I'm trying to keep the dream MWC realistic. Aside from adding Oklahoma, Texas, and U$C, there aren't many sexy options for expansion or contraction. So...

The key to MWC expansion is to have pairs of rivals. The hustle-bustle of last fall helped with this goal, when MWC invited Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada Reno, and Hawaii. With the addition of 3 more teams, and the departure of a 4th, the MWC will be a terrific rivalry-driven, market-driven conference.

The new MWC will cover 3 distinct regions: pacific coast, intermountain west, and southern plains. This complicates divisions based simply on geography. Forget georgraphy, I say. Base the divisions on rivalries. The MWC covers so much area that geographic divisions won't help much. Use the 3 regions as a strength rather than a weakness.

Invite UTEP, SMU, and Houston, based on the following:
UTEP: history with majority of MWC; great regional fit; UTEP loves playing in Dallas & Houston
SMU: stronger league than C-USA; SMU can grow to compete more equally with TCU
Houston: stronger league than C-USA; growing rivalries with some MWC teams

the rivalries (divisions):
Colorado State - Wyoming
UTEP - New Mexico
San Diego State - Fresno State
Nevada Las Vegas - Nevada Reno
Houston - Southern Methodist
Air Force - Boise State

(What about Hawaii? Keep reading...)

These are all existing rivalries, with the exception of AF-BSU:
- AF doesn't have a true rival in the MWC. They need to play CSU & Wyo each year, but I don't think they lose sleep before or after games with these schools. Their true rivals are Army and Navy.
- Boise State doesn't have a true rival in the MWC. Their historic rival is Idaho, and there's absolutely no way in hell Idaho will be invited to the MWC.

Besides, I think AF-BSU will grow into a happy ball of nastiness after just a couple of games.

Now for the scheduling part. The MWC goes to a 9-game conference schedule. There are legitimate issues against a 9-game conf schedule. This is my dream conference and my rules!

Every school has an end-of-year rival and secondary rival. These two schools are from the opposite division:
AFA: BSU, UW
BSU: AFA, CSU
CSU: UW, BSU
UW: CSU, AFA

FSU: SDSU, UNLV
SDSU: FSU, UNR
UNLV: UNR, FSU
UNR: UNLV, SDSU

SMU: UH, UTEP
UH: SMU, UNM
UNM: UTEP, UH
UTEP: UNM, SMU

After each school plays their primary and secondary rivals and their division schools, that school will have played every school in its region and 4 of the 6 schools in the other division. Rotate the non-region, non-division schools each year. Four years to play every school home & away.

CSU's annual conference schedule Would look like:
division:
AFA
SDSU
UH
UNLV
UTEP

secondary rival:
BSU

1 from west division:
FSU
UNR

1 from south divison:
SMU
UNM

end-of-year rival:
Wyo

The reason for a rivalry-centric & regional-centric conference is to boost interest at the local level and make the league as strong as possible. Recognizable and meaningful games for locals & alumni. Plus, each and every school would have annual trips to the talent-rich states of California and Texas.

Now. Back to Hawaii...
Hawaii is currently a football-only school in the MWC, and they're one of the few schools that can pull off independence. Hold on, Warrior fans, don't start screaming. Hawaii is not currently included in the television package with the other MWC schools. They have their own broadcast rights in Hawaii -- the only MWC school allowed to do so. Independence can make sense for the Warriors:
- Hawaii has history with all teams in this new MWC, except for SMU and Houston. (I don't count SMU's brief stay in the WAC as a strong history with Hawaii.)
- Hawaii enters a scheduling agreement with 9 of the 12 MWC schools, much the same way NoaterDaim is supposed to have with the bigEast.
- I'm excluding AFA from the Hawaii scheduling pact because the Falcons have 2 OOC games scheduled every year (Army, Navy), leaving them only 1 OOC for, traditionally, the parents day weekend. Besides, it's easier to wrangle the Hawaii-MWC schedule with 9 teams instead of 10.
- Hawaii will play 6 MWC schools each year -- 3 on the island, 3 on the road. The 9 MWC schools rotate on a 3-year plan: at Hawaii, vs Hawaii, no game.
- Hawaii's annual schedule includes 6 MWC games, yBu, and five others. Not so different from a conference schedule. Hell, the 5 other games could be on the island.
- MWC teams are willing to play Hawaii during the conference schedule, unlike every other conference. Much easier to have this setup as an independent.

