Conference shuffling?

[Icness]

My shuffling scenario:

Big Ten: adds Missouri, Nebraska, and Rutgers but not Notre Dame

SEC: adds Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, South Florida, and Louisville

PAC-10: adds Colorado, Utah, Texas, and Oklahoma

ACC: adds West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Charlotte, which is adding D-I football in 2012

Big East: done as a football conference

Big 12: the remaining schools (Kansas, KSU, OKSU, Baylor, ISU, TTU) merge into the Mountain West, which sheds its lesser programs and takes over the Big East’s automatic BCS bid

Just to advance that--I think the Big 12/MWC merger will pluck some CUSA too. That conference would look something like this:
Kansas/K-State/Iowa State/Tulsa/Houston/OK State/TCU on one side
Texas Tech/BYU/CSU/Wyoming/Air Force/SDSU/UNLV on the other, or they divvy it up more north/south

The Big East in football would be left with Syracuse and UConn, and they would join CUSA for football only, as would Temple. I don’t know if the Big East would continue as just a basketball conference. GTown, St. Johns, Seton Hall, Nova, Providence, UMass with UConn, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Temple in just basketball is still a pretty formidable conference and I suspect it would survive in some incarnation like that.

Boise State and East Carolina would be the primary non-BCS teams left out, with Memphis in basketball out too. Maybe BSU jumps into the new western power conference (leave UNLV out), but I know they like the WAC because of travel being less arduous than if they had to keep going east all the time.

I don’t see Notre Dame joining a conference. Ever. They make too much money playing USC, Stanford, BC, and the service academies every year in football to get locked into the Big Ten and give up those games.

[studcrackers]

why exactly do you think the big 12 would just fall apart like that? also if that big 12 thing did play out, id guess smu might be joining too since their football programs on the rise

[Da Schwab]

I love almost everything you do, Ic, but those scenarios are just terrible. Here's what I would do:

- Add Mizzou and Iowa St. to the Big Ten, drop Indiana.
- Add Indiana and Notre Dame to the Big East, drop South Florida and Louisville.
- Add USF to ACC Coastal. Add L'ville to ACC Atlantic.
- Add Utah and Boise St. to Pac 10. Split into divisions.
- Add TCU and Houston to Big 12.
- Combine Mountain West and WAC, divide into divisions.

[studcrackers]

lol at indiana being dropped from the big 10

also if you take the 3 best teams outta the wac and mountain west there's no point in combining those 2

[LAKESHOW]

its all about the money. the big12 aint payin the cash evenly amongst their schools.

[DelaneyRudd]

I think if you just add BSU to the Mountain West and add one more BCS game into the rotation with the game pitting the MWC vs a BCS at Large you can call it a day.

[Da Schwab]

A lot of talk is going on about the Pac 10 inviting six Big 12 teams to join the conference to make a 16 team 'Super Conference'. With that possibility in the cards, here's what I would do to balance everything out:

PAC 16 Conference

Seaboard Division

USC
Cal
UCLA
Stanford
Washington
Washington St
Oregon
Oregon St

Inland Division

Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St
Colorado
Arizona
Arizona St


Big 16

Ohio St
Penn St
Indiana
Purdue
Northwestern
Illinois
Mizzou
Nebraska

Wisconsin
Minnesota
Kansas
Kansas St
Iowa
Iowa St
Michigan
Michigan St

Then Baylor either joins the Mountain West or Conference USA and everyone has a home.

Thoughts?

[deeney0]

If we're really going to have a thought experiment here, why not make every conference a 16 team power conference by dissolving the Big 12, Big East, and merging the MWC/WAC?

Big 16:
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
Michigan
Michigan St.
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Northwestern
Ohio St.
Penn St.
Purdue
Wisconsin

PAC 16:
Arizona
Arizona St.
Cal
Colorado
Oregon
Oregon St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Stanford
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington St.

Mountain West 16:
Air Force
BYU
Boise St.
Colorado St.
Fresno St.
Hawaii
Idaho
New Mexico
New Mexico St.
Nevada
UNLV
San Diego St.
San Jose St.
Utah
Utah St.
Wyoming

SEC 16:
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida
Florida St.
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Louisiana St.
Miami
Mississippi St.
Ole Miss
South Carolina
South Florida
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

ACC 16:
Boston College
Clemson
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Duke
Louisville
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina St.
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
West Virginia


Baylor, Louisiana Tech, and Texas Christian join Conference USA.

[Da Schwab]

Why would you kick TCU out of the Mountain West?

[Icness]

It sure looks like the Big 12 is dead in the water. Put the entier Big 12 South in the Pac-10 and they pair with Arizona and ASU to make the Pac-16 South, with the original Pac-8 schools being the North.

The monkey wrench is Notre Dame and the Big Ten. If Notre Dame joins the Big Ten, they don't need all the Big 12 north schools, just Mizzou and Nebraska--which are veritable Big Ten locks if the Big 12 blows up from what I'm hearing.

Colorado and Kansas are the wild cards, because they could go Big 10 but they could also form a new conference with KSU, BYU, TCU, Utah, Tulsa, Louisville (think hoops), Houston, ISU, and maybe Boise and Western Kentucky (again think hoops).

