The Pointless Realignment Outpost

[TrueYankee26]

6 hours ago, McCall said:

Here is my prediction for a possible power conference endgame, whether as FBS, it's own level under the NCAA above FBS or as a breakaway. All four conferences end up with an even-across-the-board 18 teams.

 

A few changes:

- West Virginia leaves the Big 12 for the ACC: It's been discussed recently, and seems plausible that they'd prefer to be reunited with some to their old Big East rivals and avoid having to travel to the west coast for conference games.

- The Big Ten drags their feet and loses out on Stanford and California to the Big 12, who also add San Diego State to bring the total to 18 after losing West Virginia.

- Florida State and Clemson manage to leave the ACC for the SEC, but Notre Dame, feeling the pressure to join a conference has become to heavy to resist any longer, honors their deal and joins the ACC rather than trying to get out.

- The ACC decides to get into the Texas/western South territory by bringing in Memphis, Tulane (New Orleans) and SMU (Dallas). I couldn't decide between the last member; Rice brings Houston into the league, while Temple and UConn are in ACC territory, yet bring in markets they currently lack. Temple (Philadelphia) does, anyway. I included Liberty (Lynchburg, VA), but I think their recent success may not necessarily make them as attractive as some believe them to be.

 

ACC	BIG TEN	BIG 12	SEC
Boston College	Illinois	Arizona	Alabama
Duke	Indiana	Arizona State	Arkansas
Georgia Tech	Iowa	Baylor	Auburn
Louisville	Maryland	BYU	Clemson
Memphis	Michigan	California	Florida
Miami	Michigan State	Cincinnati	Florida State
North Carolina	Minnesota	Colorado	Georgia
North Carolina State	Nebraska	Houston	Kentucky
Notre Dame	Northwestern	Iowa State	LSU
Pittsburgh	Ohio State	Kansas	Mississippi Sate
SMU	Oregon	Kansas State	Mizzou
Syracuse	Penn State	Oklahoma State	Oklahoma
Tulane	Purdue	San Diego State	Ole Miss
Virginia	Rutgers	Stanford	South Carolina
Virginia Tech	UCLA	TCU	Tennessee
Wake Forest	USC	Texas Tech	Texas
West Virginia	Washington	UCF	Texas A&M
Liberty/Rice/Temple/UConn	Wisconsin	Utah	Vanderbilt

I would have a feeling ACC would pick UConn for dominant hoops and history with some of the ex Big East members, or Temple for the latter reason

 

If Liberty can get past the controversy they have of being associated with the Falwells they may have a shot because they invested so much and have openly said they aspire to be the evangelical Notre Dame

[TrueYankee26]

On 7/29/2023 at 10:01 PM, TrueYankee26 said:

I got that major itch for creating pointless realignments again

 

NFL D-League sponsored by ExxonMobil

 

AFC East (affiliations in brackets)

Buffalo Wings (Buffalo Bills)

Fort Lauderdale Bottlenoses (Miami Dolphins)

Hartford Colonials (New England Patriots)

Long Island Pilots (New York Jets)

 

AFC North

Annapolis Marines (Baltimore Ravens)

Canton Bulldogs (Cleveland Browns)

Columbus Buckeyes (Cincinnati Bengals)

Erie Walleyes (Pittsburgh Steelers)

 

AFC South

Fort Wayne Ponies (Indianapolis Colts)

Gainesville Crocodiles (Jacksonville Jaguars)

Memphis Pharaohs (Tennessee Titans)

San Antonio Defenders (Houston Texans)

 

AFC West

Colorado Springs Mountaineers (Denver Broncos)

Kansas Blazing Stars (Kansas City Chiefs)

Reno Rangers (Las Vegas Raiders)

San Diego Seagulls (Los Angeles Chargers)

 

NFC East

Brooklyn Blues (New York Giants)

Fort Worth Lawmen (Dallas Cowboys)

Harrisburg Dutch (Philadelphia Eagles)

Northern Virginia Redhogs (Washington Commanders)

 

NFC North

Duluth Normans (Minnesota Vikings)

Lansing Lakers (Detroit Lions)

Milwaukee Packers (Green Bay Packers)

South Bend Celts (Chicago Bears)

 

NFC South

Athens Owls (Atlanta Falcons)

Baton Rouge Priests (New Orleans Saints)

Orlando Orange (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Raleigh Cats (Carolina Panthers)

 

NFC West

Anaheim Cherubs (Los Angeles Rams)

Silicon Valley Miners (San Francisco 49ers)

Tacoma Thunderhawks (Seattle Seahawks)

Tempe Firebirds (Arizona Cardinals)

And now the NFL D-League 2 sponsored by Pizza Hut

 

AFC East (affiliations in brackets)

Boca Raton Seagulls (Miami Dolphins)

Providence Dockers (New England Patriots)

Rochester Rocs (Buffalo Bills)

Trenton Bombers (New York Jets)

 

AFC North

Akron Kangaroos (Cleveland Browns)

Lexington Pacers (Cincinnati Bengals)

York White Roses (Baltimore Ravens

Youngstown Emperors (Pittsburgh Steelers)

 

AFC South

Beaumont Texans (Houston Texans)

Evansville Hoosiers (Indianapolis Colts)

Knoxville Knights (Tennessee Titans)

Tallahassee Jaguars (Jacksonville Jaguars)

 

AFC West

Coachella Chargers (Los Angeles Chargers)

Oakland Raiders (Las Vegas Raiders) [Could not let them ignore their still huge Oakland fanbase or let the name "Oakland Raiders" go unused]

Omaha Cornhuskers (Kansas City Chiefs)

Salt Lake Blizzards (Denver Broncos)

 

NFC East

Albany Firebirds (New York Giants)

Atlantic City Blackjacks (Philadelphia Eagles)

Austin Batmen (Dallas Cowboys)

Frederick Federals (Washington Commanders)

 

NFC North

Bloomington Blaze (Chicago Bears)

Des Moines Hawkeyes (Minnesota Vikings)

Toledo Wheels (Detroit Lions)

Upper Peninsula Yoopers (Green Bay Packers)

 

NFC South

Charleston Palmettos (Carolina Panthers)

Chattanooga Choo Choo (Atlanta Falcons)

Daytona Beach Racers (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Lafayette Cajuns (New Orleans Saints)

 

NFC West

Bakersfield Wildcats (Los Angeles Rams)

Fresno Mastiffs (San Francisco 49ers)

Spokane Storm (Seattle Seahawks)

Yuma Scorpions (Arizona Cardinals)

[raysox]

I've been doing sporcle quizes about sports, and NBA divisions seem outdated in the sense that they barely prioritize those games over others in conference. So I decided, let me play around in this space. Here is the NBA Divisions if they went with the NHL format for divisions and playoffs. 

 

I would love to have Minnesota in the Atlantic division, but the west is too sparse.

 

Then for fun, here are two 32 team alignments

 

But then I became cursed with the knowledge that the perfect alignment has no conferences. I have no idea how playoffs would work but I think this is the tightest pods you can make with 6 teams

[McCall]

2 hours ago, raysox said:

I've been doing sporcle quizes about sports, and NBA divisions seem outdated in the sense that they barely prioritize those games over others in conference. So I decided, let me play around in this space. Here is the NBA Divisions if they went with the NHL format for divisions and playoffs. 

 

I would love to have Minnesota in the Atlantic division, but the west is too sparse.

