The Pointless Realignment Outpost

[29texan]

Ok.... FBS Realignment v2

Realignment is finished... for now. But when it picks back up, what NEEDS to happen is to just have 8 conferences with 16 teams. I know this idea has been thrown out before, but this is my interpretation. This is what I see happening:

• The Big XII breaks up... So, that leaves 10 schools up for grabs.
• Those 8 of those 10 Big XII shools are grabbed by 4 of the surviving conferences. The PAC 12 gains 16 by taking Texas, T-Tech, OU and Oklahoma St. The ACC takes West Virginia to join up with former Big East rivals, also beefing the number up to 16. The Big Ten gets their 16 by adding both Kansas schools. And the SEC, choosing one more Texas school, takes TCU. This leaves out Baylor and Iowa St.
• The PAC 16, B1G, SEC, and ACC are the "Big Four", each with 16 schools. The remaining schools in the other conferences see this and know that they'd have to do something to try to compete. So the C-USA, American, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and the Independents all form 4 conferences of 16 teams themselves.
• The American Athletic Conference decides to become somewhat of a mini-NFL, creating one 2 conference league with 16 teams and 4 divisions. Of course, the NCAA rejected the idea, so instead, the AAC split into two conferences to represent the east and west. This would spawn the U.S. Athletic Conferences (E.U.S.A.C & W.U.S.A.C.) taking what is in the AAC and some of the remaining schools. The Mountain West basically becomes the W.U.S.A.C. and C-USA mostly making up the E.U.S.A.C.
• With a few FCS schools moving up, it made it possible for the Sun Belt and MAC to have 16 schools in the conference as well. The MAC became the "Rust Belt Conference", as an opposite to the Sun Belt.
• At the time, the College Football Playoff was expanded to 6 schools with consideration of making it an 8-team playoff. Seeing how there were now 8 "Super Conferences", it made sense to have 8 teams in a playoff, but the NCAA and the conference presidents knew instantly that there would be some deserving teams left out, so instead of 8, the powers that be decided to bite the bullet and make it a full 16 team playoff. No more, no less. There are no more independent schools and each conference has a title game.
• The playoffs are set to where the conference winner will play one of the selected 8 teams in the first round (technically the playoffs start with the conference championship games, but I digress) and it's still set up to where one side of the bracket features the #1 seed while the other side features #2.
• The First Round takes place at the home field of the top seed. The 2nd round takes place in 2 selected neutral fields, both sites hosting 2 games each. The Final Four would take place in 2 of the rotating bowl games that is now being used for the current format. The playoffs begin the 2nd week of December.

Here are the conferences and the playoff set-up.

B1G
- West // Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Kansas, Kansas St.
- East // Purdue, Indiana, Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St., Rutgers, Maryland

SEC
- West // Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St., Texas A&M, Arkansas, LSU, TCU
- East // Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mizzou, UCF

ACC
- Atlantic // Clemson, FSU., N.C. State, Louisville, Notre Dame, Syracuse, Wake Forest, WVU
- Coastal // B.C., V-Tech, Duke, UNC, Miami, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Pitt

PAC 16
- North // Cal, Stanford, Washington, Washington St., Oregon, Oregon St., Utah, Colorado
- South // USC, UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Ok. St.

E.U.S.A.C
- Eastern // UConn, ECU, WKU, Navy, Ohio, USF, Cincinatti, Army
- Central // Baylor, Rice, Houston, SMU, Tulane, LTU, Tulsa, Memphis

W.U.S.A.C.
- Mountain // Iowa St., UTEP, UTSA, New Mexico, Wyomming, Colorado St., Air Force, BYU
- Pacific // Boise St., Idaho, UNLV, Nevada, Fresno St, SDSU, Hawaii, Utah St.

Sun Belt
- East // Charlotte, Mid Tenn St., FIU, FAU, Georgia St., Troy, USA, Southern Miss.
- West // SJSU, Texas St., Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas St., N. Texas, NMSU, Sam Houston St.

Rust Belt
- East // ODU, UMass, Temple, Buffalo, Appalachian St., Marshal, Kent St., Akron
- West // NDSU, NIU, Ball St., EMU, CMU, WMU, Toledo, Bowling Green

[Soarindude]

A lot of these posts have teams in the state playing in the same division. There's a reason why they don't do that.

[rams80]

A lot of these posts have teams in the state playing in the same division. There's a reason why they don't do that.

