(10-05-2018 05:02 PM)XLance Wrote:  Actually the best alignment is to have 6 conferences, all regionally specific.

I'll start with the ACC:
UVa, Carolina, State, Wake, Duke, Clemson, GT, FSU, Miami and Vanderbilt

The NE conference:
BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, WVU, Rutgers, Maryland, Penn State, Notre Dame (PARTIAL), Virginia Tech

The SEC:
Florida, Georgia, SC, Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, MSU, Ole Miss, LSU, A&M, ARk.

Big 10
OSU, Mich, Minn, Wisc, Ill, Ind, Purdue, NW, Iowa, MSU

Plains:
Iowa St., Nebraska, Kansas, KSU, Oklahoma, OSU, Texas, TT, Baylor, TCU, Missouri

PAC:
Wash, wSU, Oregon, OSU, Stan., Cal, UCLA, USC, Ariz, ASU, Utah, Colorado

The Plains Conference could add Colorado if the PAC was willing to take BYU as a football only member.

For your benefit TerryD.

That will be impossible. The question are the schools that are G5, but P5 conferences are calling them P5 to help the SoS. Look at Kansas? They bring the SoS down in the Big 12. The conferences could break away by becoming stronger if they grab the best schools from the G5. We know many of them have beaten P5 schools in recent years. 4x16 P4 conferences still would not allow them to break away further.

(10-06-2018 02:03 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  

(10-03-2018 08:50 AM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Since I recently learned that Missouri is bound to the SEC -- or ESPN, I guess -- by a grant of media rights until 2033-34, my optimism for a 4x16 power conference alignment within the next several years has waned significantly. (I was already rather pessimistic.) As I see it, the main problem is the Big Ten finding #16, assuming Kansas is #15. The conference's high academic standards severely limit their options. All ACC schools, including ND, are out due to their grant of media rights (which expires 2035-36), so no Virginia, UNC, Duke, or GT even if there were a mutual interest. Pitt is out due to the ACC GoR and market redundancy. Iowa State is out due to market redundancy. The big prizes would be Oklahoma and Texas, but the Big Ten landing even one of them would cut off the most likely expansion route for either the Pac (UT and friends) or the SEC (OU/OSU).

So here's a "Hail Mary" -- Colorado to the Big Ten. Seems implausible, especially given CU's attraction to California and that they only just recently received access to it by joining the Pac. However, despite being a geographic outlier for the Big Ten, CU does meet the academic criteria and would add a new market. There's also the resumption of the Colorado-Nebraska annual series, if that has any merit at all.

Running with this admittedly unlikely scenario, if the Pac were to lose Colorado, they would presumably want a replacement. Would Colorado State suffice? They're a clear second banana in the state, but their academics are good (though not CU good), they've got a brand new stadium, and the Pac would at least retain some presence in the Denver market.

Any thoughts?

Like your Hail Mary idea, but, let's tweak it a tad. The Big Ten goes for USC. Yep, don't adjust your computer monitor, you read right, USC to the Big Ten. USC to the Big Ten accomplishes a lot of the same things that Texas to the Big Ten would, and I don't see the SEC opposing that move. USC has been on record that it has not been happy with the performance of the Pac 12 Network, and has hinted at possibly leaving the Pac12 over this. This would also be the catalyst to the Pac 12 Network shopping itself to ESPN or Fox, though I have a feeling that ESPN might be preferred. Now this puts the SEC in a somewhat of a bind, and now they realize why they should have blocked the USC to the Big Ten move, because now ESPN can direct Texas & friends to the now Pac 11.

USC would not give up games with Stanford, Cal, and UCLA (which they care immensly about) to go to a conference where the closest member is in Lincoln, Nebraska.

USC has been with the PAC-12 for basically 100 years (originally joined the PCC in 1922, and was one of the members of the reformed AAWU (which eventually became the PAC-12). I seriously doubt that USC is going to leave the PAC-12.

If USC could play UCLA, Stanford, & Cal non-conference, I could see them doing it.

When the Big 12 and PAC-12 get left out of the college football playoff again this year, I think you will see a power conference emerge from the two of them that has the population base to sustain high level football.

USC, UCLA, Stanford, Cal, Utah will invite Oregon, Washington and Arizona to make a California Western wing of the Big16

Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas Tech, TCU, Kansas will make a play for Nebraska, Missouri and A&M. But will likely end up with 2 of Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Houston.

TCU & Baylor are no-goes for the PAC. Rice would work though...

(10-07-2018 02:05 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  If USC could play UCLA, Stanford, & Cal non-conference, I could see them doing it.

So, USC is going to play Stanford, Cal, UCLA, and Notre Dame all non-conference?

Yeah, right.

Cali-4, Washington, Oregon to B1G. Rest of PAC to XII.

(06-13-2017 10:20 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  Hi all! I'm new to the board. I'd love to see a 4x16 power conference realignment, even if simply for the symmetry and balance of it. Unfortunately, plausible routes that lead there are not so easy to envision. Below is what I think to be the most plausible route (at the moment). Feel free to critique my scenario and to post your own!

With the expiration of the Big 12's grant of media rights looming in 2025, the collapse of the conference seems imminent. Those members that have escape routes begin feeling them out, while the other conferences circle like sharks around a sinking ship.

