Pac 10 rumors persist, now with reports of an apparent ultimatum issued from Big XII offices to Missouri and Nebraska to decide by friday... It's assumed that they would go to the Big Ten and that the Pac-10 would eat 4-6 other schools from the Big XII, including Big XII jewell Texas. An ESPN report that the Pac-10 commissioner has been given the green light to begin exploring expansion options with a deadline for year end. Most people seem convinced that these mega conferences are the foregone conclusion, while I remain convinced they are a fundamentally unsound idea. I hold out some hope that becuase I think they are a bad idea that I'm not the only one and the media is running rampant with the mega conference idea while the conference leaders themselves see the issue a little differently. It's hard, though, to ignore the media blitz, but at least the Pac-10 commissioner's comments in the ESPN don't indicate a particular lean.
It may be worthwhile, though, trying to figure out what would happen if you did see the end of the Big XII and/or Big East with the result being just a few football focused mega conferences. Right now the BCS conferences contain 73 schools. If the Big Ten were to take Missouri and Nebraska, as well as Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Pitt, it would grow to 16-- but reduce the Big XII to 10, and the Big East to 13. If the Pac-10 then went wild and took Texas, TAMU, TT, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma St from the Big XII, it would grow to 16 and the Big Ten would reduce to 4 teams. At this point the Big XII is no longer a viable conference and remaining members Kansas, K-State, Baylor, and Iowa State would have to find a new home. I think the Big East would also be very shaky at this point with only six football schools remaining (Cincinnati, UCONN, Louisville, Rutgers, USF, and West Virginia). That asks a few questions-- namely, what happens to basketball only institutions such as the rest of the Big East and conferences like the Horizon League, CAA, A10 and the Missouri Valley, what will the SEC and ACC do, what will the Big East do about football, and what happens to the orphaned Big XII members?
My own overwhelming interest is in college basketball (and in particular, Bradley), and so I'm obviously worried about this. If the Football Megaconference Concept is going to dominate college sports for a while then Bradley needs to find a spot at the table or they'll stand to lose a ton of money and put their assets to waste. I'm convinced these megaconferences are patently bad for basketball, and really don't add anything as far as football goes. I think the best two outcomes for Bradley would be to end up in (as I've advocated for a while) a "major" conference focused on non-football sports, or to be taken in as a basketball only school in a developing regional megaconference (maybe along with several MVC members in a conference with Kansas and Iowa State-- something that would require the MVC Football schools to probably go for FBS status). I don't think that Bradley administration can afford to wait and hope but should actively be engaging the MVC on expansion opportunities OR looking for options outside of the MVC, as survival as a top 100 college basketball program has to be a critical objective for the university.
I don’t find many articles online about why people like the 16 league format without mentioning increasing revenues by increasing the leagues footprint. I actually love the idea of the 16 team league, even more so then a 12 or 14 team league.
ReplyDeleteIn a 12 or 14 team league, you have your division games plus a couple of games against the other division. By having games against the other division, you create doubt for fans and controversy about who the best teams in the league are because divisional teams aren’t playing the same conference teams.
In a 16 team league, you can make it so there is no out of division conference games. It’s essentially like having two separate 8 team conferences. This will leave no doubt in the minds of fans who is the best team is. Not only that, I think division games will become more intense and exciting for the fans because every game is a head to head tie breaker in the divisional standings and everyone in the division has played the same conference teams creating equality in the schedule. You Now have the makings of a championship game where each division winner faces off creating a true conference champion without anyone complaining about being shafted. Better yet, you have the making of a true playoff system for college football.
For basketball, I don't see much change from the way it is now. You will still have your Butlers and Gonzagas still being relevant in college basketball and the NCAA tourney.
I think for football the numbers of teams in a conference aren't all that relevant because you're ultimately only going to play 12 games and very never all of your conference-mates in a given season (unless you're in an 8 or 9 team conference I guess), so schedule balance doesn't really matter. In addition, in college football you don't have anything similar to the NCAA Tournament where who gets to go to the dance and what seed they carry depends at some level on what conference they were in. I think, incidentally, you'll still have some doubt between who the best team is (at least as far as maybe the #2-#4 teams are) as you won't have any comparison other than the conference championship game.
ReplyDeleteFor basketball, a balanced schedule is useful insofar as it allows you to judge conference strength cleanly, whereas in a conference like the Big East you have a very unbalanced schedule, where one team may have an easier go based on having played DePaul twice and Marquette only once, or things like that. Being a fan of a conference like the MVC makes the conference schedule interesting because you know you're going to have to play each opponent twice and it makes you more confident that your conference standings mean something. Either way, it'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out.