 

Then for fun, here are two 32 team alignments

 

But then I became cursed with the knowledge that the perfect alignment has no conferences. I have no idea how playoffs would work but I think this is the tightest pods you can make with 6 teams

You need to rename the Atlantic division. Probably keep it the Central and the make other (western conference) the Midwest, like it used to be. But makes little sense to name a division Atlantic when only 2 teams are in states that border the ocean and the others are Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland and Detroit.

[raysox]

27 minutes ago, McCall said:

You need to rename the Atlantic division. Probably keep it the Central and the make other (western conference) the Midwest, like it used to be. But makes little sense to name a division Atlantic when only 2 teams are in states that border the ocean and the others are Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland and Detroit.

yeah, I just used the NHL division names one for one. 

[pmoehrin]

Hello all. So, this is probably the longest post I've ever done here, and it's because it covers an entire realignment of Division 1 conferences.

 

If you want to see my thoughts on the current situation of college conference realignment, click the spoilers button below.

 

One thing I will say is that I kept the maximum number schools of every conference at twelve for reasons mentioned in the comments below. I would also estimate each college saving about 200 miles round trip per road trip with these proposed conference alignments. Conference USA, the American Athletic, the Big XII, and the Big East would see the biggest differences.

 

Spoiler

Regardless of what you feel should be done, I think everyone can agree it's getting ridiculous now and even past the point of making any sense.

 

Why on earth would you want a 16-team college football conference? You can't possibly play everyone in a single season, and if you divide a conference that large into two divisions, then you might as well go ahead and make two separate conferences. There's no difference at that point.

 

Travel-wise, I understand it makes almost no difference for football because they only play once a week. But for every other sport, traveling from North Carolina to Texas to California and back is a logistical nightmare. These aren't pro athletes. These are full-time students who go to class when they aren't playing. Money is tighter. Resources are tighter.

 

This is a challenge even under the best of circumstances; that's why teams plan travel arrangements as far into the future as possible.

 

That's also not even getting into the fans who now have to stay up later for games or any of that stuff.

 

Long story short, as I see it, everyone involved with college sports at some level, whether as a fan, coach, athlete, trainer, etc., is worse off now for all of these conference realignments than they were before. The only ones better off are the executives and those brokering the television deals driving this. Everyone else loses something here.

 

So, with that said, I've decided to throw my hat into the ring and come up with my conference realignment for the entirety of Division 1 sports. History teaches you to look for ideas that worked and repurpose them in a modern way, and that's the lens I tried to view this.

Let's get back to having the classic Big East basketball conference. Let's fix what was wrong with the original Metro Conference, something Conference USA tried and failed to do. It wasn't a bad idea; the execution was.

 

Let's reign in the bloat of the A10 and CAA. They haven't improved through expansion because the geographic footprint was never the issue. Let's send some FBS teams back down to FCS, where they could be more competitive and not perpetually 2-10 or worse.

 

Let's correct wrongs with Penn State being in the Big Ten that should have never happened in the first place or the Big East dropping football and scattering the Northeast teams. Let's get Maryland back to the ACC, where they belong, and get that conference back to what it was about. Jordan/Bias couldn't happen now.

There are so many wrongs I've seen over the years that not only have never been fixed, but they've snowballed. And with the collapse of the Pac-12, it's spiraling. That conference existed in some form for over 100 years. How did you manage to break this? It's like someone breaking your fridge at a party. How do you even do that?

 

And I feel the answer to that question is the same question here. This is the sports equivalent of being drunk, and the drink of choice is money, as it usually is with things like this. Money drove all these moves, ultimately making everything worse for everyone except the people drinking it. Everyone else is the sober person at the party who has to clean up.

 

I can cite dozens more examples than the ones I've already mentioned. Even if you don't agree with everyone, it's death by 1,000 cuts. At least a few are going to ring true.

 

I can't say this about any major pro sport, but I can say with college sports, almost every fan realignment proposal I've seen without exception has been better than what we have now. If that's your only goal, you accomplished that without hardly trying. That's my only goal, and I know I cleared that bar easily. How much higher is almost beside the point. Just go with what I have. Or what anyone who knows anything about this stuff has. Pick a name, and I will dump my proposal and get behind that 100% because I know it will automatically be better than what we have now.

 

I know this to be the case because every one of those plans has one thing in common. They're born of a sound and sane mind. What is in place now isn't. And it's only going to get worse.

 

I almost want to go to Congress and say you might start to think about getting a handle on this. Because these are not pro teams, they shouldn't be operating in that sense. This is becoming a net negative for society. And no, it's not the most essential thing in the world, far from it. But it's not the least, either.

 

But getting back to the 1,000 cuts comment, rather than cite them all, I just reproduced them in a new realignment. I don't explain all of them, but I try to cover the major ones and how I currently view each conference. Some are pretty much fine as is. Others only need a tweak or two. Other conferences need some work. And others should be blown up and drawn from scratch. It runs the gambit.

I've hidden these comments in spoilers to make it easier to go through. I'll also probably add more to these later. I may also go back and make changes, as there have been a few moves I've been toying with, and a fresh set of eyes may lead me to them.

Let me know if I missed an addition or subtraction listing. My main point is to show how bad the current conferences are rather than how good I make them because it's not even that hard to clear that bar anymore. An intelligent 13-year-old can do it.

 

FBS Conferences

 

ACC

North Division South Division Duke Clemson Maryland Georgia Tech Penn State Miami (FL) Virginia North Carolina Wake Forest NC State West Virginia South Carolina

 

Adds: Maryland, Penn State, South Carolina, West Virginia

Subtractions: Boston College, Florida State, Louisville, Notre Dame (non-football), Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia Tech

 

Spoiler

Traditionally a mid-Atlantic football & basketball powerhouse, I tried to keep that tradition alive by contracting the geographical region covered while maintaining dominance in both sports. Penn State's arrival corrects what I feel is one of the longest-standing conference wrongs: the Big East denying them entry. I put them in the ACC over the Big East because of their football tradition, which I feel will fit in against other powerhouses like Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Miami.

 

American Athletic

Houston
Memphis
North Texas
Rice
SMU
Southern Miss
Texas State
Tulane
Tulsa
UTSA

Wichita State (non-football)

 

Adds: Houston, Southern Miss, Texas State

Subtractions: Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Navy (football only), Temple, UAB

 

Spoiler

Conference USA and the American have always been a mess regarding where teams were placed, and this is my best attempt at correcting both. Just ten teams mean they don't have enough to play a conference title game, but unlike the current structure of the conference, every school is placed in or near Texas, which I feel should foster a lot of intense rivalries.

Texas State and UTSA may not be up to the athletic standards of the other schools, but given their endowments and number of students, I feel they will catch up in short order.

 

Big XII

North Division	South Division
Arkansas	Baylor
Colorado	Oklahoma
Kansas	TCU
Kansas State	Texas
Nebraska	Texas A&M
Oklahoma State	Texas Tech

 

Adds: Arkansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas A&M

Subtractions: BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, UCF, West Virginia

 

Spoiler

This may be the best example of a big conference that started with a clear vision of what it wanted to be about and do, but realignment has turned it into a mess. Why is West Virginia here? Big East makes sense. ACC makes sense.  Even the Big Ten makes sense. If Penn State can be justified, so can West Virginia. But the Big 12? How many fans are really looking forward to that Oklahoma matchup? Or going to Houston? Or Orlando? That's crazy.

 

This is simply about getting back to basics and reestablishing the Big 12 as the dominant conference in the southwest and lower Great Plains region of the United States.

 

Arkansas moving to the Big XII corrects a longstanding geographic wrong when they moved to the SEC. They go from being the most isolated team in the SEC to being within a day's drive of several schools.

 

 

Big East

Basketball Football Boston College Boston College Cincinnati Cincinnati UConn UConn Dayton Pittsburgh Georgetown Rutgers Notre Dame Syracuse Pittsburgh Temple Providence Virginia Tech Seton Hall   St. John's   Syracuse   Villanova

Adds: Boston College, Cincinnati, Dayton, Notre Dame (non-football), Pittsburgh, Rutgers (football only), Syracuse, Temple (football only), Virginia Tech (football only)

Subtractions: Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Xavier

 

Spoiler

The drunkenness that is modern college realignment all seems to have stemmed from when the Big East dropped football and moved westward. Again, I think this conference is getting away from what initially made it so special. As problematic as Big East football was, it at least tied up a lot of powerhouse northeast football schools that don't have an obvious geographic home.

 

The problem always was the more you lean into football, the more you move away from the catholic and basketball nature of the conference.

 

What I did here isn't so much a realignment as it is a near-total reset to what the conference used to be like. The three football-only schools allow me to bring back all the original teams of the Big East, along with Cincinnati and Dayton. Why I put Dayton in the conference and dropped Xavier is due to the fact that with Cincinnati being in the conference, the Big East already has a Cincy-based school, Dayton is a private Catholic university, and with an endowment of just under $800 million, a 13k+ seat arena, and a strong basketball history, I think they will fit right in.

 

Big Ten

East Division	West Division
Indiana	Illinois
Michigan	Iowa
Michigan State	Iowa State
Northwestern	Minnesota
Ohio State	Missouri
Purdue	Wisconsin

 

Adds: Iowa State, Missouri

Subtractions: Maryland, Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers

 

Spoiler

There are only a few changes here, mainly just shrinking the geographical footprint back to its original and intended upper-Midwest territory.

 

I was a little bittersweet about dropping Iowa State from the Big 12. I know they're a long-standing member of the Big 12/8, but I like them and Missouri in the Big Ten better, especially if they drop Penn State. The goal of that conference should be to geographically center themselves around Chicago because that's how the entire Great Lakes region is aligned. Penn State is borderline at fitting that image, but Rutgers and Maryland certainly do not. But Missouri fits that image, and Iowa State fits it as well. And I think they have more in common with the schools here than anyone from Texas. Iowa State can still go play a Big 12 school if it wants. I can think of at least one non-conference matchup that just freed up on the schedule.

 

Losing Penn State and Nebraska brings them down a tad with football, but this is still, bar none, one of the most dominating conferences in that regard, with Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin all still there.,

 

Conference USA

Basketball	Football
Charlotte	North Division	South Division
Davidson	Appalachian State	Charlotte
East Carolina	James Madison	East Carolina
Florida Atlantic	Liberty	Florida Atlantic
Marshall	Marshall	South Florida
Old Dominion	Old Dominion	UAB
South Florida	Western Kentucky	UCF
UAB
UCF
VCU
Western Kentucky
Xavier

 

Adds: Everyone but Western Kentucky

Subtractions: FIU, Jacksonville State, Liberty (non-football), Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, UTEP

 

Spoiler

Conference USA has always been a mess regarding its geographical alignment and now appears to be on the verge of collapse, as that geographical footprint is way too spread out for what is now arguably the worst conference at the FBS level.

 

This is a total reset to reestablish the conference as the second most powerful conference in the mid-Atlantic region after the ACC. Still, a lot to be desired when it comes to football, but with the additions of some southern A10 schools, as well as Charlotte and Xavier, I anticipate this conference being a solid mid-major basketball conference.

 

Of niche interest to me would be getting that Western Kentucky basketball program fired up again. That's a team that's had two separate stretches of making the tourney three years in a row, which is tough to do for even most power conference schools.

 

But Western Kentucky has never played in a quality conference, and I think they deserve to be in one. Charlotte, Davidson, Old Dominion, VCU, UAB, and Xavier will give them that quality basketball conference.

 

Independents

Army

Navy

Notre Dame

 

Adds: Navy

Subtractions: UConn, UMass

 

Spoiler

Not a lot to say here. Notre Dame probably should be in the Big Ten, but their sweetheart deal with NBC and nationwide media presence pretty much makes it impossible to group them into a conference.

 

With the American Athletic moving west, it makes no sense for Navy to still be in that conference. UConn isn't good enough to compete in ACC football, which is why they are independent now, but I have faith in their ability to hold their own in the newly constituted Big East football conference.

 

Not so much faith in UMass, who makes UConn's program come off like Alabama's by comparison. More than any other school at the FBS level, they have absolutely no business being there, and moving them back down to FCS seems the prudent thing to do. I have more to say about them in the CAA summary.

 

MAC

East Division	West Division
Akron	Ball State
Bowling Green	Central Michigan
Buffalo	Eastern Michigan
Kent State	Northern Illinois
Miami (OH)	Toledo
Ohio	Western Michigan

 

Adds/subtractions: None

 

Spoiler

I admire the Mid-American Conference's consistency in a world where everyone else is looking for something better. They got it right the first time as a Midwest mid-major conference that's too good for FCS but doesn't seek greater glory at the FBS level. They're fine as is.

 

I'm going to reward that by changing nothing here. They're fine as is.

 

Mountain West

Air Force
BYU
Colorado State
New Mexico
New Mexico State
Utah
UTEP
Wyoming

 

Adds: BYU, New Mexico State, Utah, UTEP

Subtractions: Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State

 

Spoiler

The problem with college football west of Texas is that there are too many schools for two big-name conferences but not enough for three. This situation will unlikely change unless Long Beach State or Cal State Fullerton decide to start fielding football programs again or a few Big Sky schools jump to FBS.

 

Rather than go for two big conferences with New Mexico State and UTEP sitting on the outside, I opted for three smaller conferences. BYU and Utah proved too good for this conference, and I anticipate that being much the same case here, but if I move BYU or Utah to the Pac-10/12, I have to drop one of my two small western conferences.

 

Given geographical and talent constraints, the arrangement could be better, but it's the best I can do. I would anticipate and would want to revisit this alignment in a decade or so.

 

Pac-10

Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

 

Subtractions: Colorado, Utah

 

Spoiler

We're only in the early stages of hearing about the collapse of the Pac-12 conference and the fallout that's going to cause. How can you have an entire region of the country without a major conference to represent them? It's mind-blowing to even think about. But again, I look at the current state of college conferences, and I think this is clearly the work of a drunk person.

 

The conference worked for over 30 years when it had 10 schools. It was only when they started expanding that they got themselves in trouble. So, let's go back to what worked and shelf any ideas of expansion until the holes those moves leave behind can be filled in. If and when it happens, BYU and Utah should be the picks for expansion. Not Colorado. Taking them out of the Big 12 was a net downgrade for both conferences because you have to go through two other states to reach California from Colorado. And they're big states.

 

But Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma? All right next door and that's half the conference. Texas Tech? That's only an hour further drive than Salt Lake City is, and that's the next closest team to Colorado in the Pac-12.

