A ton of sensible conferences there! Some seem like they could certainly happen still.

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Just wanted to add this from my MAC expansion rant

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How much better could the MAC be with expansion to 16 teams?

Let's say UMass is in? Is it possible Army or Navy could join? Navy no, Army maybe. Army played 3 MAC teams this past year, Easterm Michigan, Kent State and Temple. How about a MAC that looks something like this.

Eastern Division- Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Ohio, Temple, UMASS, ARMY, NAVY
WesternDivision- Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Dayton, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan

Who knows if Navy did not join, maybe Marshall comes back if Conference USA is raided?

Army and Navy are longshots to join but this new MAC would already be better than the Sun Belt and whatever the WAC comes up with. I think it could be pretty close or equal to C-USA.

Pac-14
Cool Division: Washington, Oregon, Cal, UCLA, Arizona, BYU, Colorado
Warm Division: Wash St, Oregon St, Stanford, USC, AZ St, Utah, Nebraska

Big XIV
Northern: Iowa, Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, Oklahoma, OK State
Southern: Texas, TAMU, TTU, TCU, Baylor, LSU, Arkansas

Big Ten
Western: Minnesota, Wisconsin, N'western, Illi, Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame
Eastern: Michigan, Mich State, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Louisville, Kentucky, West Virginia

Eastern Atlantic
North: Penn State, Pitt, Villanova, Syracuse, Rutgers, UConn, Boston Col
South: Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, N Carolina, NCSU, Wake Forest, Duke

SEC
National: Tennessee, Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia, S Carolina, Florida, South Florida
American: Vanderbilt, Miss State, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Clemson, FSU, Miami

Western Mountain
North: Nevada, Idaho, Boise St, Wyoming, Utah St, Colorado St, Air Force
South: UNLV, SDSU, SJSU, Fresno St, Hawaii, New Mexico, NMSU

Sunbelt
North: UTEP, UNT, SMU, Tulsa, Arkansas St, ULM, LA Tech
South: Texas St, UTSA, Houston, Rice, Lamar, ULL, Tulane

MAC
Northern: EMU, WMU, CMU, Toledo, Bowling Green, Akron, Kent St
Southern: NIU, Ball St, Miami-OH, Ohio, WKU, Marshall, Temple

C-USA
North: UMass, Buffalo, Army, Navy, Memphis, MTSU, ECU
South: So. Miss, Troy, UAB, USA, FAU, FIU, UCF

What if the NCAA actually set (and stuck to it) a rule about attendance.

National Conference 80,000+ (14 teams)

Other BCS Conferences 40,000-80,000 (48 teams, 16 x 3)

Non AQ's less than 40,000 (54 teams, 16 x 4)

National Conference

North: Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee
South: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Texas, Texas A&M

BCS Western

North: Air Force, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington
South: Arizona, AZ State, BYU, Cal, USC, Stanford, UCLA, Utah

BCS Northern

West: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa St, Michigan St, Minnesota, Purdue, Wisconsin
East: Kentucky, Louisville, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

BCS Southern

West: Arkansas, Baylor, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Miss State, OK State, TCU, Texas Tech
East: Clemson, ECU, FSU, Miami (FL), North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, USF

Non AQ East
North: Army, Boston Col, Buffalo, UConn, Marshall, Maryland, UMass, Navy
South: Duke, UCF, FAU, FIU, Memphis, MTSU, Vandy, Wake Forest

Non AQ West
North: Boise St, Colorado St, Idaho, Nevada, UNLV, Utah St, Washington St, Wyoming
South: Arkansas St, Fresno St, Hawaii, New Mexico, NMSU, SDSU, SJSU, Tulsa

Non AQ North
North: Ball St, CMU, EMU, NIU, N'western, Temple, Villanova, WMU
South: Akron, Bowling Grn, Cincinnati, Kent St, Miami (OH), Ohio, Toledo, WKU

Non AQ South
East: ULL, ULM, LA Tech, USA, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane, UAB
West: Houston, Lamar, UNT, Rice, SMU, Texas St, UTEP, UTSA

With South Alabama, Texas State, and UTSA already poised to move up and expected to be followed by Lamar, Villanova, and Massachusetts, FBS would be up to 126 teams. That could give us 7 conferences of 18 teams:

Pac-12 adds Texas, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Baylor, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State to become the Pac-18

Mountain West readmits BYU, adds San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho, New Mexico State, UTEP, Rice, and SMU

