New Power Conference Structure

Submitted by UMVAFAN on

Pretty simple, create six 10-team power conferences and a system with an 8-team playoff. The six champs get an auto bid with two at large spots awarded (independents and non power conference teams can get in this way, too).

The round robin format will produce a true champion in each conference with no unbalanced schedules. All teams will play each other once and it eliminates the guess work. There will be ties at the top from time to time, but head to head outcomes or point differentials can help break ties objectively. This takes the polls and committees out of the equation for 3/4ths of the playoff teams.

Each team will still play 3 non-conference games with the 9 conference games. This will bring better early season match ups as teams won't fear that a non-conference loss will kill their playoff chances. It will also make the conference games even more meaningful, and not diminish the value of the regular season as some argue will happen with a 8 team playoff. And without conference championship games, the first round of the playoff can be played the first week of December, and the current bowl structure with a Final Four can be maintained. This means the season isn't lengthened, thus eliminating the arguments that an 8 team playoff makes the season too long and kills the bowl system. Overall, this would probably produce huge TV ratings and more money for conferences than the current system.

Below are my proposed conferences with Notre Dame remaining an independent and Rutgers, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, and Iowa State eliminated from the power conferences. It actually makes some pretty compelling basketball conferences, too. Have fun dissecting:

Big Ten - Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa

Pac 10 - Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State

ACC - Duke, North Carolina, NC State, Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, Georgia Tech

SEC - Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M

Heartland - Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Utah

Northeast - West Virginia, Penn State, Pitt, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Syracuse, Louisville, Kentucky

MGoBoard

drawdown400

December 1st, 2016 at 7:06 AM ^

META - maybe we should have a separate message board for conference structure proposals. That way, the power conference structure gods can access them easily when they realize mgoblog holds all the answers.



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adamflo

December 1st, 2016 at 7:07 AM ^

The better option would be 4 20 team conferences with 2 10 team divisions.  You play 9 conference games against your division and one game against each of the other conferences.  Probably on a rotating basis.  Then you essentially have an 8 team playoff.  You have the conference championships with the winner of each division.  Then you have your 4 team playoff.  It would eliminate unbalanced schedules to an extent.  It would also keep the bowls which can't go anywhere if you are creating something new.  I believe you need to win your conference to have a chance to win the playoff.  So yes I think Ohio St. and Michigan shouldn't be in the playoffs this year.  

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LSAClassOf2000

December 1st, 2016 at 7:08 AM ^

While I don't know that such an alignment would ever happen for a lot of reasons - one important one being that many of these teams are quite comfortable for financial reasons in their current situation, I did like that Rutgers was finally relegated to ..... some fate, nobody cares exactly what and that as it should be. 

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champ009kd

December 1st, 2016 at 7:14 AM ^

I love how commenters shoot ideas like these down because there's too much money involved with the current setup (like they ever see a dime of it..) etc etc etc. Right now we have 2-14 team conferences. Frickin' Rutgers is in the Big Ten. West Virginia is in the same conference as Texas Tech. 

Let's embrace things that make sense because I guarantee the money will follow. 

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uminks

December 1st, 2016 at 7:21 AM ^

To 8 teams. Michigan is one of the top 4 teams in the country and may be left out. Last year it was OSU that was one of the top 4 teams left out. I FYI cannot make the top 8 than you have no shot at winning a championship!

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Hemlock Philosopher

December 1st, 2016 at 8:22 AM ^

You could do this with the current Power 5 +3 right now. Throw in promotion/relegation and I like it a lot. Buh bye Rutgers, enjoy going 2-10 in the MAC. Hello WMU. (This actually may help mid-majors like WMU and Houston retain their coaches). 

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SaigonBlue

December 1st, 2016 at 8:26 AM ^

Just so they can preserve their "Independent" status, they can go 7-5 every season, and then jump into the playoffs at the end of the year? In my opinion, any future conference realignment structure should force Notre Dame to join the 21st century of college football.

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SteelBrad

December 1st, 2016 at 8:39 AM ^

Stop.

Football is going the way of basketball. Conference championships aren't meaning as much as they used to. Pick the best teams no matter how large the playoff gets. End of story.



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Gulo_gulo_horribilis

December 1st, 2016 at 9:05 AM ^

Here is my proposal for conferences.  My idea was to preserve old-school conference alignment as much as possible.  Schools who are not old-timey members of each conference are indicated with an asterisk.  There are 7 conferences, plus a Catholic basketball league that includes Notre Dame, which would be independent for football.

 

BIG TEN (10)
Michigan Wolverines
Ohio State Buckeyes
Indiana Hoosiers
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Wisconsin Badgers
Michigan State Spartans
Iowa Hawkeyes
Illinois Fighting Illini     
Purdue Boilermakers
Northwestern Wildcats     
 
ATLANTIC COAST (8) -> ATLANTIC COAST (10)
North Carolina Tarheels
Duke Blue Devils
North Carolina State Wolfpack
Maryland Terrapins
Virginia Cavaliers
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
South Carlina Gamecocks
Clemson Tigers
Florida State Seminoles*
Georgia Tech Yellowjackets*
 
SOUTHWEST (9)
Texas Longhorns
Texas A&M Aggies
Arkansas Razorbacks
Southern Methodist Mustangs
Texas Christian Horned Frogs
Houston Cougars
Baylor Bears
Rice Owls
Texas Tech Red Raiders
 
BIG EIGHT (8) -> "LOUISIANA PURCHASE" (10)
Oklahoma Sooners
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Kansas Jayhawks
Colorado Buffaloes
Missouri Tigers
Iowa State Cyclones
Kansas State Wildcats
Oklahoma State Cowboys
Utah Utes*
Brigham Young Cougars*     
     
