AJWatson3
July-1st-2003, 07:44 PM
http://espn.go.com/ncf/s/2003/0701/1575136.html
Tuesday, July 1
College football's ultimate realignment plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com
ESPN.com's Pat Forde has put together a conference alignment (see below) that provides for six automatic berths for a college football playoff (which is the ultimate goal for everybody but the ugly-jacketed bowl honchos, isn't it?). That leaves us with two at-large selections (as we have now with the Bowl Championship Series) to form an eight-team playoff.
So far so good.
Like the four major professional sports, we need an Eastern Division and a Western Division. We don't need geography buffs to point out that the Big Ten Damn The Math Conference is technically farther west than the King Football Conference -- we lived with Atlanta in the West in the NFL and National League for years and it didn't stunt our growth.
But we're open to changing things, especially since the West is loaded (just like the NBA). And yes, we realize that somebody from the Greater Tobacco Road Conference gets in automatically to our playoff. Somebody from the A.L. Central does, too.
Our format is easy: Each division gets a wild card. We're willing to live with the possibility that the Wishbone league has three good teams, but only two make it. Life ain't always fair.
But our wild cards will switch leagues -- the West wild card will head East for the playoffs, and vice versa. Why? We don't want teams from the same conference playing before the title game. Just seems unseemly.
We'll play our quarterfinals at home sites and follow that up with a semifinal doubleheader in New Orleans. Why? Because it's New Orleans.
The title game? Pasadena. The Rose Bowl is college football and there's no better setting for a mid-January early evening.
Besides, nobody can say we don't have an eye for sentimentality or tradition. After all, we can't .
EAST
GREATER TOBACCO ROAD CONFERENCE
Clemson
Duke
Maryland
North Carolina
N.C. State
South Carolina
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
MATT SUHEY CONFERENCE
Boston College
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Marshall
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple
West Virginia
BIG TEN DAMN THE MATH CONFERENCE
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa St.
Michigan
Michigan St.
Missouri
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin
WEST
BRING BACK THE WISHBONE CONFERENCE
Arkansas
Colorado
Colorado St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
LSU
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
PAC-10 GETS RELIGION CONFERENCE
Arizona
Arizona St.
BYU
California
Oregon
Oregon St.
UCLA
USC
Stanford
Utah
Washington
Washington St.
KING FOOTBALL CONFERENCE
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Florida St.
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Louisville
Miami
Mississippi
Mississippi St.
Tennessee
Tuesday, July 1
College football's ultimate realignment plan
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com
ESPN.com's Pat Forde has put together a conference alignment (see below) that provides for six automatic berths for a college football playoff (which is the ultimate goal for everybody but the ugly-jacketed bowl honchos, isn't it?). That leaves us with two at-large selections (as we have now with the Bowl Championship Series) to form an eight-team playoff.
So far so good.
Like the four major professional sports, we need an Eastern Division and a Western Division. We don't need geography buffs to point out that the Big Ten Damn The Math Conference is technically farther west than the King Football Conference -- we lived with Atlanta in the West in the NFL and National League for years and it didn't stunt our growth.
But we're open to changing things, especially since the West is loaded (just like the NBA). And yes, we realize that somebody from the Greater Tobacco Road Conference gets in automatically to our playoff. Somebody from the A.L. Central does, too.
Our format is easy: Each division gets a wild card. We're willing to live with the possibility that the Wishbone league has three good teams, but only two make it. Life ain't always fair.
But our wild cards will switch leagues -- the West wild card will head East for the playoffs, and vice versa. Why? We don't want teams from the same conference playing before the title game. Just seems unseemly.
We'll play our quarterfinals at home sites and follow that up with a semifinal doubleheader in New Orleans. Why? Because it's New Orleans.
The title game? Pasadena. The Rose Bowl is college football and there's no better setting for a mid-January early evening.
Besides, nobody can say we don't have an eye for sentimentality or tradition. After all, we can't .
EAST
GREATER TOBACCO ROAD CONFERENCE
Clemson
Duke
Maryland
North Carolina
N.C. State
South Carolina
Vanderbilt
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest
MATT SUHEY CONFERENCE
Boston College
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Marshall
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple
West Virginia
BIG TEN DAMN THE MATH CONFERENCE
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa St.
Michigan
Michigan St.
Missouri
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Purdue
Wisconsin
WEST
BRING BACK THE WISHBONE CONFERENCE
Arkansas
Colorado
Colorado St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
LSU
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
PAC-10 GETS RELIGION CONFERENCE
Arizona
Arizona St.
BYU
California
Oregon
Oregon St.
UCLA
USC
Stanford
Utah
Washington
Washington St.
KING FOOTBALL CONFERENCE
Alabama
Auburn
Florida
Florida St.
Georgia
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Louisville
Miami
Mississippi
Mississippi St.
Tennessee