You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
Which opponent in the AAC would you have Tulane play in the AAC championship before you'd start saying, "you know what, that opponent is too weak and the other conference winners should be going instead of Tulane?"
The answer is no one really does this, it's a popularity and eyecandy contest and not a ratings contest, so it doesn't really matter. Ao it really doesn't matter who they play so long as they win the championship game.
(This post was last modified: 11-30-2023 11:57 PM by CoachMaclid.)
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
Which opponent in the AAC would you have Tulane play in the AAC championship before you'd start saying, "you know what, that opponent is too weak and the other conference winners should be going instead of Tulane?"
The answer is no one really does this, it's a popularity and eyecandy contest and not a ratings contest, so it doesn't really matter. Ao it really doesn't matter who they play so long as they win the championship game.
Not sure what you're driving at.
The AAC doesn't have divisions and their 2 best rated teams are playing in the CCG.
All FBS conferences, except the Sun Belt, are going without divisions. They are doing it for a reason.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
Which opponent in the AAC would you have Tulane play in the AAC championship before you'd start saying, "you know what, that opponent is too weak and the other conference winners should be going instead of Tulane?"
The answer is no one really does this, it's a popularity and eyecandy contest and not a ratings contest, so it doesn't really matter. Ao it really doesn't matter who they play so long as they win the championship game.
Not sure what you're driving at.
The AAC doesn't have divisions and their 2 best rated teams are playing in the CCG.
All FBS conferences, except the Sun Belt, are going without divisions. They are doing it for a reason.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
Which opponent in the AAC would you have Tulane play in the AAC championship before you'd start saying, "you know what, that opponent is too weak and the other conference winners should be going instead of Tulane?"
The answer is no one really does this, it's a popularity and eyecandy contest and not a ratings contest, so it doesn't really matter. Ao it really doesn't matter who they play so long as they win the championship game.
Not sure what you're driving at.
The AAC doesn't have divisions and their 2 best rated teams are playing in the CCG.
All FBS conferences, except the Sun Belt, are going without divisions. They are doing it for a reason.
Indeed, this year is the exact reason that the AAC is doing it ... because they are taking their top two schools, they are as close as possible to a lock, with SMU having a strong chance of leapfrogging Liberty with a win, because they would have a top 25 win on their resume.
Plus, their media partner would much rather having a game between a 11-1 team and a 10-2 team where either school has a shot at the Access Bowl than a snoozefest between an 11-1 team and a 6-6 AAC East champion, where the 6-6 East champion does not have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting to the Access Bowl.
Quote: And it won't be long before the SBC follows suit.
Everything else equal, it's better for a Go5 conference to have a divisionless shedule and a top 2 CCG, but it's not like everything else is equal with the SBC ... they expanded to 14 rather than 12 in order to get these divisions, which for almost all of the schools are the schools they want to see on their schedules in order to help sell season tickets. Marshall left CUSA for the SBC in order to get the SBC-East schools coming to it's stadium every other year. It's not going to vote to lose swap those home games for SBC-West home games.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
The Mountain West doesn't use divisions. Their championship game tomorrow is 7-5 Boise State @ 9-3 UNLV.
So no, getting rid of divisions doesn't remove that possibility.
Based on this thread, it seems like winning a division in other conferences doesn't mean much to most schools. Winning the SBC East means a lot to those of us in it.
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2023 08:58 AM by Yosef181.)
(11-30-2023 04:15 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote: In reality I could see a world where the SBC protects a majority of current divisional matchups (say 4/6) and then also go divisionless. Everybody is going to want their best 2 teams playing to best position their winner for that CFP spot.
EDIT: I wonder if the Sun Belt is debating and voting on it soon and will announce it after this year's Championship Game.
The Sun Belt can simply retain a divisional structure to their scheduling and just not actually split the teams into divisions.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
The Mountain West doesn't use divisions. Their championship game tomorrow is 7-5 Boise State @ 9-3 UNLV.
So no, getting rid of divisions doesn't remove that possibility.
Based on this thread, it seems like winning a division in other conferences doesn't mean much to most schools. Winning the SBC East means a lot to those of us in it.
I do hope the Sun Belt keeps divisions.
It helps out the other G5s.