SEC adds TCU, Houston, Kansas State, East Carolina, West Virginia, and South Florida

Big 10 adds Kansas, Notre Dame, Iowa State, Missouri, Syracuse, Rutgers

ACC adds Villanova, Louisville, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, and Central Florida

Sun Belt adds Ohio, Miami-OH, Kent, Toledo, Bowling Green, Texas State, UTSA, and Lamar

C-USA merges with the MAC and adds Buffalo, Army, Temple, WMU, CMU, EMU, Northern Illinois, Ball State, Navy, Arkron, Louisiana Tech, and Massachusetts

Since my last dream conference, Texas signed their big TV deal so I decided to do a new dream conference for FUN. So here goes. Enjoy.

The ACC merges with the Big East. The Big East gets renamed the ACC Northern Division. The ACC now owns the entire east coast. Boston College and Virginia Tech are reunited with Syracuse, Rutgers, Pitt and West Virginia. Football is upgraded but not nearly enough but wow, the basketball.

ACC NORTH-Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse and UConn
ACC SOUTH-Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest

The BIG TEN finally gets Notre Dame. They do not expand any farther because they do not need to after landing the Irish. Sure 13 is an odd number but hell they played with 11 teams for years and did just fine. Notre Dame gets to play rivals Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and regains rival Penn State.

BIG 10 EAST-Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Notre Dame
BIG 10 WEST-Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

The SEC takes Texas A&M and TCU establishing a huge presence in talent rich Texas.
Texas A&M finally reaches their potential as Texas recruits clamor to play in the best football conference in the land. With SEC teams playing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in south Texas every year, the rich just keeps getting richer. The SEC also takes West Virginia after Virginia Tech’s invite gets squashed by Virginia politics and because this is my dream conference, the SEC invites Missouri bringing them the St. Louis and Kansas City markets. Now if I wasn’t dreaming enough, Alabama and Auburn go to different divisions with the guarantee they still play each other every year.

SEC EAST-Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and West Virginia
SEC WEST-Alabama, Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Missouri, TCU and Texas A&M

Now there’s quality programming to sell to the networks. SHE-yoot!

With all this crazy expansion going on, the PAC 12 goes after the BIG XII again. The Longhorns turn down the PAC’s offer once again after ESPN gives them an extra 20 million to broadcast all Longhorn home football games. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State decide it is in their best interest to leave the Horns and joins the PAC. The Tech problem gets resolved when the PAC decides it wants access to Texas and the Kansas Jayhawks breath a sigh of relief as the get the 4rth bid. The PAC 12 changes their name to the Pacific West Conference. The West division reunites several members of the old Big 8 conference. The Pacific Division is the old Pac 8.

WEST-Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech
PACIFIC-California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State

Texas keeps the Big XII together by adding 5 additional Texas teams. Baylor also stays.
The Big XII changes it’s name to the Don’t Mess With Texas Conference. The Don’t Mess with Texas Conference then changes it’s name to the Southwest Conference after a desperate Louisiana Tech decides anyting is better than the WAC and concedes their share of TV revenue to the University of Texas. Texas plays 7 conference games and non- conference games with Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and a natiohnal opponent. The Red River rivalry continues to be played in Dallas. The Longhorns play no less than 10 games a year in the Lone Star state.

The new SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE-Texas, Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Rice,
SMU, UTEP and Louisiana Tech

The Mountain West is ecstatic to grab the Big XII leftovers. They also grab Big East leftovers Louisville and Cincinnati along with the Memphis of C-USA. BYU begs to come back. Here's the new Mountain West.

MWC EAST-Air Force, Colorado State, Wyoming, Kansas State, Iowa State, Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis
MWC WEST-Boise State, Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, San Diego State and BYU

Conference USA desperately adds the top Sun Belt Programs and FCS schools, Appalachian State and Georgia State. This is also where South Florida ends up. Boy did they get screwed.

C-USA EAST-Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, South Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Appalachian State and Georgia State
C-USA WEST-UAB, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa, Arkansas State, Middle Tennessee, Troy and Western Kentucky

The MAC passes the WAC on the conference pecking order. I would love to see Army and Navy join the MAC but decide to leave them independents. The MAC does get 3 FCS upgrades. The new MAC looks like this.

