Aresco's Big East Plan

[jvwvu]

A 16 team Football split (red/blue) with 2 separate bball (east/ west) contentions make sense to me with interleague bball play. Play you 7 twice a year and then 3-4 interleague games so you only have 1-2 other coast games.

Still getting a west coast bball league to market with. The TV deal is probably going to be NBC/Yahoo therefore making each team $4-6 mil a year for tiers 1&2.

[Danm1983]

Every conference getting bigger still has the bottom feeders every year, even if it's a rotation of a few that may have a good year once in a while. They'll always have a few teams that everyone beats on and creates separation within the divisions and conference, and it also provides more chances to have better records.

The differences are that the middle and bottom feeding teams in the better conferences all still perform well out of conference, thus even beating a 4-8 Kentucky team that has wins over Louisville or NC State or Houston or something adds value versus beating a 3-9 USF team that has bad losses to Ball State, Temple (see what I did there?).

Thus, having some bad teams doesn't always hurt. The reason a lot of other conferences get away with it is because that bad team is either really good at basketball (UK, Indiana, Kansas, Duke) or they just have enough logo/brand recognition to be a terrible football program but people still see the moniker and won't hate.

I'm all for the 16 team league. Especially with the east-west format, having 8 teams per division allows conference members to play the 7 teams in their division (which if set up correctly won't be horrible travel) and then if you play 8 conference games, you get one cross division trip every other year, or if you play 9 conference games, you get one per year which isn't bad. And not counting if you have to travel cross country to play in the championship game at the opponent's venue.

Set it up with a few schools that aren't that great at football but hold their own in basketball and some other sports (New Mexico has good hoops and soccer, heyyyy). They'll provide the upper tier with some easy wins, and make the records look better. People don't always look at all their opponents these days anyways...if Boise State goes undefeated in conference, they'd at least have a win against some other decent teams like SDSU, Utah State, Houston, SMU....if those teams are good that year, and possibly a win over Cincinnati or whomever wins the East? who knows.

I'd be down for:

East - UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, USF, UCF, Tulane, Memphis

good travel east of the Mississippi River, TV markets of Philly, Cincy, Orlando, Tampa, New Orleans, Memphis. 3-5 decent football teams and 3-4 decent basketball programs. It gives almost everyone a traveling partner as well, though Memphis-Tulane and ECU-Cincy are a bit of a stretch, it's not terrible.

West - SMU, Houston, Boise State, San Diego State, Utah State, UNLV, New Mexico, Colorado State (I thought about Tulsa, but their TV market and tiny enrollment lost out to CSU)

the travel isn't great, but it's no worse than the MWC/WAC/C-USA stuff they've already been through anyways. TV markets of Dallas, Houston, Idaho in its entirety (lol), San Diego...I won't count Vegas, since it's such a mashup of people there really is NO TV market to capture. 3-4 decent football schools and anywhere from 4-6 good basketball schools.

Sorry to Navy, I've left them out, unless Air Force comes along, I'd dump CSU and probably UNM and shift Tulane or Memphis west to stay at 16.

Basketball would have a fantastic rotation of sites to host conference tournaments:

San Diego, Vegas, Houston, Dallas, Philly, Cincinnati, Orlando, Tampa, New Orleans, Memphis

Bowls in proximity to get ties to:

Poinsettia, Las Vegas, Armed Forces, Citrus, New Orleans, Liberty - not counting the Houston one or Tampa as those will always be taken by higher conferences.

[jvwvu]

At 16 in football I like pods regionally. So USF/UCF/ECU Memphis would play yearly and would face every other team in 3 years.

Edited December 18, 2012 by jvwvu

[Danm1983]

At 16 in football I like pods regionally. So USF/UCF/Tulane/ Memphis would play yearly and would face every other team in 3 years.

Would be neat if new conference could pioneer the pod setup for the bigger conferences to watch and copy.

Setup would depend on what other members join. Could be USF/UCF/Memphis/Tulane, UConn/Cincinnati/Temple/ECU, SMU/Houston/CSU/UNM, BSU/SDSU/UNLV/USU

[jvwvu]

I switched out Tul for ECU forgot Navy was coming. Pods are being discussed by Big 12 if they get to 16.

And then a champ game would also still be there.

[Cow Pie]

At 16 in football I like pods regionally. So USF/UCF/Tulane/ Memphis would play yearly and would face every other team in 3 years.

Would be neat if new conference could pioneer the pod setup for the bigger conferences to watch and copy.

Setup would depend on what other members join. Could be USF/UCF/Memphis/Tulane, UConn/Cincinnati/Temple/ECU, SMU/Houston/CSU/UNM, BSU/SDSU/UNLV/USU

I think our conference will pioneer the pod system when we hit 16 teams. It makes the most sense afterall given the number of teams in the conference. It also opens the door for even bigger conferences down the road, like a 20 team mega conference.

I can see a day when there are really only 4 conferences based on region alone.

[jvwvu]

No there will be 4 conferences (4 of 5 now) with 16, 18, or 20 teams. That will either make NCAA create new football division or will break away from NCAA and starting really playing $5-10k stipends per semester for football/bball.

Some will have regional pod setup some conventional east/west. Depends on what happens with ACC Big 12.

The 8 team playoff is coming as league champs

When does that happen i dont know.

[Dhambuc]

If the BE or whatever we call it can remain intact it will be a decent conference. Look at the schools we have lined up and what they have done in FB and BB or can do.

East

1. USF( Sleeping Giant in FB) NCAA Tourney Team last year.

2. UCF(on par with USF accept they have actually won Conf FB chamionships, Conf USA)They also beat the crap out of us in BB this year.

3, Cincy( BCS team a few years ago) NCAA Tourney team most years.

4. UConn(BCS bowl as well) NCAA Tourney team most years.

5. Temple( Beat us in FB, have the potential like We do to grow) Usually NCAA Tourney team as well.

6. ECU( Great fan base, decent FB) NEED To improve in BB but the conference afflilation will help.

7. Navy (Bowl team almost yearly, Heisman trophy winner a long time ago) National reputation and fan support all over the World.

8. Id consider UMass or Army. (NY or Boston TV markets) If Army it would help get Airforce for the west and lock up all military schools.

WEST

1. Boise(BCS Bowl regualar and name brand)

2. SDSU( Bowl team , decent BB)

3.Houston ( BB school and could build FB, They have had sucess recently , need to keep it going)

4. SMU (Hope they get back to the days when they were NC material)

5. Tulane( love the location, not the school).

6. Memphis( Good BB)(Liberty Bowl ties too)

7/8 pick 2 of the following: Airforce( lock up the military schools, gives Boise, SDSU someone they would want to play, Bowl team, National Following) OR FRESN0( Bull Dawgs they are a name brand and would compete in FB immediatly) UNLV(BB school and TV market) Nevada (FB School) BYU( Good FB program and name recgonition).

Edited December 18, 2012 by Dhambuc

[Mission9]

I cry foul on touting UCF's 2007 "championship". 2007 regular season out of conference game= USF 64 UCF 12. Cannot say much about 2010 since it was the beginning of our new "era".

[Dhambuc]

I hear ya, but in reality you just verified they have at least 2 Conf Championships,(Conf USA) not that its difficult to do but We have yet to sniff one in ANY Conference.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Dhambuc