 

SEC

East Division	West Division
Auburn	Alabama
Florida	Louisville
Florida State	LSU
Georgia	Ole Miss
Kentucky	Mississippi State
Tennessee	Vanderbilt

Adds: Florida State, Louisville

Subtractions: Arkansas, Missouri, South Carolina, Texas A&M

 

Spoiler

The SEC is a conference that has maintained and preserved its image of what it wants to be about, which is the most dominating conference in the Southeast.

 

There are few changes beyond tightening the geographic footprint, but I like having Kentucky and Louisville in the same conference. Historically, the biggest roadblock to this has been Louisville not being good at football, But that program has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 25 years, and they could handle an SEC football schedule. That was different in the early 90s when the conference expanded.

 

Arkansas/LSU is nowhere near as big of a rivalry matchup as most would expect. And it's mostly because the schools couldn't get any further apart without leaving their respective states. It adds up to almost a nine-hour drive. That's not a close geographical rival at all. You can get to Norman, Oklahoma, and back in that time. Same with Stillwater. And Arkansas was never in a conference with Oklahoma or OSU. But they probably should be.

 

Sun Belt

Arkansas State
Coastal Carolina

FIU (football only)
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Little Rock (non-football)
Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Monroe
Middle Tennessee
New Orleans (non-football)
South Alabama
Troy

 

Adds: FIU (football only), Little Rock, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Orleans

Subtractions: Appalachian State, James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, Texas State

 

Spoiler

The bastard stepchild of FBS, or at least it feels that way. Probably because we're talking almost exclusively about smaller schools playing in some of the country's poorest regions. But also because it's been a revolving door of schools since it went to FBS. New Mexico State, North Texas, Idaho, and Utah State are just four of the 20+ schools that have called this conference home at some point over the past two decades.

 

But the schools that have stuck it out through thick and thin, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas State, and Troy, have been located in or around Louisiana, and that's where I tried to limit the footprint. Coastal Carolina is a bit of an outlier in this conference, but I don't think they have the chops to keep up with what the newly constituted Conference USA would be throwing at them when it came to basketball.

I thought about sending them down to FCS down to their football stadium capacity, but I can't send a team that good back down in good faith.

 

WAC

Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Nevada
San Diego State
San Jose State
UNLV
Utah State

 

Adds/Subtractions: Everyone (effectively a new conference)

 

Spoiler

We're getting the band back together with this one. Unfortunately, this conference fell victim to the geographic/talent issue I referred to in my Mountain West comments. Too many teams for two conferences, not enough for three.

 

This essentially takes the Mountain West Conference and divides it in half, with the WAC getting the Western-based schools. 

 

I think the Mountain West has a clear-cut edge in football, but I feel the two conferences are pretty even in basketball, especially considering that San Diego State is now arguably the best basketball school in southern California.

 

Non-FBS Conferences

 

Mid-Majors

 

Atlantic 10

Duquesne
George Washington
La Salle

UMass
Rhode Island
Rutgers
Saint Joseph's
St. Bonaventure
Temple
Virginia Tech

 

Adds: Rutgers, Temple, Virginia Tech

Subtractions: Davidson, Dayton, Fordham, George Mason, Loyola (IL), Richmond, Saint Louis, VCU

 

Spoiler

This is another conference that started out strong and had a clear geographic center around Philadelphia but has gotten bloated in recent years with too many schools over too large an area.

 

Like the Big East, this is about getting back to basics and what the conference was originally about, and that's having a strong basketball presence in the northeast. That doesn't mean having Saint Louis or Loyola in the conference.

 

Top-to-bottom, this is the strongest basketball conference on the East Coast after the Big East and ACC. Virtually all of these schools are well into double-digits with the number of tournament appearances they've had, and about 1/4th of the schools have been to the Final Four at least once.

 

In the case of a school like Rutgers, I would say their basketball program was doing just fine in the A10 until they decided to leave and be the Big East's punching bag.

Big Sky

Basketball	Football
Eastern Washington	Cal Poly
Gonzaga	Eastern Washington
Idaho	Idaho
Idaho State	Idaho State
Montana	Montana
Montana State	Montana State
Portland	Portland State
Portland State	Sacramento State
Seattle	UC Davis
Weber State	Weber State

 

Adds: Gonzaga, Portland, Seattle (all non-football)

Subtractions: Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Sacramento State (non-football)

 

Spoiler

Although not currently considered a mid-major, I think the additions of Gonzaga and Seattle will help put them over the top, especially with Seattle playing the majority of their games in an NBA-caliber arena. That school has a very rich basketball history that I'm hoping to rekindle with this move up to what is effectively the Pacific Northwest Conference now, and having a built-in conference geographic conference rival the quality of Gonzaga. I'm sure they would prefer a trek to Seattle than San Diego or Malibu. Well, maybe not Malibu. Malibu's pretty nice.

Anyway, eliminating Sacramento State from the conference will probably help the conference in basketball as a form of addition by subtraction. Since rejoining D1 in the early 90s, Sac State has only posted one 20+ win season, and their "arena" is a glorified high school gym that only seats a thousand people. And they're far away from everyone. Any other school in the conference will be a better matchup than them.

 

I still expect Gonzaga to dominate the conference much like they currently do in the West Coast Conference, but at least now, their travel schedule won't be quite as brutal. And I would expect Weber State and Idaho to give them some competition. I considered putting Gonzaga in the Mountain West or WAC, but I'd like to try at least to see if this could help things before pulling that trigger.

 

Missouri Valley

Basketball	Football
Bradley	Indiana State
Butler	Missouri State
Creighton	North Dakota
DePaul	North Dakota State
Drake	Northern Iowa
Illinois State	South Dakota
Loyola (IL)	South Dakota State
Marquette	Southern Illinois
Missouri State	Western Illinois
Saint Louis
Southern Illinois

 

Adds: Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Loyola (IL), Marquette, Saint Louis

Subtractions: Belmont, Evansville, Indiana State (non-football), Murray State, Northern Iowa, UIC, Valparaiso (non-football), Youngstown State (football only)

 

Spoiler

Of every conference, nobody improves more at basketball than the Missouri Valley Conference. I'm not even sure you could consider them a mid-major. They get all of the Big East westward expansion teams minus Xavier, plus Saint Louis from the A10, and lose hardly anything to get there.

With holdovers Bradley, Drake, and Southern Illinois all sporting solid basketball histories in their own right to round out the conference, at least three teams coming out of this conference going March Madness would be all but a given every year.

West Coast

California Baptist
Loyola Marymount
Pacific
Pepperdine
Saint Mary's
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Clara

Adds: California Baptist

Subtractions: Gonzaga, Portland

 

Spoiler

This conference has it right in terms of its image, geographical footprint, and how well the schools tie into each other.

 

Losing Gonzaga means they take a hit in basketball, but they still have some strong schools in Saint Mary's, Pacific, and San Francisco. The only significant change is that the conference is now California-exclusive.

I expect the Cal Baptist Lancers to do little out of the gate in the conference, but they do have a 6k-seat arena, and the school fits in with the religious theme of the conference. They will likely end up here in a few years anyway. This is fast-forwarding the clock.

 

Small Conferences

 

America East

Albany

Binghamton
Bryant
Hofstra
Maine

UMass Lowell
New Hampshire
NJIT
Northeastern
Stony Brook
Vermont

 

Adds: Hofstra, Northeastern, Stony Brook

Subtractions: UMBC

 

Spoiler

With the America East, MAAC, and Northeast Conferences, if you pick the schools out of a hat, whatever geographic alignment you came up with would work.

