Expanding our horizons

We have a lot to report on the Gracie front very soon. Her first airplane ride to Kansas City to meet the extended family. Big events. But while we gather the pictures and all that good fun, let us take a sports aside to consider this looming college conference expansion. The conference landscape (and its quirks) has long interested me. I guess I just love to organize things.

So, the rumors now that revolve around the Big 10 and Pac 10 expanding and targeting Big 12 schools have me ready to redo the entire lineup. Apparently the Pac 10 wants half the Big 12 and they are going to be the first of many "super" conferences to come. I also want to rework the other conferences before it's official including the ACC and SEC since they have some quirks that have long bothered me as a Big 12 homer. So let's go with the BIG assumption this transpires when the Pac 10 kicks off the chain reaction by taking 6 Big 12 schools making 16-team conferences the benchmark. Fine. Here's what I think, in my worldview, should happen. Also assuming that everything is driven by football, which of course it is.

PS - I really think they should stop using numbers in the conference names. Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10 -- we've seen those counts change so much; let's try names that do not have to change every time people want more money and want to grow, grow, grow. Pac 10? How about just the Pacific Conference? Big 10? How about the Midwest Conference? Big 12? How about going away altogether? Anyway, still using the old naming conventions here's the Jason Conference Armageddon Scenario (JCAS - known as "JaCkASs" because I don't know what I'm talking about anyway but this is what I want) ...

Pac 16
Takes the original Pac 10 plus adds Texas, the Aggies, TxTech, OU, OKState and Colorado. That's the reported desire in the media, and that's what we'll go with to start everything else off.

Big 16 (from Big 10)
So now this becomes the original 11 teams (again, this is why you do NOT name your conferences with numbers and then add Penn State later), plus Mizzou, Nebraska, Notre Dame (they're going to have to do it now because power conferences this big have no room for wimpy independents sneaking into big bowl games), Pitt and ... I guess Syracuse.

ACC & SEC
They each have 12 schools now, but will they keep pace? Sure, especially since the Big East is now being eaten alive by the Big 16. And these 2 conferences need to rework some geography issues they have going on. It irks me that the states of Florida, Georgia & South Carolina split up their big schools between conferences. Especially Florida having 3 schools in 3 different conferences for many years in the past. If that was the case in the Big 12, Texas could have lost to OU or A&M so many times throughout the years and still won the conference instead of losing their division within the conference after one damn game. So time to realign yourselves folks.

Through swaps and additions, the ACC comes out as:
- Boston College, Rutgers, Cincy, UConn, MD, West Va, UVA, Va Tech in a north division
- UNC, Duke, Wake Forest, NC State, Memphis, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, South Florida in a southern division
** yeah, you don't get to do "Coastal" and whatever the other division name is now; that is totally gerrymandered. North, South -- that's it!

Yes that means we've done some SEC swapping (stolen Kentucky & Vandy who are out of place in the SEC) and raided more of the Big East. But we've given a lot to the SEC too. Let's see the new SEC:
- Clemson, South Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Georgia, Georgia Tech in the east division
- Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss, Miss St, LSU, Arkansas, Louisville and TCU in the west division

That's a big reach with Louisville & TCU coming in, but the expansion drums are beating and you need teams. You may have noticed the Big East is now gone and Conference USA has lost some teams by now. TCU leaves the Mountain West for football glory in the SEC and we know the SEC cash cow would love the DFW TV market.

Mountain West (MWC)

This is my favorite remaining conference. They have 9 teams now and are probably the most powerful one left standing after you basically realigned the big guns into west (Pac16), middle (Big16), east (new ACC) and south (new SEC) power conferences. They may not get to be a super conference yet, but might as well pick up some left-behinds and get to 12 schools. First, add Boise State which makes way too much sense. They pick up a pair of Big 12 leftovers and teams that want to stay joined together in Kansas and Kansas State. The Kansans can still have their basketball prowess coming out of the Mountain West. If you want TCU replaced, just get their little brother Baylor who was jilted in the Big 12 South.

I would bet the powers that be like 4 power conferences that naturally make up a kind of "final four" of college athletics. Then you have 4 power and 4 second-tier conferences with MWC, C-USA, MAC and the WAC which will all have some second-hand realignments that will work themselves out and probably leave you with 12 teams in each.

This leaves only Iowa St. left hanging from the Big 12. Look, they suck. And they're not trending the right way. This is why I moved Baylor to the pretty nice MWC. They are up and coming in hoops for sure and football-wise they were an injured QB away from being .500+ last year in the Big 12. Iowa St. meanwhile has declined and shows no sign of being good again. They could head to Conf USA (which always seems to adapt and survive and they've lost a couple teams in this shakeup anyway) or try to weasel into the MAC.

See, isn't that fun? We've redistricted the country's colleges into fun little worlds of their own. Why? So that college presidents at major universities can continue to grow these steroided entities that have auditoriums of "classes" and get really into minor-league sports battles. And bear in mind, there can still be no playoff in football because the schedule does not gel with academics. Which as we've seen by the extraordinary time every president seems to be spending traveling to conference meetings, etc. is THE most important thing -- academics. Right?

Of course also bear in mind that despite all this hypocrisy that I'm stoked to watch the Horns regularly battle the Ducks or Bears or Trojans. It's just too much fun! And Matthew McConaughey will be on the sidelines with the student-athletes!