Super-Conferences may be coming sooner than we think

[eagleair89]

You are correct, but I think it is a "current day" situation - UT is by far the more dominant, more powerful, more financially secure  program in the state, head and shoulders above all the other teams combined.  I don't think for one minute in this "money trupms all" climate that UT would blink at leaving without A&M if it were the right thing for UT.  

The UT - OU rivalry is a much bigger game.  I would be more interested in how that would be affected since in recent years the winner of that game pretty much sewed up the Big XII South.

yep....would be interesting to see what realignment will do to the Red River Shootout......along your thoughts of richest athletic programs, I found a list from Aug 2009.......:

1    Texas    $120,288,370                Big 12
2    Ohio State    $117,953,712                Big Ten
3    Florida    $106,030,895                SEC
4    Michigan    $99,027,105                Big Ten
5    Wisconsin    $93,452,334                Big Ten
6    Penn State    $91,570,233                Big Ten
7    Auburn    $89,305,326                SEC
8    Alabama    $88,869,810                SEC
9    Tennessee    $88,719,798                SEC
10    Okl St    $88,554,438                Big 12

12    LSU           $84,183,362                SEC
13    Georgia    $84,020,180                SEC

17    Oklahoma    $77,098,009                Big 12
21    Texas A&M    $74,781,640                Big 12
24    South Car    $66,545,953                SEC

So 7 out of the Top 24 are SEC schools, 6 are Big 10 schools with Texas sitting there at #1.........you think a little wheeling dealing/bidding war between the SEC and the Big 10 might break out over the "courting" of Texas?    (the Big 12 has 5 in the top 25)

WAR EAGLE
 

Full list here (apologies if this list is "old news"):  http://www.aretheyworthit.com/college-athletic-programs/richest-college-athletic-departments

ps for GH2001:  fwiw both Clemson and Ga. Tech have a wealthier ath. dept than FSU:

34    Clemson    $59,126,212                ACC
49    Ga Tech    $47,126,247                ACC
53    Fl State    $45,414,953                ACC

pps:  One more list of the "Have's":

Most Valuable football programs in 2009

Team            Conference    Net Worth    Total Profit
Notre Dame Independent    $101 Million  $46 Million
Texas             Big 12            $92M             $46M
Georgia          SEC               $90M             $44M
Michigan         Big 10            $85M             $36M
Florida            SEC               $84M             $38M
LSU               SEC               $76M             $32M
Tennessee      SEC               $74M             $33M
Auburn           SEC                $73M            $34M
Alabama         SEC               $72M             $32M
Ohio St           Big 10             $71M            $27M

[jadennis]

I actually dont think Texas and aTm will go to the SEC. I just said they would go wherever together. I really think Neb and FSU are good choices for the SEC. Neb on the West Side. FSU on the east side.   14 teams is plenty. 16 is too many IMHO.

I think maybe I fall somewhere in between adding FSU, Nebraska, Texas, etc and adding Tulsa and Southern Miss.

What I mean is, we may need to expand to stay on top, but it isn't necessarily the right answer to add two more of the greatest programs in history.  It's not like the SEC will collectively be playing the Big Ten collectively.  It's Auburn who will have to be playing the new teams in town.  Who do we want to add to the schedule?

We are already stacked.  Getting to the SEC title game is already a nightmare.  We already have an automatic bid to the BCS title game by winning the SEC.  I don't know that having to beat Nebraska, in addition to LSU, Alabama, Arkansas, etc. is going to help our national standing as much as it could easily derail a great season.

I would rather add some quality teams, like Georgia Tech or Clemson to the east, and Oklahoma State or Missouri to the west, but not necessarily add multiple other top 10 type powers to our schedule.  In the end it would hurt the conference because the East and West winners could easily have 2 losses each due to the murders row they had to go through to get there.

[jadennis]

They should just blow the whole damn thing up and go with 5 major conferences consisting of 80 programs. 

There would be a second division of 40 teams as well.  Just like English Premier League soccer, you would have teams going back and forth between divisions.  The bottom 10 of the 80 would drop down to division II, and the top 10 from D-II would move up to D-1.  Relegation happens every three years, not every year like the EPL does it.

The playoffs would be 12 teams.  The winner of each conference division (10 teams), plus two at-large teams.  Top four get a bye, the next 8 play each other to decide who plays the top 4. 

As for scheduling, I would like to see some rules....since relegation and playoff seeding is on the line every year, no one is allowed to just drift through scheduling by avoiding the big dogs.

