STANZ: Re-imaging college football through geography
- Thread starter JStanz51
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Looks great. There's no major sacrifices I can see that can't be resolved by one or two OOC matchups. Our new conference seems like a perfect blend of Big 8 & Big Ten and is honestly solid. Well done.
Why not just add service academies to the closest conference?
Air Force - Northwest - Drop CSU or maybe Wyoming
Army/Navy - Could add both to Northeast - Pick any of those 2 to drop
There's a lot I like about this and it makes a lot of sense.
It would be so much fun to spend 6 weekends traveling to drive-able away games every fall.
Air Force - Northwest - Drop CSU or maybe Wyoming
Army/Navy - Could add both to Northeast - Pick any of those 2 to drop
There's a lot I like about this and it makes a lot of sense.
It would be so much fun to spend 6 weekends traveling to drive-able away games every fall.
I love these hypothetical reimaginings of CFB. I would definitely pick Hawaii over UNLV/Fresno. Also, you could swap the Washington and Oregon schools with the Nevada and Arizona schools to have Mountain and Pacific divisions, though that would probably leave the Mountain division fairly weak.
I would reconsider having season tickets if that was our conference. Several teams I don't care to see play.
Agree, but the Northeast is even worse.
It's a great concept, but I think you have to draw the lines differently to try to even it out a bit more. Gotta find a way to sneak like OU and OSU into the Central somehow? Need to have like an East Coast conference to put FSU and Florida, maybe even Georgia in with some of those teams in Stanz's Northeast conference. Throw Texas and A&M over with Arizona, Arizona State, etc.
After years of playing a tough schedule I wouldn’t mind a season in a conference of cream puffs.
I think this is pretty good, but I'm never a fan of these because it breaks up the historic members of the big 10 and big 8.
I did this for a different forum, but here's mine:
ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big 8: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Big East: Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, UCONN, UMASS, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
Conference USA: Appalachian State, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, South Florida, UCF, Western Kentucky
Independents: Army, BYU, Liberty, Navy, Notre Dame
MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
Mountain West: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, SDSU, SJSU, UNLV, UTEP, Utah State, Wyoming
PAC 8: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State
Southeast: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Southwest: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, TAMU, TTU, Utah
Sunbilt: Arkansas State, Louisiana-Laffayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, North Texas, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UTSA
We'd have 5 non-conference games which would let us play big 10 teams and would give us a lot of variety.
I did this for a different forum, but here's mine:
ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
Big 8: Colorado, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
Big East: Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, UCONN, UMASS, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
Conference USA: Appalachian State, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, FIU, Florida Atlantic, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, South Florida, UCF, Western Kentucky
Independents: Army, BYU, Liberty, Navy, Notre Dame
MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
Mountain West: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, SDSU, SJSU, UNLV, UTEP, Utah State, Wyoming
PAC 8: California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State
Southeast: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Southwest: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, TAMU, TTU, Utah
Sunbilt: Arkansas State, Louisiana-Laffayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Memphis, North Texas, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Texas State, Troy, Tulane, Tulsa, UAB, UTSA
We'd have 5 non-conference games which would let us play big 10 teams and would give us a lot of variety.
It is a good idea to prepare for Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12.
Get as many Big 10 teams as you can, cuz that's where the money is.
Get as many Big 10 teams as you can, cuz that's where the money is.
Looks familiar.... Not really an answer to today's challenges or mass desire for more regional rivalries.
I did a similar "8x10" exercise at one point.
I originally had UConn instead of Army for the Northeast Conference, but they now need the downgrade at this point. I imagine you can replace Army and Navy with UConn and probably somebody like VCU for basketball.
I originally had UConn instead of Army for the Northeast Conference, but they now need the downgrade at this point. I imagine you can replace Army and Navy with UConn and probably somebody like VCU for basketball.
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Very interesting and much of it makes sense. However, the one point that I will take issue with is this statement: "This commissioner will not answer to any particular group."
I think having a national commissioner will undermine the whole thing. The commissioner will indeed answer to a particular group, namely whomever is paying the broadcast rights. We have already seen how much the media focuses on the Playoffs and National Championship. Personally, I love the independent conferences and bowl games. That is what protects our local interests. I can tolerate the problems related to not having a national commissioner. Once we move in that direction, the national championship will be even more of the focus and local traditions will mean less and less.
Centralized power has its good points, but it also tends to focus on national issues at the expense of local issues (and control), as well as making least common denominator decisions.
