(04-05-2024 06:44 AM)ken d Wrote: (04-04-2024 08:52 PM)Porcine Wrote: (04-04-2024 08:32 PM)ken d Wrote: I'm rooting for a 72 team top tier, with 3 conferences of 24 schools each, in which each of the three have their own media deal, and the rest of the FBS gets no more than one autobid to a playoff. If those 65 or so teams want to form a super-conference to determine who that one bid goes to, that's fine with me. I just don't see it happening. That many schools aren't likely to agree to relegate themselves just so a few of them get better odds of playing in a CFP.
With 72, you can have 8 9team conferences. Round robin in all sports, + double round robin in basketball. It would be much like it used to be. Each conference could be a division of a massive conference, which would be the same but possibly a better sell.
For reasons JR articulated well, there is more value to maintaining a rivalry between the B1G and the SEC than having them in a single conference. And, those two conferences won't agree to giving up the financial advantages they feel (rightly, IMO) that they have earned by sharing their wealth with a third or fourth power conference that has less market value.
With 24 team leagues, these can have four six team divisions which keeps more schools in the playoff mix deeper into the season to enhance the value of late season division games.
In my model, the SEC gets to 24 teams by adding 7 from the ACC (Clemson, Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Florida State) plus Kansas from the Big 12.
The B1G adds Cal, Stanford, Notre Dame, Pitt, Colorado and Utah.
The third conference consists of:
Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Oregon State,
San Diego State and Washington State
Baylor, Iowa State,
Memphis, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech
Georgia Tech, Houston, Miami, SMU, TCU, and UCF
Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and West Virginia
By adding SDSU and Memphis, this new conference retains all the states currently represented in the AAC Network except Virginia, South Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania, but adds Washington, Oregon, Tennessee, Arizona, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, West Virginia and Ohio, for a net gain of about 20 million population.
For hoops, these 24 team conferences could function as either two 12 team conferences or three 8 team leagues