UConnSportsGuy
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As I was sitting on the John today (where I do most of my best thinking
) I had a very crazy and 'outside the box' way for the Big East to save their BCS AQ bid and remain a legitimate football conference.
I know this is stupid and there are probably a million reason why this would never work...but give me a second to explain and then you can rip apart the idea!
You form a 16 team football conference with 4 divisions as follows:
Northern Division
Notre Dame
UConn
Rutgers
Army
Atlantic Division
WVU
Cincinnati
Navy
Temple
Southern Division
Houston
SMU
USF
UCF
Mountain Division
BYU
Air Force
Boise St
Memphis
There would only be 4 conference games within a year. You would play the other three teams in your division once. All of these games would be played within the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season. Then on the last 'regular season' weekend of the year you would matchup divisions to play against each other based on division ranking. So the 'Cross Divsion Weekend' would be :
Northern #1 vs Atlantic #1
Northern #2 vs Atlantic #2
Northern #3 vs Atlantic #3
Northern #4 vs Atlantic #4
Southern #1 vs Mountain #1
Southern #2 vs Mountain #2
Southern #3 vs Mountain #3
Southern #4 vs Mountain #4
You would rotate each year which division gets the home game for this weekend. So in odd numbered years the Northern and Southern Division teams get the home games and in the even numbered years the Atantic and Mountain Division teams get the home games. This will allow for the teams to make sure the game is scheduled in advance and all the fans have tickets as part of their season ticket package (ticket is for 'Cross Division Weekend' game with exact team TBD). And as I said earlier, you would play all of the division games within the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season so that the visiting teams and their fans can find out where they are playing and schedule and coordinate all of their travel.
Then, the winner of the two #1 Division matchups would play in the Conference Championship game when the rest of the conferences hold their championship games (which we will be able to do since we will have over the minimum of 12 teams to hold a Championship Game). For every team other than those 2 winners, the regular season is over and there are no games (just like every other conference that holds a championship game).
This would essentially setup a semi-final championship game, but it wouldn't be against NCAA conference rules because everyone is playing that weekend it isn't a "one-off" game.
While only having 4 conference games is not ideal, it is what might entice Notre Dame to join the conference for football. The reason Notre Dame doesn't want to join a conference is because they want to keep their NBC TV money and they want to keep their scheduling flexibility to keep their traditional rivals...and joining a conference with 8 or 9 conference games will not allow this to happen. But if they only have to commit to 4 conference games...they will still have the other 8 games during the season to schedule their historic rivals (Michigan, USC, Purdue, Michigan St, etc). And they would get to keep their NBC deal for all of those non-conference games.
And this commitment of only 4 conference games would allow the other independents to join as well. BYU would still get their TV deal like Notre Dame, so they would be willing. Army could still schedule their cupcake schedule for their other 8 games to get bowl eligibile, etc. It addresses the concerns of the independents who are hesitant to join.
In addition to addressing all of the above mentioned issues, it would also minimize travel for the the teams and the athletes. Despite having such a huge national footprint, each of the divisions is setup pretty well geographically so the travel would not be bad at all (with Memphis as the lone exception, but the would be desperate enough to get a BCS chance and upgrade and there are no other 'Mountain' team geographically to include)!
Not only would this save the Big East Football Conference and the AQ status...but I think we could get a very big TV deal from NBC/Comcast for the rights to this league. You would have a lot of huge TV markets and a lot of very interesting games and matchups throughout the year. Plus, the build up for the 'Cross Divsion Weekend' could be made-for-TV drama and would add to the excitement. There a lot of high quality teams with national following in this 16 team league that spans huge markets and 3 time zones. I think that TV would love this setup.
We would probably have to take in SMU, Houston, Temple, and UCF as all sports teams (as is already the plan for 3 of the 4). The rest of the teams would have no problem being football only members.
While not an ideal solution....it is just a thought I had as a way to get Notre Dame to help the Big East Football Conference and to get all of the best current 'non-BCS teams' to join forces. I know having 8 non-conference games would be a challenge and there are other issues....but it may be better than the alternative at this point. And I do think that this would be very attractive for NBC/Comcast or another network in terms of content and media markets.
