Custom Conferences: *Active* Relegation.

[Watson]

Recently, the fine folks at SB Nation have created a system of regulation similar to the EPL. You can read about it in the link below, but if you're familiar with soccer all you need to know about it is this relegation system keeps conferences and teams get sent up and down tiers, which go as:

ACC Tiers: 1. ACC, 2. Big East, 3. Atlantic 10 (which eventually became Colonial), 4. Patriot
Big 12 Tiers: 1. Big 12, 2. Conference USA, 3. Southland, 4. Pioneer & Great West
Big Ten Tiers: 1. Big Ten, 2. MAC, 3. Missouri Vally, 4. Ohio Valley & Northeast
SEC Tiers: 1. SEC, 2. Sun Belt, 3. Southern, 4. Big South

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-footbal...in-action-2012

So for NCAA 13, the relegated conferences would look like:

Spoiler

Quote:

Tier I ACC Membership: Cincinnati, Clemson, Connecticut, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, N.C. State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Virginia Tech Big 12 Membership: Baylor, Central Florida, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech, Tulsa, TCU, West Virginia Big Ten Membership: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame*, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Toledo, Wisconsin Pac-10 Membership: Arizona, Arizona State, Boise State, BYU, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, USC, Utah SEC Membership: Alabama, Appalachian State, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt Tier II Big East Membership: Boston College, James Madison, Louisville, Maryland, Navy*, New Hampshire, Rutgers, South Florida, Syracuse, Temple, Wake Forest Conference USA Membership: Cal Poly, East Carolina, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Marshall, Rice, SMU, Southern Miss, Stephen F. Austin, UAB, UTEP MAC Membership: Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Indiana, Miami (Ohio), Minnesota, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Ohio, Southern Illinois, Western Michigan Mountain West Membership: Air Force, Arizona State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Louisiana Tech, San Diego State, UCLA, Washington Sun Belt Membership: Arkansas State, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Middle Tennessee, Ole Miss, Troy, UL-Lafayette, Wofford Tier III Colonial Membership: Army, Delaware, Duke, Hofstra, Lehigh, Maine, Massachusetts, Northeastern, Old Dominion, Richmond, Towson, Villanova, William & Mary Southland Membership: Central Arkansas, Jacksonville, McNeese State, Memphis, Sam Houston State, South Dakota State, Tulane, UC Davis Missouri Valley Membership: Eastern Kentucky, Illinois State, Indiana State, Jacksonville State, Kent State, Missouri State, Western Illinois, Youngstown State WAC Membership: Colorado State, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Montana State, San Jose State, Utah State, Washington State, Wyoming Southern Membership: Chattanooga, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, North Texas, Stony Brook, The Citadel, UL-Monroe, Western Kentucky Tier IV Patriot Membership: Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Rhode Island Pioneer / Great West Membership (Pioneer): Austin Peay, Butler, Campbell, Davidson, Dayton, Drake, Marist, Morehead State, Nicholls State, San Diego, Valparaiso Membership (Great West): Lamar, North Dakota, Northern Colorado, Northwestern State, SE Louisiana, South Dakota, Southern Utah, Texas State Ohio Valley / Northeast Membership (Ohio Valley): Akron, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Murray State, Samford, SE Missouri State, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT-Martin Membership (Northeast): Albany, Central Connecticut State, Duquesne, Monmouth, Robert Morris, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (PA), Wagner Big Sky Membership: Idaho State, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Sacramento State, UNLV, Weber State Big South Membership: Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Liberty, Presbyterian, VMI, Western Carolina

I thought this was a GREAT idea and a way to make dynasty mode that much more interesting. Problem is, NCAA 13 does not (or, as far as we know. Actually, probably not) include FCS/DII teams and their conferences. So basically we're limited to only the top two tiers of each conference and cannot import in TeamBuilder teams in the middle of a dynasty, but if anybody has any thoughts on how to work this in a dynasty, feel free to express it. Just thought I'd share this with the OS community.

[eyeamg0dly]

how would you decide who is relegated? i mean even if you come up with a point system, you would still have to schedule these teams to play each other at least once during the season.

