Ok, here's the fool-proof plan for college football conference realignment/defection:
The ACC
Well, it's going to definitely be:
Florida State
Virginia
Clemson
N.C. State
Wake Forest
Maryland
Duke
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
Miami
Virginia Tech
Which gives them a conference the is decidely on or near the Atlantic coast. The southeastern Atlanic coast. But only 11 teams. They need a 12th to stage a conference championship. There's talk of them going after and getting Boston College, but, aside from their rivalry with Miami, that doesn't really make sense. So I give the nod to South Florida, an up and comer, who will be the doormat of this league for a few years, but has a solid program, and honestly, who can't compete in football with Duke?
So it ends up like this:
Florida State
Virginia
Clemson
N.C. State
Wake Forest
Maryland
Duke
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
Miami
Virginia Tech
South Florida (Boston College)
Next up, The Big East
They're in trouble. Big trouble. They lose most of their football tradition and power in Va. Tech and Miami. And Temple is dropping football. They will look like this:
Boston College
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
UConn
West Virginia
Temple
But help is rumored to be on the way. Cincinnati and Louisville will be plucked from Conference USA. Why not get one more team, make it a nice 9, so you get four home/away games each season? They are rumored to be looking at South Florida or Central Florida, but I think they're overlooking the most logical fit. Marshall would give them a good program, a natural rival for West Virginia, and a more logical geographic fit. If BC does leave, then snatch one of the Florida schools. So here it is, the new Big East:
Boston College (South Florida/Central Florida)
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
UConn
West Virginia
Marshall
Louisville
Cincinnati
Ok, now to the major conferences that aren't in trouble, but could use all of this crazyness to strengthen themselves
The Big 12
They're fine. They're fine except the perennial joke of the league, Baylor, is now more than just a joke, it's a liability. Drop them like a hot potato. Try to get Arkansas from the SEC, fail and then realize that if you got Colorado's natural rival, it would make your league even better. You go from this:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Nebraska
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Mizzou
Colorado
Baylor
To:
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Nebraska
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Mizzou
Colorado
Colorado State
Get that lone private school out of there and add another big state school. The conference will instantly be better.
Now, the major all the sports writers forget about, the glorious PAC-10.
Currently:
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Cal
Arizona
Arizona State
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
Take advantage of the chaos, and get yourself up to twelve so you can have a title game. Now, some people would say take Utah and BYU, but I think you're going too far east. What about UNLV and Nevada-Reno? Sure, maybe BYU and Utah have better programs (definitely than Reno), but what about getting the large and growing Nevada market. And think of how your fans would love to go to a PAC-12 championship game in Las Vegas. The choice is obvious.
So, the new PAC-12:
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Cal
Arizona
Arizona State
Washington
Washington State
Oregon
Oregon State
UNLV
Nevada-Reno
The Big Ten and the SEC can go fuck themselves and stay exactly the same.
Now for the confusing world of the little guys.
Conference USA
The biggest pretenders to major conferencedom have just had their heart ripped out. They lose Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida, and that's just in football. Thinking themselves invulnerable, the MWC goes after TCU, and the WAC goes after Houston, Tulane and TCU. But then something that makes sense happens. TCU, Tulane, Memphis and Houston along with the now orphaned Baylor, cut a deal with Tulsa, SMU, Rice, UTEP and Louisiana Tech from the WAC. A new conference is born. Two more teams are needed to stage a conference championship, and North Texas and Louisiana-Lafayette, two of the better Sun Belt teams glady fill that need. The new South West Conference is born. A sensible, geographically coherent conference of fair football schools and good basketball schools.
The (New) South West Conference:
TCU
Tulane
Memphis
Houston
SMU
Louisiana Tech
Tulsa
UTEP
Rice
Baylor
North Texas
Louisiana-Lafayette
The Sun Belt Conference
They just got robbed, but it is a blessing in disguise. The bastard children from Conference USA, Southern Miss, UAB and East Carolina fit in nicely to the holes left by North Texas and LA-Lafayette leaving. Troy State comes on board next year, further strengthening them. And they use all of this to talk Central Florida out of its crazy positioning in the MAC. The Sun Belt loses Idaho and Utah State (I'll get to how in a second), but athletic directors conference-wide give a sigh of relief and travel budgets suddenly look big enough to pay for road trips. They also add Florida A&M when they move to division I-A football. So the Sun Belt goes from:
North Texas
Arkansas State
Utah State
New Mexico State
Middle Tenn. St.
Idaho
Louisiana Monroe
Louisiana Lafayette
To the New Sun Belt:
Louisiana Monroe
Middle Tenn. St.
UAB
Southern Miss.
East Carolina
Central Florida
Troy State
Arkansas State
Florida A&M
New Mexico State
The MWC & the WAC
The always cocky MWC has seen its bid for TCU fail, and has lost two of its stronger programs in CSU and UNLV. The WAC had the eastern half of the league mercifully amputated. The bitter enemies now find themselves huddling together for warmth. The six MWC teams (Utah, BYU, Wyoming, SDSU, New Mexico, and Air Force) and the four remaining WAC teams (Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, and San Jose State) form something pretty close to the old WAC, and go looking for two teams to get that magic conference championship game. They easily talk grateful Idaho and Utah State programs out of the Sun Belt, and into the New (Old) WAC.
The New (Old) WAC:
Idaho
Utah State
Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
San Jose St.
Air Force
BYU
New Mexico
SDSU
Utah
Wyoming
The MAC stays the same, well, if you consider losing Marshall and Central Florida the same. But they keep their title game, and some really good programs.
Posted by orion at September 30, 2003 05:14 PM | TrackBack