The Mountain West Conference will be a great conference as is, even with the departures of Utah & TCU. yBu left in a huff, and in doing so told the remaining MWC schools, 'you're not good enough'. For that reason, they're excluded from expansion scenarios.

I was fanatical about the MWC receiving a BCS bid when Utah, BYU, and TCU were part of the conference and felt they should have quickly invited Boise State, Nevada, and Fresno State to get to 12 teams for a conference championship game. Now that they are close to acquiring a BCS bid but it's doubtful they will be able to maintain it with only Boise St being the main school that has made a BCS bowl recently.

Here's my dream Mountain West conference given everything that has/will happened/happen (and taking into consideration that they keep a BCS status)

East
Air Force
Houston
Southern Methodist (SMU)
Southern Miss
TCU
Tulsa

West
Boise State
BYU
Colorado State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Nevada

Of course this doesn't compare to my absolute dream MWC conference with Utah and the best of the western half of C-USA and the WAC.

I almost posted this under the normal expansion/split forum but decided since the chances of this actually happening are none...I'd post it here. I'm an ACC fan but am very interested in the Big East split/expansion. What I'd like to see happen is that WVU, Pitt and Syracuse split off from the BE and join the ACC. They'd need a 4th member but I'm undecided on who should it be. I'm ruling out Louisville and Cincy based on geography. That leaves UConn, Rutgers and USF. Each would have its benefits but I'd go with UConn. So the new ACC would be

North South
BC UNC
UConn Duke
Syracuse NC St
Pitt Wake
WVU Clemson
UMD GT
UVA Fl St
VT Miami

Basketball would be AMAZING and football would be improved also. The problem is that it would almost make too much sense. We'd skip a few years ahead and go to the super conferences now. All it would take is a little chat between WVU and the other schools and also then talking to the ACC...so simple and yet it seems so imposible.

ncaabbs, we did a conference draft w/ the 6 BCS conferences. no boundaries. I still kept mine Big Eastish. Frank the Tank thought mine was the best.
Draft order starts on the left column and goes down and S curves back up. So I had pick 1 but didn't pick again until pick 12 & 13.


Left Out
Rutgers , Wake Forest , Northwestern , Vanderbilt , Iowa St., Baylor, Washington St.

_________________

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'08 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPS

We will be doing an Regional Rival Anchor draft next. I got the Pac 12. Anchored by USC/UCLA rivalry. We will probably do 4 or 6 Super Conf. of 16 and 11, 12 team conferences.

_________________

WRANGLERS 153-55-1 CVFL CHAMPS '04 '05 '09 '12

NFL CHAMPS '29 '30 '31 '36 '39 '44 '61 '62 '65 '66 '67 '96 '10

BW/WAC/MWC CHAMPS '77 '82 '85 '88 '89 '91 '92 '93 '99 '12
'08 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPS

I'm a big fan of conference drafts. They're always a ton of fun to do.

Dream conference: I actually like things pretty much the way they are; with a few exceptions.

Pac-12: stays the same

Big10: stays the same

ACC: stays the same

Now here's where it gets interesting:

Big East:
adds- Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida (idea I recently heard on radio driving through Tennessee; and one which I kind of like), Villanova
loses- TCU

North Division
UConn
Cinci
Pitt
Syracuse
Rutgers
Villanova

South Division
Louisville
USF
West Virgina
Vanderbilt
Kentucky
Florida


SEC:
adds- Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri
loses- Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Forida

Division A
Auburn
Alabama
Georgia
Mississippi State
South Carolina
Ole Miss

Division B
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Missouri
Arkansas
LSU
Tennessee


Big12:
adds- Houston, Rice, SMU, Boise State, TCU
loses- Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri

