I apologize if anyone has had this idea before but I was thinking about the struggles of some of the programs in FBS, and wanted to rehash the tired geographic argument that gets thrown around often.


Everyone likes the easy argument that teams should reorganize into regional conferences to save cost on travel. That's a fair argument to make, but I don't think it goes far enough. The MAC is very regional, and very stable, but the programs are withering on the vine (for the most part). Just take a look at EMU, and their athletic department.

What these 3 conferences should do is reorganize into 5 conferences of 8, and form a scheduling / media consortium. Instead of 3 conferences bustling to claw each others way out of the bucket, you have 5 conferences working together as a bloc, negotiating schedules, negotiating media rights, bowl arrangements, and an unofficial "playoff".


First, how does it look? I'm sure many will argue this arrangement, but I put together the most regional-centric programs together.

Southeast
• FIU
• FAU
• Georgia State
• Georgia Southern
• Troy
• Coastal
• Charlotte
• USA
  

Texas
• UTEP
• NMSU
• UNT
• Rice
• UTSA
• Texas State
• Ark State
• ULM
  

Heartland
• ULaLa
• USM
• UAB
• WKU
• MTSU
• ODU
• LA Tech
• App State
  

Northeast
• JMU
• Liberty
• Marshall
• Buffalo
• UMass
• Ohio
• Akron
• Kent State
  

Midwest
• CMU
• WMU
• EMU
• NIU
• Ball State
• Toledo
• BGSU
• Miami (Ohio)
  

Second, the premise? Ok so the idea is to play 11 games total. 7 conference games, with 4 out of conference games. These Out of conference games are managed by the Consortium commissioner. No FCS games, 2 of any of P5 + AAC + MWC games, and 2 games of regional rivals within the consortium (for example, ODU no doubt wants to play App and JMU, right?). When you have a single source of negotiation, you can have more leverage at the table to earn more money against buy-games, and maybe even schedule home and homes you would not be able to before. Not to mention, when negotiating media rights as a bloc, you also have more inventory and leverage.


So why just 11 games? Put simply, to allow to recreate a playoff of sorts, without putting extraneous effort on a team with postseason potential. Of the 5 conferences in the consortium, the top 4 ranked team from will faceoff in a semifinal taken place at the highest seeded teams home stadium, in weeks 13 (assuming bye week) with the championship game in week 14. This allows a potential NY6 candidate a better Strength of Schedule argument to make if they were to beat 2 strong G5 candidates, without having to actually play more games to do so.

What about the other teams that want a 12 game season? As shown by FSU, Memphis, and UCF this past season, it is allowable by the NCAA to schedule games within the season. Now that you have potentially 36 teams that need a 12th game to end the season, it becomes even easier to schedule a 12th game, and can even be done on a home-home agreement for years that both teams are not in the semifinals.


TL;DR - Have a G5 playoff, without dividing and separating the G5 from FBS, negotiate media, scheduling, and postseason as a bloc, have more power and leverage, with a regional conference schedule, minimized travel costs and regional interest.

I am sure there are a lot of hurdles when it comes to auto-bids to the NCAA, payouts, etc., but this is at least well thought out and somewhat reasonable which is why it will never happen.

(03-23-2018 09:39 AM)freshtop Wrote:  I am sure there are a lot of hurdles when it comes to auto-bids to the NCAA, payouts, etc., but this is at least well thought out and somewhat reasonable which is why it will never happen.

From a CFP payout, that should be easy to redistribute, as there are only the additions of NMSU, UMass, Liberty, and JMU to consider. The per team payout should remain relatively the same, and may even increase for most, with the reduction from 12 or 14 teams to 8 teams for the MAC and C-USA.

NCAA bids may be a bit more tricky. I'm not sure what could be done there, but certainly negotiations can be done.

For rivalry purposes, I would switch Appalachian St and Charlotte.

