If we could all start over what would your ideal conference look like?

[Ldandy]

I apologize in advance as this topic has likely been hashed out on The Bone Yard before, however being new to your board and a bit of an admitted realignment junkie, I'm always interested in getting the perspective of other fanbases on the subject. I see some names on here like Btstimpy, Billybud, and Buckaineer who are all posters I'm familiar with from other boards who seem to post a lot on the topic. Full disclosure I am a PSU Alum, who is fine with the B1G as is, but would welcome the addition of other Eastern Teams. Now on to the question.

If we could all start over what would your ideal conference look like? The format will be 10 schools only, with all sports being played in league (assuming its possible to do so.) Here's mine, I'm curious to see how others would configure theirs.

NEAC/ Northeast Athletic Conference

BC
Uconn
Syracuse
Rutgers
Penn State
Pittsburgh
WVU
VPI
Navy
Notre Dame.

All teams would be paired up with a true regional rival for a fun season ending game. Travel outside of ND, is concentrated in the Northeast. Uconn should not have to send olympic sports teams to flipping SMU or Tulsa. Football would be anchored by PSU and ND with VPI and WVU being a good second grouping. For basketball you have Uconn and Syracuse with Pitt providing another solid program. Sports like hockey, wrestling, baseball/softball, volleyball, and lacrosse could all be fielded in conference, with non sponsoring schools working toward participation. Media deals should be very strong considering you have the primary major schools of the Northeast + Notre Dame and The Naval Academy. Finally academics would be a definite strength of this grouping. Playing OSU, UM, UW, and UNL are great games, but PSU could schedule all of them as OOC Home and Home series over the course of a decade. This is my vision of an ideal conference for my team, what's yours?

 

[B1GEast]

when the acc raided the BE the first time around, the football teams should split from the bball teams and gotten a real commissioner. We might have had something like this, which in hindsight is not too bad.

WVU
Syracuse
Pitt
Uconn
Rutgers
Cincy
Lville
USF
UCF
Temple
Memphis
East Carolina

 

[NickyNewark]

I apologize in advance as this topic has likely been hashed out on The Bone Yard before, however being new to your board and a bit of an admitted realignment junkie, I'm always interested in getting the perspective of other fanbases on the subject. I see some names on here like Btstimpy, Billybud, and Buckaineer who are all posters I'm familiar with from other boards who seem to post a lot on the topic. Full disclosure I am a PSU Alum, who is fine with the B1G as is, but would welcome the addition of other Eastern Teams. Now on to the question.

If we could all start over what would your ideal conference look like? The format will be 10 schools only, with all sports being played in league (assuming its possible to do so.) Here's mine, I'm curious to see how others would configure theirs.

NEAC/ Northeast Athletic Conference

BC
Uconn
Syracuse
Rutgers
Penn State
Pittsburgh
WVU
VPI
Navy
Notre Dame.

All teams would be paired up with a true regional rival for a fun season ending game. Travel outside of ND, is concentrated in the Northeast. Uconn should not have to send olympic sports teams to flipping SMU or Tulsa. Football would be anchored by PSU and ND with VPI and WVU being a good second grouping. For basketball you have Uconn and Syracuse with Pitt providing another solid program. Sports like hockey, wrestling, baseball/softball, volleyball, and lacrosse could all be fielded in conference, with non sponsoring schools working toward participation. Media deals should be very strong considering you have the primary major schools of the Northeast + Notre Dame and The Naval Academy. Finally academics would be a definite strength of this grouping. Playing OSU, UM, UW, and UNL are great games, but PSU could schedule all of them as OOC Home and Home series over the course of a decade. This is my vision of an ideal conference for my team, what's yours?

I'm a RU fan but love and respect what UConn has accomplished in a short(relatively speaking) time period so naturally the B1G has to consider adding them shortly or whats the use of conferences at all? Stimpy thinks Temple would be a better add than RU so whats that tell you about his objectivity? All in all I like the makeup of you're perceived conference(you would lock out Temple?)!! Welcome to the "Yard"!! B1G brother.Can you imagine the B1G buzz and boost the BTN would get from that eastcoast lockdown ...DC to Maine...wow!!

