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| SJS College Football Extravaganza |
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| Commentary | ||
Conference Realignment The Fun Way
And the above list is by no means complete. Conferences are likely to continually shift gradually, and may do so in ways that don't make a lot of sense from the fan's perspective. I myself have spent some time dreaming of the perfect conference system, consisting of 8 12-team superconferences whose conference championships would select 8 schools for a Division I-A playoff. The teams left out of this structure would be relegated to playing in a second-tier of I-A teams, or would perhaps become I-AA programs. The unspoken assumption of such a system, though, is that the superconferences have to be balanced. That means some central committee must call the shots and direct the organization of the conferences, using both competitiveness and geography to decide who plays whom. One also has to make assumptions about what programs remain strong from year to year in order to achieve long-term balance. The Big East, for example, might be more on par with the five other major conferences if it added Penn State, a move that would leave the Big Ten with several strong programs and would bring the Big East total up with the others. The Mountain West would benefit from the addition of Colorado. The SEC, too laden with traditional powers, might have to forfeit one or two schools to make a Conference USA superconference workable. The MAC, Big West, and WAC would have to agree to all but disappear. The reality of the situation, though, is that NCAA football is not one league like the NFL or major league baseball, whose mission it is to provide a unified product for the fans. Instead, it is a loose confederation of competing leagues, whose mission it is to provide a better product than its competitors. The Big Ten is not going to give up Penn State, and if the ACC can seduce Miami or Syracuse then the good of college football be damned. We are always going to have unbalanced conferences, and Notre Dame may remain independent in perpetuity. There are too many bottom lines to satisfy. Furthermore, competitive play is not the only factor in satisfying the bottom line. Conference USA is not trying to lure SMU away from the WAC because they have a great football program, they are trying to lure them away because Dallas is a juicy media market. Marshall may be one team from the MAC worth watching play, but what major conference would see the Thundering Herd as an asset to their product? In the end, there is nothing wrong with the system we have. It won't put the most interesting product on the field, but it might be better than some central committee's idea of the best product. But people like me have to realize that the dream of the perfect system is just that, a dream, fun to fantasize about but nothing to lose sleep over. And now that I've convinced you that there is no need to be realistic about realignment, here is the Webmaestro's current wish list for theme conferences:
For the All-America Whiners conference, we have accepted applications from Ohio State, West Virginia, and Michigan. The application of Tennessee was rejected because they put up last year, and that of Kansas State is pending, since their recent whining has been deemed 'Justifiable' by this committee of one. |
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There has been a lot of loose talk lately about conference realignment. Here is a list of substantiated and unsubstantiated rumors about realignment in the news recently: