I decided to do a throw back alignment with a lot of traditional independents. I simmed a season and it worked out really well:
ACC
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
NC State
Duke
Wake
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Big 8(American) *Orange Bowl auto-bid
Nebraska
Iowa State
Kansas
K State
Mizzou
Oklahoma
Ok State
Big 10*Rose Bowl auto-bid
Ohio State
Michigan
MSU
Indiana
Purdue
Illinois
Northwestern
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Iowa
SEC*Sugar Bowl auto-bid
Kentucky
Tennessee
Vandy
Georgia
Florida
Auburn
Bama
Ole Miss
Miss State
LSU
Southwest(Big XII for Cotton Bowl affiliation)
Arkansas
Texas
TAMU
Texas Tech
Baylor
SMU
TCU
Rice
Houston
Pac 10*Rose Bowl auto-bid
Arizona
Arizona State
USC
UCLA
Stanford
Cal
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State
Independents
Boston College
Syracuse
Rutgers
Penn State
Pitt
Temple
WVU
VaTech
ECU
South Carolina
Florida State
Miami
Tulane
Southern Miss
Memphis
Louisville
Cincinnati
Army
Navy
Notre Dame
WAC(Mountain West)
BYU
Utah
Wyoming
Air Force
Colorado State
UTEP
New Mexico
SDSU
Hawaii
C-USA Southland Division
UL Lafayette
LaTech
UL Monroe
N. Texas
UTSA
Texas State
Arkansas State
Tulsa
Pac Coast Division
Boise
Idaho
Utah State
N. Mexico State
SJSU
Fresno
UNLV
Nevada
MAC
UMass
UConn
Buffalo
Kent
Akron
Miami
Ohio
Toledo
BGSU
EMU
CMU
WMU
Ball State
NIU
Sun Belt
USF
UCF
FAU
FIU
Georgia State
Old Dominion
My conference realignment was done with rivalry games and geography in mind (No more Rutgers-Minnesota or UCF-Temple for example). Every conference has a championship game and there is only one independent (Army).
Cross-division rivals are in parentheses.
AMERICAN
This is a mix of old Big East teams and northern ACC teams
-CENTRAL-
1.Akron
2.Bowling Green
3.Kent State
4.Miami (OH)
5.Ohio
6.Toledo
-GREAT LAKES-
1.Ball State
2.Buffalo
3.Central Michigan
4.Eastern Michigan
5.North Dakota State
6.Northern Illinois
7.Western Michigan
Championship: Chicago, IL
MOUNTAIN WEST
Spoiler
-MOUNTAIN-
1.Air Force
2.Boise State
3.Colorado State
4.New Mexico
5.New Mexico State
6.Utah State
7.Wyoming
-PACIFIC-
1.Fresno State
2.Hawai'i
3.Idaho
4.Nevada
5.San Diego State
6.San José State
7.UNLV
Championship: Denver, CO
PAC-12
Added BYU
Spoiler
-NORTH-
1.BYU
2.Oregon
3.Oregon State
4.Utah
5.Washington
6.Washington State
-SOUTH-
1.Arizona
2.Arizona State
3.California
4.Stanford
5.UCLA
6.USC
Championship: San Francisco, CA
TEAM BUILDER
Georgia Southern --> UAB (or UAB to Sun Belt)
Appalachian State --> Georgia State (or Ga. State to Sun Belt)
UNC-Charlotte --> Massachusetts (or Mass to American East, Buffalo to American West)
North Dakota St --> Texas State (or TXST to C-USA Lone Star)
AUTO BIDS
ACC --> Orange
AAC --> Orange
Big Ten --> Rose
Pac-12 --> Rose
Big 12 --> Sugar
SEC --> Sugar
__________________
North Florida Ospreys
Jacksonville Jaguars #DuvalTilWeDie
Florida Gators & Boston Red Sox
So I read this cool article about how the geography of the conferences doesn't make a ton of sense right now. The author of the piece restructured the FBS into sixteen eight-team conferences. It's pretty cool stuff http://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/20...gerrymandering
Anyway, I took those conferences with the idea of combining them into eight conferences with championship games, and realizing that you have to have ten, I cut two squads from each of the original conferences (made into divisions in the game) to make two other conferences.
