Normally, sports decisions made solely for money are a bad
thing.
For once, college football has found a way to make more money
and improve fan enjoyment.
And while they’re at it, the college sports map is getting
a new look by playing conference musical chairs.
“¢bull; Teams are backstabbing their conference friends, leaving
and suing each other.
“¢bull; Multiple conferences are losing teams, gaining teams,
and screwing up any previous traditions or geography.
“¢bull; Conferences are trying to get to 12 teams so they can
have a highly profitable conference-title game.
It all started with Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech
leaving the Big East and joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. The
ACC, a southern-based conference, now has 12 teams, and exactly
zero logical traveling partners for Boston College (those
BC-Georgia Tech road trips for every non-football sport will be
fun).
Then Rice, Southern Methodist, and Tulsa all left the Western
Athletic Conference for Conference USA.
Disregard the fact that those three schools have absolutely no
football tradition. Rice is laughed at as the name of a food, SMU
received the NCAA death penalty in the 80s, and Tulsa is the annual
punching bag for Oklahoma.
Then it got completely ridiculous. The WAC, in true Texas 1845
style, decided to annex the entire Sun Belt Conference, which
includes college football powerhouses Idaho, Utah State, New Mexico
State, North Texas, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette,
Louisiana-Monroe and Middle Tennessee State.
This is all excellent.
Now let’s take conference realignment to the next
level.
Just like what is done in the English Premier League, one of the
most successful sporting leagues in the world, major conferences
should be able to kick out its worst teams and invite new, fresh,
good teams.
Gone from the Big XII is Kansas and Baylor. In comes Colorado
State and TCU.
Gone from the SEC is Vanderbilt. In comes Louisville.
The Big Ten gets Pittsburgh (formerly of the Big East) and gets
to keep its statistically incorrect name.
The Pac-10 gets Utah and BYU.
Think about it. UCLA, the “Pac-10 Southern Division
runner-up” has a nice ring to it (For those who have no idea
what I’m talking about, USC would win that imaginary
division, the Big Ten actually has 11 teams, and the Terminator
really is the leader of the world’s fifth-largest
economy).
If every major conference could get 12 teams, then they would
all have exciting conference title games and give fans one more
quality game each year.
Also, the threat of being eliminated from the conference could
make all those Northwestern-Indiana, Baylor-Kansas and
Arizona-Stanford games very appealing. They bring new blood and you
get to see if the mid-majors really have what it takes.
In college basketball, the mid-majors are celebrated as
Cinderella schools throughout the NCAA Tournament. Why not give
them a chance in football?
And my best idea yet: the Crap Conference
All the conference doormats would leave and make their own
conference, giving them a chance to win.
Think about a football conference with Duke, North Carolina,
Baylor, Kansas, Temple, Rutgers, Northwestern, Indiana, Vanderbilt,
Kentucky, Stanford and Arizona.
Think about the compelling conference-title game, where the last
place team in each division would play, not the first.
ESPN 6 gives you Arizona and Temple, playing for the right to
finish 0-12 and be embarrassed by De La Salle High School next
week!
This could really work.
Quiñonez wants to see the Detroit Tigers replaced by
the Sacramento River Cats. E-mail him at
gquinonez@media.ucla.edu.