5x16 Conferences

[AusTxPony]

PAC 12 adds Boise, New Mexico, UH and SMU. (improves Bball and gets into the Central time zone)
SEC grabs NC and Virginia (Bball upgrade, new footprints)
B1G takes Syracuse and Pitt (natural adds, sews up large East coast markets)
BIG 12 adds FSU, Miami, GTech, Clemson, NCSU, VTech. (great football conference, rivals SEC)
ACC/BE the best of the rest and remains the best BBall conference.
Everybody happy now? Or does this make too much sense to happen?

[Comet]

I'd be shocked if the PAC seriously added UNM, Houston, Boise, and SMU. It'd be nice though I suppose.

[StallionsModelT]

While much of what you have here makes sense, its going to be 4x16.

[ColoStang]

4x16 just does not work geographically. Big 12 teams are not going anywhere with the grant of rights. Neither are Big Ten or SEC teams. So then, who would the PAC add from the ACC/BE/MWC/WAC/CUSA/MAC/SB?

It would either have to be the semi western schools from the NBE/BYU (BYU, SDSU Boise, SMU, UH...) or the likes of UNLV, Colo St....

I think 5 major conferences live on. The ACC/Orange Bowl deal is another factor to support 5 conferences.

[zimo]

There's not 80 legit football programs.

[AusTxPony]

Of course there are 16 legit ACC/BE teams, even more. Louisville, Cincin, UCF, USF, Memphis, Tulane, USM, Tulsa, UTEP, Rice, Duke, Wake, UConn, SDSU and the WAC/MWC plus the MAC/Sun Belt and the winner of the these will have a Playoff seat at the money table.

[AustinPerson]

I'm amazed that you all find the time to step away from playing Dungeons and Dragons all day to throw out conference re-alignment proposals. It reminds me when Skip Jones from SMU would call into The Ticket every day with obscure baseball trade proposals. Although he did call the Esteban Loiza trade for the Rangers.

[Stallion]

There will be a 5th major conference-that's the goal of the Big East-but it will get shut out as a major player in the BCS and be given crums. 4 *16 is the consensus to everybody but Notre Dame, BYU and the PAC 12-the only real remaining stumbling blocks. No way does a remnant conference (BE) now have or will it ever have the financial or prestige pull to sit at the Big Boy table for TV and Bowl revenue-that should now be crystal clear.

[ReedFrawg]

Big East is toast...still think there will be some (limited) access to a playoff down the road once it expands to 8 or more teams.

[StallionsModelT]

The only silver lining today is that if somehow Tulane can move up the ladder then certainly there is a glimmer of hope for SMU.

[Dukie]

There will be a 5th major conference-that's the goal of the Big East-but it will get shut out as a major player in the BCS and be given crums. 4 *16 is the consensus to everybody but Notre Dame, BYU and the PAC 12-the only real remaining stumbling blocks. No way does a remnant conference (BE) now have or will it ever have the financial or prestige pull to sit at the Big Boy table for TV and Bowl revenue-that should now be crystal clear.

I still don't see why it has to be 4*16. Why can't it be, hypothetically, 3 16-team conferences and 1 12-team conference? Unfortunately for SMU (and Duke), I bet it can.

[Stallion]

Because the remaining teams

1. are unattractive to bowls
2. are unattractive to TV networks. A 5th major conference will likely get no more than 1/3rd the revenue, of that, of the major programs
3. Generally are significantly smaller in size and can't command the game day revenue of the majors.

Can some programs generating 20 Million (and running deficits) compete with what will be major programs commanding 100 Million ( future projections). This has been a 20 year systematic weeding of the haves from the have-nots. The few smaller schools that had a shot a bringing down Goliath no longer have access to competing against them.

[Dukie]

Stallion, I'm not sure if you're responding to me, but if so, that's not my point. I agree about the separation into haves and have-nots. My speculation is why everyone assumes there must be a minimum of 64 haves, as opposed to a minimum of 60 haves.

Again, I get to 60 haves by granting the assumption that B1G, SEC and Big XII-IV+II go to 16, but then balking at the assumption that the PAC does as well. The first three have plausible (in terms of TV sets and demographics, not fan interest) additions they can make. The PAC does not. And this isn't the NCAA basketball tourney where we must fill 64 (or more, these days) slots.