Realignment Mania

  We've hit the time of year when rampant speculation on the future of college football occurs. We've gotten through signing day, the coaching silly season is over (unless you're Colorado and get your coach poached), spring semester has started so the transfer market is on simmer. What is there left to talk about? Well, a favorite of  mine, and many is what the future of each conference looks like, who is going to defect to who, will a conference fold, where does that leave school X? All fun and great questions. That's what I'm going to tackle below, a crazy speculation laden realignment of sorts of the 5 major conferences for football, with a little thought given for the Olympic sports. In the past I've always thought a 4-16 team conference alignment was coming, but I've since changed that stance and I'm leaning towards 5-16 team conferences, giving us 80 Power 5 schools. Now, the obvious idea is getting 2 8 team divisions in each conference, I still like divisions even though the new school thought is to rid ourselves of divisions. I think divisions are great in all sports, rivalries and division match-ups make sports. Hating the Dodgers is half of being a Giants fan. Also the beauty of the 8 team divisions is in football you get 7 division games, 2 cross-division games, and 3 non-conference games with at least 1 coming vs the Power 5, no more scheduling 3 FCS games Florida. I'll also try to reconnect some old rivals with these, what is college football rivals? All new teams to a conference will be in Italics.

ACC Atlantic: Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Temple and Connecticut. Almost the same, with a couple subtle changes. Adding UCONN can maybe charge up Boston College. UCONN has been looking for a place to play for a while and they can help the ACC, and maybe help their basketball program. Temple, is a program on the rise in a football rich area. The rest of this group is already playing each other, you get some historic power with Florida State, and of course recent success with Clemson. It won't be the best division in the county but hopefully they can continue to go in the right direction. Wake Forest is my when they are good I like rooting them team from the ACC, must be the Tim Duncan effect.

ACC Coastal: Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Duke, Maryland, and Notre Dame. Bet you didn't see that coming, Notre Dame wants to be in the ACC so they can just join them and stop this half in/half out BS they are pulling now. Giving Maryland back is a tough call, but they belong in the ACC. I enjoyed them in the Big Ten, but they love hating Duke and North Carolina. Notre Dame, Va Tech, and The U all have had history of being good so they can counter Clemson and give them an actual game in the conference championship game. Duke and UNC belong together in basketball. I like this iteration of the ACC. Georgia Tech has the ability to compete.

Big Ten East: Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Indiana, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia. I'm sorry but you can't break up this division tOSU, Michigan, and Penn State belong together, can't beat someone do better. I know lots of people will scream to get rid of Rutgers but they have to stay, WE LOVE NEW YORK. I added Pittsburgh and West Virginia because #1 they belong together and #2 Penn State hates both of them, so that would be awesome. We need the Backyard Brawl in our lives and what a better way to have it than right after The Game on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Indiana will always just be lumped with these guys, they really are in a tough spot.

Big Ten West: Northwestern, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Purdue, Minnesota, and North Dakota State. You didn't think I would break up my beautiful division did you? The Big Ten West is great in many ways, they do struggle against the big 2 out east in tOSU and PSU but they can close the gap. North Dakota State joining is a big leap as they are only a FCS team at the moment but they are the best FCS team of the last decade and have plenty of FBS scalps on their record. I kept Nebraska with the Big Ten just to spite them, they don't want to be with Texas anyway. Purdue, much like Indiana is just here so they don't get fined. jNorthewestern is here so all the alumni in Chicago can attend a game every other year.

Big Twelve North: Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Colorado, Utah, Brigham Young, Colorado State. Possibly the hardest division to fill. I decided to go east and west to find teams to group up with these 3 average to below average football programs. Kansas State is ok historically, Iowa State in on the rise, and Kansas is a basketball school. Missouri coming back makes sense, they hate Kansas. Bringing Colorado back is also a gamble, but bringing in Utah will help. Plus grouping these teams with Big 12 South will help with recruiting of Texas. Colorado State and Brigham Young are there for rivalry reasons, not sure if Colorado and Colorado State are true "rivals" but we can make it happen.

Big Twelve South: Texas, Texas Christian, Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Southern Methodist. It's a division made up entirely of 2 states and oh what a beauty it is. You gotta keep Texas and Oklahoma together, believe me I wanted to put Oklahoma in the north but then you lose the Red River Shootout. The rest of the Texas schools and Okie State all are here by proxy of those other 2 schools. Texas A&M gets brought back because they have the rivalries we want, and adding SMU gives the DFW 2 teams but they can handle it, they had 2 back in the SWAC days.

Pac 12 North: Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Stanford, California-Berkley, Boise State, and Fresno State. Another division where we leave well enough alone. Oregon, Stanford, and Washington lead this group, Oregon State and Wazzu are up and down, Cal is there and damn it, we all want Cal to be good. Boise State belongs in the Power 5, they need to get out of the Mountain West, bringing Fresno along helps, plus Fresno fits the footprint.

Pac 12 South: Southern California, California-Los Angeles, Arizona, Arizona State, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Diego State, Nevada, and Hawai'i. USC is the obvious leader of the pack, their success will be what leads this division. UCLA used to be so good, and they play in the freaking Rose Bowl, who wouldn't want to play there. Arizona is in Tuscon so I get why they suck, ASU is in Tempe, you should be able to recruit to Tempe. The new schools are all from the Mountain West and we are just raiding that bitch, Nevada and UNLV can both be decent, San Diego State plays in an NFL stadium they would be able to recruit to San Diego, and Hawai'i is freaking Hawai'i, plus they've been decent in the past.

SEC East: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisville, Central Florida, and South Florida. We already know I took Missouri back, and we're flipping Vandy, so we had to add 3, and UCF and USF can be those 2 of those 3. UCF has won a "National Championship" more recently than all of these schools. We gotta keep the rest of the rivalries rolling. UGA vs Florida, and Florida vs Tennessee are storied rivalries. The SEC East has to be a little better counterweight to the West but they are close and Georgia is so close to climbing that mountain. Kentucky is here for hoops and adding Louisville will be a great rivalry for each school.

SEC West: Alabama, Auburn, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Memphis. It's the jewel of college football, this division has won the most national titles since the year 2000, plus they are the only division to have 2 teams play each other for the Natty. Alabama is the top, LSU and Auburn give them fits, Ole Miss and Mississippi State hate each other. Arkansas should be better and can create a rivalry with Memphis. Vanderbilt is here to help the conference GPA, and I flipped them on their division to put Kentucky with Louisville.

That's the 80 teams, sorry to Cincinnati I wanted to find a home for you but decided on Temple instead. Maybe talk Vanderbilt out of sports. For hoops I would do play everyone in your division twice, and find 6 random games from the other division to play, you'll miss someone but you can get them back the next year. For football, you play 7 division game, 2 conference games, where you do a home and home in consecutive years and then not see them again for 6 years. I know this will never happen but it's fun to talk about, and fun to try to figure out. Conference alignment is a neat deal.