[Knight9299]

Quote: Originally Posted by eyeamg0dly

how would you decide who is relegated? i mean even if you come up with a point system, you would still have to schedule these teams to play each other at least once during the season.

I've been doing this for the past couple of seasons in my offline dynasty. My method is simple. During week 13 or 14 I go through the BCS conferences and write down who is just terrible. Like 0-10 or 1-9. I then go through the non-BCS/mid-majors and write down who is leading the conference. During the next offseason, I swap the crap teams from BCS conferences with the conference winners from the non-BCS. In the beginning I was just doing it for the conference I was in, as I was bored of playing the same teams. But now I do it for all the conferences...

[woodjer]

I really like this idea a lot. In fact, I've often thought that a relegation system would help to improve interest in the minor league teams across several sports. Imagine the hype that would sprout up in a smaller city if their team had a chance to make it to the big stage. But I digress...

The way that I would make this work in NCAA12 is this:
- Four separate tiers
- Three levels per tier
- 10 teams per conference

My tiers would be
SEC-ACC-Sun Belt
Big Ten-Big East-MAC
Big XII-C-USA-WAC
Pac 12-MWC-Independents

Of course, you can change the tiers around and assign teams however you'd like. You'd have to track the relegation/promotion based on overall record since Independents aren't automatically scheduled to play each other but that could work. I would use the BCS games in a weird promotion/relegation setup...off the top of my head I'd do something like this:
Fiesta Bowl: SEC-Big XII
Rose Bowl: Big 10-Pac 12
Sugar Bowl: MWC-CUSA
Orange Bowl: ACC-Big East
Winners of the Sugar & Orange replace the last place team in the conference of the Fiesta & Rose losers. That way, there can even be movement within the tiers and between the tiers. So a MWC team one year could end up in the SEC the following year instead of just having to go up to the Pac12.

Now, the only problem I see is with the championship game since that will most likely take two of those teams out. The easy solution would be to just have the At-Large teams be temporary members of the conference that they are replacing. It doesn't do much for the tier 3 conferences but you can always figure something out there. Hopefully, NCAA13 allows us to edit ALL of the bowl tie-ins and then you could really get something going.

Again, love the idea.

[coogrfan]

Wait a second - So Miss (who won CUSA last season) and Houston (who won 13 games) are in tier II, but Tulsa (who UH beat to claim the West) and 5-7 UCF are in the Big 12? What gives?

[eyeamg0dly]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

Wait a second - So Miss (who won CUSA last season) and Houston (who won 13 games) are in tier II, but Tulsa (who UH beat to claim the West) and 5-7 UCF are in the Big 12? What gives?

exactly. thats why there needs to be a point system. unfortunately it would also be hard to do because you cannot tie like you can in soccer. each team would have to play every team in the conference at least once as well, couldnt do conference championship games or bowl games either. at least they wouldnt count torwards the point system if you include them.

personally id rather do a champions league / tourney idea instead. previous years bcs champion team gets auto bid as well as conference champion teams, unless bcs champion also won their conference champion, then the runner up gets the auto bid.

these champion teams will face off in a tournament throughout the course of the regular season until there is a final showdown. seedings can be subjective. only flaw is that if a great team loses alot of players from the previous year that they qualify in. either way these are going to be teams that are generally strong every year.

[phily915]

just a warning but i created a relegation style dynasty on '12 & by the time i got to year 6 or 7, i could no longer switch teams to different leagues since EA BRILLIANTLY placed a 250 league switch limit! so im sure that'll be the same this year. this essentially dooms all EPL style leagues.

[Exile04]

Last year i did this for 15 years of my dyn. its easy and intresting you have 5 top leagues and 5 feeder leagues Pac-12 - WAC SEC - C-USA ACC - BIG EAST BIG 10 - MWC BIG 12 - MAC with the sunbelt being the worst teams All the top leagues are set to 12 teams and the feeders or 10 As for as which teams moved. The worst team from the top leagues moves down to the feeder and the top team moves up. With the sunbelt if you noticed that that a couple teams seam good you move them in to spots for teams that were worse in the feeder leagues. Its very simple but fun. YOu need to get rid of the indepents tho and have a sheet some where with were i moved teams to fit better. Like Boise started in the WAC and Dame was in the ACC i think i cant remember for sure