I was playing around with some realignment thoughts the other day, and I decided to humor the concept of Relegation and Promotion. It's a pretty standard system worldwide and I think it could really work wonders in college sports!

The biggest hurdle, in my opinion, would be the separation of Basketball and Football. Some sports, like Hockey, already have their own conferences, and quite a few nonFBS programs already play in separate football/basketball conferences, so it wouldn't be a huge stretch.

For Basketball, there are 32 conferences, including independents. I decided to group them into four tiers, 8 conferences each. The top teams in each tier would be promoted to the next tier during the off season, and the bottom teams would be relegated to the next lower tier.

Since this would be done on a year by year basis, even if a storied program struggles one year (like Indiana this year) they would have the opportunity to jump back in the saddle if they are successful the next year. The same thing would go for a team like Drake, that might have one great year, but then falls back into obscurity... they would more than likely get relegated the next year.

Ultimately, the goal would be for the best teams to eventually all land in T1 conferences, with each tier stepping down in talent. This would create competitive basketball on all levels, rather than having teams like DePaul getting walked on year in and year out, and teams like Gonzaga or Memphis steamrolling their conferences on an annual basis.

With a relegation/promotion system, it'd work like this (I am using realtimepri.com's team/conference power rankings.)

T1 Conferences: ACC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East, SEC, Pac 10, Mountain West, Missouri Valley.
T2 Conferences: Atlantic 10, Conference USA, WAC, Horizon, MAAC, CAA, WCC, AEC
T3 Conferences: Sen Belt, Big West, Southern, Patriot, Southland, MAC, OVC, Big Sky
T4 Conferences: A-Sun, NEC, Big South, Summit, Ivy League, MEC, SWAC, Independents.

I'll promote/relegate the top/bottom 16 teams in each tier.

T1 -
Demoted to T2 - Airforce, Indiana, Colorado, Depaul, Colorado State, Indiana State, Iowa, South Florida, Oregon, Missouri State, Rutgers, Georgia, Oregon State, Southern Illinois, TCU, and Georgia Tech.
Promoted from T2 - Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier, Utah State, Butler, Siena, Dayton, St. Mary's, Niagara, Temple, VCU, Tulsa, Cleveland State, Rhode Island, George Mason, and UAB

T2 -
Demoted from T1 - Airforce, Indiana, Colorado, Depaul, Colorado State, Indiana State, Iowa, South Florida, Oregon, Missouri State, Rutgers, Georgia, Oregon State, Southern Illinois, TCU, and Georgia Tech.
Promoted to T1 - Memphis, Gonzaga, Xavier, Utah State, Butler, Siena, Dayton, St. Mary's, Niagara, Temple, VCU, Tulsa, Cleveland State, Rhode Island, George Mason, and UAB
Demoted to T3 - Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Fordham, Hartford, Detroit, Maine, NC Wilmington, Valparaiso, San Francisco, Southern Methodist, Marist, Youngstown State, Georgia State, St. Peter's, William & Mary, and Rice.
Promoted from T3 - Davidson, Western Kentucky, American, Arkansas Little Rock, Charleston, Stephen F Austin, Buffalo, Weber State, Akron, Portland State, Miami (OH), North Texas, Tennessee Martin, South Alabama, Troy, and Navy.

T3 -
Demoted from T2 - Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, Fordham, Hartford, Detroit, Maine, NC Wilmington, Valparaiso, San Francisco, Southern Methodist, Marist, Youngstown State, Georgia State, St. Peter's, William & Mary, and Rice.
Promoted to T2 - Davidson, Western Kentucky, American, Arkansas Little Rock, Charleston, Stephen F Austin, Buffalo, Weber State, Akron, Portland State, Miami (OH), North Texas, Tennessee Martin, South Alabama, Troy, and Navy.
Demoted to T4 - Sacramento State, SE Missouri State, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Florida Atlantic, Central Arkansas, Northwestern State, Northern Illinois, Louisiana Lafayette, Cal Poly, Northern Arizona, Bucknell, NcNeese State, Western Michigan, Colgate, and Louisisana Monroe.
Promoted from T4 - North Dakota State, Robert Morris, VMI, E. Tennesse State, Cornell, Morgan State, Belmont, Mount St. Mary's, Radford, Oakland, Liberty, Jacksonville, Alabama State, Oral Roberts, Sacred Heart, Mercer

T4 -
Demoted from T3 - Sacramento State, SE Missouri State, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Florida Atlantic, Central Arkansas, Northwestern State, Northern Illinois, Louisiana Lafayette, Cal Poly, Northern Arizona, Bucknell, NcNeese State, Western Michigan, Colgate, and Louisisana Monroe.
Promoted to T3 - North Dakota State, Robert Morris, VMI, E. Tennesse State, Cornell, Morgan State, Belmont, Mount St. Mary's, Radford, Oakland, Liberty, Jacksonville, Alabama State, Oral Roberts, Sacred Heart, Mercer
Demoted to D2 - NJIT, NC Central, Winston-Salem, Maryland Eastern Shore, Kennesaw State, Houston Baptist, High Point, St. Francis (PA), Western Illinois, Texas Pan American, North Florida, Charleston Southern, Farleigh Dickinson, Howard, Missouri Kansas City, Monmouth
Promoted from D2 - Findlay, C.W. Post, BYU-Hawaii, Augusta State, Gannon, Central Missouri, Southwest Baptist, Metropolitan State, Northern Kentucky, Claflin, Florida Southern, Southwest Minnesota, Central Oklahoma, Benedict, Cristian Brothers, and USC Aiken.



Again, Football and Basketball would have to separate themselves (which in my opinion, should be done anyway to create better competition... it's tragic that teams like Indiana bring down the conference football strength for the sake of having a traditionally great hoops program, or teams like Iowa that are great in football, but lower the conference basketball strength.)

Here is how it would look for football

T1 conferences: Big 12, SEC, Big East, ACC, Big 10, Pac 10
T2 conferences: MWC, WAC, CUSA, MAC, Independent, Sun Belt

T1 -
Demoted to T2 - Washington, Washington State, Iowa State, Indiana, Michigan, Syracuse
Promoted from T2 - Utah, TCU, Boise State, BYU, Tulsa, Rice

T2 -
Demoted from T1 - Washington, Washington State, Iowa State, Indiana, Michigan, Syracuse
Promoted to T1 - Utah, TCU, Boise State, BYU, Tulsa, Rice
Demoted to FCS - North Texas, Idaho, Miami (OH), SMU, Tulane, Western Kentucky
Promoted from FCS - James Madison, Richmond, Montana, Villanova, Appalachian State, Northern Iowa.


With the lack of a football playoff, this would really make things legit. Teams from nonBCS conferences would have the chance to join the big boys, and BCS bottom feeders would get their BCS welfare checks ripped out of their hands. For football and basketball alike, it would allow the money to go to the teams that deserve it.