While the Sun Belt can have bragging rights to having the strongest G5 conference, the others G5s can focus on having the best team in the conference become champ.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
Which opponent in the AAC would you have Tulane play in the AAC championship before you'd start saying, "you know what, that opponent is too weak and the other conference winners should be going instead of Tulane?"
The answer is no one really does this, it's a popularity and eyecandy contest and not a ratings contest, so it doesn't really matter. Ao it really doesn't matter who they play so long as they win the championship game.
Not sure what you're driving at.
The AAC doesn't have divisions and their 2 best rated teams are playing in the CCG.
All FBS conferences, except the Sun Belt, are going without divisions. They are doing it for a reason.
Indeed, this year is the exact reason that the AAC is doing it ... because they are taking their top two schools, they are as close as possible to a lock, with SMU having a strong chance of leapfrogging Liberty with a win, because they would have a top 25 win on their resume.
Plus, their media partner would much rather having a game between a 11-1 team and a 10-2 team where either school has a shot at the Access Bowl than a snoozefest between an 11-1 team and a 6-6 AAC East champion, where the 6-6 East champion does not have a snowball's chance in Hades of getting to the Access Bowl.
Quote: And it won't be long before the SBC follows suit.
Everything else equal, it's better for a Go5 conference to have a divisionless shedule and a top 2 CCG, but it's not like everything else is equal with the SBC ... they expanded to 14 rather than 12 in order to get these divisions, which for almost all of the schools are the schools they want to see on their schedules in order to help sell season tickets. Marshall left CUSA for the SBC in order to get the SBC-East schools coming to it's stadium every other year. It's not going to vote to lose swap those home games for SBC-West home games.
Well, in that case, you can set it up so that you still have divisions, and you can still get your trophy for winning the East or West Divisions, but....
Still set it up so the 2 best teams go to the CCG. After all, it's up to the conference what 2 teams they send to CCG. They dont necessarily have to send the division winners.
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2023 09:22 AM by goofus.)
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
The Mountain West doesn't use divisions. Their championship game tomorrow is 7-5 Boise State @ 9-3 UNLV.
So no, getting rid of divisions doesn't remove that possibility.
Based on this thread, it seems like winning a division in other conferences doesn't mean much to most schools. Winning the SBC East means a lot to those of us in it.
I do hope the Sun Belt keeps divisions.
It helps out the other G5s.
While the Sun Belt can have bragging rights to having the strongest G5 conference, the others G5s can focus on having the best team in the conference become champ.
Which is how you earn a playoff spot.
I have pretty good feeling that at least one of the division winners will be the best team and they won't be sitting at home while two other schools play in the championship game.
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
The Mountain West doesn't use divisions. Their championship game tomorrow is 7-5 Boise State @ 9-3 UNLV.
So no, getting rid of divisions doesn't remove that possibility.
Based on this thread, it seems like winning a division in other conferences doesn't mean much to most schools. Winning the SBC East means a lot to those of us in it.
I think winning a division is important to schools everywhere. All schools like hanging banners.
However, it’s simply a completely new world next season. Every CCG has to be looked at as a potential playoff game for a league, especially for the G5 where an upset can completely change the financial and exposure fortunes for a conference in a way that the P4 are largely insulated from. It can’t be compared today’s format where the G5 CCGs outside of the AAC have largely been for lower tier bowl spots.
To my knowledge, there’s nothing keeping the SBC (or any league) from maintaining divisions while taking the top two teams irrespective of division for the title game. So if, say, App State is 8-0, Georgia Southern is 7-1 and South Alabama is 6-2, then App is the East champ and USA is the West champ but the title game is App-GS.
(12-01-2023 09:39 AM)Cyniclone Wrote: To my knowledge, there’s nothing keeping the SBC (or any league) from maintaining divisions while taking the top two teams irrespective of division for the title game. So if, say, App State is 8-0, Georgia Southern is 7-1 and South Alabama is 6-2, then App is the East champ and USA is the West champ but the title game is App-GS.
(12-01-2023 09:39 AM)Cyniclone Wrote: To my knowledge, there’s nothing keeping the SBC (or any league) from maintaining divisions while taking the top two teams irrespective of division for the title game. So if, say, App State is 8-0, Georgia Southern is 7-1 and South Alabama is 6-2, then App is the East champ and USA is the West champ but the title game is App-GS.