 

Added three schools and dropped UMBC to further turn this conference into the effective New England Conference, but there's not much to report on here.

 

Atlantic Sun

Belmont
FIU (non-football)
Florida Gulf Coast
Jacksonville
Jacksonville State
Kennesaw State
Lipscomb
Mercer
North Alabama
North Florida
Queens
Stetson

 

Adds: Belmont, FIU (non-football), Jacksonville State, Mercer

Subtractions: Austin Peay, Bellarmine, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky

 

Spoiler

I feel like the Atlantic Sun Conference is the answer to the question, "What do we do with all these Florida-based schools that no other conference wants?"

 

Like the Sun Belt, this conference has been a revolving door of schools almost since day one. By my count, 42 different schools have called this conference home at one point, and it doesn't even predate disco music. It's just a mess.

 

I brought back FIU to limit the damage. Despite their best efforts, they haven't done much to improve their standing, and I think sending them to the new CUSA would be like sending a lamb to slaughter. They can remain in the Sun Belt for football.

Jacksonville State also gets sent back down to FCS. At a tad under $60 million, their endowment ranks dead last amongst FBS teams. And they play in what's already the most oversaturated region in the country when it comes to FBS football. Currently, 14 FBS teams are playing in Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi, and less than 13 million people live in those three states combined. No other state with three or more FBS teams has an FBS-to-population ratio lower than one FBS team per million.

 

I managed to shed a few outlying schools, but I consider this conference a necessary evil. A non-Florida school would only be in this conference because they have nowhere else to go.

 

Big South/Ohio Valley
Big South	Football
Campbell	Austin Peay
Charleston Southern	Campbell
Gardner-Webb	Charleston Southern
High Point	Eastern Illinois
Liberty	Eastern Kentucky
Longwood	Gardner-Webb
Morehead State	Lindenwood
Presbyterian	Murray State
Radford	Southeast Missouri State
UNC Asheville	Tennessee State
USC Upstate	Tennessee Tech
Winthrop	UT Martin
Ohio Valley
Austin Peay
Bellarmine
Eastern Illinois
Eastern Kentucky
Lindenwood
Morehead State
Murray State
SIU Edwardsville
Southeast Missouri State
Southern Indiana
Tennessee State
Tennessee Tech
UT Martin

 

Adds:

Big South: Campbell, Liberty (non-football), Morehead State

Ohio Valley: Austin Peavy, Bellarmine, Eastern Kentucky, Murray State

 

Subtractions

Ohio Valley: Morehead State, Little Rock, Western Illinois

 

Spoiler

These two conferences share an FCS football conference, which makes sense, considering they're right next door.

 

Four schools get added across both conferences to a loss of just two, which turns these two conferences into behemoths of small mid-Atlantic and southern Midwest-based programs.

 

I don't expect a lot out of schools not named Murray State, but no school should have more than a six-hour drive for any in-conference game in either conference.

 

Big West

Cal Poly
Cal State Bakersfield
Cal State Fullerton
Cal State Northridge
Long Beach State
Sacramento State
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC Riverside
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara

 

Adds: Sacramento State

Subtractions: Hawaii

 

Spoiler

At one time, the Big West was the second-most powerful conference in the West after the Pac-10. They're still one of the most strongest baseball conferences in the country but leave little to be desired when it comes to other sports, having lost bigger-name programs like UNLV, San Diego State, and Boise State over the years.

 

Currently, every school in the conference besides Hawaii is a member of either the University of California or California State school systems, and the one addition of Sacramento State doesn't change that.

 

CAA

Basketball	Football
Delaware	Delaware
Drexel	Duquesne
George Mason	UMass
James Madison	Monmouth
Richmond	Rhode Island
Robert Morris	Richmond
Saint Francis (PA)	Robert Morris
Towson	Saint Francis (PA)
UNC Wilmington	Towson
William & Mary	William & Mary
Youngstown State	Youngstown State

 

Adds: Duquesne (football only), George Mason, James Madison, UMass (football only), Richmond (football only), Robert Morris, Saint Francis (PA), Youngstown State

Subtractions: Albany (football only), Campbell, Charleston, Elon, Hampton, Hofstra, Maine (football only), Monmouth (non-football), New Hampshire (football only), North Carolina A&T, Northeastern, Richmond (football only), Stony Brook, Villanova (football only)

 

Spoiler

Although they share the same name, the CAA conference and the CAA football conference are technically separate entities. But both have gone through a ton of upheaval in recent years, and I would place both on the conference equivalent of the endangered species list.

 

What once was a heavily concentrated mid-Atlantic conference of some solid non-major schools has become a bloated mess of small schools spread out throughout the northeastern coast. There are currently 14 teams in the conference, but the last year the CAA got more than one team in the tournament was 2011. That's exhibit A of a conference that's gotten too big for its own good.

 

Like the Big East and A10, this isn't so much a realignment as it's a total reset for the conference. Instead of the conference being spread out across nine states, it's six, and you can practically walk from Youngstown State to Pennsylvania, so it's more like five.

 

I'm keeping the theme alive with football, where many schools are sent to the Northeast, but the most glaring change is UMass being sent back down to FCS, something I'm all for happening as a UMass alum. That school has no business playing at the FBS level for various reasons.

A bad stadium, a lack of similarly matched regional rivals, but the number one reason is that the school, the alums, and the surrounding area aren't that big into football. But the school's administration seems dead set on allowing UMass to go and get destroyed week in, week out, so the school can make money on being a punching bag.

 

I much prefer the days of my freshman year when they got to the FCS title game and had competitive games against schools like New Hampshire and Towson. Not wondering if an unranked Auburn team will put up 60+ points on their defense, but I digress. Enjoy your easy money is all I can say to the administrators there.

 

Horizon League

Cleveland State
Detroit Mercy
Evansville
Indiana State
IUPUI
Northern Kentucky
Oakland
Purdue Fort Wayne
UIC
Valparaiso
Wright State

 

Adds: Evansville, Indiana State, UIC, Valparaiso

Subtractions: Robert Morris, Youngstown State

 

Spoiler

Can you hear me now? Sorry, that's the Verizon League. Bad jokes aside, there's not a lot going on here. The conference shares almost the same geographical footprint as the Missouri Valley and Summit Conferences, and plenty of schools have spent time in two if not all three, conferences.

 

This is pretty much all the schools east of Chicago that weren't good enough to make the cut of the new and much-improved Missouri Valley Conference. Youngstown State could have stayed, but I moved them out to the CAA mainly for football purposes. I'd rather them go to Wilmington, NC, for a game than Grand Folks, ND, especially if it's FCS we're talking about.

It will probably weaken the Missouri Valley a little bit at football, but their loss is the CAA's gain.

 

Ivy League

Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Harvard
Penn
Princeton
Yale

Adds/subtractions: None

 

Spoiler

It's basically the perfect conference. All schools are geographically close to each other, share similar endowments campus sizes, and are pretty equal to each other regarding sports—no reason to fix what isn't broken.

 

MAAC

Canisius
Fairfield
Iona
Manhattan
Marist
Monmouth
Niagara
Rider
Saint Peter's
Siena

 

Adds: Monmouth

Subtractions: Mount St. Mary's, Quinnipiac

 

Spoiler

The MAAC is what every small conference should aspire to be like. There's no need ever to travel that far, and there's near-perfect competitive parity. Some minor geographical tweaks here, but I think the conference is fine as is.