 

[specialisthusky]

I'm still holding out very unreasonable hope the B1G 20 happens when the the Big 12 GOR ends.

PSU/RU/UMD/UConn/WVU
OSU/UM/MSU/IU/Pur
Ill/NW/Wisc/MN/Ia
Neb/Kan/OK/UT/Tulane or ISU

If I had to start over today:

PSU/ND/BC/Cuse/Pitt/WVU/UConn/RU/UMD

 

[mike012]

when the acc raided the BE the first time around, the football teams should split from the bball teams and gotten a real commissioner. We might have had something like this, which in hindsight is not too bad.

WVU
Syracuse
Pitt
Uconn
Rutgers
Cincy
Lville
USF
UCF
Temple
Memphis
East Carolina

I agree and they would have taken the big east name. As that group would run the C7 over like grass. Only hope in this dream scenario would be that FS1 looks for full time conference and pays close to acc money. Since other then FSU this group is just as good if not better.

 

[CTMike]

UConn, BC, Rutgers, Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, WVU.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Great question Ldandy. I like CTMike's list. Depending on the size of the conference I would head west a little for Cinci. Once I add them I would look to Mich & Mich St since they are contiguous. That gives me 13. If I wanted to get to 16 I would look to the Carolinas with duke, UNC and Clemson. For the life of me I can't figure out why some of you added ND to your list. Are we assuming they would join for football? I'm not sure I would add them even if they did join. Such an outlier would always be a concern to me.

 

[SubbaBub]

UConn, BC, Rutgers, Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, WVU.

No more small privates..

UCONN, Rutgers, Penn State, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State.

 

[btstimpy]

I apologize in advance as this topic has likely been hashed out on The Bone Yard before, however being new to your board and a bit of an admitted realignment junkie, I'm always interested in getting the perspective of other fanbases on the subject. I see some names on here like Btstimpy, Billybud, and Buckaineer who are all posters I'm familiar with from other boards who seem to post a lot on the topic. Full disclosure I am a PSU Alum, who is fine with the B1G as is, but would welcome the addition of other Eastern Teams. Now on to the question.

If we could all start over what would your ideal conference look like? The format will be 10 schools only, with all sports being played in league (assuming its possible to do so.) Here's mine, I'm curious to see how others would configure theirs.

NEAC/ Northeast Athletic Conference

BC
Uconn
Syracuse
Rutgers
Penn State
Pittsburgh
WVU
VPI
Navy
Notre Dame.

All teams would be paired up with a true regional rival for a fun season ending game. Travel outside of ND, is concentrated in the Northeast. Uconn should not have to send olympic sports teams to flipping SMU or Tulsa. Football would be anchored by PSU and ND with VPI and WVU being a good second grouping. For basketball you have Uconn and Syracuse with Pitt providing another solid program. Sports like hockey, wrestling, baseball/softball, volleyball, and lacrosse could all be fielded in conference, with non sponsoring schools working toward participation. Media deals should be very strong considering you have the primary major schools of the Northeast + Notre Dame and The Naval Academy. Finally academics would be a definite strength of this grouping. Playing OSU, UM, UW, and UNL are great games, but PSU could schedule all of them as OOC Home and Home series over the course of a decade. This is my vision of an ideal conference for my team, what's yours?

This is basically the Big East Conference with Penn State, Navy, and Notre Dame football added and missing Miami and Temple.

 

[btstimpy]

UConn, BC, Rutgers, Penn State, Syracuse, Pitt, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, WVU.

I'd take yours and add 6 more to get to 16. I'd add:

North Carolina
North Carolina State
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami

And if we went to 20, I'd add:

Duke
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida

 

[JayRU09]

Cut everything down to 120 schools.

Ten 12 team conferences based on location, conferences set up with two divisions each and a championship game. OOC based on rotating schedules against different conferences. 16 team playoff with four at larges, decided upon by the record of the team and the OOC record of the conference.

UCONN's conference would be:

UCONN
BC
Syracuse
Buffalo
Rutgers
Temple
Penn State
Pitt
UMD
Army
Navy
WVU

 

[Ldandy]

This is basically the Big East Conference with Penn State, Navy, and Notre Dame football added and missing Miami and Temple.