The only cost is the reduction in the value of late season games with the division championship on the line ... I can see the SBC East schools wanting the division crown to be "meaningful" for the same reasons that they want their division partners to be showing up at their stadiums.
Having divisions and having division crowns but not selecting the division winners for the playoff seems like the kind of weird betwixt and between solution that comes up on a discussion forum like this but are not going to be in the shortlist of options where the decision is actually going to be made.
For the MAC, while Kent State may prefer Bowling Green to show up in Portage County every second year rather than every third year, I don't think OhioU, MiamiU and Buffalo versus Ball State, WMU and CMU is any appreciable difference. So long as the wagon wheel is played every year and the Ohio based MAC schools show up with some regularity, it's fine, and seeing Toledo a lot more often does compensate some for seeing Bowling Green 33% less often.
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2023 10:15 AM by BruceMcF.)
It's not like G5 conferences will normally have 2 teams that could compete for that playoff spot in the same division. One team will have to go undefeated/basically undefeated no matter what system you use, so even if you pit the two best teams together and the 2nd best team wins they still aren't going to the playoff. There's the argument that you raise the profile of one squad by having them play the second best team to raise their SOS, but if the 2nd best was in their division they would have already played them, and going to a 'pods' or designated rivals would leave you open to them actually playing a weaker schedule than they would have if you had just kept divisions.
(11-30-2023 04:15 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote: In reality I could see a world where the SBC protects a majority of current divisional matchups (say 4/6) and then also go divisionless. Everybody is going to want their best 2 teams playing to best position their winner for that CFP spot.
EDIT: I wonder if the Sun Belt is debating and voting on it soon and will announce it after this year's Championship Game.
The Sun Belt can simply retain a divisional structure to their scheduling and just not actually split the teams into divisions.
We could, but the divisional inbalance at present would make that unfair to the Eastern schools. The West was literally Troy and then 6 Mediocre to bad teams, many of whom are in full rebuilds. Maintaining the divisional structure without the divisions would pretty much guarantee Troy in the title game most years, and do nothing to have schools play each other more often.
Everything I have heard is that there's almost zero support for eliminating divisions.
I'm saying you retain the schedule as if there were East and West Divisions, but have all the teams in a single slate for determining CCG participants. If the East is significantly stronger than the West, this should give a (deserved) advantage to the East teams, since 2 of them can potentially make the CCG.
Its not though, that's the thing.
Last year 2 West teams would have played in the CCG under such a format because there's so few crossover games between divisions.
(11-30-2023 04:15 PM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote: In reality I could see a world where the SBC protects a majority of current divisional matchups (say 4/6) and then also go divisionless. Everybody is going to want their best 2 teams playing to best position their winner for that CFP spot.
EDIT: I wonder if the Sun Belt is debating and voting on it soon and will announce it after this year's Championship Game.
The Sun Belt can simply retain a divisional structure to their scheduling and just not actually split the teams into divisions.
After playing around with different models it becomes too complex trying to cover every base and I agree our current divisional opponents are just best for everyone. Whether we drop divisions for standings sake we will see but as chief said I don’t think that’s best either.
(This post was last modified: 12-01-2023 03:29 PM by Troy_Fan_15.)
You can make your schedule any way you want. Schedule it the same way as always if desired.
But getting rid of the divisions removes that possibility of a 10-2 west team going against a 7-5 east team AND that 7-5 team actually winning and costing the conference a chance at a playoff spot. Especially when there was a 9-3 west team available.
It's happened more than once with divisions.
The Mountain West doesn't use divisions. Their championship game tomorrow is 7-5 Boise State @ 9-3 UNLV.
So no, getting rid of divisions doesn't remove that possibility.
Based on this thread, it seems like winning a division in other conferences doesn't mean much to most schools. Winning the SBC East means a lot to those of us in it.
One year ASU won the SBC after starting off 0-4 in non-conference play lol.
(12-01-2023 10:20 AM)templefootballfan Wrote: 10 game losing stk by B-10 West div shows div do work. CBS picked MWC teams, B-12 changed tie breaker wk 10
Hey, you are getting ahead of yourself. The Big Ten West won't have a 10 game losing streak until after Saturday's game.
/
MAC Establishes New Football Schedule Model
