College Football Conference Realignment - A final outside-the-box suggestion

One of the strangest things about the latest rounds of conference realignment has been that geography, or rather the distance that a team would have to travel to play its games, has not seemed to matter in the decision making process. So much TV money seems to be assumed to be available for expanding the footprint of a conference, that teams like Oklahoma are considering playing in the PAC 10, I mean 12, I mean ?? even though that could very well mean several trips to the Mountain and Pacific time zones. So if geography matters so little, why not throw the whole thing out and start all over, forming a single conference of all of the best football teams, regardless of where they are located?

That kind of thinking, though it probably could never really happen, is behind our final proposal. This proposal guarantees games every week between the most powerful schools in the country, while giving the possibility for other schools to improve themselves and work their way up into the elite ranks simply by consistently winning.

Here is what we propose: Since the top division of football seems so determined to divide itself into even smaller divisions, and since tiers of conferences already seem to exist, we suggest going all the way and recognizing the different tiers. Take the top 16 programs in the country and form the Tier 1 conference. Take the next 16 and form Tier 2, etc. Re-rank the programs each year - our annual program ranking system seems ideal for such a task since it balances recent success with history and tradition - and reconfigure the conferences based on the new rankings. If one school cannot win consistently at a particular tier, they will eventually drop out of that tier into a lower tiered conference. If a school wins consistently for several years, they will move up to a higher tier.

(Incidentally, this could also be applied with the system we proposed in our last blog - only teams move in and out of the "Top 64" and conferences would be reconfigured to maintain a balance between the four conferences, keeping in mind issues of geography as well - see our previous post.)

If this process were followed this year, for example, this is how the conferences would look. (We have used geography to determine proposed divisions within each conference, helping to keep some of the travel costs down where possible.)

Tier 1 Conference

South
Alabama Crimson Tide
Auburn Tigers
Florida Gators
Florida State Seminoles
Georgia Bulldogs
LSU Tigers
Miami Hurricanes
Tennessee Volunteers

North
Michigan Wolverines
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Ohio State Buckeyes
Oklahoma Sooners
Penn State Nittany Lions
Texas Longhorns
USC Trojans

Tier 2 Conference

West
Arizona State Sun Devils
Boise State Broncos
BYU Cougars
Oregon Ducks
Texas A&M Aggies
Texas Tech Red Raiders
UCLA Bruins
Washington Huskies

East
Arkansas Razorbacks
Boston College Eagles
Clemson Tigers
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Michigan State Spartans
Virginia Tech Hokies
West Virginia Mountaineers
Wisconsin Badgers

Tier 3 Conference

West
Arizona Wildcats
California Golden Bears
Colorado Buffaloes
Iowa Hawkeyes
Missouri Tigers
Oklahoma State Cowboys
Stanford Cardinal
Utah Utes

East
North Carolina Tar Heels
Ole Miss Rebels
Pittsburgh Panthers
Purdue Boilermakers
South Carolina Gamecocks
South Florida Bulls
Southern Miss Golden Eagles
Syracuse Orange

Tier 4 Conference

West
Air Force Falcons
Fresno State Bulldogs
Hawaii Warriors
Houston Cougars
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Oregon State Beavers
San Diego State Aztecs
TCU Horned Frogs

East
Illinois Fighting Illini
Kentucky Wildcats
Louisville Cardinals
Maryland Terrapins
Miami University RedHawks
Mississippi State Bulldogs
NC State Wolfpack
Virginia Cavaliers

Tier 5 Conference

West
Baylor Bears
Kansas Jayhawks
Kansas State Wildcats
Nevada Wolf Pack
Troy Trojans
Tulsa Golden Hurricane
Washington State Cougars
Wyoming Cowboys

East
Bowling Green Falcons
Cincinnati Bearcats
Connecticut Huskies
ECU Pirates
Navy Midshipmen
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Toledo Rockets
UCF Knights

Tier 6 Conference

West
Colorado State Rams
Indiana Hoosiers
Iowa State Cyclones
Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
New Mexico Lobos
Northern Illinois Huskies
Northwestern Wildcats
SMU Mustangs

East
Army Black Knights
Central Michigan Chippewas
Duke Blue Devils
Marshall Thundering Herd
Memphis Tigers
Vanderbilt Commodores
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Western Michigan Broncos

Tier 7 Conference

West
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns
North Texas Mean Green
Rice Owls
San Jose State Spartans
Tulane Green Wave
UNLV Rebels
Utah State Aggies
UTEP Miners

East
Akron Zips
Arkansas State Red Wolves
Ball State Cardinals
Florida Atlantic Owls
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders
Ohio Bobcats
Temple Owls
UAB Blazers

Tier 8 Conference (8 members only)

Buffalo Bulls
Eastern Michigan Eagles
FIU Golden Panthers
Idaho Vandals
Kent State Golden Flashes
Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks
New Mexico State Aggies
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers

Another way to arrange this is to divide the 120 FBS teams into two 60-team East and West regions, then form 8-team divisions based on the rankings so that each conference is represented by an equal number of truly East and West teams (which will naturally reduce travel, since you would either stay East or West when competing within your division).

Note that because tradition and a history of winning is also considered in the program rankings, the conferences would be relatively stable in that there would not be huge changes from year to year. Most teams move less than five spots, meaning that even if a team has a meteoric rise, it would take three or four consistent years of winning to move up a couple of tiers. Teams are not penalized for years they did not participate at all in the top division of football competition, so new schools would have an opportunity to move up quickly by having some early success. (Boise State is an example of this.)

Our favorite setup is still the balanced conference model, because it lends itself well to a playoff at the end of the year and gives 64 teams a chance to win the national championship on the field (which is much more than the number that realistically have a chance under today's system). However, we'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts on each of these proposed alignments.