McCall

Oh. Well, do you think it would be interesting if, say, the NBA drafted its players straight out of high school and then assigned them to the affiliated colleges for one to four years?

No. Keep college and pros separate. Colleges are still institutions of education and players choose where they want to go to college, not be told by a pro basketball team. That's what minor leagues are for.

So are you positing that the corresponding schools would become dedicated developmental affiliates for their nearest NBA teams, or are you just pointing out that Memphis and Knoxville are in the same state? Oh, and I guess St. Bonnie's would be the Raptors' college counterpart.

I was just noting how, alignmentwise, the divisions would fall into the very similar STATE layout of the corresponding NCAA power conferences. I'm not suggesting affiliation or anything.

I usually do an NBA realignment where I put them in 5 divisions of 6, no conferences, and they just do basically an NBA "tournament" for the playoffs. Anyway, I realized that if Sacramento were to actually move to Kansas City (I know it's not happening), then I could do this 5 of 6 scenario and all the divisions would line up almost exactly with a corresponding power conference from the NCAA. Here's the plan with corresponding conference and school(s) that correspond with the NBA team. And I go by the state as a whole, not if there is a school in that particular city. And with Sacramento, and New Jersey, as the only impending moves, so-to-speak, I'm leaving the rest of the league as current locations:

Pacific Division (PAC-10/12)

LA Clippers (USC/UCLA)

LA Lakers (UCLA/USC)

Golden State (Stanford/Cal)

Phoenix (Arizona/Arizona St.)

Portland (Oregon/Oregon St.)

Utah (Utah-future member)

Midwest Division (Big 12)

Dallas (Texas School-there are 6 so...)

Denver (Colorado-current member)

Houston (Texas school)

Kansas City (Mizzou/even a middle ground between Mizzou and, yuck, the 2 Kansas schools)

Oklahoma City (Oklahoma/Oklahoma St)

San Antonio (Texas school)

Central Division (Big Ten)

Chicago (Illinois/Northwestern)

Cleveland (Ohio St)

Detroit (Michigan/Michigan State)

Indiana (Indiana/Purdue)

Milwaukee (Wisconsin)

Minnesota (Minnesota)

East Division (Big East)

Brooklyn (St. John's/Syracuse-currently as NJ: Seton Hall/Rutgers)

Boston (Boston College-former member)

New York (St. John's/Syracuse)

Philadelphia (Villanova/Pitt-[repping the whole state])

Washington (Georgetown)

Toronto (odd one out since they're Canada)

South Division (SEC)

Atlanta (Georgia)

Charlotte (Ok, an ACC state, but could represent the Carolinas in which case, South Carolina)

Memphis (Tennessee/Vanderbilt)

Miami (Miami/Florida St)

New Orleans (LSU)

Orlando (Florida St/Miami)

(I included all the teams from the state just as a reference, except with California which is so large, I regionalized them. There are 3 Texas NBA teams and 6 Texas schools in the Big 12 so I didn't really specify which school and just generalized it as Texas. And I used the SEC instead of ACC cuz 5 of the 6 teams are in SEC states, but only 4 of the 6 are in ACC states.)

What Should Have Happened back in 1991

The Big 8 and SWC merge and add North Texas to their roster of teams

The New Conference is named the Southwest 18

There divisions are North and South

North

Colorado

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Missouri

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Arkansas

South

Baylor

Rice

Texas A&M

SMU

Houston

Texas

Texas Tech

TCU

North Texas

The football schedule would be that you face your 8 division foes and 1 foe from the other divison, Then the two division leaders at the end of the season go to a championship game that's location would be determined at the beginning of the season by a lottery betweeen the cities of Denver, Houston and Dallas. The lottery works in a way that for every year that you don't hold a championship, your city would be added again. The South Division winner would go to the Cotton Bowl, the North Division winner to the Fiesta Bowl.

North Texas. You're serious?

It was them or UTEP

UTEP.