A lot of these posts are saying Conference-specific TV deals as well.

[AnythingChicago]

Since the NBA is becoming a joke because of how much stronger the Western Conference is, here's my idea for NBA realignment:

American Conference

East Division

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Orlando Magic

Toronto Raptors

Central Division

Cleveland Cavaliers

Detroit Pistons

Houston Rockets

Indiana Pacers

Oklahoma City Thunder

West Division

Denver Nuggets

Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Clippers

Phoenix Suns

San Antonio Spurs

National Conference

East Division

Atlanta Hawks

Miami Heat

New York Knicks

Philadelphia 76ers

Washington Wizards

Central Division

Chicago Bulls

Memphis Grizzlies

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Pelicans

West Division

Dallas Mavericks

Los Angeles Lakers

Portland Trail Blazers

Sacramento Kings

Utah Jazz

And, hell, the NHL in the same format while I'm at it:

American Conference

East Division

Boston Bruins

Florida Panthers

Montreal Canadiens

New Jersey Devils

New York Islanders

Central Division

Buffalo Sabres

Detroit Red Wings

Nashville Predators

Ottawa Senators

Pittsburgh Penguins

West Division

Anaheim Ducks

Colorado Avalanche

Dallas Stars

Edmonton Oilers

Vancouver Canucks

National Conference

East Division

Carolina Hurricanes

New York Rangers

Philadelphia Flyers

Tampa Bay Lightning

Washington Capitals

Central Division

Chicago Blackhawks

Columbus Blue Jackets

Minnesota Wild

St. Louis Blues

Toronto Maple Leafs

West Division

Calgary Flames

Los Angeles Kings

Phoenix Coyotes

San Jose Sharks

Winnipeg Jets

[The_Admiral]

The NHL has no history of absorbing an equal league, so the National/American split makes no sense, and is especially clumsy considering most people in hockey refer to the AHL affiliates as "the American League" for short.

The NHL needs to be about regional rivalries in high-density population corridors. The key is to have a footprint that allows for them.

[AnythingChicago]

The NHL has no history of absorbing an equal league, so the National/American split makes no sense, and is especially clumsy considering most people in hockey refer to the AHL affiliates as "the American League" for short.

The NHL needs to be about regional rivalries in high-density population corridors. The key is to have a footprint that allows for them.

I don't disagree with that at all; I thought that an American/National Conference format would be beneficial for the NBA, and I put the NHL in the same format just for kicks and giggles.

[pluggerplugger1]

While I'm happy the NBA is considering realignment, or at least a change in playoff format, I'm not sure how they're going to do it. Some people want both conferences abolished when playoffs are taken into consideration, but I'm not sure that would be perfect, since the NBA has always had their Finals done East vs. West. Maybe they could go the route of the CFL/NHL and have a cross-over rule? Top 6 teams from each conference make the playoffs, then the next 4 teams with the best records could be assigned to the bracket based on their potential opponent?

I don't know, that format might seem odd to some. The NBA is going to have a lot of options on the table, though

[jlog3000]

What would happen if conference realignment was today, but involving the CAA? Currently, the CAA membership consists with the following:

Delaware (w. fb)

James Madison (w. fb)

Towson (w. fb)

William & Mary (w. fb)

Col. of Charleston (n-fb)

Elon (w. fb) (coming in 2014-15)

Drexel (n-fb)

Hofstra (n-fb)

Northeastern (Mass.) (n-fb)

UNC-Wilmington (n-fb)

I would say that the CAA should focus on having full members with football and put aside with the non-football members. So I was thinking that the CAA should raid the America East and grab the full members whose football programs are in the CAA, such as:

SUNY-Albany

Maine

New Hampshire

Rhode Island (from the A-10)

SUNY-Stony Brook

Also, the CAA should bring along Vermont and SUNY-Binghamton. That would leave the AmEast to raid on the Northeastern U.S. D-II conferences (such as the Northeast-10, the CACC and the former NYCAC turned ECC).

As far as the non-football members (excluding Hofstra, Drexel and Northeastern), CoC should join either the Big South or re-join the A-Sun, while UNC-Wilmington should be either in the Big South or in the SoCon.

[Muggens]

NBA Expands to Seattle & Vancouver in 2018. League returns to Seattle and gives Vancouver another shot.

