get their 5th game and be virtually assured that at least 1 of the is good. "To be the man, you must beat the man!"

I understand the frustration of a team wanting to move up into a better conference. I also understand that some teams have ooc scheduling problems. KY has to play UL by law, and has UI as tradition. Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for that 1. ??? :'(

My idea was to try to help by encouraging some BCS teams to upgrade their ooc schedule. They would then go for stronger mid majors, who in turn would be to upgrade.

FBfan

My dream conference would exist if the old Metro Conference would have pulled themselves together for football: Tulane, Memphis, Louisville, South Carolina, Florida State, Virginia Tech, Southern Miss, Cincinnati. WOW, what a conference, especially if they had later expanded to include atleast East Carolina.

So Catdaddy, how many game should be in a college football season to allow for bad SOS (state required or by contract)?


Some pollsters are very knowledgeable people who take this into account. I think that the coaches poll is very much aware of this fact, and they take it into consideration when voting.