Stiff Arm Frog
Active Member
Let's face it. The current structure of college football sucks. Greed has split up conferences and trampled on historic rivalries. The BCS is a joke, and no one pays attention to meaningless bowl games that pit mediocre teams. Worst of all, the Big 10 still doesn't have ten teams.
Yes, I have too much time on my hands, but this is what I would do if I were Dictator of college football for a day. The following are my plans for perfect conference alignments and an awesome college football post-season. Notice I didn't say this is what I think will happen. I am quite aware this will never happen. Nonetheless, these are the changes that I would like to see. Mostly it involves conferences realigned with geography, history, and in-state rivalries in mind. The third point is what I emphasize most, as we all know in-state bragging rights are really the heart of what makes college football great.
Feel free to commend and/or ridicule. The Conferences (team changes in bold):
SWC:
-Texas
-Texas A&M
-Texas Tech
-TCU
-SMU
-Baylor
-Houston
-Rice
The return of the SWC means we can cut the nonsense of splitting all these fine teams up into four conferences. No more of this dodging eachother because a school, "has nothing to gain by losing to a team from an inferior conference." Bragging rights will again be established by a round-robin schedule. May the best team win!
Alternate Scenario: We trade the horns and aggies to the SEC for Arkansas and LSU. Everyone wins, except for the aggies, who lose for the next few decades.
Big8:
-Oklahoma
-Oklahoma State
-Kansas
-Kansas State
-Nebraska
-Missouri
-Iowa
-Iowa State
The Big 8 also returns as a highly geographic conference in the nation's heartland. Nebraska is recalled from the Big 10, but gets what its fans wanted all along: a meaningful rivalry with Oklahoma and freedom from Texas' exploitation. The league loses Colorado, but gains a more than satisfactory replacement in Iowa. The Hawkeyes leave the Big10 for an in-state conference rivalry and more frequent conference championships.
SEC:
-Arkansas
-LSU
-Ole Miss
-MississippiState
-Alabama
-Auburn
-Georgia
-Georgia Tech
-Florida
-Tennessee
-Kentucky
-Louisville
The SEC loses the Gamecocks, but replace them with Georgia's in-state rival GeorgiaTech. Vanderbilt also defects, but it makes more sense for the Commodores to join their fellow private schools in the more academic ACC. The SEC replaces them with Louisville, a natural rival for Kentucky. Louisville is also a great basketball school with more football success than Vanderbilt.
ACC:
-SouthCarolina
-Clemson
-Florida State
-Miami
-Vanderbilt
-North Carolina
-North CarolinaState
-Duke
-Wake Forest
-Virginia
-Virginia Tech
-Maryland
The ACC swaps Georgia Tech for South Carolina. This way Clemson and Georgia's state rivalries are preserved within the conference. The ACC loses Boston College to the Big East, but adds the more geographically central Vanderbilt. The ACC, as one of the more stable conferences,changes very little.
Big 10:
-Minnesota
-Wisconsin
-Ohio State
-Michigan
-Michigan State
-Illinois
-Northwestern
-Indiana
-Purdue
-Notre Dame
The Big 10 loses more than any other conference in this shakeup. Iowa, Penn State,and Nebraska are all gone. However, the Big 10 administration ought to sleep well at night knowing they have done something imminently beneficial for the college football. And if that's no consolation,then at least they can take solace in finally snagging Notre Dame out of independence.
Best of all for the rest of us, the Big 10 finally actually has ten teams in it.
Pac10:
-Washington
-Washington State
-Oregon
-Oregon State
-Cal
-Stanford
-UCLA
-USC
-Arizona
-Arizona State
The Pac10, meanwhile, lose their newest additions, Utah and Colorado. However,the expansion to 12 was done purely out of fiscal greed. The reduction back to ten makes the coaches happy, most of whom wanted to keep a round-robin schedule in the first place to preserve recruiting, exposure, and tradition.
Big East:
-Army
-Navy
-West Virginia
-Pittsburgh
-Syracuse
-Uconn
-Boston College
-Rutgers
-Penn State
-Cincinatti
Under this scenario the Big East becomes more centralized geographically. They do lose Louisville, South Florida, and TCU, but none of those schools had any tradition or geographic ties with the rest of the Big East members. The four schools they add, especially Penn State, will keep the league legitimate and improve fan interest and attendance over time
MWC:
-Utah
-BYU
-Boise State
-Idaho
-Nevada
-UNLV
-Fresno State
-SDSU
-Colorado
-Colorado State
-Air Force
-Hawaii
The MWC regains its elite standing in college football by adding marketable, winning teams and shedding some useless weight. The MWC bids farewell to New Mexico and Wyoming, perennial MWC cellar dwellers. Former runaways Utah and BYU preserve the integrity of their rivaly by returning to the league, where they will compete regularly with Boise State for the championship. Colorado gives Colorado State a non-military rival while at the same time giving the MWC an elite academic anchor. Idaho is added because the league needs a 12[sup]th[/sup] team and this preserves their in-state rivalry with Boise. Idaho also builds a real football stadium and fields a winning team (this is a fantasy, after all).
