Written by: TheOtherGuy 12/13/2009 1:41 PM
There has been some talk abut the Big Ten adding a twelfth team, splitting into two divisions, and playing a conference championship game. This makes relatively little sense, as there is no clear twelfth team to add and it will only create the same problems the Big XII has faced when their previously-undefeated team loses to a 2 or 3 loss opponent in the title game, giving the lesser team an automatic BCS bid and possibly keeping a more deserving team out (i.e. 1998 and 2003). This has not yet happened in the SEC, but it seems like it's only a matter of time until it does. For example, could you imagine an 8-4 Georgia getting an automatic BCS bid after edging 11-1 Auburn? Auburn gets an at large bid, and Georgia (who would have done just fine in the Peach Bowl) gets an automatic bid whereas 10-2 Alabama goes to the Peach Bowl. This is all hypothetical, but you see where problems can arise. The best system in place in any conference right now would be in the Pac-10, where there are ten teams and nine conference games. It seems logical enough that every team should play every other team in the conference to decide who is conference champ, right? This isn't really possible with any conference larger than ten teams, because that would create a dearth of non-conference matchups. I mean, the SEC would have eleven conference games! Too bad not every conference has ten teams... Yet. Imagine, if you will, that the NCAA goes insane and decides to model all of D-1 FBS after the Pac-10. This may actually have less of a chance of happening than the Browns beating the Lions in the Super Bowl next year, but we can all dream, right? There are 120 teams; if each conference had ten teams that equals twelve evenly sized conferences with nine conference games and three non-conference matchups against other FBS teams; FCS games are out. Naturally, though, this would require some conferences to be re-aligned, possibly a lot, and one new conference to be created, in the addition of Notre Dame growing a pair and joining a conference. But, for humor's sake, let's take a look anyway. Atlantic Coast Boston College Duke Florida State Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina North Carolina State Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest Big East Army Cincinnati Connecticut Georgia Tech Navy Notre Dame Penn State Pittsburgh Syracuse West Virginia Big South (new conference) Arkansas Central Florida Clemson Colorado East Carolina Houston South Carolina South Florida Southern Methodist Southern Mississippi Big Ten Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Northwestern Ohio State Purdue Wisconsin Conference USA Buffalo Florida Atlantic Florida International Louisville Marshall Memphis Rutgers Temple Tulane UAB Mid-American Akron Ball State Bowling Green Central Michigan Eastern Michigan Kent State Miami (OH) Ohio Toledo Western Michigan Mountain West Air Force Boise State Brigham Young Fresno State Hawaii Idaho Nevada Texas Christian Utah Wyoming Pacific-10 Arizona Arizona State California Oregon Oregon State Stanford UCLA USC Washington Washington State Southeastern Alabama Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU Mississippi Mississippi State Tennessee Vanderbilt Southwestern (re-aligned Big XII) Iowa State Kansas Kansas State Missouri Nebraska Oklahoma Oklahoma State Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech Sun Belt Arkansas State Louisiana-Lafayette Louisiana-Monroe Middle Tennessee State North Texas Northern Illinois Rice Troy Tulsa Western Kentucky Western Athletic Baylor Colorado State Louisiana Tech New Mexico New Mexico State San Diego State San Jose State UNLV Utah State UTEP So, there you have it. 120 teams, 12 conferences, everybody plays everybody, no arguments as to who wins the conference. As for a national champion? Well... you're on your own. Maybe 12 conference champs and 4 at large bids? The possibilites are endless.
Copyright ©2009 TheOtherGuy
2 comments so far...
Re: Conference Re-Alignment I had this idea myself a while ago. i would love to see CFB split into the 12 10-team conferences and have a true round robin in every conference. But....it will never happen. Nice to dream, though
Re: Conference Re-Alignment
I had this idea myself a while ago. i would love to see CFB split into the 12 10-team conferences and have a true round robin in every conference. But....it will never happen. Nice to dream, though
Re: Conference Re-Alignment I like the idea. I really do. If there is to be no conference championship, then a round robin is obviously the next best choice. My only issue is that if we are going to redistribute teams, we need to redistribute quite a bit more, so there might be parity sooner rather than later. I dislike the idea of the champions of the C-USA, Sunbelt, Mountain West, or MAC, getting an auto-bid to the playoffs when they don't have as tough of a road to get there. And although I love your Big East lineup, taking Penn State from the Big10 all but guarantees Ohio State of winning the Big10 for the next 5 or 6 years. So, a little more redistribution would be nice. But I like where your head is at.
I like the idea. I really do. If there is to be no conference championship, then a round robin is obviously the next best choice. My only issue is that if we are going to redistribute teams, we need to redistribute quite a bit more, so there might be parity sooner rather than later. I dislike the idea of the champions of the C-USA, Sunbelt, Mountain West, or MAC, getting an auto-bid to the playoffs when they don't have as tough of a road to get there. And although I love your Big East lineup, taking Penn State from the Big10 all but guarantees Ohio State of winning the Big10 for the next 5 or 6 years. So, a little more redistribution would be nice. But I like where your head is at.