JRsec
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RE: Best Plausible ACC Expansion
(07-01-2018 08:51 PM)Wolfman Wrote: (06-30-2018 03:05 AM)JRsec Wrote: (06-30-2018 12:02 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote: Functionally, ESPN could put together the conferences looking something like this division wise:
Plains Division: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri
Texas Division: Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, TCU,
Delta Division: Ole Miss, Miss State, LSU, Arkansas, Alabama
Gulf Division: Auburn, Florida State, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida
South Atlantic Division: Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, Clemson, South Carolina, Miami
Mid-South Division: North Carolina, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest, Virginia
Northeast Division: Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Syracuse
Midwest Division: Iowa State, Notre Dame, Louisville, Kentucky, Cincinnati
Minimal divisions grouped by tight geography allows you to arbitrarily control how heavily you mix over in scheduling. I've paired them where obvious crossovers are apparent, including in the nearest cross pairing.
You would need a league office with the elimination of the two conference offices. Keep the most central site (probably still Birmingham or move it to Nashville) sell the other sites for commercial value. Have 1 commissioner. Utilize Charlotte, Dallas, and Bristol studios and devote 1 channel to each two divisions. The SEC has two channels dedicated and one overflow. Use all of those channel numbers to present 4 sets of games across 3 time slots each week for the bundling of the divisional network channels. Charge the 1.35 the SECN gets today for all of it. Play 10 conference games and 2 OOC games for a total of 12 P games. No G5 and no FCS games. Play our 4 divisional games and rotate 3 games against the closest other 3 divisions. Play 3 permanent rivals.
Have one office for training and standardization of officials. And negotiate our contracts as one unit. And have 1 standard for stipends and requirements for venues and student athlete's living accommodations.
But here's what I would suggest with regard to your divisional set up. The divisions are fine. But require all schools to have no subsidies and to fund sports fully regardless of whether they are private or not. A core of standard sports that they must play should be set as well. If some can't handle that and drop out, then the league can either add other schools, or drop down to say 36 overall schools instead of 40.
I don't think that Cincinnati, or 3 other schools could make it without subsidies and with a required number of sports.
I had in mind these for the core sports, and keep in mind I'm blending the sports cultures of the three regions:
Men's sports:
Football
Basketball
Baseball
Lacrosse
Soccer
Wrestling
Track & Field (Indoor and Outdoor)
Swimming & Diving
Tennis
Golf
Women's sports:
Basketball
Softball
Lacrosse
Soccer
Volleyball
Track & Field (Indoor and Outdoor)
Swimming and Diving
Tennis
Golf
1 Other to be determined at the formation of the League (maybe an Olympic sport).
With the leverage the League would have in selling sports rights, and with the added sports representing a unifying force for the league, the content value of the League would be extensive. Of course schools can supply their niche sports (shooting, bowling, equestrian, etc.) on their own.
If some privates can't afford football then they may join in all sports but. I could see Vanderbilt, Wake, Duke, and perhaps another opting for this. That way basketball rivals and baseball teams stay in business and the content value for football goes up.
We could easily wind up with 36 football playing members and 40 members total for all other sports.
Anyway some kind of concept like this would work with a little standardization for play and officials and by streamlining the overhead of management and making use of existing channels. The internal playoff for the championship could involve 8 divisional champs being seeded and playing it down. The champ would face the surviving challenger of the other conferences or league.
What if this setup was for football only? It could alleviate some/all Title IX issues, or possibly create more. The existing conferences would remain intact for Olympic sports including basketball.
That might be a way to get started, but the leverage of negotiating all things together and eliminating costly duplication of overhead would be a big plus toward increasing profits. There's no reason to prevent most of our conferences from essentially staying together in divisions and certainly deference would be given to playing your most familiar foes.
The vast part of the problems our conferences face right now are old ways, inefficient ways of conducting business, the duplication of overhead between the Big 12/ACC/&SEC accounts for 3 full share a year or roughly 106 million a year. If we manage to cut that to 1/3rd that's enough for each school to earn an additional 1.7-1.9 million a year. Then you have some massive values in corporate real estate that is also duplicated. Sell it and make a one time allocation to the 36 to 40 schools that might comprise our league. That money would go a long way to alleviating some existing debt among those schools, or in the creation, or addition to, athletic endowments.
The core sports could be decided by consensus. The smaller the core the less Title IX gets involved and the more each school is free to decide for themselves which ones they will elect to play.
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Never happen. 
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