In the age of conference cannibalism the mid-majors should position themselves for survival, and join forces.
Conference USA is vulnerable. It's already been raided once by the Big East. If the major conferences try for mega-expansion, C-USA looks ripe for the picking again.
Out west, the Western Athletic Conference is a dead conference walking. On the verge of a coup, adding BYU in non-football sports, the Mountain West stole Nevada and Fresno State leaving it for dead.
This week the WAC membership committee will hear from the first of several schools looking to move up from I-AA to I-A. That's one option to survive.
Instead of trying to nurture new I-AA schools the WAC should set sail and push full throttle the radical idea of creating a true ALL-American conference, with teams from the Carolina coast to Hawaii and everywhere in between.
An 18-team mid-major conference would be a power player in the college landscape, able to leverage big TV deals and possibly able to negotiate a seat at the BCS table.
Here's how the true C-USA could work. There would be two separate 9-team divisions, basically a split down the Mississippi River.
The "Pacific Division" would include the Texas schools west: Hawaii, San Jose State, Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico State, UTEP, SMU, Rice, Houston.
The "Atlantic Division" would be every school to the east: Tulsa, Louisiana Tech, Tulane, So. Miss, UAB, Memphis, Marshall, East Carolina, UCF.
Do the math and the farthest schools would have to travel out west is probably Houston to Honolulu. In the east, it's Tulsa to Greenville, NC. That true east-west split will help cut down travel costs, something that hurt the first mega-conference, the 16-team WAC.
Each division crowns its own champion through playing eight other schools. Then the only cross-over between east and west would be for the championship game, which could rotate between favorite bowl locations including Hawaii and Orlando.
That intra-division play, would set up a dynamic title game. Much like the rumors swirling now about C-USA and the Mountain West setting up a championship showdown, the true C-USA would pit two of the best mid-majors against each other on that final weekend.
That meaningful championship would give the schools one last shot to impress voters, which matters.
College football is all about big money and the BCS. And a true USA conference would not only survive but could thrive in today's game.
That intra-division play, would set up a dynamic title game. Much like the rumors swirling now about C-USA and the Mountain West setting up a championship showdown, the true C-USA would pit two of the best mid-majors against each other on that final weekend.
That meaningful championship would give the schools one last shot to impress voters, which matters.
College football is all about big money and the BCS. And a true USA conference would not only survive but could thrive in today's game.
1 comment:
Hey Peter, its your cousin Jeff! That idea is not far fetched at all and I believe that not only could it work, but could potentially set up a great nation wide t.v. contract which we all know is the sole driving force to the whole conference realignment anyway. Being a Wyoming alum and fan, I see the Mountain West being picked of TCU and eventually Boise State, leaving the MWC as another WAC. Being an optimist, I see the mid-majors of the world eventually setting up their own conferences with their own t.v. contracts, benefiting in the same way as the BCS schools do now.
Post a Comment