PocketScout's College Football 1991 Alternate Universe (NCAA 2014)

[PocketScout]

YEARLY BREAKDOWN
LOGO	YEAR	TEAM	REC	REC	BCS	CONF	POS	BOWL	NC	SCNC
	1996	Arizona State	11-2	8-1	7	1	HC	Rose Bowl (W)
	1995	Arizona State	5-7	4-5	69	7	HC
	1994	Louisiana	9-5	6-4	64	2	HC	Go Daddy Bowl(W)
	1993	Louisiana	11-3	9-1	16	1	HC	MacArthur Bowl(L)
	1992	Louisiana	11-3	9-1	19	1	HC	MacArthur Bowl(W)
	1991	Buffalo	12-2	9-1	19	1	OC	MacArthur Bowl(W)
	5	Record	47-20	36-12			HC
	1	Record	12-2	9-1			OC

INDIVIDUAL TROPHIES
LOGO	YEAR	TEAM	REC	REC	BCS	CONF	POS	AWARD	INFO
	1993	Louisiana	11-3	9-1	16	1	HC		Coach of the Year
	1991	Buffalo	12-2	9-1	19	1	OC		Doak Walker Award Sr HB Tony Butler

BOWL TROPHIES
LOGO	YEAR	TEAM	REC	REC	BCS	CONF	POS	AWARD	INFO
	1996	Arizona State	11-2	8-1	7	1	HC		Rose Bowl Champions
	1994	Louisiana	9-5	6-4	64	2	HC		GoDaddy Bowl Champions
	1992	Louisiana	11-3	9-1	19	1	HC		MacArthur Bowl Champions
	1991	Buffalo	12-2	9-1	19	1	OC		MacArthur Bowl Champions

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
LOGO	YEAR	TEAM	REC	REC	BCS	CONF	POS	AWARD	INFO
	1996	Arizona State	11-2	8-1	7	1	HC		Pac-10 Champions
	1993 1992	Louisiana	11-3 11-3	9-1 9-1	16 19	1 1	HC		Southland / Metro Champions
	1991	Buffalo	12-2	9-1	19	1	OC		MAC Champions

PLAYOFF TEAMS
LOGO	TEAM	Appearances	National Titles	Last App Year
	Ohio State Buckeyes	4	2	1996
	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3	0	1996
	Texas A&M Aggies	3	0	1995
	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	2	1	1996
	Florida Gators	2	0	1995
	Miami Hurricanes	2	0	1994
	Washington Huskies	1	1	1991
	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	1	1	1992
	Clemson	1	1	1996
	North Carolina Tar Heels	1	0	1991
	Oregon Ducks	1	0	1992
	TCU Horn Frogs	1	0	1992
	Alabama Crimson Tide	1	0	1992
	Michigan State Spartans	1	0	1995

MOST PRESTIGIOUS BOWL GAMES
LOGO	Bowl Game	Playoff Games Hosted	National Titles through this bowl	Last Hosting Year
	Rose Bowl	3	2	1994
	Peach Bowl	2	2	1996
	Cotton Bowl	2	1	1993
	Sugar Bowl	2	0	1995
	Orange Bowl	2	0	1996
	Fiesta Bowl	1	1	1991

[PocketScout]

PREFACE

This dynasty is a fictional representation of what college football might have looked like had certain real life events of the 1980s and 1990 changed. I have linked to many news articles that explained the events of the time period. These articles add more depth and insight for those who are not old enough to remember college footballs second wave of expansion (the first being in the late 70's). In 1980's college basketball was huge. There was no one and done, players like Ralph Sampson played four years, teams were loaded with great players like Houston was with Phi Slama Jama. Revenue from basketball was almost as important as football, unlike today where football rules the college landscape.


THE BIG EAST

In late 1981 Pitt was accepted into the Big East (link) and in 1982 when Penn State applied for membership; they were accepted in a close vote (instead of this) and continued to play football as an independent for the remainder of the decade and even won the National Championship in 1986 beating Miami in the Fiesta Bowl 14-10.