League realigns into 3 conferences. Top 16 teams by record qualify for playoffs. Seeded 1 through 16 no matter what conference.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington

CENTRAL CONFERENCE

Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Memphis, Minnesota, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Antonio

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Denver, L.A. Clippers, L.A. Lakers, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Utah, Vancouver

[illwauk]

I'm definitely not a fan of the "we'll play all of the NFC East/AL West teams at once every four years" ideas. It totally takes away from the completeness of a season (i.e. "Why not have a Super Super Bowl every four years after every team has played all the others?").

While I'm not the biggest fan of european soccer, I do love the fact that their seasons and tournaments are treated as separate, yet more/less equal championships. I don't like the fact that American teams are awarded titles for an entire season when, oftentimes, they simply got hot at the right time and dominated only the playoffs (this, despite my Packers winning their most recent championship in exactly that way).

[The_Admiral]

I wasn't aware of it until recently, but it turns out lots of non-NHL fans crap on the idea of the Presidents' Trophy. I think there's definitely something to be said for what you do over 82 or 162 games. You'd think the other two leagues (well, three for the NL and AL) would recognize those achievements more so as to remind people that those expensive regular season games mean a little more than playoff seeding. The Presidents' Trophy curse is largely hooey.

[flasah]

NBA Expands to Seattle & Vancouver in 2018. League returns to Seattle and gives Vancouver another shot.

League realigns into 3 conferences. Top 16 teams by record qualify for playoffs. Seeded 1 through 16 no matter what conference.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington

CENTRAL CONFERENCE

Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indiana, Memphis, Minnesota, Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Antonio

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Denver, L.A. Clippers, L.A. Lakers, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Utah, Vancouver

You forgot Oklahoma City. Put them in the Central, move Cleveland to the East and add a third expansion team to the West (Anaheim or Las Vegas?), and that gives you 11 teams per conference.

[jlog3000]

What would happen if conference realignment was today, but involving the Sun Belt? Currently, the Sun Belt membership will consist with the following as of 2014-15:

Sun Belt - East:

Appalachian State

Georgia Southern

Georgia State

South Alabama

Troy

Sun Belt-12

Sun Belt - West:

Arkansas State

Arkansas-Little Rock (non-fb)

Louisiana-Lafayette

Louisiana-Monroe

Texas-Arlington (non-fb)

Texas State

Idaho (fb-only)

New Mexico State (fb-only)

In case the Sun Belt loses potential members to C-USA such as UL-Lafayette, Arkansas St., and/or Troy, I would say that the conference should focus on finding full members with football from the FCS (i.e.: Southland, SoCon, Big South, OVC or A-Sun), such as:

Sam Houston State

Stephen F. Austin State

Northwestern State

Southeastern Louisiana

Nicholls State

McNeese State

Lamar

Liberty

Tennessee-Chattanooga

Jacksonville State

Eastern Kentucky

If successful, that would leave those conferences raid on some D-II members from the following:

SoCon/Big South - South Atlantic

Southland - Lone Star

A-Sun - Sunshine State or Peach Belt

OVC - GLVC or GLIAC

[Seadragon76]

With some of the new moves, I figured that I could take a crack at realigning the AHL and the NBA D-League.

First off, the AHL. It'll be a 16/14 format similar to the NHL is. With the addition of the Adirondack Flames, the Eastern Conference gets 16 teams while the Western Conference has 14.

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

-Bridgeport

-Hartford

-Manchester

-Portland

-Providence

-Springfield

-St. John's

-Worcester

East Division

-Adirondack

-Albany

-Binghamton

-Hershey

-Lehigh Valley

-Norfolk

-Syracuse

-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Western Conference

North Division

-Grand Rapids

-Hamilton

-Lake Erie

-Milwaukee

-Rochester

-Toronto

-Utica

West Division

-Charlotte

-Chicago

-Iowa

-Rockford

-Oklahoma City

-San Antonio

-Texas

As for the NBA D-League, it'll have 18 teams, so three 6 team divisions makes the most sense here.

East Division

-Canton

-Delaware

-Erie

-Fort Wayne

-Maine

-Westchester

Central Division

-Austin

-Grand Rapids

-Iowa

-Sioux Falls

-Texas

-Tulsa

West Division

-Bakersfield

-Idaho

-Los Angeles

-Reno

-Rio Grande Valley

-Santa Cruz

[JH42XCC]

With some of the new moves, I figured that I could take a crack at realigning the AHL and the NBA D-League.

