I was daydreaming the other day and thought of how Big Ten expansion is going to affect college football. I'm almost certain that the end result is going to be that one or more conferences is going to be kicked from the BCS system. Ultimately this will lead to the formation of a few superconferences that include only the top 50 or so programs in the country. As a Buckeye fan I have no problem with that and actually welcome it as there are many schools today taking BCS money that don't have enough fans to justify their admission (yeah I'm talking about you Big East). But what if the NCAA had the power and the will to create the most fair system possible? How could we take today's setup and modify it so that it was fair to everyone. I started with the existing conferences and came up with a setup like this:
Tier 1
| ACC | SEC | Big Ten | Big 12 | Pac10 |
| Duke | Memphis | Purdue | Iowa State | Arizona |
| Maryland | Florida | Indiana | Kansas | Arizona State |
| North Carolina | Georgia | Michigan | Kansas State | California |
| North Carolina State | Kentucky | Michigan State | Missouri | Stanford |
| Virginia | Tennessee | Ohio State | Nebraska | UCLA |
| Virginia Tech | Vanderbilt | Penn State | Oklahoma | USC |
| Georgia Tech | Arkansas | Illinois | Oklahoma State | Colorado |
| Clemson | Alabama | Iowa | Texas Tech | Utah |
| Wake Forest | Louisiana State | Minnesota | Baylor | Oregon |
| South Carolina | Mississippi | Northwestern | Texas | Oregon State |
| Florida State | Mississippi State | Wisconsin | Texas A&M | Washington |
| Miami (FL) | Auburn | Notre Dame | Texas Christian | Washington State |
Tier 2 | ||||
| East | South | Midwest | Southwest | West |
| Army | Central Florida | Ball State | Houston | San Diego State |
| Navy | Florida International | Akron | Rice | Fresno State |
| Boston College | South Florida | Ohio | Southern Methodist | Hawaii |
| Connecticut | East Carolina | Louisville | Louisiana Tech | San Jose State |
| Temple | Alabama-Birmingham | Miami (OH) | Arkansas State | Nevada |
| Rutgers | Troy | Kent State | North Texas | UNLV |
| Pittsburgh | Southern Mississippi | Central Michigan | Texas-El Paso | Wyoming |
| Syracuse | Tulane | Eastern Michigan | Tulsa | Idaho |
| Cincinnati | Louisiana-Lafayette | Northern Illinois | New Mexico | Boise State |
| Marshall | Louisiana-Monroe | Western Michigan | New Mexico State | Utah State |
| West Virginia | Middle Tennessee State | Toledo | Colorado State | Brigham Young |
| Buffalo | Western Kentucky | Bowling Green | Air Force | TBD |
As you can see I took the existing Big 5 conferences and tweaked them a bit:
South Carolina moved to the ACC and moved Boston College out
Memphis to the SEC to replace South Carolina
Notre Dame to the Big Ten
Texas Christian to the Big 12 and Colorado out
Colorado and Utah to the Pac 10
The rest of the teams I put in a 2nd tier of conferences each of which are aligned with the Big 5 - East/ACC, SEC/South, Big Ten/Midwest, Big 12/Southwest, Pac10/West. I did my best to do the alignment geographically but it was difficult in a few areas (especially the ACC/East).
These aren't huge changes and aren't dealbreakers. One thing however whatever the setup if a team opts not to be a part of a conference then they are excluded from BCS consideration (good luck Irish - we have some nice parting gifts).
Now note that each conference has 2 divisions. Each team in each division would play each other 1 time alternating home and away years. Each team in each conference would play the teams in the other division of their conference 1 time every other year alternating home and away visits. Teams with the best with the best record in their respective divisions would play in the conference championship game.
Each Tier would have a playoff after the conference champtionships. Winners of the conference game would get automatic bids to the playoff. Then 3 at large teams would be pulled from each tier and each team seeded. Higher seeded teams would be granted the right to play the game at their home stadium (or a stadium close by their location if preferred - Paul Brown Stadium for U of Cincinnati for instance). This game would be the week after the championship game. Winners would advance to the Semi-finals and the bowl match-ups would be finalized for everyone else. The Semi-finals for Tier 1 would be held at either the Rose/Orange Bowl or the Fiesta/Sugar Bowl and rotated every other year. Tier 2 would be held at 2 bowl locations chosen by the NCAA (San Diego/Tampa?). Then the National Championship games for each of the tiers would be played at a rotating location chosen by the NCAA.
There would be 1 last change. Every two seasons the conference record for every team is added up and ranked vs the rest of the conference. The top team in each of the Tier 2 conferences would take the place of the team at the bottom of Tier 1.
The NCAA would take over the television contracts and form channels for each conference. All games would be televised on pay per view negotiated directly with the cable companies so that the NCAA keeps all the money that CBS/ABC/etc current make from college football. This shouldn't be too difficult as all games are already televised in some way and the technology to do this is definitely available. This should increase total viewership as many more games would be available. Money would be given back to the conferences based on viewership rating. Bowl money earned would be given to the conferences to be split evenly by all teams.
So that's my idea. It will never happen but it's about the most fair way of giving all teams a fair shot but always rewarding the teams that are truly bringing in the money for the whole.
Of course I don't want this because I want the Big Ten and Ohio State to dominate college football. And that would be a lot tougher if everything is fair. :P
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