Your point being? The question was what 10 team all sports athletic conference would you like your school to be a part of? I live in PA. I would like to play regional rivals. ND is essentially a Northeast leaning university with a good following in PA. I'd like to add OSU, but they would never seperate from Michigan + their roots are in the Midwest.

 

[btstimpy]

Your point being? The question was what 10 team all sports athletic conference would you like your school to be a part of? I live in PA. I would like to play regional rivals. ND is essentially a Northeast leaning university with a good following in PA. I'd like to add OSU, but they would never seperate from Michigan + their roots are in the Midwest.

My point is that your list essentially existed in an actual conference 15 years ago minus Penn State and a couple of tweaks. Why stay at 10 though?

 

[NC_Uconn_Fan]

Since this is complete fantasy...

Uconn
UNC
Duke
Cuse
BC
Pitt
Michigan
Ohio St
Penn State
ND

 

[Fishy]

Rhode Island
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
UMass
Albany
Syracuse
Boston College
Pitt
Toronto

 

[Ldandy]

My point is that your list essentially existed in an actual conference 15 years ago minus Penn State and a couple of tweaks. Why stay at 10 though?

The Old Big East was similar but not the same. I hated the cobbled together feel created by including all of the basketball only teams. The idea behind having 10 teams would be to allow all teams to play each other round robin in conference. Massive conferences are not a trend for the better IMO.

 

[billybud]

Rhode Island
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
UMass
Albany
Syracuse
Boston College
Pitt
Toronto

I love those regional line ups...throw in Rutgers & UConn and drop Toronto for University of New Brunswick and you have the whole northeast region right up to Newfoundland.

 

[bingethinker]

If I could wave a magic wand, my perfect conference would consist of:

Connecticut
Georgia Tech
Indiana
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
North Carolina
Penn State
Ohio State
Virginia

Nebraska
Northwestern
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Minnesota
Oklahoma
Purdue
Texas
Wisconsin

 

[BoatShow]

Always have to do a double take when people use VPI.

UConn
Cuse
BC
MD
RU
PSU
PITT
IU
Cincy
UVA
WVU
ND

 

[NEforceUConn]

If we could start all over? Bit controversial but assuming 12 I say


Uconn
Syracuse
Rutgers
UMD
Miami
Penn State

Pittsburgh
WVU
VPI
UL
Tennessee
Kentucky

Awesome BB and FB and rivalries.


Forget BC they belong in hell.

 

[Jimdish255]

Rhode Island
Maine
Vermont
New Hampshire
UMass
Albany
Syracuse
Boston College
Pitt
Toronto

Rob Ford joke here somewhere.

 

[TerryD]

I want ND to stay independent, but if forced to be in a brand new conference, this would be my ideal one:



ND
Navy (Traditional/Fed Ex Field)
Southern Cal (Traditional/West Coast)
Stanford (Traditional/Academics/West Coast)
Arizona State (Southwest)
Texas (Southwest)
Florida State (Florida/Southeast)
Miami (Florida/Southeast)
Pitt (Traditional/Northeast/Heinz Field)
Boston College (Traditional/only other Catholic FBS school/Northeast)

 

[Jimdish255]

Army
Cuse
BC
UConn
Rutty

Cincy
UMD
UVA
WVU
Navy

Wake
UNC
Duke
UCF
USF

Notre Dame
BYU
Texas
Michigan
Citadel

Penn St not realistic for awhile and zero interest in Pitt.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Football:

Syracuse
Pitt
Rutgers
Penn State
Maryland
WVU
Louisville
UMass (I would much rather have a second New England public school than BCU)

Basketball

Those 9 plus the C7.

8 game football schedule against regional rivals and a basketball league that would still be legendary.

 

[NickyNewark]

I'd take yours and add 6 more to get to 16. I'd add:

North Carolina
North Carolina State
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Miami

And if we went to 20, I'd add:

Duke
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida

As Richard Nixon once said "there you go again".....no RU in the east? Preposterous.