First off, the AHL. It'll be a 16/14 format similar to the NHL is. With the addition of the Adirondack Flames, the Eastern Conference gets 16 teams while the Western Conference has 14.

Eastern Conference

Atlantic Division

-Bridgeport

-Hartford

-Manchester

-Portland

-Providence

-Springfield

-St. John's

-Worcester

East Division

-Adirondack

-Albany

-Binghamton

-Hershey

-Lehigh Valley

-Norfolk

-Syracuse

-Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

Western Conference

North Division

-Grand Rapids

-Hamilton

-Lake Erie

-Milwaukee

-Rochester

-Toronto

-Utica

West Division

-Charlotte

-Chicago

-Iowa

-Rockford

-Oklahoma City

-San Antonio

-Texas

As for the NBA D-League, it'll have 18 teams, so three 6 team divisions makes the most sense here.

East Division

-Canton

-Delaware

-Erie

-Fort Wayne

-Maine

-Westchester

Central Division

-Austin

-Grand Rapids

-Iowa

-Sioux Falls

-Texas

-Tulsa

West Division

-Bakersfield

-Idaho

-Los Angeles

-Reno

-Rio Grande Valley

-Santa Cruz

I like the NBA D-League idea, but here's what I think AHL's realignment should look like:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

• Bridgeport
• Hartford
• Manchester
• Portland
• Providence
• Springfield
• St. John's
• Worcester

East

• Adirondack
• Albany
• Binghamton
• Charlotte
• Hershey
• Lehigh Valley
• Norfolk
• Wilkes-Barre/Scranton

WESTERN CONFERENCE

North

• Grand Rapids
• Hamilton
• Lake Erie
• Rochester
• Syracuse
• Toronto
• Utica

West

• Chicago
• Iowa
• Milwaukee
• Rockford
• Oklahoma City
• San Antonio
• Texas

[Muggens]

College Football Realignment Armageddon 2025

SEC

East

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

West

Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M

PAC-16

Coast

California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State

Plains

Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah

BIG SIXTEEN

East

Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers

West

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

ACC

Coastal

Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, N.C. State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, West Virginia

Atlantic

Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech

[jlog3000]

College Football Realignment Armageddon 2025

SEC

East

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

West

Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M

PAC-16

Coast

California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State

Plains

Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah

BIG SIXTEEN

East

Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers

West

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

ACC

Coastal

Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, N.C. State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, West Virginia

Atlantic

Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Nice realignment preview Muggens. But I don't see Iowa State in there. However, what if the max cap number of members is upto 20 instead of 16, who would you add those 4 more members on each super-conference?

[Muggens]

College Football Realignment Armageddon 2025

SEC

East

Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

West

Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M

PAC-16

Coast

California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State

Plains

Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Texas, TCU, Texas Tech, Utah

BIG SIXTEEN

East

Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers

West

Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

ACC

Coastal

Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Louisville, N.C. State, Syracuse, Wake Forest, West Virginia

Atlantic

Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Nice realignment preview Muggens. But I don't see Iowa State in there. However, what if the max cap number of members is upto 20 instead of 16, who would you add those 4 more members on each super-conference?

I did leave Iowa State out for the moment but you're right I do think super conferences might go to 18 or 20. I'm starting think that eventually the Big Ten & SEC will raid the ACC for schools again.

[jlog3000]

I did leave Iowa State out for the moment but you're right I do think super conferences might go to 18 or 20. I'm starting think that eventually the Big Ten & SEC will raid the ACC for schools again.

Why would the ACC be the raid target to the Big TEN and the SEC? Just wondering. And I know it'll be impossible for Maryland to re-join the ACC.

But for the Big TEN to have 18, for example, I would add Mizzou (Missouri) from the SEC along with Iowa State. Then, the SEC would try to add 3 ACC schools, which would force the ACC to add 5 schools. You get an idea or such?

[Muggens]

I still think the SEC will go after Virginia Tech & N.C. State plus the Big Ten wants to further expand it's eastern footprint not just with Penn State, Maryland & Rutgers but possibly Virginia & Georgia Tech as well. It won't be for awhile though. Big Ten would love to have that Atlanta market and the SEC would love to have a foothold in North Carolina and Virginia. This has to do with TV mostly. The Big Ten and SEC networks.