NCAA Conference Realignment

[Mad Sheep]

So, it's happening in the NCAA. Conferences are realigning, and expanding. Everything is changing. Football and money are driving the changes. So, what does it all mean?

Hopefully, it means an improvement. And a playoff system. But how would that work with 120 schools in a full-contact sport like football you can only play once a week? I'm glad you asked.

First, you limit conferences to 16 teams. Currently, there are 120 Bowl Subdivision Schools. 120 teams are eligible for the big money grab. That's enough for 7.5 16 team conferences. I'm going to say there should be 8. Why? Because it works. There would be room for 8 more schools to advance their football programs. That should cover us for a few years.

So, first you have the four Major conferences. They're almost certainly going to be based on the old Pac-10, Big 10, SEC and ACC. So, we'll use those names, even though they'll clearly have to change. All of those conferences would want 16 teams. Being in a Major conference is still a major big deal in this projected future.

After that, you've got four Mid-major conferences. These should each consist of 14 football schools. More or less would be fine, but for ease of discussion, let's say they have 14 teams each.

So, each conference is split into two divisions. There simply aren't enough weeks in the season to play every school. So, you split the conference along regional lines to allow for student-athletes to remain students and not have to travel all over the country (remember, this will affect all sports, including the ones that don't make heaps of money for the schools like soccer and field hockey). The SEC and ACC already do this, and the Big East does it in basketball.

So, you play 6 or 7 games per season against the teams in your division (depending on the size), and schedule the rest of the early games as you see fit. But you only schedule 11 games, not 12.

Week 12 is championship week. This is where it gets fun. Let's look at the Pac-10. 8 teams form the Coastal Division and the teams from Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma (if they join that conference) for the Midwest Division. Within each division, you'll end up with a rank. On Week 12, the top team from the Coastal Division plays the Midwestern Division champ. Number two from one division plays number two from the other and so on and so on. After Week 12, you've determined your conference rank, with the winner of the championship game taking the one spot and the loser taking the two spot, etc.

This has happened in each of the 8 conferences, so there are now 8 champions. These 8 champions are then seeded based on strength of schedule and wins with the 4 Major conference teams guaranteed the top 4 seeds. And there's your bracket. On one side, 1 plays 8 and 3 plays 6, on the other 2 plays 7 and 4 plays 5. To finish this out, you'll need 7 games. These 7 games are made up of 4 big games what would have been the 3 most prestigious bowls. The opening round of the tournament should be played at the stadium of the Major conference team in the matchup. All those schools have facilities to handle such a big game.

Sure, Mid-majors are underdogs, but that's how it always works anyway, isn't it? For playoff payouts, losing teams should actually get a higher percentage of each cut (or an even cut) until the final round, since winning teams are moving on to another payday.

Money-wise, no team is worse off than they were before realignment. No team is playing more games than they would have normally, except for the two final teams which play 15 games, rather than the 14 a bowl-bound ACC or SEC team would have played this year. Everyone plays at least 12 games. (If your conference has an odd number of teams, you should parter with another such conference for a Week 12 consolation game for your last place teams.)

What about all those other bowls? You should still play them! There are going to be great teams with great fanbases and probably some 1-loss teams that don't make the playoffs. After championship week, if they're above .500, they would be eligible for the rest of the bowls. Nothing would change about these bowls.

For other sports, you could expand the conferences. Basketball could handle a 24-team conference with two divisions. Other sports wouldn't need to change much, because nobody really complains about they way they handle their championships. Football is the sticking point. And I think the gears are finally turning that may get it unstuck.

[Snookerfly Johnson]

I have to admit.

When I heard about the "abandon ship" mentality that many schools have toward one conference or another, I was worried about what it would mean for the smaller conferences.

Upon hearing your suggestion (which should be sent along appropriate channels to the top) I am much more in favor of this jumble, and can see real potential for great college sports in the future.

Thank you for thinking of this.