MAC EAST-Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Ohio, Temple, UMass (Quinn’s happy), Delaware and James Madison
MAC WEST-Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan

Now, the mess known as the WAC. The new WAC operates as two separate 8 team leagues under the direction of one conference commissioner. The Western and Eastern divisions do not play each other to save money with the exception of the championship game.

WAC EAST-New Mexico State, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Louisiana (Lafayette), Louisiana-Monroe, Lamar, Stephen F Austin and Texas-Arlington
WAC WEST-Idaho, San Jose State, Utah State, Montana, Montana State, Sacramento State UC-Davis, UC-Poly

There it is. Hope you enjoyed and had a good laugh along the way.

Minimal moves to go to a standard 12-team set-up:
ACC, SEC, BIG TEN, PAC12 as is.

Big XII - add BYU and TCU. Both would play in South with Texas, A&M, Tech and Baylor.

Big East - add UMass, Temple, Notre Dam (OK - this is a "dream conference") and UCF as full members.
North - UMass, UConn, Syracuse, Rutgers, Temple, Notre Dame
South - Pitt, WVU, Cincinnati, Louisville, UCF, USF

MWC - Add SJSU and Utah State
West - Hawaii (FB only), SDSU, Fresno St., SJSU, UNR, UNLV
Mountain - Boise St., Utah, St., Wyoming, Colorado St., Air Force, New Mexico

MAC - as is (no Temple or UMass)

CUSA (minus UCF and UTEP) / Sun-Belt (plus some FCS schools) re-align
CUSA (Southwest) - Tulsa, SMU, Rice, North Texas, Houston, Arkansas St.
CUSA (Southeast) - Tulane, LaTech, ULaLa, Memphis, Southern Miss, UAB
SunBelt (South) - FAU, FIU, Troy, USA, Jacksonville St., ULaMonroe
SunBelt (North) - Marshall, ECU, UNCCharlotte, Appalachian St., West. Ky., Middle Tenn.


WAC - (minus SJSU and Utah St.) add Seattle, UVU, Lamar, UCD, Sacramento St., Cal Poly
That's 9 for FB + 3 non-FB

Summit / MVFC -
MVFC adds North Dakota and UNO
Summit adds North Dakota, UNO and UALR

CAA FB (keeps Villanova, loses UMass, Rhode Island, Hofstra, and Northeastern) - adds Fordham, Stony Brook for 12
MIAA - loses UNO, grabs Chadron St. from RMAC to stay at 16

RMAC - adds Black Hills, SD mines, Colorado College, and ENMU to get to 16

Southland - adds Texas Pan-Am and Houston Baptist others from Lonestar as needed.

Big West- Adds CSUB and UCSD.

My dream conferences forming over the next 10-20 years:

2011:
Villanova accepts the Big East's offer and football team moves up beginning in 2013 season. The Big East decides 10 football schools is good for now, does not invite Central Florida.
Lamar joins former Southland Conference foes Texas State and UTSA and accepts WAC invite, giving the WAC 8 football playing members.
UMass accepts MAC offer to upgrade and play as a football only member in that conference.
Big 12 announces name change to the Heartland Conference since they no longer have 12 members.
The Big 10 nearly changes its name to the Midwestern Conference, but decides to stick with the worst named divisions in the worst name conference.

2013:
The WAC continues to grow with FCS members, with Cal-Davis and Cal-Poly moving up to FBS.
Fearing a split of the Big East, the University of Texas convinces Notre Dame to join the Big 12 in all sports except football, where they remain an independent.
South Alabama finishes their upgrade to FBS, and becomes a full member of the Sun Belt conference.

2014:
Appalachian State and Delaware decide to upgrade to FBS and receive Sun Belt invites.

2016:
The Big East football teams split from the basketball teams. They consider inviting additional members to get to 12 schools, but South Florida refuses to let Central Florida in. This causes the remaining 9 members to all decide at the last minute to leave the state of Florida and not let South Florida in to their new conference. Georgetown is invited to upgrade their football program and moves with the football schools instead.

In a stunning move, the new conference convinces Boston College to rejoin and then brings in Temple as a full member to be the 12th program.