C-USA:
-North Texas
-Tulsa
-LouisianaTech
-Tulane
-Southern Miss
-Troy
-UAB
-South Florida
-Central Florida
-Memphis
-Eastern Carolina
-Marshall
Conference USA loses four teams (SMU, Houston, Rice, and UTEP), but keeps itself respectable with decent replacements. South Florida provides a good football team and a perfect geographic rival for UCF. Troy and Louisiana Tech become instant rivals for UAB and Tulane, respectively. The University of North Texas Eagles maintain the league's foothold in Texas. The conference is a stronger football conference with these changes, though perhaps loses some of its marketability.
WAC:
-San Jose State
-UtahState
-Wyoming
-New Mexico
-New Mexico State
-UTEP
-UTSA
-Texas State
The WAC, as the most unstable conference in FBS, sees the most change. Only three of the current WAC teams remain in the conference, but considering the old membership that's a good thing. The conference actually ends up stronger with the additions of New Mexico, Wyoming, and UTEP, none of which are football powerhouses but all of which bring solid football tradition and a more centralized geography than the current WAC mess. The additions of UTSA and Texas State gives them eight teams, enough for a conference, and access to the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas to keep the league viable.
MAC:
-Akron
-Bowling Green
-Buffalo
-Kent State
-Miami
-Ohio
-Ball State
-Central Michigan
-Eastern Michigan
-Western Michigan
-Toledo
-NorthernIllinois
Under this scenario the MAC is the only conference which does not endure a single change. These schools' mediocrity proves to be their strongest bond.
Eliminated from FBS:
-Arkansas State
-Louisiana Monroe
-Louisiana Lafayette
-FAU
-FIU
-Middle Tennessee
-Western Kentucky
With the defections of Troy and NorthTexas, the Sun Belt ceases to be a legitimate conference. The combined record of these teams last year was 31-55. Not even the fans of these schools should be sorry to see their teams go, as it will simply mean a more competitive schedule in the FCS, where their experience might actually net one of them a D-2 championship.
The postseason would involve a 16 team playoff, with every conference champion earning an automatic bid backed up by 5 at large teams. The at large teams would be selected using the BCS rankings (poetic justice). The bowl system would be maintained for any team that did not make the tournament.
Yes, I have too much time on my hands, but this is what I would do if I were Dictator of college football for a day. The following are my plans for perfect conference alignments and an awesome college football post-season. Notice I didn't say this is what I think will happen. I am quite aware this will never happen. Nonetheless, these are the changes that I would like to see. Mostly it involves conferences realigned with geography, history, and in-state rivalries in mind. The third point is what I emphasize most, as we all know in-state bragging rights are really the heart of what makes college football great.
Feel free to commend and/or ridicule. The Conferences (team changes in bold):
SWC:
-Texas
-Texas A&M
-Texas Tech
-TCU
-SMU
-Baylor
-Houston
-Rice
The return of the SWC means we can cut the nonsense of splitting all these fine teams up into four conferences. No more of this dodging eachother because a school, "has nothing to gain by losing to a team from an inferior conference." Bragging rights will again be established by a round-robin schedule. May the best team win!
Alternate Scenario: We trade the horns and aggies to the SEC for Arkansas and LSU. Everyone wins, except for the aggies, who lose for the next few decades.
Big8:
-Oklahoma
-Oklahoma State
-Kansas
-Kansas State
-Nebraska
-Missouri
-Iowa
-Iowa State
The Big 8 also returns as a highly geographic conference in the nation's heartland. Nebraska is recalled from the Big 10, but gets what its fans wanted all along: a meaningful rivalry with Oklahoma and freedom from Texas' exploitation. The league loses Colorado, but gains a more than satisfactory replacement in Iowa. The Hawkeyes leave the Big10 for an in-state conference rivalry and more frequent conference championships.
SEC:
-Arkansas
-LSU
-Ole Miss
-MississippiState
-Alabama
-Auburn
-Georgia
-Georgia Tech
-Florida
-Tennessee
-Kentucky
-Louisville
The SEC loses the Gamecocks, but replace them with Georgia's in-state rival GeorgiaTech. Vanderbilt also defects, but it makes more sense for the Commodores to join their fellow private schools in the more academic ACC. The SEC replaces them with Louisville, a natural rival for Kentucky. Louisville is also a great basketball school with more football success than Vanderbilt.