On January 6th 1990 Raycom, the holder of the Metro Conference (link) TV contract commissioned a study about the feasibility of creating the first 16 team super conference at the request of the conference members. (link) The Super Conference would encompass about 43% percent of the nation's television households and it would be the largest conference in America and include East Carolina, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, South Carolina, Southern Miss and Tulane in the South, and Boston College, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, Penn State, Virginia Tech and West Virginia in the North.



With the results of this Confidential Report it became clear TV contracts and markets would rule the day. In 1989 the top conferences by TV market were the Big Ten and the Big East (both covering 19% of the national tv market). The Big East's basketball schools decided it was time to make a move to retain their spot as the media market leader and recruit the same eastern independent schools that the Metro Conference were after.

In the late 1980s Notre Dame had decided it would not go along with the College Football Association's tv contract and started looking at alternatives. The Irish and NBC were very close to a deal when the Catholic 7 in the Big East (Georgetown, Providence, St. Johns, Seton Hall, Villanova, DePaul, and Marquette) persuaded the Church to get involved (instead of this). The Catholic 7 knew if they were to have a successful football league Notre Dame would have to be apart of it.

At this same time the Big Ten entered talks with Penn State and Notre Dame. The Irish had applied for membership in the Big Ten and were rejected twice back in the early 1900's. (Notre Dame Big Ten History) Since that point on the Irish have rebuffed the Big Ten's overtures as they have grown in popularity over the last century. The Big Ten knew that Penn State and Notre Dame additions would secure them as the top conference in the nation if they could some how overcome the bad blood between themselves and the Irish.

Eventually, with help from the church, Notre Dame told the Big East they would join if the league could secure the top teams from the eastern independents. The league convinced the best the north east had to offer with Rutgers, Virginia Tech and West Virginia to enter the league to along with current members Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt and UConn who all agreed to the football conference expansion. Also Penn State was convinced to break off talks with the Big Ten.

At this point the conference was set but the biggest bombshell was yet to come. Commissioner Mike Tranghese was able to lure the Miami Hurricanes to the Big East which now housed the last four National Champions (86 - Penn State, 87 - Miami, 88 - Notre Dame and 89 - Miami). The group decided the would start play in the 1991 season.

[PocketScout]

THE ACC

With this earth shaking announcement of the formation of the Big East football conference the ACC quickly entered talks with Florida State and former member South Carolina. Also at this time the SEC tried to convince Arkansas and South Carolina to join them.

South Carolina had left the ACC back in 1971 to seek better football competition and notoriety but also because of the heavy favoritism shown towards Tobacco Road. It appeared the SEC was a lock for the Gamecocks, but with the addition of Florida State, the second winningest team in the nation over the last few years, and many reassurances from Tobacco Road that the conference was no longer out to get them and would value their school and contributions the same way they had Georgia Tech, South Carolina decided to rejoin the ACC.

[PocketScout]

THE SWC

Cotton Bowl Director Thinks UA Will Stay
Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles said last month that UA had accepted an invitation from Southeastern Conference officials to discuss membership.

"Frank's a good businessman and I know he's the man up there," Jim Brock said. "But I still feel when all the smoke has cleared that Arkansas will stay in the Southwest Conference. I certainly hope I'm right about that, because I would hate to see Arkansas go."

-------

With the Gamecocks accepting a bid back into the ACC, Arkansas became the primary target for the SEC along with the possibility of Texas and Texas A&M.

"I'll be very frank with you," said A&M regent Billy Clayton, a former speaker of the Texas House who is now a political consultant in Austin. "Arkansas, A&M and the University of Texas have supported the Southwest Conference financially to a greater extent than any of the other schools." The SWC sold its radio rights in bulk; Humble Oil sponsored a legendary radio network that brought SWC football all over the states of Texas and Arkansas. But the network was much more romanticized in Texas than in Arkansas.