I think having a national commissioner will undermine the whole thing. The commissioner will indeed answer to a particular group, namely whomever is paying the broadcast rights. We have already seen how much the media focuses on the Playoffs and National Championship. Personally, I love the independent conferences and bowl games. That is what protects our local interests. I can tolerate the problems related to not having a national commissioner. Once we move in that direction, the national championship will be even more of the focus and local traditions will mean less and less.
Centralized power has its good points, but it also tends to focus on national issues at the expense of local issues (and control), as well as making least common denominator decisions.
I shared this with Dan Wetzel from Yahoo Sports a year ago and he liked it a lot:
Realign into seven 10-team conferences to facilitate an 8-team playoff and improve the value of all conferences in advance of negotiations for new media deals. Doing so would eliminate the issue of unbalanced conference schedules and facilitate a CFP with 7 automatic qualifiers and one at-large team while keeping the college football calendar as-is (a must for approval by the Presidents) and keeping the existing bowl system intact.
The realigned conferences would be focused on re-establishing the Pac-12, Big 10, SEC and ACC (kind of) to their 10 team roots with the other 3 conferences as follows:
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Pac 10: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State
ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami FL, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
“Big Northeast”: Boston College, Louisville, Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech, West Virginia,
Big 12: Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M
Mountain West: Baylor, Boise State, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico, Texas Tech, TCU, Utah, Wyoming
Independent: Notre Dame (who can join the existing Big East private schools for their other sports)
Each conference plays a 9 game round robin with the 7 conference champs auto qualifying for the 8 team playoff. The one at-large team and seeding would be determined by the CFP Committee. Instead of playing Conference Championship Games the first Saturday in December, there would be 4 quarter-final games played at the four highest seeds.
In addition to Power 5 to Power 7 realignment, the sport would be enhanced by a separate playoff for realigned Group of Six programs as follows. These programs currently have no shot to play in or legitimately compete in the existing CFP or even in an expanded 16-team CFP scenario :
AAC: Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, South Florida, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF
MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent, Miami OH, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
WAC: Air Force, Fresno St, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico St, San Diego St, San Jose St, UNLV, Utah State, UTEP
CUSA: Arkansas St, Louisiana Tech, North Dakota St*, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Rice, Texas State, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe, UT-San Antonio
“Little Northeast”: Army, Buffalo, Charlotte, Liberty, Marshall, Middle Tennessee St, Old Dominion, Temple, UMass, Western Kentucky
Sun Belt: Appalachian St, Coastal Carolina, FL International, FL Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, UAB
*North Dakota St jumps up to G6 to make 60 schools.
There would be 6 auto qualifiers and 2 at-large teams for the G6 Playoff with selection/seeding determined by the CFP Committee. Quarterfinal games would also be played the first Saturday (and Friday night) in December. Semi-final games would be played at two existing bowl sites during the Holidays with the G6 Final played at an existing bowl site a day or two prior to the P7 Final. These three bowl sites (and ESPN) would have enhanced attendance and visibility as a result of hosting these G6 Playoff games.
Here are the benefits of this realignment:
1. The biggie is significant positive stimulus to future Media/TV revenue value
2. The value of four CFP quarterfinal games on the first Saturday of December exceeds that of the existing Conference Championship Games.
3. The value of regional rivalry games in a 9 game round robin during the regular season exceeds that of the existing diluted scheduling formats in the Big 10, ACC, SEC and Pac 12. The best example of increased value would be the SEC where Georgia and Alabama play every season instead of once every 10 years. They have stunningly only played once since 2008 in the regular season! All of the other high profile SEC programs would also be playing each other on an annual basis. Same logic applies for all other conferences as well.
4. Regional rivalries nixed by conference realignment would be reinstated and also increase value: Texas/Texas A&M; Texas/Arkansas; Oklahoma/Nebraska; Penn State/West Virginia; Pitt/West Virginia; Kansas/Missouri, etc.
5. Existing rivalries created by the prior realignment can be reinstated with non-conference scheduling; a prime example being Penn State/Ohio State.
6. The ONLY reason for the most recent conference realignment was the pursuit of cable television subscriptions for BTN, SECN, ACCN and PACN. With cord cutting and cord shaving, a very high percentage of those subscription revenues are being eliminated from non-sports subscribers and will never be replaced.
7. As a result, the next round of media deals will be more focused on increasing Tier 1 (Over the Air) and Tier 2 (ESPN, FS1, CBSSN, NBCSN, Amazon, YouTube, etc.) revenue streams instead of Tier 3 streams from Conference Networks delivering 24x7 conference only content. The best way to max out those new Tier 1 and Tier 2 revenue streams is with enhanced regular season and CFP content from seven 10-team conferences as previously described. There is also no question that the formation of a new G6 division with their own football championship playoff would enhance their media revenues, fan interest and profile of all the G6 schools who currently and never will have a shot at the existing CFP.
