Another Custom Conferences Thread

[dshill]

Last year I decided to make a sort of "alternate reality" version of the conferences, one in which geography is the major deciding factor in conference affiliation. I tried to make sure that all the schools in the same state were together, to a degree -- i.e. all the California schools are in the same conference, all the Texas schools are in the same conference, etc. So I thought I'd publish them here, get your input on how to make them better or whatever.

In addition to geography, some factors I considered are:

Competitive balance: I tried to put all the Florida schools in the SEC in the first iteration of these conferences, but FIU and FAU just kept getting steam-rolled, like always having ten-loss seasons. So they're still in the Sun Belt. I replaced their slots in the SEC with LSU and Arkansas, and it provides a much better show on a whole. For the same reason I'm trying to avoid MAC schools in the Big 10 -- C-USA, MWC, and some of the WAC seem to hold their own though.

Traditional rivalries: I want Cal-Stanford on the last week of the regular season. Same with Oklahoma-Nebraska. I want to preserve the Red River Shootout as an Out-Of-Conference matchup. While I won't bend over backwards to make a smaller rivalry work out, some of the bigger ones I want to remain important.

Making sure the best teams are in BCS automatic-qualifying conferences: This is why I relegated Ole Miss and Mississippi State to mid-major status, not LSU and Arkansas, even though the Mississippi schools make more sense geographically. I'm sorry, but LSU and Arkansas are just better.

I do not care if the moves I do here would happen in real life. That's the point of this dynasty. It is not real life. It is a massive re-imagining of the college football landscape, without the politicking.

BCS conferences:
Pacific Conference (uses structure of Big 12)
North:
Washington
Washington St.
Oregon
Oregon St.
San Jose St.
Fresno St.

South:
Cal
Stanford
USC
UCLA
San Diego St.
Hawaii

Texas Conference (uses structure of Pac-10)
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Baylor
TCU
SMU
Rice
UTEP
North Texas
Houston

SEC
West
LSU
Arkansas
Auburn
Bama
Tennessee
Georgia Tech

East
Georgia
Florida
Florida St
Miami
USF
UCF

ACC
Atlantic (Carolinas)
South Carolina
Clemson
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Duke
NC St

Coastal
ECU (in this devision so not to split up Tobacco Road)
Virginia Tech
Virginia
West Virginia
Marshall
Maryland

Big East (Northeast, still the weakest of the 6 BCS conf.)
Penn St.
Pitt
Rutgers
Temple
Syracuse
Buffalo
UConn
Boston College

Big Ten (call me a Big 10 homer for not really restructuring it, but I don't think any MAC school could be competitive at all in here)
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Indiana
Notre Dame
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan St
Ohio St

Non-BCS conferences
Big 9 (uses MWC structure. One school from here should finish high enough to make a BCS game every year)
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Kansas
Kansas St
Nebraska
Iowa St
Missouri
Colorado
Colorado st

Mississippi Valley conf? (uses WAC structure, kind of a SEC rejects / southeastern-teams-that-are-pretty-mediocre conference not really tied together geographically)
Ole Miss
Mississippi St
Southern Miss
Tulane
Memphis
Vandy
Kentucky
Louisville
Cincinnati

Rocky Mountain conf. (uses CUSA structure)
West:
Arizona
Arizona St
Nevada
UNLV
Idaho
Boise st

east:
Utah
Utah st
BYU
Wyoming
New Mexico
New Mexico st

MAC
east:
Kent st
Ohio
Miami (oh)
Toledo
Akron
Bowling Green

west
E. Michigan
W. Michigan
C. Michigan
N. Illinois
Ball St.
W. Kentucky
Mid Tenn St? (not really sure who to put here)

Sun Belt
Tulsa
UL-Monroe
UL-Lafayette
Louisiana Tech
Arkansas St.
Troy
UAB
FIU
FAU

Tell me what you think / lobby for your school / yell at me for being an idiot for doing this

[Pogo27]

There's something just not right about UGA and GATech being in opposite divisions. However...hopefully you set it up right so that they play every year. I think the UGA/GATech rivalry is bigger and more important than Auburn/Georgia (as they play each other every year despite being opposite divisions).

You could do this by first moving Georgia Tech from the ACC to replace Auburn, then Auburn in to replace either Mississippi or Ole Miss.

I also think that you could put Arkansas State in the Mississippi Valley Conference, Cincinnati to the MAC, and Mid Tenn to the Sun Belt.

Cincinnati is an Ohio Team...and there are a lot of other Ohio teams in the MAC.

Arkansas State is pretty close to the Mississippi River...and right across the state line from Memphis, who you also have in the Mississippi River; this may already be a rivalry game, but if not, it'd be a pretty natural one in your alternate reality. The driving distance between Arkansas State, Memphis, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State...all 4 schools... probably less than 3 hours.

And Mid Tenn State is still kind of the odd school out, but I think this works better...because other wise, Cincinnati looks like a REALLY odd man out in the Miss Valley conf.

[Pogo27]

The default play-every-year schools in the SEC are...

Auburn-Georgia
Alabama-Tennessee
Ole Miss-Vanderbilt
LSU-Florida
Mississippi State-Kentucky
Arkansas-South Carolina


Using this as a guide, I'd set up these every-year opponents in your SEC:

Georgia-Georgia Tech
Alabama-Florida
LSU-Miami
Auburn-Florida State
Arkansas-USF
Tennessee-UCF

By the way...in this SEC, the west becomes WAY stacked.

[dshill]

hm. I had Cincy in the MAC last time and they became Boise St-esque, so I thought putting them with those schools would level the playing field, especially considering how much last year's success will probably help them recruiting in the game. They have a rivalry game with Louisville, and Kentucky isn't that far, so I don't think it's much of a stretch. Maybe I could put Louisvillle, Kentucky, or both in the MAC so that Cincy doesn't just tear through it?

I would like to put the Miss schools back in the SEC so that it isn't so much of a gauntlet, and I really have no reservations with booting Arkansas out (I'd actually like to replace UTEP with them to bring about the old SWC), but I really don't want LSU in a non-BCS conference.

I'll also try to work out some schematics with Arkansas St. I'm in Big Ten country, not too familiar with the South.

edit: also, maybe have Tennessee in the east and Georgia in the west, and have World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party be a play-every-year game? That sounds like it'd solve a lot of the issues here.

[franch1se]

poor San Diego State

[Pogo27]

Generally speaking, if you look up a conference on Wiki, they'll have a map of where all the schools are located:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Belt_Conference

Surely you know where the Mississippi River flows, right? See where Ohio is?

Additionally, while Cincy is relatively close to Kentucky...they're no where near New Orleans (where Tulane is). That kind of distance is all right for BCS conferences with more money, but not so much for small conferences. And yeah, I understand this is alternate reality.

But Arkansas State seems just a perfect fit for a Mississippi Valley conference--even if they are the conference whipping boy.


More to the point, according to mapquest, it's a 72 minute drive from Jonesboro to Memphis. It takes 4 hours and 8 minutes to drive from Jonesboro to Starkville, where Mississippi State is located (and you'd drive through Memphis and pass Oxford, where Ole Miss is, on the way). And it takes 7 hours and 12 minutes, according to Mapquest, to get from Jonesboro to Hattiesburg, where Southern Miss is located.

[dshill]

kentucky, Louisville-> SEC
LSU, Arkansas, Ark St -> Miss Valley (should be enough to make a BCS at-large bid most years)
cincy -> MAC, tell the rest of the conference to just deal with being beat up every year
MTSU -> Sun Belt.

I tried to find a way to get the old SWC w/ Arkansas back together, maybe dump N. Texas to the Sun Belt and move L. Tech to the Miss Valley? But I feel like maybe it's best to do the above.

To SDSU: oh, it ain't too bad, you have a recruiting edge on Hawaii, plus you'll play either SJSU or FS every year. And UCLA's down, if you out recruit them it may not be so bad.

[Pogo27]

And I don't know if this effects your decision making at all...but....

Despite there being a trophy, and spreadsheets listing LSU as Arkansas' primary rival (and maybe even also listing Ark as LSU's primary rival) are inaccurate.

Yes, it's the only rivalry trophy has, and it's one of only two that LSU has...but LSU's biggest rival is easily Florida. For Arkansas fans, while we like to beat LSU and keep the boot...there's more tradition in the Rivalry with Texas, Texas A&M. And the Ole Miss rivalry is the one with the absolutely most passion currently, if only because of Houston Nutt.