The Anti-615 View: Pat Forde's Two 20-team conferences

[615dawg]

College football realignment future: Predicting two 20-team mega-conferences - Sports Illustrated

Continued greed will further consolidate teams into large, sprawling conferences.

www.si.com

The losers (and near-losers)​

• Last four in (to borrow a basketball bracketology favorite): Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas. Don’t get the big head over your inclusion; it was borderline for all of you.
• First four out: Louisville, North Carolina State, Iowa State, Cincinnati. The Bearcats own the sad distinction of being the only CFP qualifier to be kicked out of the PANE-FL.
• The easiest evictions: Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Kansas, Rutgers, Washington State. Maybe if you band together you can get a contract to show your games on gas station TVs.

The 30 Power 5 schools evicted (using 2023 membership):​

SEC: Missouri, Vanderbilt

Big Ten: Minnesota, Purdue, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Rutgers

Big 12: Iowa State, Cincinnati, Houston, Texas Tech, Kansas

ACC: Louisville, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Duke, Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia

Pac-12: Arizona State, Colorado, Stanford, Arizona, California, Oregon State, Washington State

Sun Belt Division​

Alabama (1)
Auburn (12)
Mississippi State (35)
Mississippi (37)
Average team rank: 20.8

 

[Dawgg]

I felt pretty good about it until I saw some of the teams included (like Boise State).


Here's what he says about the Sun Belt Division:
College sports fans love rivalries as we all know. So, eschewing our new schedule model (more on that later), a special carve-out has been approved by the PANE-FL governing body. Instead of each Sun Belt team playing the other three remaining in their division, Alabama and Auburn will instead play each other six times (as will Mississippi and Mississippi State). If some Iron/Egg Bowl is good, then more is better.

 

[Drebin]

I felt pretty good about it until I saw some of the teams included (like Boise State).


Here's what he says about the Sun Belt Division:
College sports fans love rivalries as we all know. So, eschewing our new schedule model (more on that later), a special carve-out has been approved by the PANE-FL governing body. Instead of each Sun Belt team playing the other three remaining in their division, Alabama and Auburn will instead play each other six times (as will Mississippi and Mississippi State). If some Iron/Egg Bowl is good, then more is better.

I wish we could play Ole Miss six times per year. Then we'd be able to take the all time series lead in three or four years.

 

[patdog]

This is a complete fantasy. What we’ll wind up with is the SEC & Big 10 each adding 2-4 ACC schools in about 8-10 years. No evictions. No weird 4-team divisions. No Boise St.

 

[Chesusdog]

The world is ever changing but some things shall ever remain a constant. The sun will rise in the East, water will always be wet, and Pat Forde continues to be an enormous douche.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

This is a complete fantasy. What we’ll wind up with is the SEC & Big 10 each adding 2-4 ACC schools in about 8-10 years. No evictions. No weird 4-team divisions. No Boise St.

Yep. I guess I'm just older, but why do people still wallow in what they think it 'should' be? It is what it is.

Years ago I came up with all these ideas too, but it was always for fun, and during times when we didn't know much. Now that we do, it's kinda pointless.

Another idea that is not happening - any type of regional conference/pod structure that strictly feeds into the playoff with no at-large teams. This isn't the NFL. Literally NO OTHER COLLEGE PLAYOFF MODEL IN EXISTENCE does this. There will always be a committee that chooses the teams.

 

[CoastTrash]

I Give the California schools about 5 years of terrible travel schedules before they decide to resurrect the pac12

 

[615dawg]

I Give the California schools about 5 years of terrible travel schedules before they decide to resurrect the pac12

And that’s the key to avoiding what I think is the next step - a 24 to 32 team autonomous CFB league independent from the current conference structure.

i hope this experiment completely fails and is a financial blunder.

 

[dorndawg]

Maybe this will turn out to be the NFL Minor League that finally works.***

That said, if you could somehow decouple it from all the transfer portal nonsense etc, this is what *should* happen. It's preposterous to have any league where a vast number of participants literally have no pathway to winning a championship. The remaining 60-80 schools could then have a league that, yes, is less prestigious but would probably be more fun, in the way many of us remember college football in the 80s and 90s. Not that there weren't dominant teams then.

 

[Faustdog]

College football realignment future: Predicting two 20-team mega-conferences - Sports Illustrated

Continued greed will further consolidate teams into large, sprawling conferences.

www.si.com

The losers (and near-losers)​

• Last four in (to borrow a basketball bracketology favorite): Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas. Don’t get the big head over your inclusion; it was borderline for all of you.
• First four out: Louisville, North Carolina State, Iowa State, Cincinnati. The Bearcats own the sad distinction of being the only CFP qualifier to be kicked out of the PANE-FL.
• The easiest evictions: Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Kansas, Rutgers, Washington State. Maybe if you band together you can get a contract to show your games on gas station TVs.

The 30 Power 5 schools evicted (using 2023 membership):​

SEC: Missouri, Vanderbilt

Big Ten: Minnesota, Purdue, Maryland, Indiana, Illinois, Northwestern, Rutgers

Big 12: Iowa State, Cincinnati, Houston, Texas Tech, Kansas

ACC: Louisville, North Carolina State, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Duke, Boston College, Syracuse, Virginia

Pac-12: Arizona State, Colorado, Stanford, Arizona, California, Oregon State, Washington State

Sun Belt Division​

Alabama (1)
Auburn (12)
Mississippi State (35)
Mississippi (37)
Average team rank: 20.8

There will be more consolidation, but there will never be no SEC. MSU isn't going anywhere. All of this talk is just silly to begin with.