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Phantom Warrior
03-04-2013, 11:36 PM
If I were the Czar of D-1 College Athletics - kind of the equivalent of David Stern at the college level - meaning I could impose my will on any aspect of the entire scope of D-1 athletics, I would totally reorganize conferences, somewhat as follows:

Conference Realignment

Southeastern Conference (10): Florida, Florida State, Miami, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, LSU

Mid-South (10): Clemson, South Carolina, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Duke, Wake Forest, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Louisville

East Coast (10): Syracuse, Connecticut, Rutgers, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Temple, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

Midwest (10): Ohio State, Cincinnati, Indiana, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, Minnesota

Central Plains (10): Iowa, Iowa State, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State

Southwest (10): Texas, Texas A & M, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Arizona, Arizona State

West Coast (10): Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UNLV, Utah

BIG EAST (10): Providence, Seton Hall, St. John’s, Villanova, Georgetown, Marquette, DePaul, Xavier, Butler, Notre Dame

Seven football conferences of 10 each. Every team in each conference plays the other nine teams in its conference in football and plays every other team twice in basketball, home and home, for a total of 18 conference games.

The BIG EAST does the same in basketball.

Notre Dame continues to be an independent in football.

I realize New Mexico and New Mexico State might be a stretch, but what the hell? They were the best options available. I also could not find a home for Memphis. Too bad. I also left out BYU. Oh well.

The relative geographic closeness within each conference would ease the burden of travel - both money and time - not only for the major sports, but also for the non-revenue sports.

Of course, nothing will ever come of this. But I had fun playing with the idea.

If anyone cares to take a couple of minutes and tinker with it, by all means. More than anything else this exercise falls under the category of mental munchy. I actually enjoyed trying to make something rational out of the insanity that's transpired the past couple of years.