Mega-Conferences

So, I've been meaning to give my 2 cents worth on conference expansion. Like playoffs, I'm always concerned that the powers that be simply aren't as smart as the rest of us. Also, there's so much that would have to happen to make it happen, and a lot of complicating factors (see Notre Dame). But, there seems to be some consensus among many of the commissioners that this is very much going to be a reality one day. So, we're looking at four 16-team leagues. Already, that's a problem. There are 65 BCS teams right now, not counting Notre Dame. Plus, cutting that number down to 64 won't include teams like BYU, Utah, TCU, & Boise St. I, for one, wouldn't worry too much about those non-AQ schools. I've got a solution for them. Notre Dame is a hitch in the giddy-up, and trying to find the team that's going to willfully get off the money train will be hard to find, and it's hard to find a team that SHOULD leave. For that reason, I'd say that this is the time to tell ND to put up or shut up. I'm going to work out a system in which they are involved in a conference (with maybe some contengiency plans if they're not.

The New SEC:
12 current schools plus Miami, FSU, Clemson & GA Tech

The New ACC:
UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake, Maryland, VA Tech, Uva, BC plus the 8 Big East Football schools - Uconn, WVU, South Florida, Rutgers, Pitt, Syracuse, Cincy, Louisville.

The New Big 16 (formerly known as the Big 10):
The current 11 schools plus Notre Dame, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St.

Pac 18:
Current Pac-10 schools plus Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Texas Tech, A & M, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St.

How you divide those up could be done in a myriad of ways. The SEC would be a challenge to not make the East terribly difficult, but I'll have to think about that later. Basically, you would have the winner of these conferences meet 1 week or 2 weeks after the conference championship games. Use the current BCS rankings to determine seeds. #1 & #2 host #4 & #3, respectively. That’s the key, without home field advantage as paret of the system, non conference games lose all their luster. Losers of those game go to a BCS bowl, winners go to the big dance. Also, you would have to ramp up conference play to 9-10 games. I think 10 games would be a stretch, but this new system would almost eliminate most non-conference rivalries. Clemson/Fake SC, UGA/Tech, FSU/Florida, Florida/Miami, Missouri/Illinois would all be conference games now. USC/Notre Dame would be about the only real traditional non-conference rivalry left. So, you could play 10 conference games (7 division - 1 non division constant - 2 rotating).

So what about the non-AQ teams? This is where it gets complicated. It's easy to say that if one of those teams is ranked in the top 4, they go ahead of the lowest ranked conference champion. However, you're going to have a hard time convincing the conference commissioners of that. They know they're going to face a brutal schedule each year plus a conference championship game. Winning those leagues with only 2 losses is an accomplishment, and to think you could fight all season and lose a tough game in Gainesville and one in Baton Rouge but win your conference and some 12-0 TCU team that beat Baylor in non-conference play is going to go ahead of you. So, I'd do something like if the non-AQ team is in the top-4 and a conference champion is ranked below #12 in the final BCS poll, the non-AQ team goes to the final 4. This would stop us from having those 4 loss conference champions in the tournament.

That would be a pretty doggone true national champion.