The Razorbacks wanted to control their media rights and profit better from their success. There were two ways this could happen either join the stronger SEC who's TV markets were larger and share everything evenly or figure out how to get a bigger portion of the SWC revenues. Arkansas football was the 8th most winningest program in the nation from 1987-1989 (tops in the SWC) and the basketball program under Eddie Sutton and then Nolan Richardson was consistently one of the best in the nation. Arkansas wanted a bigger piece of the pie and needed assurances things would change to allow this to happen. Because of this the SWC started looking into expansion while the Razorbacks contemplated the move to the SEC.

-------

Excerpt from Deseret News Article... (link)

The Southwest Conference officials approached Louisiana State but the school has no plans to leave the Southeastern Conference, said Chancellor Bud Davis.

"There was an informal discussion with the Southwest Conference," Davis said. "It was really just an inquiry to see if we had any interest in joining their conference. I said we would continue with the SEC. "The SEC is moving along with its plans to expand but it probably won't be done as quickly as some athletic officials have predicted, said Davis.

Several officials at SWC schools have started an effort to strengthen their conference and discourage league members Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M from jumping to the SEC.

-------

Following the rejection by LSU the SWC were also turned down by Oklahoma and Oklahoma State at which point the discussion moved towards Tulsa, Tulane and New Mexico. The smaller schools in the SWC could see the writing on the wall. If Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M left they would be a drift, either they could change the way the conference split revenues or lose it all. Once a path forward was determined, Tulane was considered a prime target for the league because of the New Orleans TV market.

"There was fairly extensive discussion about our visit to Tulane's campus," SWC President James Vick of the University of Texas said. "We had a very open discussion about Tulane and an honest appraisal of the future of college athletics and the future of the Southwest Conference." Many in the SWC saw the Green Wave as a project. Their sports programs were not the best in the state, seriously lagging behind LSU, but the TV market and expansion of the conference footprint were important.

With a look to the future Texas Tech pushed the SWC to invite New Mexico into the league. Even though the schools football program was mediocre at best the basketball team had been in the NIT the last seven years and looked poised for continued success. This, on top of the fact that the Lobos ruled the Albuquerque-Santa Fe tv market (which is larger than New Orleans), made New Mexico look like a smart choice.

SWC members knew that no matter how much success that Tulane could have, Louisiana would always belong to LSU, and Tulsa could never get out of the shadows of OU. Even in bad times the Lobos were fan favorites in New Mexico. Once the offer was handed out New Mexico was quick to leave the WAC and join the SWC as its 10th team.

A compromise was also struck that allowed each school to keep its gate receipts and local media rights. On top of this the SWC was able to negotiate a more lucrative TV contract by leaving the CFA which appeased the power three of the conference in Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M.

[PocketScout]

The Big 8

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Big Eight was a sleepy conference that did not react to the changing national landscape. In 1976, the Southwest Conference added Houston. In 1978, the Pac-10 added Arizona State and Arizona. That same year, the ACC added Georgia Tech. In 1979, the Big East was formed. It eventually became clear the Big 8 had to act and act quickly. They were the smallest major conference and had access to the smallest amount of media markets.

The first candidate that came to mind for expansion was BYU to the west. Under LaVell Edwards the Cougars had won 11 of the last 14 WAC championships and the National Championship in 1984. Following the 1984 National Title Edwards was offer the head coaching job for the Detroit Lions but also the University of Texas. He declined both offers to continue building BYU.

After the SWC tried to poach Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, one unnamed Big 8 AD said "What better way to stick it to the SWC and their New Mexico addition than to go out and get the King of the WAC and man who turned down Texas." BYU controlled the Salt Lake City TV market (and Utah as a whole) and had a large national Mormon following. The Cougars were added and then focus shifted to the east.

Before Miami became known as "The U," it was a program struggling to find itself. Howard Schnellenberger (AND), himself familiar with college football dynasties from his days as an assistant to Alabama coach Bear Bryant, would change all that. He got players to buy into his master plan to make Miami into a powerhouse. Schnellenberger promised every single one of his players that Miami would be a champion one day.

He was correct and by the end of the 1980's the Hurricanes had won 3 national championships in seven years. In 1985 Schnellenberger, a year after leaving Miami for the USFL, had taken over Louisville and had the Cardinals program heading the the right direction by the end of the decade. The Big 8 AD's were not sure if he could duplicate the success from Miami but the vote was unanimous to offer the Cardinals, which graciously accepted.

[PocketScout]

The Rest

It quickly became apparent to the smaller schools they had no real negotiating power and decided to teamup and try to make the most of what they had. The Group of 5 (Big West, WAC, MAC, Southland, Metro) and remaining independents would play of there own small college national championship.

The eight teams of the Big West (Fresno State, San Jose State, Utah State, UNLV, New Mexico State, Boise State, Nevada and Idaho) would play the champion of the now depleted WAC (Hawaii, San Diego State, Air Force, Utah, Wyoming, UTEP, Colorado State and newly added Tulsa).

The Southland conference (Arkansas State, ULM, ULL, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTSA and Troy) Champion would play the Metro conference (Cincinnati, Tulane, Memphis, Southern Miss, South Florida, East Carolina, UCF and UAB) Champion.

The MAC consisting of 16 schools from the Midwest to the North East would determine its champion. At the end of the season the two highest rated small colleges will face off to determine small college National Champion.

Conference Alignment
ACC	Big 10	Big 8 (MWC)	Big East
Clemson	Illinois	Colorado	Boston College
Duke	Indiana	Iowa State	Miami
Florida State	Iowa	Kansas	Pittsburgh
Georgia Tech	Michigan	Kansas State	Rutgers
Maryland	Michigan State	Missouri	Syracuse
NC State	Minnesota	Nebraska	Penn State
North Carolina	Northwestern	Oklahoma	Virginia Tech
Virginia	Ohio State	Oklahoma State	West Virginia
Wake Forest	Purdue	BYU	Notre Dame
South Carolina	Wisconsin	Louisville	UConn
Pac 10 (Pac-12)	SEC	SWC (Big 12)
Arizona	Alabama	Arkansas
Arizona State	Auburn	Baylor
Cal	Florida	Houston
Oregon	Georgia	Rice
Oregon State	Kentucky	SMU
Stanford	LSU	TCU
UCLA	Mississippi State	Texas
USC	Ole Miss	Texas A&M
Washington	Tennessee	Texas Tech
Washington State	Vanderbilt	New Mexico
WAC (C-USA)	MAC	Sun Belt	Indep
Big West	East	Southland
Fresno St	Old Dominion	Arkansas St	Army
SJSU	Temple	ULM	Navy
Utah St	UMass	ULL	Ga. State
UNLV	Buffalo	North Texas	FAU
NM State	Akron	La Tech	FIU
Boise St	Kent State	Texas State	MTSU
Nevada	Ohio	UTSA	USA
Idaho	Bowling Green	Troy	Marshall
WAC	WEST	METRO
Hawaii	EMU	Cincinnati
SDSU	CMU	Tulane
Air Force	WMU	UAB
Utah	Miami	Memphis
Wyoming	Toledo	Southern Miss
UTEP	Ball St	South Florida
Colorado St	N.Illinois	ECU
Tulsa	WKU	UCF

[PocketScout]

The Postseason Setup

The bowl system was in full effect going into the 90's but things went wrong quickly. In 1990 the national title was split between the Colorado Buffaloes and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Buffaloes (11-1-1) took the AP poll while the Yellow Jackets (11-0-1) took the UPI Coaches poll by one vote over Colorado, 847 to 846. During the season Colorado had a particularly controversial victory over Missouri in what would later be known as the "Fifth Down Game".

These events caused a massive uproar in the college football world and the proposal for the Bowl Coalition. After much debate, ESPN stepped up to the plate with a proposal for the first Div-1A football playoff. With the power 7 voting overwhelming in favor of it the College Football will start its playoff in 1991.

The Power 7 will use a playoff this year. Each conference is assigned Premier Bowl game. Cotton Bowl (SWC vs At-Large), Orange Bowl (Big 8 vs At-Large), Rose (Big 10 vs Pac 10), Sugar Bowl (SEC vs At-Large). The ACC & Big East Champions will float in the At-Large spots. The playoff games will occur in either the Cotton, Orange, Rose, Sugar or Fiesta Bowl. The top two highest rated teams will get to host the playoff game in their conferences Bowl game. If the ACC or Big East is in the top 2 they will host the playoff game in the Fiesta Bowl. If a bowl loses its conference champion (ie the #3 seed) the next highest ranked team from that conference will replace them in the Premier Bowl.

The group of five (Southland, Metro, WAC, Big West and MAC) will crown their own small college national championship. Each year the Southland Champion will play against the Metro Champion, the Big West Champion will play against the WAC champion and the MAC East and West will play against each other to crown a champion. Of these three winners the top two will be selected and will play in the Las Vegas Bowl to determine the Small College National Champion.

[PocketScout]

DYNASTY GOALS:
After running my last dynasty (here) for almost 20 seasons I think I have the bugs worked out of the house rules and I am now ready to start my coaching career. The last dynasty I started to formulate the house rules with the help of others on the board and then did many seasons of testing to make sure the results were what I was looking for. Now that I think they are pretty solid I am going to start a new dynasty where my teams have not gone in and messed up the history and balance of the league.

The goal of this dynasty and the restrictions I impose on myself are to try and provide a more realistic outcome to program building. I enjoy the year to year play more than I do the minute to minute on field action. I like taking a down and out program and returning them to glory. If you have ever played NCAA 2014 you know, without house rules, the game if fairly easy to dominate and once you get a successful team it is easy to win championship and championship. I hope the rules below will keep that from happening. I will continue to tweak the rules so know they will always be changing.

RECRUITING RULES:
LIMITS
Three Visits
I can only schedule three visit all year long. This will be a very tough decision on which recruits will be the ones who gets to visit my campus. This makes late season recruiting get very interesting when battling with a couple schools for a kid as they might jump +700 points in a single week and I do not have a good way to make up the difference.
No Scouting
I can not scout any of the prospects that are on my board. Recruiting is to easy for me because I can easily find the best of what I can get to sign with my program without any issue and get those guys on campus. To combat this I will not scout any prospects. Once a kid commits to my program I can then scout him to see what I've got, those Gems and Busts titles are now going to carry a lot more meaning and impact since I will be stuck with these kids. This does add a "kid at Christmas morning" feel to when I get the message that a kid has signed with my program because then I get to go and find out what I really just signed.
No Kitchen Sink
No upgrading the kitchen sink skill. I have a max of 500 points per week than I can spend on a recruit. Once you get above that 500 level you can really just cherry pick who you want, this keeps that from becoming such an issue.
Class Size Limits
Following the 2031 season I have decided to change from only allowing ten recruits and go to a tiered system. So a 1* gets 12 players and 2* gets 11 players, 3* and 4* gets 10 players and 5* gets 9 and 6* gets 8. Every season the computer will always assign extra players to my team on signing day so I will try to take advantage of this and make the game harder by only recruiting the limits listed above myself and then the rest of the class will comprise of the players the computer assigns to my team on signing day. It is very rare to see teams ranked in the top 5 year in and year out in real life but easy to accomplish in this game. I am hoping this will make it much harder to sustain major success. Also this is not just how many I can sign, but how many I can have on my board at and given time.

REGIONAL RESTRICTIONS
Pipelines
After playing 5 seasons I have noticed the new recruiting setup for NCAA 2014 gives you the ability to recruit Nationally very easy. In real life your pipelines and home state are very important to recruiting and few programs easily recruit nationally. To bring this game back better in line with real life I am implementing the following. I only get to have two pipeline states a year were I can recruit any player from pipeline states. The player can't be higher than my team prestige unless we start out as their top school.
Note: Coastal/Border school defined as any school within 170 miles of the border or coast line.