South Division
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Baylor
Houston
Rice

North Division
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Boise State
TCU
SMU


-- AQ conferences now have 12 teams and a conference championship game.
-- There are no more relevant non-AQ's (Boise St., TCU, Utah. Did BYU gain AQ status by going independent?);

The latest greatest from the evil dream world of seanbo, HA HA HA (slightly different from Super League)


The Big 10--Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, NOTRE DAME, RUTGERS along with Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin, MISSOURI, KANSAS

The SEC--Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt with Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, OKLAHOMA, Oklahoma State, TCU, TEXAS A&M

The PAC West--Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, Southern Cal, Washington, Wazzu with Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, Zona, TEXAS, TEXAS TECH, KANSAS STATE, BOISE STATE

The ACC--Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Wake, with Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, UCONN, PITT, SYRACUSE, WVU

Mountain West)--Air Force, Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada, UNLV, San Diego State, Wyoming, BRIGHAM YOUNG with Colorado State, New Mexico, BAYLOR, IOWA STATE, HOUSTON, SMU, TULSA, UTEP

BIG EAST/CUSA--UCF, EAST CAROLINA, Marshall, CINCINNATI, USF, TEMPLE, ARMY, NAVY AND Alabama-Birmingham, Memphis, Southern Miss, Rice, Tulane, LOUISVILLE, LOUISIANA TECH, NORTH TEXAS

WAC--Idaho, San Jose State, Utah State, MONTANA, MONTANA STATE, CAL-POLY, UC-DAVIS, SACRAMENTO STATE with New Mexico State, Texas State, UT-San Antonio, UT-Arlington (adds football), ARKANSAS STATE, LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE, LOUISIANA-MONROE, LAMAR

SUN BELT--Middle Tennessee, South Alabama, Troy, Western Kentucky, JACKSONVILLE STATE, NORTH ALABAMA along with Florida Atlantic, Florida International, APPALACHIAN STATE, CHARLOTTE, GEORGIA STATE, JAMES MADISON

THE MAC--Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan with Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Ohio, UMass, DELAWARE, OLD DOMINION, YOUNGSTOWN STATE

16-team leagues...

Automatic Qualifiers.

PAC-16: Arizona, Arizona St., Cal, Oregon, Oregon St., Washington, Washington St., USC, UCLA, Stanford, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St.

SEC-16: Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi St., Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana St., Texas A&M, Clemson, Florida St., Miami

ACC-16: Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, North Carolina St., Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Boston College, West Virginia, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, Connecticut, Army, Navy

Big-16: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St., Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio St., Penn St., Purdue, Wisconsin, Missouri, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse

MWC-16: New Mexico, Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming, Hawaii, San Diego St., Fresno St., UNLV, Nevada, Boise St., TCU, Baylor, Kansas, Kansas St., Utah St., BYU

I'm guessing that is supposed to be Texas Tech in the PAC-16? Or is Texas A&M really playing in both the SEC and PAC Conferences? I don't really see Army and Navy in the ACC, perhaps Central and South Florida instead? Everything else fits ok.

Maybe the SEC would try to add different schools from the ACC though, already having a big portion of the Florida market, there's less need to add Florida State and Miami. Same could be said with South Carolina/Clemson. Perhaps adding one of the two Florida schools (my pick FSU) and Virginia Tech and either UVA if forced by the Virginia legislature or Maryland to pick up the additional TV markets.

After political realities set in and ggive us 3x14, 1x16, and 1x12 instead of 4x16, the next destination is 4x18. The Big 10, Pac 16, SEC, and ACC get together and carve up the Big 14:

Pac 18:
Red - Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Boise State, Southern Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, Washington State, Arizona State, Utah
Blue - Texas, Oklahoma, BYU, UCLA, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Colorado

The Pac 18 goes after the best remaining football programs in its footprint.

Big 10:
Legends - Minnesota, Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa, Michigan State, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State
Leaders - Wisconsin, Ohio State, Illinois, Purdue, Indiana, Penn State, Missouri, SMU, Baylor

The Big 10, with 6 spots to fill, bows to political pressure in Iowa and Kansas, but sticks its hand in the Texas cookie jar.