 

MEAC

Bethune-Cookman
Coppin State (non-football)
Delaware State
Hampton
Howard
Maryland Eastern Shore (non-football)
Morgan State
Norfolk State
North Carolina A&T
North Carolina Central
South Carolina State

 

Adds: Bethune-Cookman, Hampton, North Carolina A&T

Subtractions: None

 

Spoiler

One of the two HBCU-exclusive conferences in D1, although they have fallen on some hard times in recent years.

Historically, this has been the worst conference for college basketball. They've never gotten more than a single team in the NCAA tournament in any season, and that one team has been a 16-seed eight years in a row now. Since the NCAA expanded the tournament to 64 teams, no MEAC team has ever gotten anything higher than a 14 seed.

 

Here's to hoping that traditional "powerhouse" North Carolina A&T can help improve this otherwise dreadful conference.

 

Northeast

Basketball Football Central Connecticut Albany Fairleigh Dickinson Bryant Le Moyne Central Connecticut LIU LIU Loyola (MD) Maine Merrimack Merrimack Mount St. Mary's New Hampshire Quinnipiac Sacred Heart Sacred Heart Stonehill Stonehill Stony Brook UMBC Wagner Wagner

 

Adds: Albany (football only), Bryant (football only), Loyola (MD), Maine (football only), Mount St. Mary's, New Hampshire (football only), Quinnipiac, Stony Brook (football only), UMBC

Subtractions: Duquesne (football only), Saint Francis (PA)

 

Spoiler

There's not much to write home about on the basketball side of things in terms of changes, but the football conference is completely different. A lot of the changes stem from wanting to condense the CAA and not have them all up and down the East Coast, which I feel like, for the most part, I was able to accomplish as Wagner is both the furthest south and furthest western football school.

 

Patriot League

Basketball	Football
American	Bucknell
Army	Colgate
Boston University	Fordham
Bucknell	Georgetown
Colgate	Holy Cross
Fordham	Lafayette
Holy Cross	Lehigh
Lafayette	Villanova
Lehigh
Navy

 

Adds: Fordham, Villanova (football only)

Subtractions: Loyola (MD)

 

Spoiler

After the Ivy League, this is probably the next most academically prestigious conference at the D1 level. Most of the schools listed here have an acceptance rate below 40% with an endowment of around $1 billion despite being home to less than 5k students.

 

The only school that doesn't fit this pattern is Loyola, which leaves me dumbfounded as to why they were included in the first place, but that's another topic altogether.

 

It's been 30 years since the Rams reached the NCAA tournament, and they play in the smallest and oldest arena in the A10. I think the Patriot League is more their speed, especially considering that they're already in the conference for football, and they have the endowment and educational background to fit in with the other schools.

 

Swapping Villanova out of CAA football is also a natural fit. Villanova fits the typical academic profile of a Patriot League school, and there aren't 15 schools in the conference to compete with. Fifteen teams is ridiculous for an FBS conference, IMO. At the FCS level, it's drunken insanity.

 

Pioneer Football League

Butler
Davidson
Dayton
Drake
Marist
Morehead State
Presbyterian
San Diego
St. Thomas (MN)
Stetson
Valparaiso
 

Adds/subtractions: None

 

Spoiler

None of the schools in this football-only conference offer competitive athletic scholarships despite being FCS programs, so I left this conference as is.

 

SoCon

Appalachian State (non-football)
Charleston (non-football)
Chattanooga
East Tennessee State
Elon
Furman
Samford
The Citadel
UNC Greensboro (non-football)
VMI
Western Carolina
Wofford

 

Adds: Appalachian State (non-football), Charleston, Elon

Subtractions: Mercer

 

Spoiler

The first victim of conference realignment was the predominant conference in the southeast until the SEC's formation in 1932. Nevertheless, the conference has enjoyed a fair amount of stability in its 100+ years of existence. Furham, The Citadel, and VMI have all been members for over 60 years, and I didn't want to change that. Even though the conference could be better aligned geographically, I feel tradition wins out here, so I kept things mostly as is. Plus, the conference is already in good shape, being centered around western North Carolina. Like the Ivy League, I'm not messing with something that isn't broken.

 

Even the three schools I brought back are all former SoCon members. I also considered bringing back Davidson, who is still tied for the most all-time conference titles despite having left in 2014. But I think the arrival of Steph Curry and their continued subsequent pretty much made it impossible for them to ever return to being a small conference team.

 

But much like they have now with the A10, there are a lot of good teams in that retooled Conference USA. At least 2-3 teams coming out of that conference to the tourney would be a given each year. That's more their level now.

 

Southland

Central Arkansas
Houston Christian
Incarnate Word
Lamar
McNeese State
Nicholls
Northwestern State
Sam Houston
Southeastern Louisiana
Stephen F. Austin
Texas A&M-Commerce
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (non-football)

Adds: Central Arkansas, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin

Subtractions: New Orleans

 

Spoiler

They could call themselves the Yee-haw Conference with no loss of information. Texas and Louisiana are the only two states the conference currently covers. Former member Central Arkansas returns being a much better geographic fit here than the Atlantic Sun Conference, especially with the return of FIU to further bolster its Florida roster.

 

Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin also return to fill the Texas schools named after famous Texans quota. I move Sam Houston back down to FCS for a lot of the same reasons I moved UMass back down. Small stadium, and why do you want to compete with these elite, long-established Texas schools with 10x your money and stadium capacity? I kept Texas State in FBS; that's enough for new FBS Texas schools.

 

Summit League

Chicago State
Green Bay
Kansas City
Milwaukee
North Dakota
North Dakota State
Northern Iowa
Omaha
South Dakota
South Dakota State
St. Thomas (MN)
Western Illinois

 

Adds: Chicago State, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Northern Iowa, Western Illinois

Subtractions: Denver, Oral Roberts

 

Spoiler

Pretty much the Missouri Valley Conference west. Currently, the Summit is one of the worst conferences in college basketball, but with Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Northern Iowa coming in, I think you would see a much-improved conference despite losing Oral Roberts, who has proven themselves to be one of the best small conference teams in basketball in recent years.

 

SWAC

Alabama A&M
Alabama State
Alcorn State
Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Florida A&M
Grambling State
Jackson State
Mississippi Valley State
Prairie View A&M
Southern
Texas Southern
 

Adds: None

Subtractions: Bethune-Cookman

 

Spoiler

The other HBCU conference in division 1. Better known for football than basketball, I see no reason to do anything here. Bethune-Cookman returns to the MEAC to move the geographic split back to Florida, but that's it.

 

United Athletic

Basketball	Football
Abilene Christian	Abilene Christian
Denver	Jacksonville State
Grand Canyon	Kennesaw State
Northern Arizona	Mercer
Northern Colorado	North Alabama
Oral Roberts	Northern Arizona
Southern Utah	Northern Colorado
Tarleton State	Southern Utah
UT Arlington	Tarleton State
UT Rio Grande Valley	Utah Tech
Utah Tech
Utah Valley

 

Adds: Denver, Jacksonville State (football only), Kennesaw State (football only), Mercer (football only), Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Oral Roberts

Subtractions: Austin Peay (football only), California Baptist, Central Arkansas (football only), Eastern Kentucky (football only), Seattle, Stephen F. Austin

 

Spoiler

From the ashes of the WAC conference arises the newly minted United Athletic, Young, and dumb geographic alignment, but I think there's some potential here with a few tweaks.