2017:
The BCS now mandates that a conference must have at least 12 members to receive an automatic qualification for their conference champ, as now 5 of the 6 conferences have that.
The Heartland Conference (Formerly the Big 12) turns everyones head by convincing Arkansas to leave the SEC, rejoining past Southwest Conference members, and being able to play the much closer Oklahoma and Missouri teams.
The Heartland then considers inviting BYU as a football only member, but after Notre Dame realizes there is no special clause for them in the new BCS, they become full members of the Heartland.
The SEC considers inviting A&M, but the Texas Legislature destroys any hopes of the Aggies leaving the other Texas schools. Instead they invite TCU, which had become the best team in the Big East, and has nearly 2 decades of dominant play.
South Florida begs to be re-invited to the new Big East to replace TCU, but instead the ACC picks them up and the Big East invites UMass to become the 12 member.
The Mountain West then invites UTEP, which had been a solid 6-8 win team over the past 5 years and gets BYU to rejoin as a full member, giving that conference 12 teams as well.

2018:
Conference USA considers several Sun Belt and MAC schools to replace UTEP, but after a large donation by Terry Bradshaw, Louisiana Tech is finally able to leave the WAC for a much more geographically fitting C-USA
Montana and Montana State decide to upgrade to FBS and will begin play in the WAC in 2020.
Georgia State and Georgia Southern also announce plans to upgrade and will begin play in the Sun Belt in 2020.

2020-2030:
Several schools upgrade from FCS to FBS, joining the Sun Belt and WAC conferences, and eventually a new Southland Conference forms from the Texas based WAC schools and the Western most Sun Belt Schools.

Big 10

no change after adding Nebraska

ACC
Adds South Florida, loses Boston College

SEC
Adds TCU in the West, loses Arkansas

Pac 12
no change since adding Colorado and Utah

New Big East
___Big____________East
Cincinatti__________Boston College
Georgetown________Connecticut
Louisville__________Massachusetts
Pitt_______________Rutgers
Syracuse__________Temple
West Virginia_______Villanova

Heartland
North adds Arkansas and Notre Dame, replacing the departed Nebraska and Colorado. South division reforms as in Big 12.

Mountain West
___Mountain_______West
Air Force__________Boise St
BYU______________Fresno St
Colorado St_______Hawaii
New Mexico_______Nevada
UTEP____________San Diego St
Wyoming_________UNLV

CUSA
La Tech replaces UTEP

MAC
Loses only Temple (briefly has UMass)

WAC
___Western________Athletic
Idaho_____________Cal - Davis
Montana__________Cal - Poly
Montana St________Northern Arizona
Utah St___________New Mexico St
Portland St________Sacramento St
Weber St__________San Jose St

Southland
UT-San Antonio
Texas St
North Texas
UT-Arlington
Stephen F Austin
Sam Houston State
Lamar
Arkansas State
LA-Monroe
LA-Lafayette
South Alabama

Sun Belt
___Sun__________Belt
Florida A&M______Appalachian St
Florida Atl._______Delaware
Florida Int._______James Madison
Georgia So.______Mid Tenn St
Georgia St_______Old Dominion
Troy____________Western Kentucky

Army and Navy remain Independent.
One more FCS school upgrades in either the WAC (move New Mexico St to Southland) or Southland Conference, giving all conferences 12 members.

If anyone would like a google earth file with all the teams in my dream conferences above just pm me and I'll send it to. Lots of fun moving the different schools to new conferences and actually be able to see the geographical layout.



Edit: I'll need your e-mail address as the attach file feature in the pm system will not accept .kmz files.

Split into conference groups 3 BCS (get 2 AQs each), 3 minor BCS (1 AQ each conf champ) and 3 Non AQs (1 between the 3)

BCS (2 AQ)

Big Ten
West: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, MSU, Notre Dame, Ohio St, Wisconsin
East: Louisville, UNC, NCSU, PSU, Pitt, VA Tech, West Virginia

PAC
West: Arizona, BYU, Cal, Oregon, USC, UCLA, Washington
East: Mizzou, Nebraska, Oklahoma, OK State, Texas, Texas A&M, Tex Tech

SEC
West: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, UK, LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State
East: Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, UMiami, S Carolina, Tennessee

Minor BCS (1 AQ)

Big East
West: Cincinnati, Indiana, Iowa St, Minnesota, N'western, Purdue, Syracuse
East: Army, Boston Col, UConn, Maryland, Navy, Rutgers, Virginia

Big XIV
West: AZ State, Fresno St, Hawaii, Oregon St, SDSU, Stanford, Washington State
East: AFA, Baylor, Boise St, Colorado, TCU, Utah, UTEP

ACC
West: Houston, Kansas, Kansas St, Memphis, Rice, So Miss, Vanderbilt
East: Duke, ECU, GA Tech, Marshall, USF, UCF, Wake Forest