What Should Have Happened back in 1991

The Big 8 and SWC merge and add North Texas to their roster of teams

The New Conference is named the Southwest 18

There divisions are North and South

North

Colorado

Iowa State

Kansas

Kansas State

Missouri

Nebraska

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Arkansas

South

Baylor

Rice

Texas A&M

SMU

Houston

Texas

Texas Tech

TCU

North Texas

The football schedule would be that you face your 8 division foes and 1 foe from the other divison, Then the two division leaders at the end of the season go to a championship game that's location would be determined at the beginning of the season by a lottery betweeen the cities of Denver, Houston and Dallas. The lottery works in a way that for every year that you don't hold a championship, your city would be added again. The South Division winner would go to the Cotton Bowl, the North Division winner to the Fiesta Bowl.

North Texas. You're serious?

six Arkansas schools

Who knew?

They had to do something with the old outhouses.

Without commenting on the uniforms, which I'm just going to assume have no bearing and are just there to illustrate the team itself, why so many conference switches? Why are the Jets and Giants in the same division now? The only way these amount of switches would occur is if they went to an Eastern/Western geographical conferences... but that's not what you did. It's like you just switched teams for the hell of it.

Rumor I heard recently.

Big East adds:

-Houston

-UCF

-Villanova

C-USA adds:

-Louisiana Tech

-Temple

Just a rumor for now, but there it is.

Would the Big East also jettison some of the basketball only schools in this scenario?

I could see the Big East creating two "sub-conferences" out of their football and non-football members. The Big East Tournament would then just be a one-and-done version of the NBA Playoffs.

And a big effin "yes" to La. Tech in C-USA. Of all the "out-of-footprint" placements, Tech in the WAC is probably the one that bugged me the most since they were already well within the footprint of two much more suitable conferences.

I did a realignment where I made all the conferences (for football) 12 teams, with the exception of a 14-member MWC and the MAC and Sun Belt at like 13 and 7 or something. They weren't really my focus. But anyway, what I did with the Big East was had enough to get 12 football members and 12 non-football members. I then split them into 2 seperate conferences for non-football sports. I originally was gonna have one conference of football members and one of non-members, but that would divided Georgetown, a pretty traditional Big East basketball school, away from the other "original" Big East members. So instead, I put the teams in the midwest (including TCU and USF) into one "midwest" conference and put the eastern schools, which actually was most of the original members, into the Big East basketball. The breakdown is on my computer at home so I may try and post it tomorrow.

The Red Hat, Blue Hat, Black Hat division version of Major League Baseball, inspired by an earlier post.

Red Hat Division:

6. CIN 7. PHI 8. WSH 9. MIN 10. CLE (North)

1. LAA 2. HOU 3. TEX 4. STL 5. ATL (South)

Black Hat Division:

1. BAL 2. CHX 3. TOR 5. NYM 6. PIT (North)

4. FLA 7. ARZ 8. COL 9. SFG 10. LAD (South)

Blue Hat Division:

1. MIL 2. NYY 3. TB 5. DET 7. BOS (East)

6. KCR 4. SD 8. OAK 9. SEA 10. CHC (West)

Each team plays 72 games against its 'hat' league (9 opps, 8 g).

THEN (20 games/team)

Red5-Blue5 4x

Blue5-Black5 4x

Black5-Red5 4x

THEN (20 games/team)

Red-Black (other 5)4x

Blue-Red (other 5)4x

Black-Blue (other 5)4x

The same pattern then repeats for the other 10 teams that each team has not faced, making for a total of 80 inter-divisional games. The season is now 152 games long.

------------

POST-SEASON v.1

------------

MLB DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The top 2 teams in the Red, Blue and Black divisions (winners of North and South) automatically qualify for the first post-season series, to crown the individual division winners. The next best 2 teams in the whole league also qualify as wild cards.

MLB SEMIFINALS SERIES

The remaining four teams are seeded 1-4 based on regular season record. The #1 seed plays the #4 (wild card), and #2 plays #3.

MLB CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The remaining two teams play for the MLB championship.

------------

POST-SEASON v.2

------------

Top 4 teams in each division qualify. All 12 teams are seeded 1-12 on season records.

ROUND 1 - MLB KNOCKOUT SERIES:

Seeds 5-12 play 3 games; first at lower seed's park.