ACC:
-SouthCarolina
-Clemson
-Florida State
-Miami
-Vanderbilt
-North Carolina
-North CarolinaState
-Duke
-Wake Forest
-Virginia
-Virginia Tech
-Maryland
The ACC swaps Georgia Tech for South Carolina. This way Clemson and Georgia's state rivalries are preserved within the conference. The ACC loses Boston College to the Big East, but adds the more geographically central Vanderbilt. The ACC, as one of the more stable conferences,changes very little.
Big 10:
-Minnesota
-Wisconsin
-Ohio State
-Michigan
-Michigan State
-Illinois
-Northwestern
-Indiana
-Purdue
-Notre Dame
The Big 10 loses more than any other conference in this shakeup. Iowa, Penn State,and Nebraska are all gone. However, the Big 10 administration ought to sleep well at night knowing they have done something imminently beneficial for the college football. And if that's no consolation,then at least they can take solace in finally snagging Notre Dame out of independence.
Best of all for the rest of us, the Big 10 finally actually has ten teams in it.
Pac10:
-Washington
-Washington State
-Oregon
-Oregon State
-Cal
-Stanford
-UCLA
-USC
-Arizona
-Arizona State
The Pac10, meanwhile, lose their newest additions, Utah and Colorado. However,the expansion to 12 was done purely out of fiscal greed. The reduction back to ten makes the coaches happy, most of whom wanted to keep a round-robin schedule in the first place to preserve recruiting, exposure, and tradition.
Big East:
-Army
-Navy
-West Virginia
-Pittsburgh
-Syracuse
-Uconn
-Boston College
-Rutgers
-Penn State
-Cincinatti
Under this scenario the Big East becomes more centralized geographically. They do lose Louisville, South Florida, and TCU, but none of those schools had any tradition or geographic ties with the rest of the Big East members. The four schools they add, especially Penn State, will keep the league legitimate and improve fan interest and attendance over time
MWC:
-Utah
-BYU
-Boise State
-Idaho
-Nevada
-UNLV
-Fresno State
-SDSU
-Colorado
-Colorado State
-Air Force
-Hawaii
The MWC regains its elite standing in college football by adding marketable, winning teams and shedding some useless weight. The MWC bids farewell to New Mexico and Wyoming, perennial MWC cellar dwellers. Former runaways Utah and BYU preserve the integrity of their rivaly by returning to the league, where they will compete regularly with Boise State for the championship. Colorado gives Colorado State a non-military rival while at the same time giving the MWC an elite academic anchor. Idaho is added because the league needs a 12[sup]th[/sup] team and this preserves their in-state rivalry with Boise. Idaho also builds a real football stadium and fields a winning team (this is a fantasy, after all).
C-USA:
-North Texas
-Tulsa
-LouisianaTech
-Tulane
-Southern Miss
-Troy
-UAB
-South Florida
-Central Florida
-Memphis
-Eastern Carolina
-Marshall
Conference USA loses four teams (SMU, Houston, Rice, and UTEP), but keeps itself respectable with decent replacements. South Florida provides a good football team and a perfect geographic rival for UCF. Troy and Louisiana Tech become instant rivals for UAB and Tulane, respectively. The University of North Texas Eagles maintain the league's foothold in Texas. The conference is a stronger football conference with these changes, though perhaps loses some of its marketability.
WAC:
-San Jose State
-UtahState
-Wyoming
-New Mexico
-New Mexico State
-UTEP
-UTSA
-Texas State
The WAC, as the most unstable conference in FBS, sees the most change. Only three of the current WAC teams remain in the conference, but considering the old membership that's a good thing. The conference actually ends up stronger with the additions of New Mexico, Wyoming, and UTEP, none of which are football powerhouses but all of which bring solid football tradition and a more centralized geography than the current WAC mess. The additions of UTSA and Texas State gives them eight teams, enough for a conference, and access to the fertile recruiting grounds of Texas to keep the league viable.
MAC:
-Akron
-Bowling Green
-Buffalo
-Kent State
-Miami
-Ohio
-Ball State
-Central Michigan
-Eastern Michigan
-Western Michigan
-Toledo
-NorthernIllinois
Under this scenario the MAC is the only conference which does not endure a single change. These schools' mediocrity proves to be their strongest bond.
Eliminated from FBS:
-Arkansas State
-Louisiana Monroe
-Louisiana Lafayette
-FAU
-FIU
-Middle Tennessee
-Western Kentucky
With the defections of Troy and NorthTexas, the Sun Belt ceases to be a legitimate conference. The combined record of these teams last year was 31-55. Not even the fans of these schools should be sorry to see their teams go, as it will simply mean a more competitive schedule in the FCS, where their experience might actually net one of them a D-2 championship.
The postseason would involve a 16 team playoff, with every conference champion earning an automatic bid backed up by 5 at large teams. The at large teams would be selected using the BCS rankings (poetic justice). The bowl system would be maintained for any team that did not make the tournament.