 

Try as they might, there's never been a Rocky Mountain conference that's representative of every major school in the area. There's always been some division, and what I have here is no different. Colorado is in the Big 12, Utah is in the Mountain West, UNLV is in the WAC, and Arizona is in the Pac-10. Everyone is still spread out, and you would need all of them to come together to create a real Rocky Mountain super conference.

 

I think this could happen one day, but they need more quality teams to make it come to fruition, or this divide will never stop, and that effort to make more quality teams can start with a conference like this. Denver's a decent-sized school with a large endowment and a nearby NBA arena they could play in.

 

Flagstaff has roughly doubled its population over the last 30 years, and that's where longtime Big Sky member Northern Arizona has been. You're only a day's drive from Denver to get to Tulsa, so Oral Roberts can be an outlying fit. Grand Canyon has stepped up in establishing itself as a dominating small conference school. This could potentially be a mid-major I feel, in a few years, but it only works with the additions of all the teams I've added in here.

 

Otherwise, it becomes a tangled mess of hodgepodge teams in another doomed Western-based conference.

 

[mrcubfan415]

On 8/31/2023 at 8:11 AM, raysox said:

Then for fun, here are two 32 team alignments

If you’re bringing back Seattle, why not Vancouver? Vancouver as a market has more potential long-term longevity (given the water crisis in the US Southwest  )

[raysox]

I am simply a person that has noticed Las Vegas speed running a 4 major league team city, not an nba official

[mrcubfan415]

On 9/6/2023 at 12:10 AM, pmoehrin said:

Big Ten

East Division	West Division
Indiana	Illinois
Michigan	Iowa
Michigan State	Iowa State
Northwestern	Minnesota
Ohio State	Missouri
Purdue	Wisconsin

 

Adds: Iowa State, Missouri

Subtractions: Maryland, Nebraska, Penn State, Rutgers

TBH I don’t mind Penn State in the Big 10. For 12 teams I’d do yours but with Penn State instead of Missouri (and moving Northwestern to the West). For 14 teams, I’d do yours plus Nebraska and Penn State, though I do think 14 is kinda stretching it. I agree though that USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten is not a good move.

[pmoehrin]

5 minutes ago, mrcubfan415 said:

TBH I don’t mind Penn State in the Big 10. For 12 teams I’d do yours but with Penn State instead of Missouri (and moving Northwestern to the West). For 14 teams, I’d do yours plus Nebraska and Penn State, though I do think 14 is kinda stretching it. I agree though that USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten is not a good move.

 

They've been in the Big Ten for 30+ years now, so they've definitely made some inroads in terms of establishing long-term rivalries, especially when it comes to football.

 

But they were the most geographically isolated team in that conference until Rutgers and Maryland came aboard. Hindsight being 20/20, they should have been admitted to the Big East when they applied, and instead, they got big-leagued, and that wound up being the original sin of Big East football.

 

If Penn State had joined that conference from the start, the Big East would probably still be fielding football today.

 

In the grand scheme of things, I can think of far more egregious conference alignments than having Penn State in the Big Ten.

 

The more I think about it, I think what should happen is football should be allowed to do its own thing, much like ice hockey is, and every other sport can make sense.

 

14 college teams in a conference is insane. You can barely play half the conference in football. Any larger, and you might as well split it into two conferences again. The only reason not to would be for conference title game money.

 

But I digress. All these schools bought the ticket for all these crazy realignments, now they have to get on the ride. And it's not going to go how any of them expect it will, because I'm still hearing music playing, which means the game of musical chairs is still on.

[Luigi74]

1 hour ago, pmoehrin said:

 

They've been in the Big Ten for 30+ years now, so they've definitely made some inroads in terms of establishing long-term rivalries, especially when it comes to football.

 

But they were the most geographically isolated team in that conference until Rutgers and Maryland came aboard. Hindsight being 20/20, they should have been admitted to the Big East when they applied, and instead, they got big-leagued, and that wound up being the original sin of Big East football.

 

If Penn State had joined that conference from the start, the Big East would probably still be fielding football today.

 

In the grand scheme of things, I can think of far more egregious conference alignments than having Penn State in the Big Ten.

 

The more I think about it, I think what should happen is football should be allowed to do its own thing, much like ice hockey is, and every other sport can make sense.

 

14 college teams in a conference is insane. You can barely play half the conference in football. Any larger, and you might as well split it into two conferences again. The only reason not to would be for conference title game money.

 

But I digress. All these schools bought the ticket for all these crazy realignments, now they have to get on the ride. And it's not going to go how any of them expect it will, because I'm still hearing music playing, which means the game of musical chairs is still on.

If Penn State would have joined the Big East in the early 80's they would have still left when the Big 10 came calling at the end of the decade, there's no way Penn State is turning down the money the Big 10 was offering. Everyone seems to forget or doesn't know that the main reason Penn State tried to join the Big East was so they could get cut in on tv money from basketball while being able to keep all of their football tv money, they had no real desire to be in a conference for football in that timeframe. Also Big East Football was a reaction to that first round of conference expansion and the Catholic schools keeping BC, Pitt and Syracuse from leaving for the proposed Raycom Super Conference.

[mrcubfan415]

7 hours ago, pmoehrin said:

All these schools bought the ticket for all these crazy realignments, now they have to get on the ride. And it's not going to go how any of them expect it will, because I'm still hearing music playing, which means the game of musical chairs is still on.

(cue “Spanish Flea” by Herb Alpert)

[buzzcut]

With Tasmania set to join as the 19th club in the competition, the Australian Football League will be one team short of a 20-team competition. Presumably, the 20th team will not be based in Victoria, but rather outside it. Canberra could very well be that team.

 

This would also allow the AFL to split into four divisions, but how? Here's one idea.

 

AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE

 

Blight Division

Adelaide, Fremantle, Port Adelaide, Tasmania, West Coast

Barassi Division

Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, GWS* Giants, Sydney

 

VICTORIAN CONFERENCE

 

Wills Division

Hawthorn, Melbourne, North Melbourne, Richmond, St. Kilda

ANZAC Division

Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Western Bulldogs

 

*Greater Western Sydney

[jlog3000]

@buzzcut - That realignment would look cool and partial, in a grouping standpoint. But I'm curious on the names of the divisions. You know, like any background or origin of how they would exist, etc.

[MartyMcFlyKavanaugh]

ALTERNATE HISTORY:

In May 1969, after the Browns, Steelers, Colts and the ten AFL clubs quickly agreed to a divisional alignment for their post-merger “American Conference,” NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle issued a new directive. Scrapping an earlier plan to name both conferences’ divisions “Eastern,” “Central” and “Western,” Rozelle announced that the Capitol/Century/Central/Coastal labels dating back to 1967 would be retained indefinitely. (The unending alignment debate among the National Conference owners influenced his decision.) Also, new “C” names would be assigned to the former AFL Eastern and AFL Western divisions. So Cleveland’s division would remain the Century, Washington’s the Capitol, San Francisco’s and L.A.’s the Coastal (even with an inland team like St. Louis), and the remaining National division (with or without the Bears and Packers) the Central.