First is you would have to play the other 7 teams in your division, nothing new there, obviously, and only those games factor into who wins the division, not overall record. 

At the end of every year, using the BCS formula, (or something like it), all 80 teams would be divided into quarters (1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80).  Then, for your four non-division games, you are required to schedule two games against teams rated in your same "quarter", and one game against an opponent rated higher than you, with the exception of the top 20, they simply have to play 3 in their quarter, not necessarily with one rated higher than them (it would get tricky for the top few teams).

That way, if USC happens to face a relatively weak division one year, they at least have to play 3 other non-divisional teams that are of their relative strength.  This keeps teams from easing into a top 4 seed, and also keeps teams from hiding from the bottom 10 and avoiding relegation.  If you have to play teams of your relative strength, but you keep losing, you're going to slide in the ratings, and may find yourself relegated to D-II.

[AUsweetheart]

Work much, jadennis?

[jadennis]

The print is too small to see since you can't zoom in.


USC
Cal
UCLA
Arizona state
Fresno St
Stanford
San Diego St
Air Force

Texas
Texas A&M
TCU
Texas Tech
Baylor
SMU
New Mexico
Arizona

[jadennis]

Work much, jadennis?

I think you know the answer...or at least I know you think you know the answer.

And for everyone else....not on the fourth Thursday of the month.

[jadennis]

LSU
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St
Tulsa
Arkansas
Kansas St
Colorado

Oregon
Nebraska
Oregon St
Washington
Washington St
Boise St
Utah
BYU

[AUsweetheart]

I think you know the answer...or at least I know you think you know the answer.

Too-shay.

Carry on.

[jadennis]

Alabama
Auburn
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Southern Miss
Purdue
Illinois

Georgia
Notre Dame
Georgia tech
Ole Miss
Miss State
Missouri
Iowa St
Northwestern

[jadennis]

Florida
Tennessee
North Carolina
South Carolina
Wake Forest
Central Florida
South Florida
East Carolina

Florida State
Miami
Clemson
Louisville
NC State
Indiana
Duke
Vanderbilt

[Token]

Texas is in the west conference playing west coast teams while Oregon, Oregon St, Washington and Washington State are in the west central playing Arkansas and LSU?  

I've seen a lot of time wasted on the interwebs, but this is probably the worst.  

[jadennis]

Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan St
Boston College
Syracuse
Kentucky
Pitt
UConn

Penn State
Virginia Tech
West Virginia
Rutgers
Central Michigan
Maryland
Virginia
Cincinnati

[Token]

This reminds me of my 5 year old trying to play the "place the states" game. 

Alabama isn't next to Lake Superior, Cade. 

[Buzz Killington]

This reminds me of my 5 year old trying to play the "place the states" game. 

Alabama isn't next to Lake Superior, Cade. 

Let's just put 'em in alphabetical order.

[Token]

Let's just put 'em in alphabetical order.

Would probably be more accurate. 

[jadennis]

Texas is in the west conference playing west coast teams while Oregon, Oregon St, Washington and Washington State are in the west central playing Arkansas and LSU?  

I've seen a lot of time wasted on the interwebs, but this is probably the worst.  

Couldn't agree more.  But actually it didn't take long to draw some circles.

Really, the idea is to break everything up evenly.  Because there is such large concentration of the best programs in just a few areas of the country, it's hard to lay it out so that you don't have some division loaded with 4 of the top 10 programs, and then other divisions full of 8 mediocre programs.  In order to do it, you have to really spread it out to even it out.

[jadennis]

This reminds me of my 5 year old trying to play the "place the states" game.  

Alabama isn't next to Lake Superior, Cade.  

The point is to create somewhat competitively equal conferences, or balance.  

Why is geography the overriding factor?  To me that's something a five year old would do.  

"Well, sure, 10 of the 20 best teams in the country are all in the same conference, which isn't fair, but hey, they are all within a 4 hour drive".  

What exactly does that have to do with competitive balance?  Which was the whole point.

[Token]

 Why is geography the overriding factor?  

Because if would cost Alabama and Auburn a shit ton of money to travel to Canada 3 times a year??  Not only does the college spend more money on travel, now they are hiking up tuition to pay for it, which costs everyone.

How about the families of the players?  You really think mama is going to let 6 star Johnnie play for Auburn where she could only travel to one road game a year as opposed to letting him play for Florida where she can travel to every venue within a day? 

