One man's view of the future...

[coachcap]

Heard about this on Sirius satellite radio while driving this morning & thought that I'd share.

http://www.athlonsports.com/columns/5-burning-questions/college-footballs-super-conferences

 

[CTMike]

If 4 16-team football conferences is the end game in all of this, then I think it's a fairly logical stab at it. I think the concern about Baylor, K. State, Iowa State, Boise State, BYU... anyone really... could be somewhat alleviated by making it clear they are all eligible for being selected as an at-large. They'd have large scheduling problems, of course. And... from a pure Big East perspective... you'd have a lot of cranky basketball-onlies. We shall see...

 

[junglehusky]

Hmmm. I might split up the ECC divisions differently...

maybe...
North
Pitt
BC
UConn
Maryland
UVA
Duke
UNC
NC St.

South
Cinci
Louisville
Wake
FSU
Miami
Ga. Tech
TCU
Clemson

Or...
Eastern Snobs (a.k.a. the New Old Big East)
Miami
Pitt
BC
UConn
Duke
UVA
Cincy
Maryland

Good Ole Boys
TCU
UNC
NC St.
Clemson
Ga. Tech
Wake
FSU
Louisville

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Heard about this on Sirius satellite radio while driving this morning & thought that I'd share.

http://www.athlonsports.com/columns/5-burning-questions/college-footballs-super-conferences

University Presidents and AD's, for the most part, are against the formation of superconferences. There is not a single league where the Presidents support this. Texas A&M is artificially forcing this issue because of a spat with Texas, and they are tipping over a few dominoes. It is just as likely that the Big 12 holds tight, adds BYU, and WVU to the SEC is the final move in realignment, if it even gets that far.

The concern of the university Presidents is loss of control of the athletic department to the conference.

 

[SAMCRO]

As long as we're going "pie in the sky", I'll take his proposal a step further, create a similar model as European Soccer (the other football) uses. For each super conference, there is a non-BCS type conference in that geographic footprint. Every year the bottom 4 teams (bottom 2 from each division within the super conference) play off against each other, with the 2 losers being relegated to the lower league. Likewise, the top 4 from the lower league play off game against one another with the 2 winners being promoted to the Super Confernce. This way every school has a chance to play their way into or out of one of these super conference. It will never happen, but what the hell, why not throw the idea out there for S&G's.

 

[Vowelguy]

University Presidents and AD's, for the most part, are against the formation of superconferences.

Based on what evidence?
Did I miss the part where these Presidents were being held at gunpoint until they accepted more conference members?

This only happens if the schools/Presidents vote to make it happen. The ACC/B10/Pac10 all added members in the past decade; they did so willingly. Nobody forced them to. And in doing so they only furthered the move towards larger & larger conferences. I know they're not idiots, so either they're liars or your statement is incorrect.

 

[RS9999X]

Super conferences could facilitate a playoff.

Top 2 teams in each conference division advance to conference semi-final playoffs. 4 Conference winners face off Xmas week and New Years. All games are real home games except the Semi finals and Finals. BCS ticket selling scam goes bye bye. The 4-16 Super conferences each get $25 million. Other bowls exist as normal to fill out the week.

 

[junglehusky]

Relegation/promotion would be fascinating. You could even have it across multiple tiers (IA>IAA>II>III). It would create great drama (not to mention ratings) as struggling big-time programs with coaches on the hot seat try to avoid relegation, and also spur interest/ratings at the IAA level as schools fight for promotion. How big a story would it be if the likes of UMass, Montana, App State etc. get a chance to play a season with the big boys and knock off Michigan or whoever in a game that counts. I suppose the networks would have to become comfortable with the idea of constantly changing inventory (they probably don't worry about things like metro TV viewing areas in England and Spain) and of course big schools aren't thrilled with going to tiny stadiums (hey ManU didn't mind playing at Burnley) but it would be fun.

 

[SAMCRO]

Relegation/promotion would be fascinating. You could even have it across multiple tiers (IA>IAA>II>III). It would create great drama (not to mention ratings) as struggling big-time programs with coaches on the hot seat try to avoid relegation, and also spur interest/ratings at the IAA level as schools fight for promotion. How big a story would it be if the likes of UMass, Montana, App State etc. get a chance to play a season with the big boys and knock off Michigan or whoever in a game that counts. I suppose the networks would have to become comfortable with the idea of constantly changing inventory (they probably don't worry about things like metro TV viewing areas in England and Spain) and of course big schools aren't thrilled with going to tiny stadiums (hey ManU didn't mind playing at Burnley) but it would be fun.

Personally, I'd love it. You could do it for just football, and keep all current existing conferences in tact for all other sports (people would get used to it in time). It's a meritocracy. Each team plays their way up or down. Take CUSA, MAC, Sun Belt, MWC, and WAC (or whoever is not included in the top 64), and create 4 1st division "not so super" conferences that are aligned with a super conference. It would make for some interesting football, and suddenly there's a lot more riding on the Wake v. Duke game late in the year when the loser is going to get dropped to the "Sun Belt or CUSA" for Football and the winner stays up. Also would make that potential Temple v. Ohio U game a helluva lot mroe interesting if the winner was going to be promoted to a Super conference. Ahh, to dream - ain't happening.

 

[businesslawyer]

Not to rain on your parade, but in your scenario does Wake throw 20 scholarship players out of school? Get to compete at I-AA level with 85? And who is offering to give money back to the networks if they lose brand names to demotion?

Isn't this thread mindnumbing enough talking about the permutation that actually could happen?

l

 

[SAMCRO]

Not raining on my parade. I wrote that it will never ever happen, just entertaining (for me anyways) to think about.
To your question about 'ships, I wouldn't combine FBS w/FCS as was suggested by jh, just keep it to FBS schools. There'd be enough brand names for the networks. Reality is, the brand names most likely aren't going to be in danger of being relegated. Could possibly happen, but generally unlikely. Again, it will never ever happen, just having . With a different scenario.