What if College football realigned like this?
CFB realignment currently always focuses on making one or two leagues mega conferences in terms of revenue and competition while taking from everyone else but is that better than building the sport nationally and maybe increasing the size of the whole pie so that the product is better? I don't think so.
What if we could bring back every important traditional rivalry within conference games and create 4 equal leagues? The only recently built rivalry that suffers from conference games is PSU vs OSU and while that is a great game I think PSU fans might see advantages of what is developed below and could be played OOC.
What if 72 teams broke away and formed this?
B1G: OSU, Mich., ND, MSU, Wisky, Ia., Illinois, NU, Ind., Purdue, Mn., USC, UCLA, UW, Or., Cal, Stanford, AZ.
**this gives ND all of its big rivalries in conference and its a midwestern school and still maintains a wide footprint and brings back all the old Rose Bowl rivalries.
ACC: PSU, Maryland, Rutgers, WVU, Clemson, NC, NC ST., Duke, BC, Va Tech, Va., WF, Ga. Tech, Syracuse, Pitt., UCONN, Cincy, UCF or USF,
brings back old Big East rivalry games and gives them PSU to headline the league for football and PSU is set up as king of the region for recruiting, exposure.
Big 12: UT, OU, Neb., A&M, Arky, TT, KU, KSU, ISU, Missouri, Col., Baylor, TCU, ASU, Utah, BYU, Boise St., Houston
Brings back the rivalries mentioned earlier.
SEC: Bama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, MSU, Fl., Ga., KY, Tn., SC, Vandy, FSU, Miami, Louisville, Cincy Plus 2 more. also, if SEC wanted all of Florida they add UCF & USC and the ACC takes others.
This gives the SEC two past football schools in FSU & Miami and they pretty much own the state of Florida. Louisville and Cincy fit in the northern footprint well and add basketball.
You can argue the last team or two in the B12/ACC & SEC but what fan wouldn't enjoy seeing these rivalries come back all within conferences? They are all pretty equal and engage all regions of the country and then division 1 can negotiate their contract as one.
Each league gets to 18 and conferences have 6-8 teams compete in conference playoffs to determine the CFP. Bowl games are finished. Have a single set of division standings and each league goes to 10 games. Some games are locked in every year, some are every other year, some are every 3 years and some maybe even every 4 years. Play the games that are most important more often. The non conference games would do away with FCS and even what are now G5 games and would be such a higher quality game.
Can anyone argue this wouldn't be better for College football?
|