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

[NickyNewark]

LOL...Nicky ...Of course I use Yiddish expressions from time to time. My father's folks were from the shtetl of Pryzborow (now Poland, then german speaking Prussia). Like most Americans, I am a mongrel product. With a Southern protestant mom, a college prep catholic education, and very broad interests, I count myself lucky.

Lucky to have had as parents two people who (in the 1940's) braved the slings and arrows of familial prejudice in the name of love. Lucky that they, as free thinkers, sought to give me the tools and room to learn and make my own decisions about many matters.

And...I count myself lucky to have been a fan of a school for 45 years. Enjoy being a fan of Rutgers. Living the highs and lows of fandom is a privilege that we appreciate best in the good years...but always a privilege.

I may not agree with you about Rutger's fitment into the football solar system, but I understand your fandom.

I was so pizzed about you're post I went to Atlantic City and won a couple G's.It just goes to show what a small world we live in that even a guy with Wisconsin(Slav/Norse)/Celto-Southern roots uses what's common(yiddishism's) in NYC metro and maybe Miami-Ft Lauderdale....?? Yeah who knows why we fall for certain schools and act like the Brian Wilson song "Be true to your school" unto our passing? Most good fans never even went to some of these schools.I love the line "When some loud braggard tries to put my school down I say right to his face....hey buddy aint ya heard of my school.. were #1 in the state and Friday will be ready to fight". Though in NJ growing up Sat at 11am/2pm was traditional KO time in the 60s for HSFB. Btw,we have some Germano-Prussian hessian stock up here too going back to the Battle of Trenton in the NE.

 

[Stray_Dog]

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.

I hope this was posted with utter sarcasm!
If not well, this conference would last two years and then we would be the only one left in the conference...basically in two years we would be independent.

 

[HuskyHawk]

First, you'd need a rule capping conference size at 10. So everyone would be in a round-robin conference, hopefully with regional rivals. Travel costs would come down for everybody, and roadtrips would be easy. No more unbalanced schedules. No conf championship games, regular season wins it. Ideally, UConn's confernece would be:

UConn
Penn State
Rutgers
Pitt
BC
Syracuse
Ohio State
WVU
Maryland
Virginia

 

[B1GALUM]

Although not the way of college athletic conferences these days, I think it would be ideal to have ten team conferences for round robin play and a shared history together. I started with the Big Ten, Pac Ten and SEC since those are easy to slate based on conference history then went from there with the ACC and Big East trying to capture historical lineups. I would be interested to get your thoughts from the perspective of UConn and the perspective of ACC posters as well regarding these ACC and Big East conferences.

Big Ten: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin.

Pac Ten: Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State.

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt.

ACC (reconciled with South Carolina): Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest.

Big East (Penn State accepted): Boston College, Miami, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, UConn, Virginia Tech, West Virginia.

 

[tzznandrew]

My thought is 18 makes most sense. 9 schools per division, round robin in that division, and then title game for football. But, it was too hard to cut schools in the western division, so I went with 20--a league that can compete in football and basketball, and maintains strong regional rivalries.

Boston College
Connecticut
Duke
Maryland
North Carolina
Penn State
Pitt
Rutgers
Syracuse
Virginia

Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Missouri
Ohio State
Wisconsin

 

[Sean O]

I played this game on my blog in the heady days of late 2012. Here's what I came up with: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2012/12/nbc-should-build-perfect-big-east.html

Big East – North
Syracuse
Boston College
UConn
Rutgers
Penn State
Pitt

Big East – South
USF
Louisville
Miami
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Cincinnati

Basketball-only
Georgetown
St. John’s
Notre Dame
Villanova

 

[Adios]

No privates. Give UMass a chance to develop. Tons of regional rivalries in this setup:

UMass
UConn
Rutgers
PSU
Maryland
West Virginia
Pittsburg
Virginia
Virginia Tech

I would include SUNY in that, either Buffalo or Stony Brook. Add in UNC and Duke, too. That's 12. FSU can be 13, Clemson can be 14, GT can be 15. Can take in both SUNY schools to make it 16. ODU also has potential. But asking schools to leave the B1G is like asking schools to leave the Ivy League.

 

[okielite]

This is mine also. If Notre Dame would join that would be awesome, I'd take Notre Dame and Navy to make 12 and give a conference championship.

Why in the world would you want to share a conference with ND after all the backstabbing they have done to you and the Big East?

 

[buddy]

Absolutely no BC, no ND, no Syracuse.

 

[dayooper]

From my perspective:

10 team

Michigan - Obviously
Michigan State - Rival
OSU - Rival
PSU - GreatRecruiting and traditional program
Illinois - Regional Rival
Wisconsin - Regional Rival
Indiana - Regional Rival, Great Basketball
Maryland - Bridge to Mid Atlantic
Virginia - Great Presence, very much like a B10 school
UNC - Great Basketball

Last in - Maryland
First out - Minnesota

Had some tough decisions on this. Hate to leave out Minnesota and the Little Brown Jug Trophy, but wanted to keep Indiana BB to pair with UNC. NW doesn't fit the new mold and Iowa doesn't have that feel either. Purdue? No.

 

[UC990411]

Uconn
Syracuse
Duke
Unc
Florida
Kentucky
Pitt
Maryland
Georgia
Clemson
Virginia
Penn St
WVU
BC
FSU
MIAMI

 

[UConn07]

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

Winner!

 

[Antiobserver]

Boston College
UConn
Syracuse
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
West Virginia
Virginia Tech
Maryland
Temple

A List Rivalries - Nationally known, bitter
Pitt-Penn State
Pitt-West Virginia
West Virginia-Virginia Tech

B List Rivalries - Regional
UConn-Rutgers
UConn-Syracuse
UConn-Boston College
Syracuse-West Virginia
Rutgers-Syracuse
Penn State-Syracuse
Maryland-West Virginia
Syracuse-Boston College
Pitt-Syracuse

C List Rivalries - Lopsided but heated through fan proximity
Maryland-Penn State
West Virginia-Penn State
Rutgers-Penn State

 

[okielite]

Interesting how many of you think 10 teams is the ideal size for a conference. Seems like many Big 12 folks dont' feel the same way. Guess the grass is always greener.

I have a couple of problems with the 10 team conference. 9 conference games cause unbalanced schedule with 4/5 home/away split. 9 conference games give your conference guaranteed losses over 8 conference game schedules. Guaranteed losses hurt rankings and in turn SOS.

I do think it determines a true champion as every team gets to play, and it is very fair. Sometimes in larger conferences teams can play a difference schedule and in some ways makes it hard to compare records. For example if you are in the ACC and play FSU and Clemson every year versus a team in the other ACC division who might no play either some years. Obviously some schools have an easier road. Another benefit is playing all the schools in the conference every year versus playing teams every few years like what you run into with 14+ team conferences.

As strange as it may sound 9 team conferences or conferences with 9 team divisions might actually be a pretty good setup as well. I've always thought that would be a good option for the Big 12 to add 8 eastern teams from the ACC with WVU and have 2 divisions of 9 teams.