In the past I have had great success running with a 4 region 3 deep setup for relegation leagues but this year with the removal of the WAC I’ve had to completely rethink my system. Over the past few weeks I have made several posts with my plans and made quite a few tweaks. I am now content with my system and wanted to get its own thread for it as this is what I will roll out with on release day. I will be starting with a LVL 1 head coach at Georgia State with a plan to build it up over several years and eventually move over to UMASS if I can get an offer there. So here are my rules:
• All teams have their own regional designation (W, C, SE, NE)
• 4 total tiers of promotion / relegation
• Each team is 'stuck' in its new tier after any promotion / demotion for 3 years. This is to stop the constant flop of borderline teams and lend some stability.
• From the Elite-tier, the lowest eligible team (see above) will be relegated to the High-tier.
• From the High-tier, the champion (if eligible – otherwise the next best eligible team) is promoted to the Elite-tier and the lowest eligible team is relegated to the Mid-tier.
• From the Mid-tier, the champion (if eligible – otherwise the next best eligible team) is promoted to the High-tier and if there is a team promoted into this division for the region, the lowest eligible team is relegated to the Low-tier. Note – this means only 2 total teams will be promoted as the NE & SE share the Sun Belt and the W & C share C-USA.
• From the Low-tier, the team with the best record (if eligible – otherwise the next best eligible team) is promoted to the Mid-tier. Note – this means only 1 total team will be promoted as all four regions share the Independents.
• The only exception to the normal promotion rules is if a team would otherwise begin the season ranked while in the 3 lower tiers. This can cause more than 1 team to be promoted in any given season and also overrides the 3 season lock for after moving up/down. Any pre-season ranked team will always be promoted to the top tier. I have found this is a key to ensuring that all NCG teams are from the Elite-tier.
• Each Elite-tier and High-tier conference is given an auto qualifier to the BCS with all matchups setup as Elite vs. Elite or High vs. High. This helps give a nice boost to the High-tier winners as well as mean each CCG winner from the Elite-Tiers ends up in a loaded BCS bowl with another great team.
Below is a snapshot showing how my conferences are aligned for each tier and what that means in terms of balance between region and tier. This gives enough teams in the Elite-tier with enough of a gap before the High-tier that I should be able to keep all NCG participants coming from the Elite-tier.
I hope this helps – please let me know if you guys have any questions
Edit - added in to post 11 my system for random violations.
Edit 2 - added google docs link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...lE&usp=sharing