After endless hours reviewing college football, I have come up with the final realignment, forming the super league. Let me know where to submit my paperwork.
Rules: The goal is to get as many 'blue bloods' the opportunity to play in the playoffs as possible. Football, in my estimation, will eventually separate from the NCAA and form its own ruling body. As a result, this is a football ONLY conference realignment. Basketball may have its own realignment. Olympic sports should most definitely go back to region-based conferences. I created 5 tiers of schools (blue bloods as tier 1). My thought is that the selection committee will get their 'must have' teams, then start adding based on overall value to the football product (mix of geography, fans, location, population, etc). Tier 5 is a mix of 'next up' and 'geography'.
First was to determine the number of conferences. My goal was to reduce the human involvement, so 4 or 8 conferences made the most sense. I went with 8 conferences to give the most blue bloods the highest chance of making the playoffs. Round robin within conference, then have 4-5 games out of conference (with this being a single league, the league could assign all the games focusing on geographical/ historical interest or prior year results). The top team in conference play will get an auto bid to the playoff (16 or 24 team playoff, here I’ll do a 24-team playoff) and have a 1st round bye. The remaining top ranked 16 teams make the playoff and are seeded similar to March Madness. The playoff could follow similar rules to FCS playoffs.
The playoffs could have a number of bye weeks, during which the non-playoff teams could play games at the home field of the higher ranked team (replacing the bowl system).
I played around with the number of teams to include, but ultimately, I think 64 makes the most sense to keep the sport relevant. There could be profit sharing based on the final conference standings, playoff results, etc. I could see a 56 team cutoff, which would require minimal restructuring of a few conferences. I think 48 is too few and cuts out too many fans, which will ultimately drive the financials.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | ||||||||
University | State | University | State | University | State | University | State | University | State | University | State | University | State | University | State |
Oregon | Oregon | USC | California | Michigan | Michigan | Penn State | Pennsylvania | Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Alabama | Alabama | Florida | Florida | Clemson | South Carolina |
Washington | Washington | Notre Dame | Indiana | Michigan State | Michigan | Ohio State | Ohio | Texas | Texas | LSU | Louisiana | Georgia | Georgia | Florida State | Florida |
UCLA | California | Nebraska | Nebraska | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Tennessee | Tennessee | Oklahoma State | Oklahoma | Auburn | Alabama | Texas A&M | Texas | Miami | Florida |
Colorado | Colorado | Utah | Utah | Illinois | Illinois | Maryland | Maryland | Kansas State | Kansas | Mississippi | Mississippi | Kentucky | Kentucky | Virginia Tech | Virginia |
Arizona | Arizona | Texas Tech | Texas | Iowa | Iowa | North Carolina | North Carolina | Arkansas | Arkansas | Missouri | Missouri | South Carolina | South Carolina | Mississippi State | Mississippi |
Arizona State | Arizona | BYU | Utah | Minnesota | Minnesota | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | Baylor | Texas | Georgia Tech | Georgia | Louisville | Kentucky | West Virginia | West Virginia |
Boise State | Idaho | California | California | Iowa State | Iowa | Boston College | Massachusetts | Kansas | Kansas | TCU | Texas | Duke | North Carolina | NC State | North Carolina |
Washington State | Washington | Northwestern | Illinois | Cincinnati | Ohio | Indiana | Indiana | Vanderbilt | Tennessee | UCF | Florida | SMU | Texas | Virginia | Virginia |
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3 | Tier 5 | ||||
School | State | School | State | School | State | School | State |
Clemson | South Carolina | Wisconsin | Wisconsin | Minnesota | Minnesota | Virginia | Virginia |
Florida State | Florida | Iowa | Iowa | Louisville | Kentucky | SMU | Texas |
Miami | Florida | Arizona | Arizona | Pittsburgh | Pennsylvania | Duke | North Carolina |
Michigan | Michigan | Colorado | Colorado | Arizona State | Arizona | UCF | Florida |
Michigan State | Michigan | Kansas State | Kansas | BYU | Utah | Kansas | Kansas |
Nebraska | Nebraska | Texas Tech | Texas | West Virginia | West Virginia | Washington State | Washington |
Ohio State | Ohio | Arkansas | Arkansas | Baylor | Texas | Northwestern | Illinois |
Oregon | Oregon | Kentucky | Kentucky | Georgia Tech | Georgia | Vanderbilt | Tennessee |
Penn State | Pennsylvania | Mississippi | Mississippi | ||||
UCLA | California | Mississippi State | Mississippi | Tier 4 | |||
USC | California | Missouri | Missouri | TCU | Texas | ||
Washington | Washington | South Carolina | South Carolina | Cincinnati | Ohio | ||
Alabama | Alabama | Virginia Tech | Virginia | Iowa State | Iowa | ||
Auburn | Alabama | Illinois | Illinois | NC State | North Carolina | ||
Florida | Florida | Utah | Utah | Boston College | Massachusetts | ||
Georgia | Georgia | North Carolina | North Carolina | California | California | ||
LSU | Louisiana | Maryland | Maryland | Boise State | Idaho | ||
Oklahoma | Oklahoma | Indiana | Indiana | ||||
Tennessee | Tennessee | ||||||
Texas | Texas | ||||||
Texas A&M | Texas | ||||||
Notre Dame | Indiana | ||||||
Oklahoma State | Oklahoma |
P4 schools that get left out: Stanford, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Purdue, Rutgers, Oregon State. G5 that get elevated: Boise State
The worst travel conference is USC/Notre Dame, but I figured they'd both prefer to have this conference alignment than to break the rivalry. I have really good looking maps and an Excel spreadsheet that looks amazing, but alas, CB prohibits such things from the poors.