ROUND 2 - MLB QUARTERFINAL SERIES:

Seed 1v8, Seed 2v7, Seed 3v6, Seed 4v5 (7 GAMES)

ROUND 3 - MLB SEMIFINAL SERIES: (7 GAMES)

ROUND 4 - MLB FINALS SERIES: (7 GAMES)

-------------------------------------

*New MLB Season Structure*

***SPRING TRAINING*** BEGINS MAR. 1 (10 GAMES IN DIVISION)

--REGULAR SEASON-- BEGINS MAR. 11

8 DIV MAR. 21

4 OP1 4 OP2 APR. 1

8 DIV APR 11

4 OP1 4 OP2 APR 21

8 DIV MAY 1

4 OP1 4 OP2 MAY 11

8 DIV MAY 21

4 OP1 4 OP2 MAY 31

8 DIV JUN 10

4 OP1 JUN 20

--ALL-STAR BREAK-- JUN 21 - JUN 25

8 DIV JUL 5

4 OP1 4 OP2 (8) JUL 15

8 DIV JUL 25

4 OP1 4 OP2 AUG 5

8 DIV AUG 15

4 OP1 4 OP2 AUG 25

4 OP2 SEP 1

8 DIV SEP 11

4 OP1 4 OP2 SEP 21

8 DIV OCT 1

--POST-SEASON--

ROUND 1 ELIMINATION SERIES OCT 5

ROUND 2 QUARTERFINAL SERIES OCT 13

ROUND 3 SEMIFINAL SERIES OCT 21

ROUND 4 MLB FINALS SERIES OCT 28

*****OFF-SEASON*****

Without having read through all the breakdown stuff, why exactly are the Dodgers, one of the teams with the longest use of blue caps, in the black cap when they've never even used a black cap?

But, if I remember correctly McCall... Didn't Utah State shoot down the MWC invite because they were loyal to the WAC's cause?

I wonder if that still plays a role in this little drama.

No, I believe it had something to do with BYU being in the MWC or something. But that was before BYU left to go Independent.

I can't see the Mountain West bothering with Idaho, regardless of whether Boise wants them or not. Why would they want them? They don't bring a history of success or a major market or anything. They have a dome, but it's tiny as can be.

I also don't see why they'd ever want New Mexico State or San Jose State or even Utah State.

I also don't see Louisiana Tech getting into C-USA. Every team except for Marshall added by C-USA in the last realignment was from a pretty major market (UTEP, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, UCF). Ruston, Louisiana is not a major market. And there also isn't the excuse of on-field success for La Tech. So unless C-USA teams start moving around (realignment's about football, so I don't see Memphis going anywhere) La Tech has nowhere to go other than maybe the Sun Belt, and even if there is movement by C-USA, I don't think they necessarily want to pick up La Tech.

Yeah, but if they end up losing some teams, with Memphis and maybe Houston being the most likely, then they'd probably look at adding to maintain 12 teams. Louisiana Tech may not be a major market, but there's really not much else.

And Seadragon, just because Idaho doesn't go to the MWC wouldn't mean San Jose State or Utah State wouldn't either. The MWC offered a spot to Utah State before, but that's befor BYU left. Now they're saying there's a possibility Utah State would except an invitation. It's definately a bump up. And if they bring in SJSU as well, that would give them the magic 12 number for a championship game. I think Idaho and New Mexico State only get in in the case that the WAC dissolves (as a football conference at least) and they don't want to go Independent. Then the MWC may take them simply as a pity, I don't know. But the WAC is definately in trouble as far as football goes. If they bring in those Texas schools from FCS, then that would probably just make it more likely SJSU and Utah State, more FBS schools, would want to get into a better conference. So I see either the WAC football conf dying out/unofficially merging into MWC or becoming one of the lower FBS conferences with the MAC and Sun Belt.

The problem with the "MWC eats the WAC" scenario is that I don't think the MWC wants to revisit the old 16 team WAC days. Or anything that lands within the ballpark of that. Too many hard feelings, too many stepped on toes, too unwieldy overall.

EDIT-Also the number of "yes votes" you need to get in could be an issue. If their expansion procedure has a liberum veto, Boise State's going to move to scuttle any expansion to Moscow in a heartbeat.

The thing is, if Idaho, San Jose State and Utah State all do indeed jump to the MWC, that would only leave Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State in the WAC. If you assume Idaho does not go, which they would be the 13th MWC member, then that still only leaves 3 schools, with La Tech having a penalty-free opt out at anytime if they want to join Conference USA, which right now is at 12 members. But who knows if Memphis and maybe even Houston jump to the Big 12 or even the possibility of the Big East. Either the remaining schools will have to go independent in football or try to get in the MWC cuz the only other conference in the west is the Pac and they're obviously not getting in there. In football, at least, I could see the WAC and MWC merging, while maintaining seperate conferences in non-football sports.

