Greetings all.

We're getting ready to add a new poll to the homepage. I thought that for this one, we'd let you users decide what the options are.

The question is simple:

What Conference Realignment or Expansion option do you think is most important for the future of college football?

It's very general, I know. But the quesiton is to see what the fans see as the most important move that they think must happen.


So in this thread, just include some relaignment or expansion options that you think hold this importance.

Examples: Big Ten should expand to 12, Pac-10 should expand to 12, All D-1 teams (formerly I-A and I-AA) should be combined into the same level with either a bowl system or a playoff...just a few ideas.

Enjoy!

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I suppose all of realingment junkies see two major criteria:

1) Setting up a National Championship structure where every team has to jump through the same hurdles, and

2) Some respect for Geography.

Item 1) may dictate now that we go with 12-team 2-division conferences across the board (I really prefer the 10-team, 9-game round-robin model that the PAC-10 now has, but I can't see us going backward).

Item 2) suggests doing something about geographical out-liers like BC, South Florida, Louisiana Tech, UTEP, TCU, Hawaii. Some movement here is possible as larger conferences expand to 12, and we get a cascade effect. However BC and South Florida are probably already in their final resting place.

So-

ACC, SEC, Big12, - no change


Big Ten gets ND. Not sure Notre Dame will ever want to give up its independence but if being in a conference vs. being an at-large was so much more advantageous, who knows ?

Big East adds: Central Florida, East Carolina, Memphis, and another team such as Marshall or UMass, or a team from the MAC.

PAC-10 becomes PAC-12 by adding: 2 of Utah, BYU, UNLV, SDSt., Hawaii - whoever - I won't debate who, since there are negatives for all the candidate schools.

Mountain West goes to 12 (after losing probably 2 to PAC-12) by adding 5 teams: UTEP, Fresno St., Boise State, Nevada-Reno, and Hawaii.

CUSA (having lost 3 to the Big East and UTEP to the Mountain West) adds La. Tech, North Texas, and two other schools from the MAC, Sun-Belt, or Southland (1-AA).

The WAC is rather decimated, they talk some sort of merger with the Big Sky and debate whether 1-A or 1-AA is more viable.

If the MAC loses teams, they look at restocking by addition of: Army / Navy, Youngstown State (1-AA), making Temple permanaent, WKU, Middle Tennessee (or a team like Illinois State from the MVC / Gateway).

The Sun-Belt - who knows....

I think the best would be a 16-team playoff, with some automatic berths, a few at-larges (that are prioritized to go to a lesser conference champions, if they have a minimum number of 1-A wins, or some other criteria so that a stinky team doesn't pollute the playoff).

Hmmm... Poll options?

Where's one of those evil smileys? ;D

• Promotion and Relegation


• Drop All non-BCS schools to 1-AA


• Require conferences to have full round-robin football scheduling


• Decide conference affiliations by Rock/Paper/Scissors

Well, half of those are serious.

As Dave Barry would say: "I am not making this up..."

There is actually an international Rock / Paper / Scissors (RPS) Society, and they are making the rounds of the various Science Centers in major US metropolitan areas.

This frightens me a bit, that people could find "RPS" amusing for more than a few minutes...
However, anytime anyone suggests that we sports junkies need to "get a life", we can point at them !

Pounder -
I like your idea of a manditory round-robin. If your conference can't accomodate playing every other team, then it is just TOO BIG.
I dislike the 12-team 2-division format, since (although there is a round robin within each division), a division champ may have to play a championship game against a lesser opponent that it already beat in the regular season.

Right now, the Sun-Belt plays at more of a 1-AA level, than a BCS conference level. I'll cut MWC / CUSA / WAC / MAC a bit of slack, since their talent level is deeper, and they have produced some very fine teams over the last decade (Marshall, Tulane, Utah, Boise State... some others) that are worthy of having a shot in a championship tournament. But clearly 1-A could be culled of 10-15 schools that are "out of their league" in 1-A.

You're trying to answer my answers.

I believe Quinn was asking for "answers to poll questions" with this post.

Pro/Rel has been discussed here before. I like the idea, therefore it will never happen, so I take it semi-seriously as a poll answer.

I believe a LOT of casual fans would vote yes on dropping the mid-majors. Mind you, those casual fans would never find their way to this board.

I can certainly cause some controversy by wording the "full round-robin scheduling" requirement instead of banning 11+ team conferences. I amaze myself for being such a nice guy thinking up stuff as devious as that. In reality, it's one of the best self-help exercises these conferences could muster... except for the Big 12, which seems to have enough patsies that it makes the second team in the hot division look really good.

Texas Hold 'Em or RPS? Difference? Well, there is a visceral thrill in watching Phil Hellmuth get battered around by amateurs who always go "all-in" on the guy. :D

How about a 32-team playoff format for most I-A and I-AA teams and the tops 8 will compete for the 4 major bowls of the BCS in this type of style:

8 teams:

1) Texas vs. 8) Notre Dame
2) USC vs. 7) Florida State
3) Penn State vs. 6) Georgia
4) West Virginia vs. 5) Ohio State

*The winners of the QuarterFinals will be in the SemiFinals for the best BCS Bowl.
*The losers of the QuarterFinals will be in the Losers' Bracket SemiFinals for the 3rd-best BCS Bowl.

*The winners of the Losers' Bracket SemiFinals will be in the 3rd-best BCS Bowl.
*The losers of the Losers' Bracket SemiFinals will be in the 4th-best BCS Bowl.

*The winners of the SemiFinals will be in the Finals.
*The losers of the SemiFinals will be in the 2nd-best BCS Bowl.

The Finals will be the "host" bowl for the NCAA Division I Football National Championship.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

The only change that I would like to see (because a playoff will never happen) would be that all teams in the top 10 who are undefeated had a chance to play for a title. If you lose once, you can't kvetch.

This would involve having mini playoff contigency plans for 3-10 undefeated teams. It could be done and in my opinion, should be done.