ACC:
North - Rutgers, Connecticut, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Boston College, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Notre Dame
South - Miami (FL), Florida State, Georgia Tech, Clemson, North Carolina, Duke, Wake Forest, North Carolina State, South Florida

The ACC lands Notre Dame to reunite it with its traditional rivals, and takes South Florida over Central Florida.

SEC:
West - Texas A&M, LSU, Arkansas, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, Vanderbilt
East - Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Central Florida, Kentucky, West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati

The SEC goes with an "anti-Big 10" approach by targeting the Cincinnati market from all sides, and weakening the Big 10's influence in Kentucky by taking Louisville. The SEC also grabs Central Florida to cut down on the ACC's influence.

Here's my really crazy dream. I think Division 1 has become to cluttered and the top 150 or so schools need to form a new division 1. It seems to me that the majority of the power schools are consolidating into a few conferences which would actually make this semi realistic. What I would like to see is:

*=Football only

ACC - Add Rutgers and UConn

Big East -
East-USF, UCF, ECU, Memphis, Southern Miss, Nova
West- Houston, SMU, Boise, SDSU, Nevada, Hawaii

Big 10 - Unchanged

Big 12 - Add Louisville and Cincinnati

Pac-12 - Unchanged

SEC - Unchanged

C-USA/MWC
East - UAB, Marshall, Tulane, Rice, FIU, N Texas, Tulsa, La Tech, Temple*
West - UTEP, AFA, CSU, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah State, UNLV*, Fresno State*, SJSU*
(Rice plays in West division non football)


The three Non football conferences that would be brought into D-I would be:

A-10 - Unchanged

Big West - Add UNLV, Nevada, Fresno State, SJSU

WCC - Unchanged


Finally, an Eastern division would be formed from the top of the Sun Belt, MAC, and Colonial conference. Some of the Colonial schools would need to be included because of their basketball programs. I don't know if I would require all sports to be in the same division or not (with one sport playing up). Army and Navy wouldn't be effected since they would only play football up, but schools like UMass, Richmond, and Charlotte would have one sport playing down if their football wasn't included in the top level. I say include them, gotta have schools to beat up on.

So the "Colonial" would be something like:
North - JMU, Delaware, N. Illinois, Toledo, C. Mich, UMass*, Richmond*, George Mason (non football), Butler (non football)
South - W. Kentucky, William & Mary, Old Dominion, Middle Tenn, Troy, Georgia State, Charlotte*, VCU (non football)



Finally, down the road, a basketball super conference would be formed of the usual suspects. The Western division of the Big East would split off and reform the WAC (or Mountain West), the Big East would bring in the best eastern schools from the Colonial and C-USA which would then force those two conferences to merge.

The 20 Private & Federal schools decide to form their own conference with a POD format.

POD 1: UND, N’western, AFA, Army & Navy
POD 2: BC, Cuse, WF, Duke & UMiami
POD 3: BYU, TCU, SMU, Vandy & Tulsa
POD 4: USC, Stanford, Baylor, Rice & Tulane

The SEC, ACC, PAC & B1G now all go to 16

SEC adds Houston, L’ville & Memphis

West: TAMU, UH, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss, MSU, Bama & Auburn
East: UF, UGA, USC, Tennessee, Memphis, UK, L’ville & Mizzou

ACC adds USF, UCF, ECU, Temple, Rutgers, UConn & UMass

North: UConn, Umass, Rutgers, Pitt, Temple, Maryland, UVA & VT
South: UNC, NCSU, ECU, Clemson, GT, FSU, UCF & USF

B1G adds KU, KSU, ISU, Cincy & WVU

West: KU, KSU, Nebraska, Iowa, ISU, Minnesota, Wisconsin & Illini
East: UM, MSU, Indiana, Purdue, OSU, UC, Penn State & WVU

PAC adds SDSU, Boise, Texas, TTU, Oklahoma & OSU

West: Oregon, OSU, Washington, Wazzu, Boise, Cal, UCLA & SDSU
East: Arizona, ASU, Utah, Colorado, Texas, TTU, Oklahoma & OSU

