Happy 2012 readers. I've been spending the end of 2011 and the beginning hours of 2012 complaining about the BCS and bowl tie-ins. In August, this hate was directed toward super-conferences. To have a team from Idaho play in a conference with teams from New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut is idiotic. Having a team completely crap on a 100+ year rivalry to join a conference with no in-state rivals is blasphemous. So I, being the one with no life and Internet access, created a re-alignment scenario for FBS football. It involves four conferences (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest), separated into four 6-team divisions (North, South, East, and West). The divisions follow as such:
Northeast - North
Army | Boston College | Connecticut | Navy | Penn State | Syracuse
Northeast - South
Kentucky | Louisville | Maryland | Virginia | Virginia Tech | West Virginia
Northeast - East
Cincinnati | Notre Dame | Pittsburgh | Purdue | Rutgers | Temple
Northeast - West
Illinois | Indiana | Michigan | Michigan State | Northwestern | Ohio State
Northwest - North
Iowa | Iowa State | Minnesota | Washington | Washington State | Wisconsin
Northwest - South
BYU | Kansas | Kansas State | Nebraska | Utah | Utah State
Northwest - East
Boise State | Colorado | Colorado State | Fresno State | Idaho | Missouri
Northwest - West
California | Nevada | Oregon | Oregon State | Stanford | UNLV
Southeast - North
Clemson | Duke | NC State | North Carolina | South Carolina | Wake Forest
Southeast - South
Central Florida | Florida | Florida International | Florida State | Miami (FL) | South Florida
Southeast - East
Georgia | Georgia Tech | Mississippi State | Ole Miss | Tennessee | Vanderbilt
Southeast - West (which I nicknamed the Division of Champions)
Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | LSU | Troy | UAB
Southwest - North
Air Force | Baylor | Oklahoma | Oklahoma State | Tulsa | Wyoming
Southwest - South
Louisiana Tech | Rice | San Diego State | Texas | Texas A&M | Texas Tech
Southwest - East
Houson | New Mexico | New Mexico State | SMU | TCU | UTEP
Southwest - West
Arizona | Arizona State | Hawai'i | San Jose State | UCLA | USC
All teams play 12 games (they play all teams in their division once, 7 non-divisional games). The first and last weeks of the season are strictly divisional games. Divisional seeding is determined first by overall record, then by divisional record, then by head to head result.
The winner of each division plays in one of 8 BCS bowls (Rose, Fiesta, Empire City in Yankee Stadium, Orange, International in Toronto, Cotton, Sugar, and BCS National Championship). These bowls are once a day from 1/1 (Rose) to 1/10 (National Title, no games on 1/8 or 1/9).
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams in each division play in a non-BCS bowl. They are three-a-day from 12/23 to 12/31 (no games on 12/25). The first 8 games are between all fourth-place teams, next 8 for third-place teams, and last 8 for second-place teams. In all bowl games, bowls are only allowed to pick teams within one game of each other (Ex. a bowl picks an 8-4 team. The second team picked can only be 7-5, 8-4, or 9-3).
Obviously this may not be the best solution to the BCS, tie-ins, or super-conferences. But with all these major problems listed in college football today, anything new can be seen as progress.
