Philsphan

This is a cool series. The expansion teams are all really well done, especially with the color schemes all taking into account the existing teams in the league. I agree about the Voyageurs. Maybe you could have the man in the canoe standing and paddling more vigorously? I don't know. Google tells me that voyageur refers to river traders, but you could also use imagery related to explorers like Samuel Champlain, who I believe founded Quebec City. That could veer too closely to the Schooners, but you don't use a big old fashioned boat in that logo really. You should keep the pine trees, the midnight green (and the Eagles number font?) regardless!

Maybe they should have considered calling it the American Athletic League (AAL). They should call it the AA, because by the time the dust settles in conference realignment, it will be equivalent to Double A Baseball.

In light of the 32 team NHL thread that has exploded and illwauk's realignment here is mine! Boston Bruins Montreal Canadiens Ottawa Senators Quebec Nordiques *expansion Hartford Whalers *from Florida New York Rangers Brooklyn Islanders New Jersey Devils Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins Washington Capitals Tampa Bay Lightning Carolina Hurricanes Nashville Predators Columbus Blue Jackets Dallas Toros *for lack of a better name Detroit Red Wings Chicago Blackhawks Toronto Maple Leafs Buffalo Sabres Minnesota North Stars St. Louis Blues Winnipeg Jets Colorado Avalanche Calgary Flames Edmonton Oilers Vancouver Canucks Seattle Metropolitans *from Phoenix Los Angeles Kings San Jose Sharks Anaheim Ducks Salt Lake... Saints, Sting, Mammoths, Mormons?

Why is that? Just curious, that's all. "Suns." Their name is in the division name and Florida is closer to the Sunbelt than Atlanta.

Move Atlanta to Industrial and Florida Suns to the Sunbelt Division. Otherwise, looks good.

Really interesting and insightful. I have not ever followed European club soccer or how it is organized until I got Fifa13 for Christmas. Now, I am obsessed with bringing European club soccer ideas (and Soccer in general- it's the world's game after all), like Promotion and Relegation, good derbies, 6 teams in NY London style, Cups, champions leagues and 20 team leagues. I agree with you that Austin will have 2-3 teams in 20 years and other cities (especially Midwestern) will lose teams. Vancouver, and among others Raleigh, San Jose, Las Vegas, Albuquerque might also have teams.

Yes please let's stop reacting to max cause all he wants is attention. I love this thread and I'll comment to almost any realignemnt but I've completely ignored max. ESTONE please keep working on that!! It'll get this thread back on line. In the mean time, I've also started brainstorming for a possible concept series about where big club soccer teams would be in the US... EPL: Northeast Chelsea- New York Arsenal- The Bronx Spurs- Boston Manchester United/Manchester City- Washington DC Liverpool- Philadelphia Newcastle- Buffalo And so on... Serie A: Southeast AC Milan/Inter- Atlanta Juventus- Charlotte Palmero- Miami Roma/Lazio- Orlando Udinese- New Orleans La Liga: California Real Madrid/Athletico Madrid: San Francisco Barcelona: Los Angeles Bundesliga: Midwest Bayern Munich: St. Louis Borussia Dortmund: Chicago Werder Bremmen: Minneapolis Wolfsburg: Detroit Ligue 1: Texas Marseille: Houston Lyon: Austin PSG: Dallas Again, just the start of a project and I'm not really sure where this is going. I'll appreciate any feedback that isn't along the lines of "this is stupid."

The number one rule of realignment (especially for the pro leagues) is that the division must be equal! I like your idea, but find a way to make the divisions equal!

I actually really like the C-USA and Big East merger idea. I do too, but can Conference USA just cancel the additions of Louisiana Tech, UTSA, North Texas, FAU, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion and Charlotte. If they can, then most of those schools would probably go to the Sun Belt, which has also added teams.

I really like your Pac 16 and B16. They are almost ideal, but sadly they probably will never happen. I would adjust the Big XVI, SEC and ACC though. Think about what each conference would want and which conferences have the power to get what they want.