 

Everything else took place as described in history books, including Rozelle finally settling the National Conference alignment on January 16, 1970, by filling a chalkboard with the owners’ five finalists from eight months of negotiating...

...and his secretary randomly picking Plan #3 from a bowl. This lone scheme with Dallas alongside the East Coast teams actually corresponded quite closely to the late ’60s setup (the Giants and Saints swapped divisions in ’68 and flipped back in ’69 to give the entire Eastern Conference a lucrative road game at New York before the merger). Super Bowl IV loser Minnesota returned to the Central, depriving that division of a warm-weather member (this was pre-Silverdome, pre-Metrodome and pre-Tampa Bay Bucs). The Browns and Steelers jumped conferences to join Paul Brown’s Bengals, and the Colts followed to be grouped with their Super Bowl III nemesis Jets. Cleveland’s departure ended the Browns-Giants rivalry; the duo claimed 15 of 16 Eastern Conference crowns from 1950 through ’65.

 

Without a pair of Eastern, Central and Western divisions, “National Football Conference” and “American Football Conference” and their respective acronyms NFC and AFC would never emerge. So the original names “National Conference” and “American Conference” became permanent.

 

 

After expansion, several relocations and a major 2002 realignment, this is what we have now.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by MartyMcFlyKavanaugh

[raysox]

something stupid:

 

-Big Ten is focused on expanding to markets and academic prestige (no Iowa St)
-SEC is focused on boosting academics and basketball (UK, Kansas, Duke, UNC in the same conference is insane)
-ND might be non-football, but aligned B1G (unless?)
-I have no clue what happens to Wake

[DCarp1231]

23 hours ago, raysox said:

something stupid:

 

-Big Ten is focused on expanding to markets and academic prestige (no Iowa St)
-SEC is focused on boosting academics and basketball (UK, Kansas, Duke, UNC in the same conference is insane)
-ND might be non-football, but aligned B1G (unless?)
-I have no clue what happens to Wake

Wake Forest in the Big 12 seems like a decent fit.

 

I think I’d put FSU in the B1G. Expanding south now that they’ve gone west seems like a natural progression. To make things even, swap either Virginia or VT to the SEC. Giving the conference a higher footprint would be a win.

[Fowler2]

NBA expands to 32 teams in 2028-29 with Las Vegas & Seattle. League goes back to 2 divisions per conference. Minnesota is shifted East.

 

Schedule is reduced to from 82 to 76 games. 4 games each with the other 7 teams in the division (28 games). 2 games each against the other 24 teams (48 games).

 

28 + 48 = 76

 

EASTERN CONFERENCE 

Atlantic

Boston

Brooklyn 

Miami

New York 

Orlando 

Philadelphia 

Toronto 

Washington 

 

Central

Atlanta 

Charlotte 

Chicago 

Cleveland 

Detroit 

Indiana 

Milwaukee 

Minnesota 

 

WESTERN CONFERENCE 

Pacific

Golden State 

LA Clippers 

LA Lakers

Las Vegas

Phoenix

Portland 

Sacramento 

Seattle 

 

Southwest

Dallas

Denver 

Houston 

Memphis 

New Orleans 

Oklahoma City 

San Antonio 

Utah

[TrueYankee26]

NFL 2054

 

AFC East

• Baltimore Ravens
• Buffalo Bills
• London Royals
• New England Patriots
• New York Jets
• Paris Révolution

AFC North

• Chicago Blitz
• Cincinnati Bengals
• Cleveland Browns
• Louisville Thoroughbreds
• Pittsburgh Steelers
• Toronto Northmen

AFC South

• Houston Texans
• Indianapolis Colts
• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Memphis Pharaohs
• Miami Dolphins
• Nashville Titans

AFC West

• Denver Broncos
• Kansas City Chiefs
• Las Vegas Raiders
• Los Angeles Earthquakes
• Oakland Oaks
• San Diego Chargers

NFC East

• Carolina Panthers
• Dublin Clovers
• Montreal Monarchs
• New York Giants
• Philadelphia Eagles
• Washington Commanders

NFC North

• Chicago Bears
• Detroit Lions
• Green Bay Packers
• Minnesota Vikings
• Omaha Mastodons
• St. Louis Archers

NFC South

• Atlanta Falcons
• Dallas Cowboys
• Mexico City Warriors
• New Orleans Saints
• Oklahoma City Cyclones
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFC West

• Arizona Cardinals
• Los Angeles Rams
• Portland Chinook
• San Francisco 49ers
• Seattle Seahawks
• Vancouver Evergreens

 

22 playoff teams, 11 per conference

 

Season format:

• No more preseason except Hall of fame game. 20 games, 10 against the division, 6 games against another division in the conference, 1 game each against teams from the other two divisions depending on where you finish in the division, and 2 interconference games, one against a fixed opponent and another against a random opponent.
• No more Thursday Night Football other than Opening Night and Thanksgiving (4 games, 1 each on FOX, CBS, NBC and CW). Late season Saturday football stays.

Postseason format:

• 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10 and 8 vs 9 in the play in round, lowest seeded winner goes on the road to play #1 as usual, highest seeded winner plays #3. Top 5 seeds get a bye to the first round.
• Super Bowl is now played in the 3rd Sunday of February.
• Pro Bowl (which stays at 1 week before the Super Bowl) is back to a traditional 11 on 11 tackle football. Winning conference will earn a 5 million dollar bonus for the players and 5 million each for all 24 teams for a local charity.

Television & Streaming:

• AFC Package: CBS & Paramount+ (1st selection of games) and NBC and Peacock (2nd selection)
• NFC Package: FOX & Tubi (1st selection) and ABC & ESPN+ (2nd selection)
• Sunday Night Football: NBC & Peacock
• Monday Night Football: ABC & Disney+
• International Games: CW/Nexstar+ (early season), NFL Network (late season), ESPN+ (streaming)
• Saturday Night Football: TNT/MAX & NFL Network
• NFL Sunday Ticket: Netflix
• Super Bowl & Pro Bowl: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and CW

*Nexstar+ is made up in this universe, it is the CW streamer, also Tubi becomes a DTC streamer like Espn+, Paramount+ and Peacock but keeps their FAST service

Edited February 16 by TrueYankee26

[Fowler2]

NHL 2032

 

EASTERN CONFERENCE 

 

Atlantic

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders 

New York Rangers

Philadelphia Flyers 

Pittsburgh Penguins

Washington Capitals 

 

Northeast

Boston Bruins 

Buffalo Sabres 

Detroit Red Wings 

Montreal Canadiens 

Ottawa Senators 

Toronto Maple Leafs 

 

Metropolitan 

Atlanta Locomotives*

Carolina Hurricanes 

Columbus Blue Jackets 

Florida Panthers

Nashville Predators 

Tampa Bay Lightning

 

 

WESTERN CONFERENCE 

 

Central

Chicago Blackhawks 

Dallas Stars

Houston Apollos*

Minnesota Wild

St. Louis Blues

Winnipeg Jets

 

Northwest 

Calgary Flames

Colorado Avalanche 

Edmonton Oilers 

Seattle Kraken

Utah Coyotes**

Vancouver Canucks

 

Pacific 

Anaheim Ducks

Los Angeles Kings

Phoenix Meteors*

San Diego Seawolves*

San Jose Sharks 

Vegas Golden Knights 

 

 

*expansion 

**relocated from Arizona