How about the fans?  Those guys who make every road game are now being asked to travel across the lower 48 two or three times in a month?  It would never work. 

Geography has and will always be the key.  Just on travel expense alone, your format sucks yetti balls.

[jadennis]

Because if would cost Alabama and Auburn a poop ton of money to travel to Canada 3 times a year??  Not only does the college spend more money on travel, now they are hiking up tuition to pay for it, which costs everyone.

How about the families of the players?  You really think mama is going to let 6 star Johnnie play for Auburn where she could only travel to one road game a year as opposed to letting him play for Florida where she can travel to every venue within a day?  

How about the fans?  Those guys who make every road game are now being asked to travel across the lower 48 two or three times in a month?  It would never work.  

Geography has and will always be the key.  Just on travel expense alone, your format sucks yetti balls.

From a competitive standpoint, there is no way to do it very well geographically.  By they way, this was 15 minutes of circling groups of teams that I thought would make equally competitive groups of teams...it's not supposed to be my submission to the NCAA for realignment.  "It would never work"?  really, you feel like you need to tell me that?

You're also kind of blurring reality on the travel thing.  What is the difference in expense to fly from Austin to Ames, IA or from Austin to Los Angeles?  Or from Baton Rouge to Columbia, SC (750 miles) or Baton Rouge to Manhattan, KS (850 miles).

And sorry to tell 6-star Johnnie, but his family is already not going to drive from State College, PA to his current Big Ten away games at Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Purdue.  Tell 6-star Jim Bob he will have the same problem when his family has to drive from South Florida to UConn, Syracuse, Rutgers, and West Virginia in the current Big East.

We have it kind of different here in the SEC, but look around other conferences.  As stupid as my map seems, travel is already not much different.  How many Arizona fans do you think make the road trips to Cal, or Washington, or Oregon, or Stanford?  How many Texas A&M fans make the road trip to Kansas State, or Missouri, or Iowa State.  

Almost every conference has a few road games every year that fans aren't going to make.   You're kind of acting like conferences currently take two hour bus rides to all the road games with a family convoy in tow behind the bus.  Yetti balls or not, at least keep your complaints within reason and reality.

[GH2001]

yep....would be interesting to see what realignment will do to the Red River Shootout......along your thoughts of richest athletic programs, I found a list from Aug 2009.......:

1    Texas    $120,288,370                Big 12
2    Ohio State    $117,953,712                Big Ten
3    Florida    $106,030,895                SEC
4    Michigan    $99,027,105                Big Ten
5    Wisconsin    $93,452,334                Big Ten
6    Penn State    $91,570,233                Big Ten
7    Auburn    $89,305,326                SEC
8    Alabama    $88,869,810                SEC
9    Tennessee    $88,719,798                SEC
10    Okl St    $88,554,438                Big 12

12    LSU           $84,183,362                SEC
13    Georgia    $84,020,180                SEC

17    Oklahoma    $77,098,009                Big 12
21    Texas A&M    $74,781,640                Big 12
24    South Car    $66,545,953                SEC

So 7 out of the Top 24 are SEC schools, 6 are Big 10 schools with Texas sitting there at #1.........you think a little wheeling dealing/bidding war between the SEC and the Big 10 might break out over the "courting" of Texas?    (the Big 12 has 5 in the top 25)

WAR EAGLE
 

Full list here (apologies if this list is "old news"):  http://www.aretheyworthit.com/college-athletic-programs/richest-college-athletic-departments

ps for GH2001:  fwiw both Clemson and Ga. Tech have a wealthier ath. dept than FSU:

34    Clemson    $59,126,212                ACC
49    Ga Tech    $47,126,247                ACC
53    Fl State    $45,414,953                ACC

pps:  One more list of the "Have's":

Most Valuable football programs in 2009

Team            Conference    Net Worth    Total Profit
Notre Dame Independent    $101 Million  $46 Million
Texas             Big 12            $92M             $46M
Georgia          SEC               $90M             $44M
Michigan         Big 10            $85M             $36M
Florida            SEC               $84M             $38M
LSU               SEC               $76M             $32M
Tennessee      SEC               $74M             $33M
Auburn           SEC                $73M            $34M
Alabama         SEC               $72M             $32M
Ohio St           Big 10             $71M            $27M

Nice work EA. But I still think FSU is a more marquee program with broader appeal and more success per capita.

One question: How can ND's FB program be worth 101 million and their entire Ath Dept not even have enough (80 mill) worth to make the top 10? Are their other sports losing 20 mill +?