Here is a revised version. Chicago State was a stupid addition. ECC: Georgetown, Villanova, St. Joes, La Salle, Seton Hall, St. John's, Fordham, Providence, Duquesne, St. Bonaventure GMC: Marquette, DePaul, Xavier, Dayton, Creighton, Butler, Valparaiso, Detroit, Cleveland State, St. Louis

Option A looks like the most likely and I like them taking the Metro name, but I think Option B could be interesting. Here's how I would change it. ECC: Georgetown, Villanova, St. Joes, La Salle, Seton Hall, St. John's, Fordham, Providence, Duquesne, St. Bonaventure GMC: Marquette, DePaul, Xavier, Dayton, Creighton, Butler, Loyola-Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland State, Chicago State

Here's a rather interesting idea I had... The SEC, Big Ten and Big XII destroy the ACC raiding FSU, GT, Clemson, NC State, UNC, Duke, VT, UVA, Louisville and Cincinnati between the three conferences. Those three conferences are at 16 unlike the Pac 12. (The Pac 12 can expand and grab MWC schools or they can stay put for the purpose of this scenario) The remaining ACC is left with BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Wake Forest and Miami. The Notre Dame makes those five schools an offer to join a conference started by Notre Dame and broadcasted by NBC. The remaining ACC schools gladly accept and join ND and BYU. UConn is added as the 8th member. Notre Dame BYU Miami Wake Forest Syracuse Pittsburgh Boston College Connecticut The conference thrives on big TV money, especially flowing out of New York, a market CFB conferences have long been trying to capture. NBC features a day game and a night game with the conferences' teams. ND's resurgence brings the other schools in the league back to their all-time best. The U dominates. Northeastern schools see the light of the Top 10 again. And BYU has a perfect season in 2024. So what do ya think?

Interesting points have been raised. Here are my thoughts. I think UVA could be in trouble, because I do think the Big Ten wants to somewhat keep a Midwestern culture. I also don't think the SEC and the Big Ten will go past 16. The only conference that might is the Big XII. With 10 teamsmand a crumbling ACC, the Big XII might do a super-raid to pick up any programs left with value including Notre Dame. Paired with another Indy-football school (BYU) the Big XII would have a 16 team football league and an 18 team all-sports league.

I hate the B16 TEN going outside the contiguous footprint. I wish they would add Virginia and Kansas to expand east and west, and call it a day. Adding Georgia Tech and North Carolina without Virginia really is disappointing. I agree completely.

Wow, that is terrible for Virginia. At least if UNC gets left behind in the ACC, they will still have Duke and a good basketball conference (Syr, Pitt, Wake, ND) but UVA really doesn't have any natural rivals in that group.

Yeah, I think the Big East name is pretty useless for the remaining teams now. It's really just another way the public can make fun of the scraps that they picked up. I like Big Continent. The plan looks pretty good. I think they'd take Nevada over New Mexico though.

Ahh, now that's just sad. Hopefully these teams realize the Big East is nothing more than a name now and one that's losing value quickly. They'd have been better off staying put in the MWC and other schools and CUSA and gone ahead with the proposed merger/alliance. The Big East is turning into that MWC-CUSA merger. The only teams to have never played in those conferences are Temple, Navy, and Connecticut.

