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there is some overlap in this discussion i'm starting with other things I've said, but I'm hoping enough of what I suggest here is a different twist on what I've written before.
I hate the notion of expanding footprints in college conferences, of the insane notion of overlapping jurisdiction and the fight to get into markets near and far from your base.
I think the old bases were great. And the competition that the current system generates is insane. College sports have become like MLB where the notion of major markets and the edge of population are what matters. MLB elevates the Yankees over the small markets of Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, etc.
Not so in the democratic NFL. Here revenue sharing is the norm and all franchises have a chance. Green Bay can get rich in the NFL. Even if you increased its population 5 fold, it would have a hard time making it in MLB.
So why not throw out the idiocy of footprints and market money in college sports and come up with a revenue sharing plan that works.
and since you can't really compare conferences to each other (they play only a few non-conference games, those early in the season so the play is somewhat comparable to what the NFL goes through in its exhibition games), and far too many games are played against cup cake schools that do not feature 2 schools of BCS conferences in the same game, the only thing that, IMHO, is to award end of the year tournament slots to conference champions, for they are the ones who have earned it.
This would be easy if you could divide the US into 8 major conferences. It could be done (and, yes, I have offered this idea before)
East Coast: allow the Big East to get back members from the northeast to the ACC and also allow it to get Penn State back from the Big Ten.
South Atlantic: ACC goes back to its original footprint and covers the region from Maryland to Florida (with some overlap with the SEC)
Mid South: the SEC's old footprint covers this well
Midwest/Great Lakes: well served by the Big Ten's original footprint; ND goes here.
Great Plains: Resurrect the old Big Eight
Southwest: Resurrect the old SWC
Rocky Mountains: Choose the best of the MVC and WAC
West Coast: the old Pac 10 schools, spinning off recent arrivals Utah and CU
8 teams, all conference winners, all winning where it counts, in conference games, get into the tournament. no formulas, no subjective voting.....cut and dry and earned.
8 teams go into 4 new years bowl games (with traditional set ups like B10-Pac 12 in the Rose) and on to 2 semi-finals and a championship.
and in the process, get rid of the stupid notion of expanding footprints and actually represent your region and celebrate all the local rivalries in it.
It's not happenieng, so why mention it? If you want to pay conference exit fees and arrange this, I'll watch. Anyway, there is no union, no CBA or any of that other stuff to make this happen.
If Savannah State wants $400k to get beat 84-0 and 55-0 to keep their athletics program alive, so be it. If ULM wants to get paid to beat Arky, well, it happens.
I don't like realignment, either, but that's what playing NCAA '08 is for in my case.
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