And now the Idaho Vandals are reported to be talking to the Mountain West:

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/sportslink/2011/jan/20/vandals-pursuing-mwc-membership/

Also mentions San Jose State and Utah State...I think this image is safe to post now (since every suggestion I made for the WAC to pick up, you've quickly refuted):

I'm pretty sure the WAC will find a way to stay alive as a non-football conference like the Big West has. It's sad to see a conference with such history go out the way it has, but I can't feel bad for 'em. They did themselves in with the over-expansion that caused the creation of the Mountain West in the first place.

In all the conference realignments I've been working on, I always end up with the entire WAC into the Mountain West. The 2 conferences should just merge back together and form a 14-team league. Let Louisiana Tech head to Conference USA and bam. I know Denver is supposed to be headed to teh WAC in everything but football, but Hawaii is only goint to the MWC in football, so it balances out.

How it would look:

San Jose State

Fresno State

San Diego State

Nevada

UNLV

Boise State

Idaho

Wyoming

Utah State

Air Force

Colorado State

New Mexico

New Mexico State

Hawaii (Football only)

Denver (Non-Football)

Contracted

Los Angeles Clippers*

The Clippers are 15th in attendance in the whole NBA right now. That's better than the Nuggets, Pistons, Rockets, Raptors, Bucks, Hawks, Sixers, and Nets, all of whom you're keeping around in your ideal NBA. I'm all for contracting some teams, but let's be realistic - the Clippers are doing surprisingly well at the box office for a team that has always been the second team in their market, with a dreadful history to boot.

/homer rant

I think he like LeBron) took the last 8 teams CURRENTLY with the worst records and contracted them, as if that's the basis for such an action. He didn't seem to figure in attendance, revenue or overall financial stability of the the franchises he dropped.

Big East basketball in 2012...

Atlantic

Connecticut Huskies

Georgetown Hoyas

Providence Friars

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

St. John's Red Storm

Seton Hall Pirates

South Florida Bulls

Villanova Wildcats

Syracuse Orange

Midwest

Cincinnati Bearcats

DePaul Blue Demons

Louisville Cardinals

Marquette Golden Eagles

Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Pittsburgh Panthers

West Virginia Mountaineers

Mountain

Texas Christian Horned Frogs

But, seriously, TCU would be in the Midwest division.

And Big East Basketball, additions, 2013:

UMass

Buffalo

Temple

Marshall

Xavier

Dayton

Hofstra

Tulsa

Memphis

BYU

Gonzaga

British Columbia

Iceland

Russia

Antartica

Mars

Pluto (or did they drop to Division II now?)

IT'S NBA CONTRACTION TIME~!

Eastern Conference

Bird Division

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Miami Heat

New York Knicks

Philadelphia 76ers

Jordan Division

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Detroit Pistons

Milwaukee Bucks

Orlando Magic

Toronto Raptors

Western Conference

Duncan Division

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

Houston Rockets

Oklahoma City Thunder

New Orleans Hornets

San Antonio Spurs

Johnson Division

Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers

Phoenix Suns

Portland Trailblazers

Seattle Supersonics*

Utah Jazz

Contracted

Charlotte Bobcats

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Clippers*

Memphis Grizzlies

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Hornets

Sacramento Kings

Washington Wizards

LeBron? Is that you?

Big Ten rethinking Division Names

Evidently, not too many people liked their choice. Who woulda thunk it?

For those about to freak out over a possible 7-9 or 6-10 playoff team from the NFC West, I propose the return to 3 divisions to a conference.

AFC East

Buffalo

Indianapolis

Miami

New England

N.Y. Jets

AFC Central

Baltimore

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Jacksonville

Pittsburgh

Tennessee

AFC West

Denver

Houston

Kansas City

Oakland

San Diego

NFC East

Arizona

Dallas

N.Y. Giants

Philadelphia

Washington

NFC Central

Chicago

Detroit

Green Bay

Minnesota

Tampa Bay

NFC West

Atlanta

Carolina

New Orleans

St. Louis

San Francisco

Seattle

Wouldn't really make much sense to go to uneven divisions when you have enough teams to make them evened out divisions (and no its not the same thing for MLB).