It's much different when the football schools in your conference are Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami, etc. The Catholic basketball schools didnt have a problem with football in the Big East until they started adding UCF, Boise State and Tulane. Yeah but is some crappy football better than no football at all? Sure, basketball is the OTHER money making sport in college, but its a football dominated country. So even if you add ECU and Boise State, wouldn't it be beneficial to get SOME football revenue while still having a premier basketball conference as opposed to a premier basketball conference and NOT football revenue? Yes, but those football schools tarnish the brand of the Big East (Tulane tarnishes that brand in a way that Rutgers or even USF didn't) School presidents care about money, yes, a lot, but they also care about the image of their school because that can affect admissions. It's much different when the football schools in your conference are Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami, etc. The Catholic basketball schools didnt have a problem with football in the Big East until they started adding UCF, Boise State and Tulane. Wrong, Seton Hall, St. John's, Providence and Georgetown all had a problem with the addition of Virginia Tech, Rutgers, WVU, and Temple as full members. That is why it took VT until 2000 to be a full member. In case you don't remember, the Catholic 7 also did not like it when they went to two divisions for the 1995-96 season, By didn't have a problem, I meant it didn't make them leave the conference. Of course the basketball schools had a problem with VT and the others. I should have been more clear. It's much different when the football schools in your conference are Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami, etc. The Catholic basketball schools didnt have a problem with football in the Big East until they started adding UCF, Boise State and Tulane. Yeah but is some crappy football better than no football at all? Sure, basketball is the OTHER money making sport in college, but its a football dominated country. So even if you add ECU and Boise State, wouldn't it be beneficial to get SOME football revenue while still having a premier basketball conference as opposed to a premier basketball conference and NOT football revenue? Well the football schools that left were also their premier basketball schools, so the remaining schools kind of had a problem because their RPI was about to go in the toilet since they can't say "look at how many good teams we lost to". Exactly. RPI and university image.

It's much different when the football schools in your conference are Syracuse, Notre Dame, Miami, etc. The Catholic basketball schools didnt have a problem with football in the Big East until they started adding UCF, Boise State and Tulane.

Here's what I would do to fix this: Football: North: Notre Dame, Navy, Boston College, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut South: Miami, Duke, UNC, Wake Forest, Louisville, Cincinnati Basketball: play each school once (15 games total) Pods kind of unessecary Pod 1: Miami, Wake Forest, Duke, UNC Pod 2: Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, Butler Pod 3: Georgetown, Villanova, Syracuse, Pittsburgh Pod 4: Connecticut, Boston College, St. John's, Notre Dame All teams make Tournament ACC acquires the right use MSG for the premier conference tournament in college basketball. Catholic 7 never forms. Providence, Seton Hall and DePaul join the A10. Big East goes on under the name of the Big American Conference. (UCF, USF, East Carolina, Temple, Memphis, Tulane, SMU, Houston, Boise State, San Diego State)

Here is my prediction... Big Ten adds UNC and UVA SEC adds NC State and Virginia Tech Big XII adds BYU and Florida State ACC adds Connecticut and Cincinnati as full members and Georgetown, Marquette, Villanova and St. John's as non-football members Miami Clemson Georgia Tech Wake Forest Duke Syracuse Connecticut Boston College Pittsburgh *Notre Dame Louisville Cincinnati *Marquette *Georgetown *Villanova *St. John's

And with the superconferences possibly forming, that may very well be the case. And ND would definitely be the regular favorites to win the ACC. Assuming FSU, Clemson, GT, UVA, VT and NC State leave and, say, the ACC gets back to 14 by adding Cincinnati, UConn, South Florida, Army and Navy in addition to ND, the conference could look like this: Boston College UConn Syracuse Pittsburgh Louisville Cincinnati Notre Dame Army Navy Wake Forest UNC Duke USF Miami Notre Dame has a chance to dominate. Miami's only relevant, it seems, every so often. Louisville will tough at times but, all-in-all, the Irish could take a playoff spot almost year-in-year-out. IMO, there's no way UNC gets left behind. If the Tar Heels aren't chosen by the Big Ten, then the SEC will take them over NC State. Also, I think adding Army and USF just waters down the league too much. I understand adding Navy if it convinces Notre Dame to become a full member and Cincy for Louisville, but Army and USF just don't make sense to me.

St. Joe's is still a contender for the Catholic League if Creighton, Gonzaga and St. Mary's say no. While as a hawks fan, I would love St. Joe to play Georgetown at least once a year, I don't think it will happen. There's always the possibility though.

For Butler to be invited into the new "Group of 7's" conference another prominent non-Catholic school will have to go with them. Agree/Disagree? Ideas? Also, the only way Gonzaga and St. Mary's go is if it is truly an all Catholic conference IMO because the travel distances are just too hard for student athletes who don't play basketball.