It's absolutely crazy and way too many people who would know are telling me (and the world) that major change is imminent, it just has to get sorted out Here's hoping that it brings about the end of the BCS and spawns a playoff!

ps I like your idea schwab

[DelaneyRudd]

Apparently Texas has drawn a line in the sand that all 4 Texas schools have to be together. Adding Baylor will show a true end to Pac-10 standards of academics and institutional goals. They didn't add BYU in 1978 for that reason.

If Notre Dame accepts their Big10 invite the Big-12 will survive with only losing Colorado to the Pac-10. The Pac-10 would then add Utah and be a 12 team league. That would prevent the MWC from getting an auto BCS bid. With Notre Dame hurting the Big10s numbers and Boise helping the MWCs numbers the MWC would qualify for an auto bid. Without Utah they go back to being right under the level. The Big-12 could even add TCU to replace Colorado to hurt the MWC even more in this scenario.

[Posey H8er]

Nebraska is joining the Big Ten, and it appears that Missouri will follow. The big question is Notre Dame. If they join it will make 14 schools.

West-
Illinois
Iowa
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin

East-
Indiana
Michigan
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue

[LAKESHOW]

THE PAC . . . 16?

The new conference would be split into divisions with the Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado forming an Eastern Division with Arizona and Arizona State opposite the former Pac-8 (USC, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington and Washington State) in the Western Division. The division champions would play at season's end for the conference championship, the source said.


The coach said it's possible the Pac-16 would push for two automatic bids to the BCS, one for each division champion. That potential bonanza could open the possibility of the two division champs from one league playing for the national title, and it would eliminate the need for a conference championship game.


http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5270048

[MadCityBucky]

Two automatic BCS bids?

USC has a lot more to worry about than conference expansion anyways

Per ESPN:

USC has been hit with a two-year post-season ban in addition to the loss of scholarships, among other penalties from the NCAA.

[studcrackers]

Apparently Texas has drawn a line in the sand that all 4 Texas schools have to be together. Adding Baylor will show a true end to Pac-10 standards of academics and institutional goals. They didn't add BYU in 1978 for that reason.

If Notre Dame accepts their Big10 invite the Big-12 will survive with only losing Colorado to the Pac-10. The Pac-10 would then add Utah and be a 12 team league. That would prevent the MWC from getting an auto BCS bid. With Notre Dame hurting the Big10s numbers and Boise helping the MWCs numbers the MWC would qualify for an auto bid. Without Utah they go back to being right under the level. The Big-12 could even add TCU to replace Colorado to hurt the MWC even more in this scenario.

im confused, are you saying baylors a bad school academically? b/c that's crazy

[ZedgetRedd]

Apparently Texas has drawn a line in the sand that all 4 Texas schools have to be together. Adding Baylor will show a true end to Pac-10 standards of academics and institutional goals. They didn't add BYU in 1978 for that reason.

If Notre Dame accepts their Big10 invite the Big-12 will survive with only losing Colorado to the Pac-10. The Pac-10 would then add Utah and be a 12 team league. That would prevent the MWC from getting an auto BCS bid. With Notre Dame hurting the Big10s numbers and Boise helping the MWCs numbers the MWC would qualify for an auto bid. Without Utah they go back to being right under the level. The Big-12 could even add TCU to replace Colorado to hurt the MWC even more in this scenario.

im confused, are you saying baylors a bad school academically? b/c that's crazy

Yeah, Baylor is very good academically, definately better than Tech, and right there with A and M.

I wonder why the Mountain West hasn't invited Boise yet. With the Big 12 possibly finished, the MWest could add Boise, Baylor, Kansas and K-State, which would make the a very good football AND basketball conference. They could have a true playoff system like the ACC with 12 teams as well.

[Icness]

Nebraska is now a Big 10 school, press conference later today.

Mizzou is almost certain to follow, and that puts some serious pressure on Notre Dame to defecate or get off the pot. If ND joins then IMO the Big 10 is done, but if ND stays away the conference needs to add at least one more school, preferably 3. Kansas? Rutgers? West Virginia? Syracuse?

[Klomp]

I don't see why the Big 12 outcasts haven't been talked about with Conference USA. IMO, they'd be smarter to to south and east rather than west.



Add the two Kansas schools, Baylor, and Mizzou (I don't envision them in the Big 10, maybe ISU), and you have another 16-team conference.

[DelaneyRudd]

Apparently Texas has drawn a line in the sand that all 4 Texas schools have to be together. Adding Baylor will show a true end to Pac-10 standards of academics and institutional goals. They didn't add BYU in 1978 for that reason.

If Notre Dame accepts their Big10 invite the Big-12 will survive with only losing Colorado to the Pac-10. The Pac-10 would then add Utah and be a 12 team league. That would prevent the MWC from getting an auto BCS bid. With Notre Dame hurting the Big10s numbers and Boise helping the MWCs numbers the MWC would qualify for an auto bid. Without Utah they go back to being right under the level. The Big-12 could even add TCU to replace Colorado to hurt the MWC even more in this scenario.

im confused, are you saying baylors a bad school academically? b/c that's crazy

And BYU is probably better, but the only major research Baylor is interested in is finding the location of Noah's Ark. The Pac-10 has no need for such tom-foolery.

[DelaneyRudd]

I don't see why the Big 12 outcasts haven't been talked about with Conference USA. IMO, they'd be smarter to to south and east rather than west.



Add the two Kansas schools, Baylor, and Mizzou (I don't envision them in the Big 10, maybe ISU), and you have another 16-team conference.

So which BCS bowls have those schools been to? Why not just join the Sun Belt? That sounds like a larf.