Conference shuffling?

hermes · Post #101 » by **hermes** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:21 pm

craig01 wrote:ESPN reporting that Pitt and Syracuse have applied to the ACC.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... eam-league

they are in, now the big east is at 14

While the addition of Syracuse and Pitt brings the ACC to 14 members, 16 might make more sense. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany has said his league is set with 12, but could reconsider if other conferences make additions.

chadrucf · Post #102 » by **chadrucf** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 2:37 pm

I'm really hoping for 14 team conferences. That would be the only way to salvage 5 of the 6 BCS conferences (Big 12 dissolves). And in doing so, the remaining members of the Big 12 and Big East would not be screwed out of an auto-bid.

Post #103 » by **Icness** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:05 pm

I wonder if these megaconferences will limit themselves to 16 schools. There are more than 64 schools that want a piece of that action. That's why I think we'll get to 4 20-team conferences that have nothing to do with the NCAA or other sports, just football.

Baylor and Iowa State appear ready to buy their way into somewhere, BIg East or Big Ten.

Post #104 » by **craig01** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:40 pm

Icness wrote:I wonder if these megaconferences will limit themselves to 16 schools. There are more than 64 schools that want a piece of that action. That's why I think we'll get to 4 20-team conferences that have nothing to do with the NCAA or other sports, just football.

Baylor and Iowa State appear ready to buy their way into somewhere, BIg East or Big Ten.

That's a good question.

At this point no one knows where this ends......but one thing will be clear, and that's that the disparity among those that are in vs those that are not will grow even larger than now.

Post #105 » by **craig01** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 4:43 pm

BTW- I hate the whole thing, however, you can also speculate the the formation of the super conferences might become the gateway for a playoff down the road.....but sooner than we think as bowl commitments between conferences are already skewed beginning next year.

hermes · Post #106 » by **hermes** » Sun Sep 18, 2011 11:38 pm

Icness wrote:I wonder if these megaconferences will limit themselves to 16 schools. There are more than 64 schools that want a piece of that action. That's why I think we'll get to 4 20-team conferences that have nothing to do with the NCAA or other sports, just football.

Baylor and Iowa State appear ready to buy their way into somewhere, BIg East or Big Ten.

do they have the money to do that? i was reading an article a while back that iowa state is barely making it by with the money its getting now from the big 12

Post #107 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:18 am

Its gonna happen. 16s here we come.

Friend_Of_Haley · Post #108 » by **Friend_Of_Haley** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:07 pm

As a Midwest guy and general Big10 fan, I hope they don't jump on the 16 bandwagon unless its for real assets like Texas/Notre Dame. They have a solid 12 right now.

Post #109 » by **craig01** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:03 pm

DelaneyRudd wrote:Its gonna happen. 16s here we come.

I'm not so sure the SEC will go past 14.

hermes · Post #110 » by **hermes** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:54 pm

it will probably only get to 16 teams if all the conferences are in, so everyone would have to agree- if there is one dissenting party (seems to be the big 10) then it probably won't happen

a few will go to 14 though

Post #111 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:24 pm

craig01 wrote:
DelaneyRudd wrote:Its gonna happen. 16s here we come.

I'm not so sure the SEC will go past 14.

16 makes for easier and more consistent scheduling.

Post #112 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:31 pm

Friend_Of_Haley wrote:As a Midwest guy and general Big10 fan, I hope they don't jump on the 16 bandwagon unless its for real assets like Texas/Notre Dame. They have a solid 12 right now.

Notre Dame, Missouri, Rutgers, Kansas is a solid group.

Big10 adds Notre Dame, MO, Rutgers, Kansas
SEC can add A&M, Baylor, WVA and TCU
PAC12 can add TX, Texas Tech, OK, OKSt.
ACC adds Connecticut and Louisville

Iowa St., K. St, Cincy, So. Florida create a new football only conference with BYU, Boise St., Hawaii, Tulsa, Central Florida, SMU, Air Force, San Diego State, Army, Navy.

Post #113 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:13 pm

I just had a BRILLIANT idea!

A FBS Football only league that has promotion and relegation every year! They get an auto bid to a BCS bowl for their champ. What about rivalries you ask? They set it up so they always have one out of conference game that will be amongst another member of this super-group of conferences. It will be scheduled after the next year lineup is announced and it will be the last game of the year so it may have promotion and relegation consequences! The bottom 4 always go out, the top four always stay and are replaced by the under league's champs.

Post #114 » by **craig01** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:15 pm

DelaneyRudd wrote:
craig01 wrote:
DelaneyRudd wrote:Its gonna happen. 16s here we come.

I'm not so sure the SEC will go past 14.

16 makes for easier and more consistent scheduling.

Disagree. There isn't any real difference between 12, 14, 16 as far as making a schedule that would work.

There is always an in-balance in the quality of opponents in of out of division games in a large conference.