I think losing the American/National Leagues/Conferences in the NFL and MLB wouldn't be a good idea. They're seperated like that because of the merger from 2 past leagues in each sport. I personally prefer it over Western/Eastern conferences.

NFL: 2 preseason games, 18 regular. 14 divisional games, 4 games against half of another division, rotated over a 6-year period. Playoffs could be top 2, 3 or 4 in each division.

4 divisions of 8:

West: Seahawks, Niners, Raiders, Chargers, Cards, Broncos, Texans, Cowboys.

South: Saints, Jags, Bucs, Fins, Falcons, Panthers, Rams, Chiefs.

North: Bears, Vikes, Lions, Pack, Bengals, Browns, Colts, Titans.

East: Pats, Jets, Giants, Bills, Eagles, Steelers, Skins, Ravens.

So goodbye NFC and AFC?

Kudos to the Pac-10 for having their member meet a certain academic standard and don't just go adding any school... like the Big East is doing. I swear, if Hawaii runs off 4 seasons of BCS to 10 finishes, they'll get a Big East invite. They become the membership sluts of NCAA landscape. If NOLA didn't already have it claimed, you could rename it the Big Easy conference.

Evidently both Notre Dame and Arkansas inquired about joining the Big 12 this summer. Notre Dame is steadfast on remaining Independent... unless Super Conferences begin to form. From a Big 12 fan, I'd say go after Arkansas and ND. Let Memphis replace Arkansas in the SEC.

I'm a visual learner, so here's a quick representation of everything that's transpired so far.

When a team has moved, they are grayed out in their old conference and appear with their color in the new conference.

To my knowledge, Hawaii and TCU have not finalized their moves, but are expected to soon.

As an FYI, you forgot Buffalo in the MAC but otherwise it looks right.

Not to mention the additions of Texas State-San Marcos and Texas-San Antonio to the WAC (Provided there is a WAC left after the MWC raids it to oblivion).

I see Utah State and probably San Jose State moving over to the Mountain West, giving them a championship game. There's also the possibility of Montana, regularly one of the best FCS schools, usually plays for the Nat'l Championship, bumping up to FBS and joining the MWC. Still, if TCU, Utah and BYU were still in the conference, there'd be a legitimate argument to make the MWC the 7th BCS conference. But now, all it can do is to set itself up to be at the top of the non-BCS conference list for a long time to come, and there really isn't anything it can do in the future to improve on that... unless Texas does end up leaving and the MWC and whatever remains of the Big 12 combine to form what could be one helluva super conference.

I guess if the Dallas Cowboys can play in the NFC East, it's not a stretch to have Texas Christian as a member of the Big East.

I was kind of hoping the Big 12 would make a run at TCU to keep their conference afloat. Now what for them?

Exactly. Why would TCU want to continue traveling across the country, now even farther and in the opposite direction, to play their conference games? Big 12 should've made a run at them and either Houston or Memphis to bring it back to 12 teams. You bring in TCU and Houston, all 6 Texas teams could form the South.

This is just another sign that it really is all about money. I mean it was kinda nuts when the Big East stretched all the way to Chicago (DePaul) and Milwaukee (Marquette), both basketball only, but now they go down into Texas? This isn't like the pros where the teams location really doesn't make a difference because their's set game times each week and they don't have classes during the week like the college kids do (not all of them are obviously gonna make the NFL, so some gotta get some kind of a degree). If they joined the Big 12, all of their conference games would be in the same time zone and division games in the same state. Their fans could travel a lot easier to the conference games. Plus, the Big 12 is far superior to the Big East in football, unquestionably.

So for the playoffs, would the AL have the only Wild Card?

And Cleveland in the Central when it's farther East than East division Detroit?

Yes and yes. Prior to 1998, Detroit was in the east when they switched to the 6 division format. They moved to the central when Tampa Bay joined. If the playoffs do change as it seems it might, with each league 5 playoff teams, then the NL would have 1 WC team and the AL 2. This was an alignment proposal back around 2000, to go 4 divisions in the NL and 3 in the AL, but it had Arizona and Tampa Bay swapping. There was also one in 1998, but it was far more radical and had a lot of teams switching with Minnesota being the most western AL team.