SOUTHEASTERN (10)
Alabama Crimson Tide
Kentucky Wildcats
Florida Gators
Georgia Bulldogs
Tennessee Volunteers
Louisiana State Tigers
Auburn Tigers
Mississippi Rebels
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Vanderbilt Commodores
 
PACIFIC EIGHT (8) -> PACIFIC 10 (10)
Southern California Trojans
UCLA Bruins
Oregon Ducks
Washington Huskies
Stanford Cardinal
California Golden Bears
Oregon State Beavers
Washington State Cougars
Arizona Wildcats*
Arizona State Sun Devils*
 
BIG EAST (10)
Penn State Nittany Lions*
Miami Hurricanes
Louisville Cardinals
Connecticut Huskies
Syracuse Orange
West Virginia Mountaineers
Pittsburgh Panthers
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Boston College Eagles
Virginia Tech Hokies
 
 
"CATHOLIC TEN" (10)
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Georgetown Hoyas
Villanova Wildcats
Xavier Musketeers
Marquette Golden Eagles
Providence Friars
St. Johns Red Storm
Seton Hall Pirates
De Paul Blue Demons
Creighton Blue Jays
     
 
LEFT OUT
Cincinnati Bearcats

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Gulo_gulo_horribilis

December 1st, 2016 at 9:33 AM ^

So, this is what the conference champs/8 playoff teams woud look like this year and projected long-term:

 

2016:
Big Ten: Ohio State Buckeyes (or in a just universe: Michigan, argh)
SEC: Alabama Crimson Tide
SWC: Houston Cougars
Big 8: Colorado Buffaloes
ACC: Clemson Tigers
Pac 10: Washington Huskies
Big East: Penn State Nittany Lions (or Louisville?)
At Large: Michigan Wolverines
 
All-Time (Favorites and Runners-Up):
Big Ten: Michigan Wolverines,    Ohio State Buckeyes
SEC: Alabama Crimson Tide,    Tennessee Volunteers
SWC: Texas Longhorns,    Texas A&M Aggies
Big 8: Oklahoma Sooners,    Nebraska Cornhuskers
ACC: Florida State Seminoles,    Clemson Tigers
Pac 10: Southern Cal Trojans,    Washington Huskies
Big East: Penn State Nittany Lions,    Miami Hurricanes
At Large: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

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samdrussBLUE

December 1st, 2016 at 9:11 AM ^

Someone, everyone please share stories about how the traditional Big Ten was so great. I want to live through you all



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Gulo_gulo_horribilis

December 1st, 2016 at 9:15 AM ^

I think this year's Big Ten illustrates the problem with mega-conferences.  

Why did college football rely on polls for nearly 100 years?  Because of sample-size problems.  There are a lot of college football teams and they play few games, and have wildly different schedules, so you can't lust rank them by their record.

 

Well, mega-conferences have the same problem.  2016 Penn State has a better record than 2016 Michigan.  But they did not play the same conference schedule.  If we're going to have 14 teams in a conference, we might as well have a poll to determine the conference champion.

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Waka

December 1st, 2016 at 9:44 AM ^

Even with a 10-team conference where each team plays the 9 other teams once, imbalance still lies in where the games are played. Our road game @Iowa is not the same test that Penn State faced when they played Iowa at home during the day. Just as our game at home vs. Penn State wasn't the same test OSU faced @Penn State at night. The way to eliminate the most imbalance possible would be to mirror how European soccer schedules their season: play every team in the league twice, once at home and once away. The only way to determine the unquestioned conference champion would be to start the season in June and let everyone play each other twice. 

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drzoidburg

December 1st, 2016 at 3:34 PM ^

Nothing will ever be perfectly balanced and it's impossible and undesired to play every team twice in CFB, even with 8 team conference. There's only 12 games and 4-5 of those are wasted on 'guaranteed' wins with no bearing on conference standings

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Clarence Boddicker

December 1st, 2016 at 1:54 PM ^

Gah...this is a terrible idea every time someone posts it, which is every year at this time. First, this is an NFL model, and if I wanted that I'd watch the NFL. No one but eastern sports writers wants college football to become NFL Junior unless we're talking about paying the athletes (which I am down with). Second, college football is controlled by the conferences, who can make their own t.v. deals. Because they control their own income, the NCAA holds nominal power over them. The conferences aren't tearing themselves and their carefully crafted t.v. deals apart for the sake of playoffs, when playoffs can be tailored to the current set up.

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PapabearBlue

December 1st, 2016 at 10:55 AM ^

Are you actually going to attempt to propose this idea to someone and get it put into place or are you bored at work and thinking that this is a good place to barf your random football opinions on some other people?

This isn't an appropriate location for one of those things.

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swdude12

December 1st, 2016 at 11:29 AM ^

The easiest fix is to eliminate all divisions with in every conference.  This will create true conference championship games that actually mean something.  Take the 2 best teams and if there is a tie between...go with the highest playoff ranking.  If we did that we would get the following matchups below.

My point is the top 2 teams in the conference dont always play in the conference championship...it would make it more clear in the playoff discussion.

 

ACC

Clemson vs. Louisville

Big 10

Ohio St. vs Penn St.

Pac

Same - Wash vs Colo

SEC

Same - Bama vs Fl

 

Big 12 - NO CONF. Champ. this year.

Oklahoma vs Okla St or WVU

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drzoidburg

December 1st, 2016 at 3:31 PM ^

That's similar to what i came up with, except i'd also add a rule to help determine those at large bids and home field seeding that those teams can only face each other. No more cupcake scheduling

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