Post #115 » by **craig01** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:25 pm

DelaneyRudd wrote:
Friend_Of_Haley wrote:As a Midwest guy and general Big10 fan, I hope they don't jump on the 16 bandwagon unless its for real assets like Texas/Notre Dame. They have a solid 12 right now.

Notre Dame, Missouri, Rutgers, Kansas is a solid group.

Big10 adds Notre Dame, MO, Rutgers, Kansas
SEC can add A&M, Baylor, WVA and TCU
PAC12 can add TX, Texas Tech, OK, OKSt.
ACC adds Connecticut and Louisville

Iowa St., K. St, Cincy, So. Florida create a new football only conference with BYU, Boise St., Hawaii, Tulsa, Central Florida, SMU, Air Force, San Diego State, Army, Navy.

Expect ND to remain independent

Missouri is a natural fit for the Big 10, and adding Rutgers to their fold would be totally about TV markets as Rutgers brings little to either football or basketball. But, this new wave of expansion IS about TV markets and little else. I could see this happening should the Big 10 want to get bigger.

No way the SEC would settle for Baylor or TCU. They would stay at 14 before they accepted those programs.

The ACC will take Rutgers before Louisville for the same reasons why the Big 10 would (TV)

Friend_Of_Haley · Post #116 » by **Friend_Of_Haley** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:18 am

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... -chaos/?hp

After reading that article I could see a scenario with the Big 10 getting 16 teams, but it would have to be the perfect storm.

The 4 16-team super conferences are fun for fans to think about, but in reality would almost require the conferences to coordinate. As the article points out, the SEC and Big10 don't have a ton of motivation to expand from their current state.

Post #117 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:46 am

craig01 wrote:
DelaneyRudd wrote:
Friend_Of_Haley wrote:As a Midwest guy and general Big10 fan, I hope they don't jump on the 16 bandwagon unless its for real assets like Texas/Notre Dame. They have a solid 12 right now.

Notre Dame, Missouri, Rutgers, Kansas is a solid group.

Big10 adds Notre Dame, MO, Rutgers, Kansas
SEC can add A&M, Baylor, WVA and TCU
PAC12 can add TX, Texas Tech, OK, OKSt.
ACC adds Connecticut and Louisville

Iowa St., K. St, Cincy, So. Florida create a new football only conference with BYU, Boise St., Hawaii, Tulsa, Central Florida, SMU, Air Force, San Diego State, Army, Navy.

Expect ND to remain independent

Missouri is a natural fit for the Big 10, and adding Rutgers to their fold would be totally about TV markets as Rutgers brings little to either football or basketball. But, this new wave of expansion IS about TV markets and little else. I could see this happening should the Big 10 want to get bigger.

No way the SEC would settle for Baylor or TCU. They would stay at 14 before they accepted those programs.

The ACC will take Rutgers before Louisville for the same reasons why the Big 10 would (TV)

It would take a lot, but if 4 groups of 16 becomes the norm, that could leave Notre Dame out of a playoff situation. These 4 leagues will have the power to play itself down to a final 4. It would be easy to just have the Rose Bowl Winner play the Orange Bowl Winner.

chadrucf · Post #118 » by **chadrucf** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:35 pm

Even if it was 4 16 team conferences in a playoff format, I would expect there to be spots for a "best of the rest" team no in one of those 4 conferences. If they did not, if would truly be a physical separation of college football into more divisions. I cannot see the 4 conferences making a clean break from the other schools unless the NCAA is disbanded.

chadrucf · Post #119 » by **chadrucf** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:56 pm

Very interesting article on fanbases and tv markets:

http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0 ... -chaos/?hp

Post #120 » by **DelaneyRudd** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 2:27 am

Notre Dame has fans dying off.... but besides that point.

The reason they keep independence is because they are better off financially with a national product on a national network. The new Cable only reality is that the major conferences can push Notre Dame out of the prime spots and demand more money on average per team than Notre Dame gets by itself. They would love nothing more than to continue this arrangement but the fact is the more powerful the conferences become the less power they have to keep up. With only 4 mega conferences they will have a much harder time scheduling. They won't have their basketball conference to fall on for a few non-ridiculous games and they won't be able to schedule 4/5ths home games. USC will play at the end of the season, but you'd be looking at BYU and the Sun Belt for the other teams if there are 4 conferences of any significance.

The problem could be if there's too much separation. If these 4 big conferences are the only way to get to the NFL you will never see any decent recruit go to a New Mexico or Tulsa. If the separation in the bowls and the schedule gets too divided the same separation between haves and have nots will work itself into the new system. Look at the FBS and FCS. Dominant FCS teams like Villanova and Montana get rocked by FBS also rans. When Appalachian St. wins one game it's like Miracle on Ice. San Jose State beating Missouri wouldn't rock the world like that. The larger pool creates more opportunity to move up and down.