Non AQ

CUSA
West: Arkansas St, ULL, ULM, LA Tech, USA, Tulane, Tulsa
East: FIU, FAU, MTSU, Troy, UAB, Villanova, WKU

MWC
West: Colorado St, Idaho, Nevada, SJSU, UNLV, Utah St, Wyoming
East: Lamar, UNM, NMSU, UNT, SMU, Texas State, UTSA

MAC
West: Ball St, Bowling Grn, CMU, EMU, NIU, Toledo, WMU
East: Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Miami (OH), Ohio, Temple, UMass

Here's a dream conference from Stewart Mandel

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... itter_feed

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This is definitely a dream conference scenario but it also incorporates several different ideas I've seen mentioned on this site that I'm rolling into one idea. First, we talk a lot about a Big East split but for the most part everyone seems to assume that the football schools will form an all sport conference and the basketball schools form a non football conference. What I've never seen suggested is the basketball schools forming a new hybrid conference.

Since the basketball schools will never leave, the football schools will have to split off. Notre Dame and Georgetown are likely headed to the Big East along with UCF, Houston and a third school (let's say Memphis). That's a 12/14 conference which is a solid lineup.

Since the football schools split off to form a new conference (we'll call it the Metro Conference), as far as I know the Big East would be in a similar position as the WAC (just with a heck of a lot more spots to fill). The Big East would be exactly what FCS Eastern schools looking to upgrade need. Look no further than UMass's upgrade. They are playing schools in the midwest because there is no regional conference for them to be invited to.

Assuming Nova stays with the basketball schools this doesn't seem to be an impossible task. Right away we can count on Temple and UMass. From there the Big East could grab CAA schools that are likely to upgrade now that there is a more regional conference and room for them. This would likely include James Madison, William & Mary, Delaware, Old Dominion, Charlotte, and even New Hampshire. I wouldn't be shocked if ECU could be lured from C-USA.

With other private non football schools available as well, I don't think it's difficult to imagine the conference recreating something very similar to the current Big East with a 9/16 split.

Big East Football
Richmond, Temple, UMass, Charlotte, William & Mary, James Madison, Old Dominion, Delaware, Villanova

Big East Basketball
Marquette, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence, DePaul, Xavier

I left it at 15 because I don't know whether to count Delaware as a private school or public, but this makes an 8/7 split between private and public so the last school in can just be the opposite of what we count Delaware as.

Metro
North- Cinci, Pitt, WVU, Rutgers, UConn, Cuse, (ND)
South- Lou, USF, UCF, TCU, Mem, Hou, (G'Town)

Simple enough, pretty much how everyone envisions it except for Memphis perhaps.


I know quite a few people have mentioned the need for a new FBS East conference which makes perfect sense, every other region has a BCS conference AND a non BCS conference. The new rules in place that are helping the WAC now should be used if a split does occur.

BCS conferences have to take all AQ's in a state or leave the state to another conference.

SEC therefore have to take Louisville, GA Tech, Clemson, FSU, Miami and USF

SEC National: Arkansas, Bama, Ole Miss, UGA, S Carolina, Tennessee, UK, UF, USF
SEC American: LSU, Auburn, Miss State, GA Tech, Clemson, Vandy, Louisville, FSU, UMiami

Big Ten add Iowa State, Notre Dame, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh

B10 WIN: Wisconsin, Illi, Indiana, Iowa, ISU, N'western, UND, Nebraska
B10 COMP: Cincy, OSU, Michigan, MSU, Minnesota, Penn State, Pitt, Purdue

PAC stays the same but changes alignment

PAC Cool: Washington, Oregon, Cal, UCLA, Arizona, Colorado
PAC Warm: WSU, OSU, Stanford, USC, ASU, Utah

Big XII has lost ISU and gets TCU

BXII: Texas, TAMU, TTU, TCU, Baylor, Oklahoma, OSU, Kansas, KSU, Mizzou

ACC is left with UNC, NCSU, WF, Duke, UVA, VA Tech, UMD and BC
Big East has UConn, Syracuse, Rutgers and UWV
So we have a new Atlantic East Conference (AEC)

AEC Atlantic: UNC, NCSU, WF, Duke, UVA, UMD
AEC Eastern: BC, UConn, Syracuse, Rutgers, UWV, VA Tech