With the Big Ten looking to expand, the theory that we will soon have a bunch of superconferences is starting to gain traction. I'm not sure that it will get to this any time soon, but it is an interesting concept.
The school of thought is that the Big Ten will loot the Big XII and Big East to get to 16 teams ... which will open those conferences up to get looted by the ACC, SEC and Pac-10.
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE (16 teams)
NORTH: Boston College, Cincinnati, Louisville, Maryland, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
SOUTH: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest
BIG TEN (16 teams)
EAST: Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, UConn
WEST: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin
PAC-10 CONFERENCE (16 teams)
EAST: Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, Utah
WEST: Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State
SOUTHEASTERN (16 teams)
EAST: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
WEST: Arkansas, LSU, Mississippi, Miss State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M
The biggest losers are obviously the Big XII and Big East which will pretty much not exist. In that, the individual losers would be Iowa State, Rutgers and South Florida ... as well as the basketball-only schools of the Big East. Those three schools are left out of any realignment and will most likely have to go fishing in a smaller than BCS conference.
So I have those three globbing on to the Conference USA ... along with Charlotte ... to form their own 16-team league. Charlotte is planning to have a football program in a couple of years and should be ready to step in when all this breaks open.
CONFERENCE USA (16 teams)
EAST: Central Florida, Charlotte, East Carolina, Marshall, Rutgers, South Florida, Southern Miss, UAB
WEST: Houston, Iowa State, Memphis, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, UTEP
Then, let's just merge the Mountain West and WAC together (sans Idaho).
MOUNTAIN WEST/WAC (16 teams)
EAST: Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico, New Mexico State, TCU, Wyoming
WEST: BYU, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State
BIG EAST (basketball only)
DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, Villanova
1 comment:
I think what you would see is the Big East would merge with teams from the A-10 and Colonal (sp?). I could see GW, George Mason, U Mass, JHM and others joining the Big East. That would be a nice little B-Ball conference, which is what the Big East should be.
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