(03-23-2018 09:51 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  For rivalry purposes, I would switch Appalachian St and Charlotte.

For rivalry purposes I propose App State stay in the Sun Belt. We love to hate GaSo, and have grown a damn good rivalry with both Troy and Ark State. CCU draws a dang good crowd to Kidd Brewer Stadium too.

I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

Tim Brando was pushing a similar idea on "The Audible" Podcast this week. Starts around the 25 minute mark. His idea is that the entire G5 should do it. Basically, his idea isnt nearly as elaborate as what the OP proposed.
He just says the G5 needs to form a media rights coalition. The problem is, I dont think you'd get the AAC to participate unless it appears their new deal is going to be a complete bust. Everything the AAC has done the last 2 years appears to be about separating themselves from the rest of the G5---so it would require a complete 180 for the AAC to embrace a concept like Brando is pushing.

https://audioboom.com/posts/6733253-3-19...tim-brando

That said, I could see something like the OP being a pretty interesting concept that might attract some decent coverage and a nice media deal.

For television purposes it would be wise if the MAC, Sunbelt, and CUSA worked together.

The congressional districts of Pennsylvania made more geographical sense than these groups.

(03-23-2018 10:12 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  The congressional districts of Pennsylvania made more geographical sense than these groups.

You're welcome to propose your own if you want.

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

No, switch with Troy and USA. They are literally in the same state as the others in that region.

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

You have the Tidewater and the Mississippi Delta together. It doesn't get any wonkier

(03-23-2018 10:14 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

No, switch with Troy and USA. They are literally in the same state as the others in that region.

But then you just have a conference that extends from Miami to Boone, NC. Is that really that much better?

(03-23-2018 10:17 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 10:14 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

No, switch with Troy and USA. They are literally in the same state as the others in that region.

But then you just have a conference that extends from Miami to Boone, NC. Is that really that much better?

It already extends from Miami to Charlotte, is that extra 100 miles to Boone the bridge too far?

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

Geographically App State, ODU, JMU, Charlotte, Liberty, Marshall and Coastal Carolina are the closest to each other.

(03-23-2018 10:20 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 10:17 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 10:14 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

No, switch with Troy and USA. They are literally in the same state as the others in that region.

But then you just have a conference that extends from Miami to Boone, NC. Is that really that much better?

It already extends from Miami to Charlotte, is that extra 100 miles to Boone the bridge too far?

That's a fair point.

The problem is drawing the line somewhere and outliers. FIU/FAU are going to be far from everybody but if you start there and move North you end up cutting off two schools within a couple hundred miles of each other. If you say the outliers are going to far from everybody anyway so put them wherever then the FL schools end up in the NE. I think you need more flexibility in conference sizes maybe.

(03-23-2018 10:21 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:57 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(03-23-2018 09:53 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I dont think App State and ODU belong in the "Heartland" portion if geography matters. They're hundreds to thousands of miles from those other schools.

How would you rearrange the teams to make it work? If you put ODU and App in another one, you have to shift two teams into an equally wonky arrangement.

Geographically App State, ODU, JMU, Charlotte, Liberty, Marshall and Coastal Carolina are the closest to each other.

Yep

(03-23-2018 10:27 AM)mturn017 Wrote:  The problem is drawing the line somewhere and outliers. FIU/FAU are going to be far from everybody but if you start there and move North you end up cutting off two schools within a couple hundred miles of each other. If you say the outliers are going to far from everybody anyway so put them wherever then the FL schools end up in the NE. I think you need more flexibility in conference sizes maybe.

Don't forget, the geographic proximity isn't the primary driver. It will never be 100% perfect in terms of arrangements, no matter if the conferences are 10, 12, 8, or 6 in size. That's what the OOC slots are for though. If you really insist on playing a team not within your own conference yearly, then you are one of the lucky ones because then you can arrange an annual series with them ala Army/Navy, or Colorado/CSU, etc. Try utilizing that.