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College Football is big business. Billions of dollars a year. A whole nation hoping that their kids can qualify to make it to play college football and then just maybe – the NFL. Booster Clubs, Alumni Associations, Community Fan Base, Regional Associations, High Schools, Junior Colleges, Independent Colleges and Universities, Community Service Clubs, Sporting Goods Manufacturers, Government including local cities and states and the list goes on. At the top of all of this is National Collegiate Athletic Association….the NCAA. Lest we forget the BCS or Bowl Championship Series at the end of this trail of tears.
For those not paying much attention to the recent realignments in college teams, you really should. Our old PAC 10 here on the Left Coast has now been expanded for 2011 to the PAC 12. Is there anything meaningful that we should digest from all these new machinations? Well, the truth of the matter is that the prevailing wisdom, after USC was chastised and sanctioned for 4 years by the NCAA – was that no one was going to be able to beat the Oregon and Washington schools for quite some time. Especially, with their projected schedules.
So, the solution came quickly – don’t let the Oregon or Washington schools play the useless teams in a proposed South Conference. Put all the really cool schools in the North Conference and let them wipe out the easy competition in the South Conference and make it easily into the Rose Bowl for the next few years. Hey, with Jim Harbaugh gone to the San Francisco 49’ers – leaving Stanford in the lurch…..well, save one token Heisman Candidate left….Andrew Luck….does anyone really think that Stanford is going to make it to the Rose Bowl in 2012 with a Rookie Coach? By the way, Stanford is in the North Conference…no less!
The North Conference reads like this:
California Bears, Stanford Cardinal, Washington Huskies, Washington State Cougars, Oregon Ducks and Oregon State Beavers.
Oregon lost to LSU this last week-end…..making them a non BCS #1 contender…..especially if LSU loses any of its games this year.
The South Conference leaves this group:
Arizona Wildcats, Arizona State Sun Devils, USC Trojans, Utah Utes, Colorado Buffaloes and UCLA Bruins
UCLA lost to Houston this last week-end….making them persona non grata….for any bowl game in 2011.
Well, the new news runs like this:
Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns all want to join up with the new PAC 12 to make it a new improved PAC 16 in 2012. These Okies and Texans are rubbing their hands together looking at a so-called prestige league that will be a major walk over for this group of semi-pro bad boys.
The reality of course is that mergers in College Football are much the same as mergers in business. “There can only be one!” in the words of the Highlander.
The truth is that there needs to be four Division Conferences for the West and four Division Conference for the East with a play-off structure that includes a National Championship Game from the winner of the West and the winner of the East.
Let’s pretend: Western Conference: Northwest, Southwest, West Central and W. South – Best records of any division play each other then for the WC Title.
Eastern Conference: Northeast, Southeast, East Central and E. South – Best records of any division play each other then for for the EC Title.
This method insures that all Bowl Games will be decided by wins and won-lost records.
The BCS Champion will come from either the Western or Eastern Conference Champion.
Sticking points that need fixing: Traditional Rivalries – Each Team needs to play as many of the members of their own division as possible. However, each team needs to additonally be able to allocate up to three games as a so-called “Traditional Rivalry Game” which both teams need to agree upon. A good Example would be: USC-Notre Dame.
USC-UCLA would not be considered an Optional Rivalry Game, because they would be in same Division Conference, much as California-Stanford would be. USC-Stanford however would be an optional allocated game that requires mutual agreement by both schools to be approved. USC for example could choose any other University for their third choice. That could mean Virginia Tech, Penn State or anyone else that wanted to utilize one of their three “Traditional Rivalry Options”. One of keys to the success of this process….is that these games could be every year or every other year for certain teams, so that other schedule options could be offered. A fine example; USC could alternate between Stanford and California every other year. USC could keep Notre Dame every year if they wanted, but could choose another opponent from anywhere else in the country, maybe a Miami or Georgia or whoever as a replacement for their third option.
The time has come to re-structure the whole process. The BCS concept if not totally flawed, is certainly too foggy to feel good about at the end of the season.
The NCAA and BCS needs to bring some clarity to every football fan in America. Just do it folks….just do it!
For the PAC 16 – add Texas A & M and Oklahoma to the current PAC 12 North Conference. Add Texas Tech and Texas to the curent PAC 12 South.
PAC 16 … is the beginning and the future!
My suggestion has three steps:
(1) Add all four Texas and Oklahoma Schools to the now-Pac 12 (ugh), making it the Pac 16.
(2) Put these four newest schools into the “Pac 16 – East” conference along with Utah, Colorado, and the Arizona school, while the original Pac-8 schools (the ones from states that /actually border the Pacific Ocean/ form the “Pac 16 – West.” All mandatory games would be solely within a school’s division, East or West.
(3) Divide the conference formally into two different conferences: the “Pac-8” and the “Non-Pac 8”. Wish the Non-Pac-8 luck.
As they said in the 2001 Space Odessey……”Something wonderful is going to happen!”
Thanks Greg….good thoughts.
Here’s my suggestion. Prohibit all league jumping, and abolish the BCS. The BCS was pushed by sportswriters looking for copy (Is West Blowjob State finally bowl eligible? News at eleven!), by university presidents looking for money, and by the cash-bloated corporate sponsors of bowl games; also looking for even more money. The old arrangement was fine. And I always liked the Big Ten – PAC Pick a Number showdown in the Rose Bowl. Go ahead. Call me sentimental. I can take it.
*Anita,
Sorry dear one….too late for prime time. No more Big 10 and no more Pac 10….those
days are history. Greg has a pretty good idea….but we suggest that you do make up your own alighments and concepts. Right now, everything is possible. Texas brings a huge Indy TV contract to the party. Notre Dame also has a huge Indy TV package…
and whoever they pick to join will profit greatly.
*The kick-off the the PAC 12 was last night. Probably the worst officiated game in NCAA history. All those zebras should have been sent to the horsemeat factory after this game! The Vegas Gamblers were all delighted when the umps took away the touchdown by the Trojans after the blocked Field Goal attempt. Two hours laters…the leadership of the PAC 12 relented and gave the touchdown points back to the Trojans which made those Gamblers have to pay-off twice. The Trojans initially lost because they were 8 1/2 point favorites. They only won by 3. The Utes….then won the Vegas bets. After the NCAA gave the Trojans back those 6 points they won by 9 making the Trojans the final winner: 23-14. So..dirty those umps!