Friday, May 14, 2010

We Will Soon Be Entering the SUPERCONFERENCE Era in College Sports

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, Louisville, Maryland, Syracuse, UConn, Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia
SOUTH: Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, NC State, North Carolina, Wake Forest

I think the ACC won't get raided by anyone. There are thoughts that the SEC could come after Clemson, FSU, Miami or Georgia Tech. That doesn't make sense to me (more on that later). So the ACC finishes off the Big East by taking Louisville, UConn, Syracuse and West Virginia. That's a nice addition to the football side of things and would re-enter the ACC as the premiere basketball conference. I mean, a conference with North Carolina, Duke, UConn, Syracuse, West Virginia and Louisville??? Sure, L'ville may not fit as well as, say, a South Florida but it helps reach out the ACC's geography a bit. It would also add the UConn's women's team to the already powerful ACC lineup.

BIG TEN (16 teams)
EAST: Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rutgers
WEST: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northwestern, Wisconsin

The Big Ten starts the free for all by adding Rutgers, Missouri, Nebraska and Notre Dame into the fold ... as well as Pitt. This makes sense for the Big Ten as it adds the New York market (Rutgers), the glamor of Notre Dame, the traditional power in Nebraska and two nice competitive programs in Missouri and Pitt.

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

The Pac-10 will sort through the scraps of the Big XII by adding the two Kansas schools as well as Colorado, Baylor and Texas Tech. It puts the conference among the powers, adds Kansas basketball to the already elite UCLA.

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

Like I said before, it doesn't make sense to me that the SEC would go after Clemson, FSU, Miami or Ga Tech. The SEC and ACC have pretty good relations and adding those teams ... aside from the actual programs themselves ... is pointless. The SEC is already in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, so I think they'll have their sights set west a bit. Texas is the cash cow in any expansion and the SEC is the perfect partner. With Texas comes Texas A&M. And you may as well add Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. Those four schools bring powerhouse programs who are steeped in tradition (remember that T. Boone Pickens backs OSU). It puts the reach of the SEC into Texas and Oklahoma which gives the SEC two of the most fertile grounds for recruiting (Texas and Florida).

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, Cincinnati 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, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Marshall, 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

To be honest, I would hope the Atlantic 10 and Big East could work something out and we could add Xavier, Temple, Rhode Island, UMass and Dayton to the mix to make a very, very good basketball conference.

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