Realign into seven 10-team conferences to facilitate an 8-team playoff and improve the value of all conferences in advance of negotiations for new media deals. Doing so would eliminate the issue of unbalanced conference schedules and facilitate a CFP with 7 automatic qualifiers and one at-large team while keeping the college football calendar as-is (a must for approval by the Presidents) and keeping the existing bowl system intact.
The realigned conferences would be focused on re-establishing the Pac-12, Big 10, SEC and ACC (kind of) to their 10 team roots with the other 3 conferences as follows:
Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin
SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
Pac 10: Arizona, Arizona State, California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State
ACC: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami FL, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest
“Big Northeast”: Boston College, Louisville, Maryland, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia Tech, West Virginia,
Big 12: Arkansas, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M
Mountain West: Baylor, Boise State, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico, Texas Tech, TCU, Utah, Wyoming
Independent: Notre Dame (who can join the existing Big East private schools for their other sports)
Each conference plays a 9 game round robin with the 7 conference champs auto qualifying for the 8 team playoff. The one at-large team and seeding would be determined by the CFP Committee. Instead of playing Conference Championship Games the first Saturday in December, there would be 4 quarter-final games played at the four highest seeds.
In addition to Power 5 to Power 7 realignment, the sport would be enhanced by a separate playoff for realigned Group of Six programs as follows. These programs currently have no shot to play in or legitimately compete in the existing CFP or even in an expanded 16-team CFP scenario :
AAC: Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Navy, SMU, South Florida, Tulane, Tulsa, UCF
MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Kent, Miami OH, Ohio, Toledo, Western Michigan
WAC: Air Force, Fresno St, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico St, San Diego St, San Jose St, UNLV, Utah State, UTEP
CUSA: Arkansas St, Louisiana Tech, North Dakota St*, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Rice, Texas State, UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe, UT-San Antonio
“Little Northeast”: Army, Buffalo, Charlotte, Liberty, Marshall, Middle Tennessee St, Old Dominion, Temple, UMass, Western Kentucky
Sun Belt: Appalachian St, Coastal Carolina, FL International, FL Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, South Alabama, Southern Miss, Troy, UAB
*North Dakota St jumps up to G6 to make 60 schools.
There would be 6 auto qualifiers and 2 at-large teams for the G6 Playoff with selection/seeding determined by the CFP Committee. Quarterfinal games would also be played the first Saturday (and Friday night) in December. Semi-final games would be played at two existing bowl sites during the Holidays with the G6 Final played at an existing bowl site a day or two prior to the P7 Final. These three bowl sites (and ESPN) would have enhanced attendance and visibility as a result of hosting these G6 Playoff games.
Here are the benefits of this realignment:
1. The biggie is significant positive stimulus to future Media/TV revenue value
2. The value of four CFP quarterfinal games on the first Saturday of December exceeds that of the existing Conference Championship Games.
3. The value of regional rivalry games in a 9 game round robin during the regular season exceeds that of the existing diluted scheduling formats in the Big 10, ACC, SEC and Pac 12. The best example of increased value would be the SEC where Georgia and Alabama play every season instead of once every 10 years. They have stunningly only played once since 2008 in the regular season! All of the other high profile SEC programs would also be playing each other on an annual basis. Same logic applies for all other conferences as well.
4. Regional rivalries nixed by conference realignment would be reinstated and also increase value: Texas/Texas A&M; Texas/Arkansas; Oklahoma/Nebraska; Penn State/West Virginia; Pitt/West Virginia; Kansas/Missouri, etc.
5. Existing rivalries created by the prior realignment can be reinstated with non-conference scheduling; a prime example being Penn State/Ohio State.
6. The ONLY reason for the most recent conference realignment was the pursuit of cable television subscriptions for BTN, SECN, ACCN and PACN. With cord cutting and cord shaving, a very high percentage of those subscription revenues are being eliminated from non-sports subscribers and will never be replaced.
7. As a result, the next round of media deals will be more focused on increasing Tier 1 (Over the Air) and Tier 2 (ESPN, FS1, CBSSN, NBCSN, Amazon, YouTube, etc.) revenue streams instead of Tier 3 streams from Conference Networks delivering 24x7 conference only content. The best way to max out those new Tier 1 and Tier 2 revenue streams is with enhanced regular season and CFP content from seven 10-team conferences as previously described. There is also no question that the formation of a new G6 division with their own football championship playoff would enhance their media revenues, fan interest and profile of all the G6 schools who currently and never will have a shot at the existing CFP.