The Pac-12 strikes first, securing the Longhorns and sealing the fate of the Big 12. Part of the deal is that three other schools in UT's backyard tag along. The Sooners balk at the offer and instead opt for the SEC. A relieved Oklahoma State also receives an invitation from the SEC (at the urging of OU and the Oklahoma state legislature). Fortunately, there isn't enough bad blood between UT and OU over the split to prevent an annual out-of-conference Red River Showdown.

The move by OU limits the Longhorns' options for travel partners. Texas Tech is deemed acceptable by the Pac, as it was when the first offer to UT was made back in 2010. The Pac sneers at TCU for being a religious school, but their academics are nothing to scoff at, so the Horned Frogs also receive an invite. In a situation similar to the formation of the Big 12 in 1996, Baylor angles for the fourth Texas slot. However, the scandal-ridden Bears are turned down, as the Pac invites Houston instead and in this manner becomes the Pac-16.

The Big Ten cannot pass up the chance to add to its basketball chops and pick up another state, admitting Kansas as its 15th member. While the Big Ten sat at an odd number of schools for two decades before the acquisition of Nebraska, it's not an ideal situation from a scheduling standpoint, so a 16th member is sought. Iowa State meets the basic qualifications but offers nothing new. The Big Ten would love to add Notre Dame, though the Irish are yoked to the ACC until the expiration of that conference's GOR in 2036.

The 16th member of the Big Ten ends up being a school which had recently begged to get in: Missouri. A school's voluntarily leaving the SEC had seemed unthinkable for many, but the Big Ten is a better fit for the Tigers in terms of culture and academics, and the timing is right. The defection is facilitated by the SEC's lack of a financial penalty for departing schools. Indignant over the coup, the SEC taps an ecstatic West Virginia as a replacement.

By this time, it has become evident that 16-school conferences are what's in. The ACC, as the weakest remaining power conference, must go with the flow or risking falling too far behind. Notre Dame also sees the writing on the wall and finally relinquishes its football independence for a spot in the ACC and a decent chance at a CFP championship. The ACC considers adding Cincinnati over Connecticut to better bolster its football reputation, but ultimately selects UConn for its stellar hoops.

Sadly, Iowa State and Kansas State fall down the AAC or MWC along with Baylor.

Thus we arrive at a 4x16 power conference alignment. (Here's a map!) Each conference consists of four 4-team "pods," which alternate between two 8-team divisions every two years. For two years it's the "Northeast" and "Southwest" Divisions, and for the next two it's the "Northwest" and "Southeast" Divisions.

ACC
East: Boston College, Connecticut, Virginia, Virginia Tech
North: Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse
South: Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami
West: Duke, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest

Protected crossovers: Boston College/Notre Dame, North Carolina/Virginia

Big Ten
East: Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers
North: Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Wisconsin
South: Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue
West: Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska

Protected crossovers: Illinois/Northwestern, Michigan/Ohio State

Pac-16
East: Houston, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech
North: Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State
South: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah
West: California, Stanford, UCLA, USC

Protected crossovers: none

SEC
East: Florida, Georgia, LSU, South Carolina
North: Kentucky, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, West Virginia
South: Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
West: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M

Protected crossovers: Alabama/Tennessee, Auburn/Georgia

Annual interconference matchups
Clemson/South Carolina
Florida/Florida State
Georgia/Georgia Tech
Kentucky/Louisville
Notre Dame/USC
Oklahoma/Texas

The conference schedule is 9 games across the board. For two years, each team plays a home-and-home against the 3 teams in its pod, the 4 other teams in its division, and 2 teams from the "opposite" pod (i.e., North vs. South, East vs. West). For the next two years, each team plays a home-and-home against the 3 teams in its pod again, the 4 other teams in its division (this time it's a different pod of 4), and the other 2 teams from the opposite pod. This way, with the exception of protected crossovers, each team plays every other team in its conference twice in 4 years.

Conference championships proceed between the two divisions as they do currently. The CFP becomes a de facto (if not de jure) competition between the champions of the four remaining power conferences.

So what do you all think? Poke (constructive) holes in this scenario if you see any, and submit your own scenarios! :)

I’m sorry but UConn will never be in the ACC. I would have rather seen you replace them with Syracuse in the North, and add West Virginia to the East. That would be a awesome pod to say the least with big rivalry game with the backyard brawl of Pitt vs WVU. You have another game nationally known with Notre Dame vs WVU, and a rivalry from the Big East days that was getting very heated with Louisville vs WVU. Plus even if there is some past blood against WVU and a majority of the ACC it just makes better sense than just adding UConn who really has nothing to offer but a very good women’s program, and the ACC already has that covered with plenty of very good women’s programs for they don’t need the Huskies.

Taking WVU out of the SEC like you have it now will mean they would need to be replaced. I think a second team from the Lonestar State maybe needed more so than brining in a team that would round you out. I would say either TCU or Houston would be teams from Texas I would look I Tom adding that would help out more so than WVU.

The Pac12 if they ever want to make money their just going to have to add schools of popularity, and in doing so means they most likely don’t fit their precious academic values. Look at Boise, Nevada, San Diego State, and Colorado State amongst the Big12 entry’s and then you have a better fit IMO.