So I know it is unconventional and very 'outside the box'....but what do you think? Could it work? What am I not thinking of that would make this impossible?

I know this is stupid and there are probably a million reason why this would never work...but give me a second to explain and then you can rip apart the idea!

You form a 16 team football conference with 4 divisions as follows:
Northern Division
Notre Dame
UConn
Rutgers
Army
Atlantic Division
WVU
Cincinnati
Navy
Temple
Southern Division
Houston
SMU
USF
UCF
Mountain Division
BYU
Air Force
Boise St
Memphis
There would only be 4 conference games within a year. You would play the other three teams in your division once. All of these games would be played within the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season. Then on the last 'regular season' weekend of the year you would matchup divisions to play against each other based on division ranking. So the 'Cross Divsion Weekend' would be :
Northern #1 vs Atlantic #1
Northern #2 vs Atlantic #2
Northern #3 vs Atlantic #3
Northern #4 vs Atlantic #4
Southern #1 vs Mountain #1
Southern #2 vs Mountain #2
Southern #3 vs Mountain #3
Southern #4 vs Mountain #4
You would rotate each year which division gets the home game for this weekend. So in odd numbered years the Northern and Southern Division teams get the home games and in the even numbered years the Atantic and Mountain Division teams get the home games. This will allow for the teams to make sure the game is scheduled in advance and all the fans have tickets as part of their season ticket package (ticket is for 'Cross Division Weekend' game with exact team TBD). And as I said earlier, you would play all of the division games within the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season so that the visiting teams and their fans can find out where they are playing and schedule and coordinate all of their travel.
Then, the winner of the two #1 Division matchups would play in the Conference Championship game when the rest of the conferences hold their championship games (which we will be able to do since we will have over the minimum of 12 teams to hold a Championship Game). For every team other than those 2 winners, the regular season is over and there are no games (just like every other conference that holds a championship game).
This would essentially setup a semi-final championship game, but it wouldn't be against NCAA conference rules because everyone is playing that weekend it isn't a "one-off" game.
While only having 4 conference games is not ideal, it is what might entice Notre Dame to join the conference for football. The reason Notre Dame doesn't want to join a conference is because they want to keep their NBC TV money and they want to keep their scheduling flexibility to keep their traditional rivals...and joining a conference with 8 or 9 conference games will not allow this to happen. But if they only have to commit to 4 conference games...they will still have the other 8 games during the season to schedule their historic rivals (Michigan, USC, Purdue, Michigan St, etc). And they would get to keep their NBC deal for all of those non-conference games.
And this commitment of only 4 conference games would allow the other independents to join as well. BYU would still get their TV deal like Notre Dame, so they would be willing. Army could still schedule their cupcake schedule for their other 8 games to get bowl eligibile, etc. It addresses the concerns of the independents who are hesitant to join.
In addition to addressing all of the above mentioned issues, it would also minimize travel for the the teams and the athletes. Despite having such a huge national footprint, each of the divisions is setup pretty well geographically so the travel would not be bad at all (with Memphis as the lone exception, but the would be desperate enough to get a BCS chance and upgrade and there are no other 'Mountain' team geographically to include)!
Not only would this save the Big East Football Conference and the AQ status...but I think we could get a very big TV deal from NBC/Comcast for the rights to this league. You would have a lot of huge TV markets and a lot of very interesting games and matchups throughout the year. Plus, the build up for the 'Cross Divsion Weekend' could be made-for-TV drama and would add to the excitement. There a lot of high quality teams with national following in this 16 team league that spans huge markets and 3 time zones. I think that TV would love this setup.
We would probably have to take in SMU, Houston, Temple, and UCF as all sports teams (as is already the plan for 3 of the 4). The rest of the teams would have no problem being football only members.
While not an ideal solution....it is just a thought I had as a way to get Notre Dame to help the Big East Football Conference and to get all of the best current 'non-BCS teams' to join forces. I know having 8 non-conference games would be a challenge and there are other issues....but it may be better than the alternative at this point. And I do think that this would be very attractive for NBC/Comcast or another network in terms of content and media markets.
So I know it is unconventional and very 'outside the box'....but what do you think? Could it work? What am I not thinking of that would make this impossible?