Is moving conferences good for teams?

[The Ancient Enemy]

Roadie, Vanderbilt has a young coach. Let's be fair here and give the guy a chance before we kick his team out into the street. They're still an SEC team, let's not forget that. They get some quality players, and as someone already brought up, the academics are fantastic. One thing though that really bothered me was that when I was coming back down here (Texas) in August, I decided to stop in Nashville and get myself a Vanderbilt shirt, since I like Cutler so much and no one else on earth roots for Vanderbilt. I swear to you I couldn't find ONE shirt of that school, and Vanderbilt is in Nashville and plays in the SEC! That to me is a really bad sign. But, I guess if you have the Vols in your state, why support a team that can't win? Personally, I would like to see Vanderbilt take Marshall's spot in the MAC, because most of the MAC schools have good academics. I also like Vanderbilt because of their helmets, I admit it.

Hollyweird, I have to disagree about the super-conference idea. Right now we have 11 conferences: ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, MAC, Mountain West, Conference USA, SEC, Pac-10, Sun Belt, and WAC. Keep the ACC at 12, Big 12 at 12, SEC at 12, add another to the Big Ten to make 12, add quality teams to the Big East to make 12, add 2 to the Pac-10, and make 2 more conferences of 12, which would dissolve the WAC, MAC, Mt. West, Sun Belt, and Conference USA. Then take the remaining teams, form two more mid-major conferences, and give them the potential of fighting for 2 at-large bids.

[IEATHAM0555]

Roadie, you forgot about Florida in the SEC too..I just think that if you look top to bottom the SEC is the best conference....I think that if you took any team in the ACC and put them in the SEC they would have a tough time winning....Miami I think would probably do the best out of any of them....

[Head Roadie]

AE: I think your experience in Nashville speaks volumes for why the Commodores are on shaky ground in the SEC. There is not the interest right now in Vandy sports that comes with the rest of the 11 SEC schools who all have 'passionate' fans.

Here's a scenario in which an ND/Big 10 marriage could potentially work.
Bring in ND and two more teams to go to 14. Form 2 divisions of 7. Place ND in a division with teams they already play yearly (Pur, Michie St, Mich, NW) and exempt ND from inter-divisional games. Allow them to work their own separate deal for their 5 or 6 non-league contests for TV and continue playing Navy, USC, etc. instead of being locked into too many league games and it becomes win/win. The Big 10 gets half of ND and their game revenue and a championship game. ND gets a home, maintains their regional schedule, and a large portion of their TV dollars.

Keep in mind when I mentioned the BE/ACC merger that could have happened I meant in FOOTBALL ONLY. Those two conferences would have remained separate in all other sports. Just wanted to clarify that.

Lot's of good discussion and ideas here from everybody!

[AUSTIN_22:22]

hollywood brought this up and i think it would add a lot to the college game. if all the big conferences can manage to get enough teams to have a conference championship game, then only teams that won their conference championship game would be eligible for the national championship game. i like the idea of a team having to earn the right to play for the championship instead of a computer calculating which teams deserve the opportunity. even the idea of a four team playoff could be used in this format. of course there would still be a few teams that complain they werent selected for this playoff, but even in college basketball where they pick 65 teams to be in their tournament, a few bubble teams still get left out in the breeze.

i think we all agree there are some flaws in college football right now w/ the conferences and the bcs. hopefully one day, they can align the teams so that a true national champion is crowned every year, and any challenger worthy would have the chance to knock them off before the coronation.

[HOLLYWOOD]

I still think we need super conferences but what do I know just ask know-it-all Enemy, he is the best!! Yeah right give me a break, some bum, oh well. Hollywood-that is how you spell it bum!

[The Ancient Enemy]

All I did was disagree with you, Hollyweird. I just think it's unrealistic to want 16 or 20 teams in one conference. That's going to hurt all the teams, because then Vanderbilt and Duke NEVER have a chance. Gotta make it fair, everybody deserves a shot.

[Head Roadie]

OK fellas, let's keep this fine subject from getting ugly. I think Holly took offense to your misspelling of "wood" Mr. AE.

Back to the subject. The superconference idea does have merit for pairing down teams into a championship tournament that would be feasible.

Imagine if the Big East's Big 3 moved as I've speculated before. Then you have the Big 10, ACC, SEC, Big 12 all having championship games. Put those four in a second week of December Quarterfinal vs winners from among week #1 of December 1st round games involving Pac-10, WAC, Mountain, C-USA, MAC, Big East Leftovers, etc. and you could pair down to a college football semifinal round in the major bowls on New Years Day followed a week and a half to two weeks later by a college super Bowl. You would still have from the 2nd Sat. in Dec. till Christmas for final exams and allow teams who lose the first week in December whether it be via conference championship game or 1st round playoff game to accept bowl invites to keep that alive.

[The Ancient Enemy]

If you are going to create superconferences and give multiple bids to each one, why not just create a system of smaller conferences, kind of like now, and let them fight for conference championships at least? What's different? You still give out the same amount of bids.

[ramst65]

stop courting my IRISH, it will never happen, so let it go...

...besides, any conference they joined would most likely result in them having a weaker schedule.

ACC is not that great dude! When was their last championship? Miami won't bring one this year either. NC State dominate the big east? Come on doggie...

Those "basketball" schools that the big east added are decent mid-major programs. Add the fact that now they play in the BE, and their recruits just got that much better...

..BE basketball is already wicked (Syr, UCONN, Pitt, nowadays) can you imagine next year?

who cares about BCS? Average the rankings from two polls (maybe not the AP--it inflates "traditional powers" with one or more losses and underemphasizes undefeated mid-majors) then have your 16 team playoff...make the games the final eight play (7 games) the major bowl games, rotate 'em or whatever...all teams in a round share the bowl money from that round evenly...fft

[HOLLYWOOD]

oh my all these ideas!! I am a fan of the super conference like it or not, I could care less about ya!