The rest add Georgia State & Charlotte and form 14 team conferences

WAC:
West: Hawaii, SJSU, FSU, Nevada, UNLV, Idaho & Wyoming
East: Utah State, Colorado State, New Mexico, NMSU, UTEP, UTSA & TSU

SUN BELT:
West: UNT, ULL, ULM, LTU, ASU, USM & MTSU
East: Troy, UAB, USA, GSU, FAU, FIU & Charlotte

MAC:
West: NIU, Ball State, EMU, WMU, CMU, Toledo & WKU
East: BGSU, Miami U, Ohio, Akron, Kent State, Marshall & Buffalo

I haven't done one of these in a while. My dream conference is one not too far from what came close to happening...with the idea of a 6 team +1 format for the championship.

ACC 14: as is
SEC 14: as is
Big 10+4: as is while adding Notre Dame and Rutgers (a dream to envision the Big Ten wanting Rutgers)
Pac 12+4: add Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St.

And that's it. There is your top level conferences

Autobids:
- Conference champ from each of these conferences
- When Big Ten and Pac-12 is possible, they make up the Rose Bowl
- Game 1 (rotated between Sugar = SEC champ vs at-large
- Game 2 (rotated between Orange = ACC champ vs at-large

Championship: To rated winners from Rose, Sugar, Orange Bowl for title

Where's the Fiesta? Gonzo. After the scandal, no reason not to drop them if one needs to be dropped. Plus, with Texas & Oklahoma in the P12, and the Rose Bowl being that tie in, there are no regional conferences nearby Phoenix.




As for others:

Unlike in the past when the Big 12 split almost happened, with the additions of TCU and WVU, the Big 12 now gets to cherry pick while the Big East lost it's ground.

Big 12+2:
East: *UConn, *Temple, WVU, *Cincinnati, *Lousiville, *Memphis, Iowa St.
West: * Boise St., BYU, Kansas, Kansas St.,TCU, Baylor, *Houston

CUSA/MWC Alliance:
CUSA:
CUSA East: Marshall, ECU, *Charlotte, *App St., *UCF, *USF
CUSA South: UAB, USM, Tulane, Tulsa, Rice, *SMU
MWC:
MWC Mountain: *North Texas, *UTEP, UNM, Colorado St., Air Force, Wyoming
MWC West: *SDSU, Fresno St., UNLV, Nevada, *Utah St., ~Hawaii


MAC:
as is, but with UMass joined with Delaware, JMU and ODU for MAC-16.

Sun Belt-14:
East: FIU, FAU, GA St., WKU, MTSU,Troy, USA,
WEST: ULL, ULM, *LA Tech, Arkansas St, *UTSA, *Texas St., *NMSU (and UALR for non-football)

Indy: Idaho, Army, *Navy

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I call this everyone has 16 everyone has a home.
Adds
SEC(16) N.Carolina St., Virginia Tech
B1G(16) Notre Dame, Maryland, Rutgers, Boston College
ACC(16) UConn, W.Virginia, Louisville, Temple, Kansas, Kansas St.
Pac(16) Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Texas, Texas Tech
B12(16) BYU, Air Force, Boise St., UNLV, SDSU, Fresno St., Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis, S.Florida, C.Florida
CUSA(16)New Mexico, Colorado St., Wyoming, Nevada, Hawaii, FIU, N.Texas, UTSA, Utah St.
MAC(16/14) James Madison, Old Dominion, UMass*, Charlotte*
SBC(16/16)Texas St., Louisiana Tech, New Mexico St., Appalachian St., Jacksonville St., UT-Arlington, SJSU*, Idaho*

_________________

WRANGLERS 153-55-1 CVFL CHAMPS '04 '05 '09 '12

NFL CHAMPS '29 '30 '31 '36 '39 '44 '61 '62 '65 '66 '67 '96 '10

BW/WAC/MWC CHAMPS '77 '82 '85 '88 '89 '91 '92 '93 '99 '12
'08 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPS