Conference Realignment Discussion

[WoolyGuy]

PROPOSAL NUMBER ONE

Updated 12-24-18

If we are going to have two 12 team conferences for users, then this is my proposal. I started with the setup Evans already posted, then changed the users a little to incorporate a regional relegation system. It has flaws for sure, but I like what it offers:
The ability to have different CPU teams coming into our User conferences, but still keeping a lot of traditional matchups and geographic continuity.

Here is what it would look like:



This is how it works:
Each User division gets its three CPU teams from the two conf below it in the column. Each User division is tied to one of four geographical regions, either WEST, MIDWEST, NORTHEAST, or SOUTHEAST. Each region has two conferences that feed into it, a Tier 1 and Tier 2. Each year, the conference champ from Tier 1 automatically gets promoted into the User division it feeds into, and Tier 2 gives its top two teams. That might seem like a lot of work, but it’s really not. It only takes a lot of work on initial set up. Every year after that, it’s only swapping 12 teams.


It doesn't matter what teams we choose from the Teir 1 and Tier 2 conferences, but I went ahead and put boxes around the teams I think would be good, based mostly on good/historical matchups for Tier 1 schools, and then whatever two schools from Tier 2 that were higher ranked this past year.



I see several benefits to this system:
1) It gives us at least one good CPU team to play every year.
2) It allows the CPU team from Tier 1 to stay good, because they get to go back to their previous conference the following year and win again.
3) It keeps the three CPU teams from all being the same doormats that we play every year…forever, and gives us new teams to play.
4) It still gives us a couple of easier games in our own division against mediocre competition from the Tier 2 teams.
5) While giving us the benefits mentioned, it still keeps a lot of traditional matchups and conference memberships, and keeps the geography relatively intact. Geography is very appealing to me, and is one of reasons I wanted to do this.

Important Notes:
I changed this so that the Teir 1 conf will still have 12 teams and a CCG after one of their schools is put into a User conf.




Some Tier 2 confs have more than the max 16 teams allowed right now, but we take two of them at setup and put them into the User conf. They will have divisions, but it really doesn’t matter how the divisions are maintained if you don’t want to get too detailed. Keep it simple and swap into whatever Tier 2 division you want at the end of the year. Or, stress out about the geography like me, and get the divisions as perfect as possible every year.



Why this set up:
I wanted to have a relegation system where teams are still grouped mostly on tradition and geography. However, we are constrained to only 10 conferences. It would have been better to have three conferences in each of the four regions, each giving one team for three CPU slots, but that’s not possible. I would also make the two User conferences be the AAC and CUSA, since they are kind of generic names, and then have the Big 12 and ACC be feeder conferences, but I just went with what Evans had already written down. It doesn’t matter really either. Conference prestige is recalculated every year, and whatever conference you use, the two User confs and Tier 1 conferences will all have high prestige due to their composition.


Also, you don’t have to have Tier 2 give two teams, but it seemed the best solution. They have tons of teams, so it makes sense to give two. I would like a couple of lesser teams to play in each division, rather than two teams from Tier 1, and if you take two from Tier 1, it will dilute their talent over time.



Since you can set the bowl games to play certain conferences, I would set the User Confs to play confs in their same region too, but you can do whatever. Either way, I think we want to help Tier 1 confs have good prestige, and make it harder for Tier 2 confs to have prestige.


Will User teams change? Sure, but you can’t control for everything. This is a pretty good regional setup. You could also just use part of this setup if you wanted, if for instance Users left the west, and it didn’t make sense to keep the western teams feeding in. In that case, just use one feeder conference per area where Users actually play. Let the rest of CFB run as usual. This way, for instance, you could have User teams in the Big 10 area play in a division together where just the Big 10 feeds in and is relegated to. You can do this at whatever level you want really.

[WoolyGuy]

PROPOSAL NUMBER TWO

Each User gets to pick one team to be in their division.

[WoolyGuy]

PROPOSAL NUMBER THREE

...almost done

[WoolyGuy]

Updated Conference Realignment 2-17-19

[walter323]

2028 Conference Realignment