UConn is expected to leave the American Athletic Conference and return to the Big East for basketball and other sports in 2020, sources told ESPN.
This is great news. No one got more screwed in the Great Conference Realignment of the 2010s than UConn. They're out of place there as a big public school but in a perfect place otherwise. Handling UConn's football program will be problematic but that program has been a disaster for years now.
I wonder if the Big East stays at 11 or adds someone like Dayton or Saint Louis, as I suggested many years ago in this thread. Gonzaga would be the perfect Big East school if it wasn't so far away in Spokane. As for the American I'm sure they could create a vicious bidding war for a golden ticket for someone to get out of Conference USA.
It wasn't that long ago that Cal was tearing shit up with Aaron Rodgers and Jeff Tedford while Stanford was a complete joke of a program. This realignment is more money-driven, though, and the states of California, Texas and Florida are where it's at.
I just wish the conferences would get back to being more regional. I like the idea of 16 team super conferences with 4 pods. It keeps the rotations going and you don't end up with dumb scenarios like where Clemson won't play UVA again until 2024 (last played in '14). The Florida, Georgia, Carolina (both states), Virginia and Maryland teams could make a really nice conference combining the ACC and SEC east coast teams. (UGA, UF, SC from the SEC maybe UT and UK too).
I say 18 team conferences, 9 team divisions. This allows you to play round robin in your division with an equal amount of home and road games. Also makes sure there's room for most of the best non P5 schools like Houston, SMU, BYU, BSU, Cincy, Memphis.
In this model theoretically you have no need for playoff selection drama, right?
4 conferences, 8 division champs. There’s your playoff.
If you favor P5 wild cards or any non-P5 participants - how do you get there?
I have listed this out before ... sorry Vanderbilt, you get bounced.
Green Habit wrote:I say 18 team conferences, 9 team divisions. This allows you to play round robin in your division with an equal amount of home and road games. Also makes sure there's room for most of the best non P5 schools like Houston, SMU, BYU, BSU, Cincy, Memphis.
In this model theoretically you have no need for playoff selection drama, right?
4 conferences, 8 division champs. There’s your playoff.
If you favor P5 wild cards or any non-P5 participants - how do you get there?
I have listed this out before ... sorry Vanderbilt, you get bounced.
Right. The way I'd do it is the four conference champions get the first round byes (giving those games some real meaning), but not necessarily the top four seeds, in case you have, say, a 7-5 division winner pulling off an upset. Then after that, eight wild cards, just to ensure that said 7-5 division winner doesn't get a playoff berth that they don't deserve.
I've posted this before somewhere, but something like this is what I'd like to see:
ACC North:
Boston College
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
South:
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Memphis
Miami
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Wake Forest
B1G East:
Indiana
Maryland
Michigan
Michigan State
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Purdue
Rutgers
West:
Illinois
Iowa
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern
Wisconsin
PAC West:
Boise State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State
East:
Arizona
Arizona State
BYU
Colorado
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech
Utah
At a glance you add Memphis, SMU, and Boise to what is now Power 4, or Division 1, whatever you want to call it.
I don’t necessarily disagree but where is U. Central Florida (or is it U. Southern Florida)? The one that went undefeated. Would they still have a chance?
Either way I say bounce Vandy and slot them in instead. Fkn Vanderbilt.
Bammer wrote:At a glance you add Memphis, SMU, and Boise to what is now Power 4, or Division 1, whatever you want to call it.
I don’t necessarily disagree but where is U. Central Florida (or is it U. Southern Florida)? The one that went undefeated. Would they still have a chance?
Either way I say bounce Vandy and slot them in instead. Fkn Vanderbilt.
USF and UCF are probably the two best schools missing the cut. I created that list well before Scott Frost went on his run there, and remember that the season before he got there, Central Florida went 0-12, and now he's off to Nebraska. I figured that it was more likely that the SEC adds Texas schools than Florida schools, and if they did the latter they'd grab FSU and Miami well before USF and UCF.
Sounds like Texas and OU leaving is a done deal. I bet the SEC will stand pat with those 16 and let the rest duke it out for their own super conference.
The Big 12 is adding BYU, Central Florida, Houston, and Cincinnati. Is it enough to remain relevant?
Obviously football is big driver but it's weird to think how unregional the conferences have become. Plus the travel demands for a non revenue sport (most of them) to play a conference schedule.
It makes zero sense to add BYU without BSU, and UCF without USF. The Big 12 is ridiculously spread out across the nation now with no sense at cohesion. Thank goodness they at least finally got WVU a travel partner in Cincy.