Local (1*)
Can only recruit from our home state.

Close to Home (2*)
I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a
65 miles of my campus. 110 miles if coastal\US border school.

Regional (3*)
I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a
135 miles of my campus. 220 miles if coastal\US border school.

Regional (4*)
I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a
265 miles of my campus. 440 miles if coastal\US border school.

National (5*)
I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a
530 miles of my campus. 880 miles if coastal\US border school.

National (6*)
I can only recruit my home state, pipelines and states that are within a
630 miles of my campus. 1050 miles if coastal\US border school.

INTEREST RESTRICTIONS
In State
I can recruit any players in my schools home state.
Pipeline States
I can recruit any player from pipeline states. The player can't be higher than my team prestige unless we start out as their top school.
Regional & National States
I can only recruit players who I start off in there top 10. The player can't be higher than my team prestige unless we start out as their top school. I must be in the recruits starting Top 10 to be able to recruit them. I look at this as these are players that my coaching staff has been recruiting since their sophomore and junior year in high school. We have already identified these kids as who we want in our program and now we are just narrowing down who we are going to bring on campus.
Three Outsiders
I can only recruit players who I start off in there top 10. The player can't be higher than my team prestige unless we start out as their top school. This will allow me to try and build new pipelines but with it only being three players a year it will take multiple years to establish those pipelines.

Tools for figuring out distances
School List
Radius Tool

IN GAME & SLIDERS:
(UPDATED: Before 2027 Season) These sliders are not designed to provide the most realistic stats known to man, they are to provide me with a tough game. I only play a couple games a year and I would rather have them be hard to win. Personally they provide me with what I'm looking for but might be a little extreme compared to many of the slider sets posted on the site. The computer will blow up multiple runs in the back field every game, I have passes dropped like crazy when contact is made, blocks missed, my defense misses tackles, my d-backs will get trucked etc. When I am coaching a great team these provide a good challenge, when I am playing with a bad team I want to throw the controller through the tv sometimes, but I know as I build the program up they start playing easier and easier.

Heisman Offense
Human/Computer
10/60 Quarterback
30/55 Pass Block
10/55 Catch
40/70 RB Ability
0/85 Run Block

Heisman Defense
Human/Computer
40/95 Pass Coverage
20/35 Interception
50/100 Rush Defense
45/50 Tackling

Penalty Sliders
OPI & DPI to 0 - This will cause tighter coverage and more battles for the ball but human Int needs to be lowered as you will get a lot more due to the much more aggressive DB play.

In Game Adjustments
Big Run = Aggressive, with Rush Defense at 100 this causes more fumbles.
Holding Blocks = Conservative, increase difficulty of run game.
Catching = Aggressive, more dropped passes.

OTHER RESTRICTIONS:
Players Leaving Early
I can only try and convince one player a year to not leave early or transfer to another school.

Yearly AWR Adjustments
Another problem with this game is that human player progression is far quicker than the computer. It is not uncommon to see a human player progress +15 AWR points in the course of a season. This makes the game very easy if you do a sim/play setup like I do. To fix this I reset all returning players, who's AWR is greater than 76, back to 76 during the preseason.

Coaching Contracts
I must complete a minimum of 50% of the length of any Head Coaching contract I sign.

SOS
Strength of Schedule must be an A difficulty. This makes things much harder than picking up four wins against cup cakes every year in non conference play. If playing as a non power 5 (outside the AAC top tier) I will schedule two games where I am seen as a rent a win for the computer and two manageable game as it is impossible to get A level schedule difficulty playing in a non power 5 conference.

Coaching Progression Speed
This needs to be set to the slowest speed. You must do this when you set up the dynasty, you will not be able to change this once you have started the dynasty!

Quick Sheet



GAMES:
Regular Season
I can only play two regular season games each year, I use a program to randomly pick the games for me to play. I will have no control over the selection of which games I will be playing.
Post Season
I can play in the conference championship game, bowl game or playoffs if my team qualifies for any of these.