If it's not obvious by now, I'm simming seasons and trying to find an idea that sticks and then will do that idea while I sim, essentially.
1940 REALIGNMENT
Going to bring back the Mountain West conference, with the United League [the old AAC] being a bit too bloated and leaving a 23+ win Houston team without an at-large because the league is trash was a bridge too far.
The eastern teams will be dispersed to other leagues, the western division will form the root of the new conference which will readopt the old Mountain West moniker.
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Tulsa, Rice [from C-USA], Wyoming [from Big Sky], Houston, SMU, Memphis, Fresno State, Wyoming, Utah State, Tulane, San Diego, New Mexico, San Jose State
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Moving to other leagues:
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Cincinnati [to the Yankee]
East Carolina [to C-USA]
Temple [to the Yankee]
USF [to the ACC]
Hawaii [to the Big West]
UCF [to the ACC]
UMass [to the Yankee]
Marshall [to the MAC]
After seeing the National Freshman of the Year end up as a walk-on at a school 5k miles from home, I'm wondering what other diamonds in the rough are going to simply go without offers. It makes me want to see what the ceiling would be for an upstart program that scavenges by picking up only last-minute recruits [guys who don't have offers late in the season post-February] and then hitting the transfer market.
To execute this, I'd want to take a program that's gutted by an academic scandal [fictionally, I keep academic suspensions off in this game, since there's no way to make dudes go to class] and basically a team full of walk-ons, then build the program from there with these dregs over a period of time.
More ambitious, I'd want to have a whole league run this way. But that's a lot of tedium. It might be better to have one team doing it against a bunch of programs trying to play it straight, giving you the ability to see how you'd perform against better heeled programs.
Two ways I equalize things -- FBCB doesn't really let you simulate what it's like to have a mid-major coach a la FGCU or VCU or George Mason -- is to give team control of their whole recruiting budget [once you sign coaches, before recruiting, change their salary to $1, so you get those dollars back to recruit] and I will often max out the assistant coaches at their respective jobs, to remove the fog of war.
It doesn't help you recruit 5 stars to a 1-star institution, but it does give you the ability to scour for talent like you might realistically if you had some inside information to a particular talent pipeline, a specific shoe deal or some other advantage beyond just a charismatic coach.
The debate with this idea would be determining whether you'd want a program in a talent hotbed or if you want to be a big fish in a small pond.
I'm debating adding more independents -- I already added Rowan [NJ] -- and might try one of these programs with this experiment.