The original conference roster is as follows:
Spoiler
The ones I decided to make the Pac-12, for obvious reasons
"South California"
Hawaii, Stanford, San Jose, Fresno, UNLV, USC, UCLA, SDSU
"Northwest"
California, Nevada, Boise, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Wazzu, Idaho
Mountain West
"Big Empty"
Utah, Utah State, Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, Colorado St, Nebraska, Kansas State
"Old West"
BYU, Air Force, Arizona, Arizona St, New Mexico, New Mexico St, UTEP, TTU
Big XII
"WIMI"
Wisconsin, Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Kansas, Mizzou, Illinois
"Ozarks"
Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Tulsa, Arkansas, Arkansas St, Memphis, Ole Miss, Miss St
"Central Texas"
North Texas, TCU, SMU, Baylor, A&M, Texas, Texas St, UTSA
"LouTexassippi"
Rice, Houston, La Tech, ULM, ULL, LSU, Tulane, So Miss
As I'm never gotten into Teambuilder, I swapped UAB for Georgia State and Georgia State for Georgia Southern.
I cut a first sixteen and second sixteen teams for the remaining conferences.
These teams got reorganized into two conferences, plus independents. One conference was the Sun Belt and the other was the American, leaving me with a final conference roster as follows
Spoiler
American South
South Carolina, Southern Mississippi, Clemson, UAB, FSU, Tulane North
Marshall, BC, Maryland, Georgia State, Memphis, Cinci
Right now everyone starts the conference season in week one and there are no cross-divisional rivalries or automatic bids. I'm thinking of moving the conference season into week two or week three because I'm at UGA in my dynasty and in my second year with this setup and I don't like opening against UK, WKU, and MTSU. I'm also probably going to set up the cross-divisional rivalries to get more national matchups. We'll see how it works out. It's just difficult to contrive some rivalries. The SEC and Pac-12 ones are natural enough, and they're not impossible for the Texas conference. Everything else is going to be pretty loosely assigned. Over time, the rivalries will become natural. lol.
Looking at the throwback set-up I'm thinking of moving some squads around. I certainly want to switch up how I have the Big XII assigned for the cotton bowl bid and because it's just weird for me that that's not the Texas conference. Maybe I'll set my current Big XII as the American, my current American as the CUSA, and my current CUSA as the Big XII. As there are no autobids, the combination of "haves" with "have-nots" will hopefully provide some of the weaker schools an opportunity to ascend to greatness.
---
Been running a sim dynasty to edit this for my real dynasty. This is the setup I'm going with headed into 2019 of the sim dynasty, which I will be using in the upcoming (2027/8) season in my main dynasty.
American (10-team)
U-Conn, UMass, Rutgers, Buffalo, Northern Illinois, Temple, Army, Marshall, BGSU, Navy
B1G (16-team, auto-bid to Rose) (championship in Indianapolis)
Este
OSU, Michigan, Boston College, Cinci, Penn State, WVU, Pitt, Syracuse
Oeste
Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indy, Purdue, ND, Michigan State
Big XII (16-team, auto-bid) (Championship at Cowboys stadium/Cowboys kickoff)
Norte
KSU, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, CSU, Iowa State, Iowa
Sur
Texas, TCU, A&M, Baylor, TTU, Houston, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State
CUSA (10-team)
Tulsa, La Tech, So Miss, ULL, ULM, Ark State, Memphis, ODU, Houston, ECU
MAC (9-team)
Ball, CMU, EMU, WMU, Toledo, Akron, Ohio, Miami Ohio, Kent
Pac-12 (16 team, auto-bid) (Championship at Giants stadium/Fight Hunger Bowl)
Norte
Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Cal, Stanford, Boise, Utah
Sur
USC, UCLA, AZ, ASU, BYU, Fresno, SDSU, Hawaii
SEC (16 team, auto-bid) (Championship in Georgia Dome)
Este
Tennessee, Vandy, Florida, Virginia Tech, Clem, South Carolina, FSU, Miami
Oeste
Bama, Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, MSU, GT, UGA, Arkansas
SBC (10-team)
MTSU, FAU, GSU, UAB, TX St, UTSA, NT , USA, FIU, WKU
Indies
Tulane, Rice, Troy
Note: This are tentative, as I seem to make changes every couple of days and update in here.
I try to set conferences as geographically as possible. All teams from same state are always in same conference, and closest states are usually too. For example, here are few most used ones.
Independents:
Military academies only. Army, Navy, Air Force
Pac-12:
South: All California teams
North: Oregon, Washinton, Idaho, Hawaii
Big 12:
All 12 Texas teams
Mountain West:
Mountain: Colorado, Wyoming, Utah (exept Air Force)
West: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico
07-31-2015, 04:32 PM
