Since it looks like we want a conference championship game, but are being blocked by the other major conferences from doing it with 10, I say that we play with the rules alittle to make it legitimate, but still to our advantage, while opening up new recruiting ground and TV sets, but still almost staying as we are.
You can have a conference championship and still maintain the one true champion, by doubling in size and having two divisions that play each team within the division. At the end of the year, the two winners play one another. Invite the new schools with incentive based contracts (stadium expansion, bowl games, wins, TV viewership per game, etc... with the idea that they can share a full piece of the pie, given certain goals are reached within a set number of years. This insures that current teams will not lose any money and can only gain from adding the new teams.
Big 20 - West
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
Texas Christian
San Diego State
Nevada - Las Vegas
Boise State
Brigham Young
Big 20 - East
West Virginia
Iowa State
Kansas State
Kansas
Cincinnati
Memphis
Central Florida
South Florida
Connecticut
Temple
Obviously, the West is much better and probably always will be, but this is not really a bad thing. A blowout win in the conference game generally boosts a team into the playoffs, Heisman hopes, etc... Imagine Baker throwing 8 TDs against a Memphis team that beat Ole Miss. Do you think that would have helped him get to NYC? Could we have maintained our number 3 ranking and played in Dallas, where we would have many more fans at the game, than we will in Miami? I think so.
This also spreads our recruiting in all sports and gets us on TV in all of the major markets, except for Chicago. So, of course Notre Dame would be invited, though I doubt that they would be a apart of it all, even if we offered them the weak Eastern division. But, you never know. That would give them a virtual lock to be in the championship game every year, which seems to be increasingly important to everyone.
This would split us up a little, but I don't think that anyone would mind trading Ames for San Diego. Other sports like basketball could play everyone with teams alternating each year, as to who gets the home game.
In terms of TV, we would also be seen by every writer in every major city, expand across all time zones and actually creep into all of the other conferences. If you wanted to keep it more local, you could do the same thing with teams like Tulsa/Tulane/SMU/Houston, etc... but I think recruits would rather play in cities like San Diego, Vegas, Philly, etc... and we would become truly the first national conference (which by the way is not a bad name).
There is not a team on this list who has not been good at one time and who could not get much better (ala Baylor) with the new exposure and incentives to put more money/energy into their programs.
I'm sure it would never happen, but I would really love to see something like this happen.
You can have a conference championship and still maintain the one true champion, by doubling in size and having two divisions that play each team within the division. At the end of the year, the two winners play one another. Invite the new schools with incentive based contracts (stadium expansion, bowl games, wins, TV viewership per game, etc... with the idea that they can share a full piece of the pie, given certain goals are reached within a set number of years. This insures that current teams will not lose any money and can only gain from adding the new teams.
Big 20 - West
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas Tech
Baylor
Texas Christian
San Diego State
Nevada - Las Vegas
Boise State
Brigham Young
Big 20 - East
West Virginia
Iowa State
Kansas State
Kansas
Cincinnati
Memphis
Central Florida
South Florida
Connecticut
Temple
Obviously, the West is much better and probably always will be, but this is not really a bad thing. A blowout win in the conference game generally boosts a team into the playoffs, Heisman hopes, etc... Imagine Baker throwing 8 TDs against a Memphis team that beat Ole Miss. Do you think that would have helped him get to NYC? Could we have maintained our number 3 ranking and played in Dallas, where we would have many more fans at the game, than we will in Miami? I think so.
This also spreads our recruiting in all sports and gets us on TV in all of the major markets, except for Chicago. So, of course Notre Dame would be invited, though I doubt that they would be a apart of it all, even if we offered them the weak Eastern division. But, you never know. That would give them a virtual lock to be in the championship game every year, which seems to be increasingly important to everyone.
This would split us up a little, but I don't think that anyone would mind trading Ames for San Diego. Other sports like basketball could play everyone with teams alternating each year, as to who gets the home game.
In terms of TV, we would also be seen by every writer in every major city, expand across all time zones and actually creep into all of the other conferences. If you wanted to keep it more local, you could do the same thing with teams like Tulsa/Tulane/SMU/Houston, etc... but I think recruits would rather play in cities like San Diego, Vegas, Philly, etc... and we would become truly the first national conference (which by the way is not a bad name).
There is not a team on this list who has not been good at one time and who could not get much better (ala Baylor) with the new exposure and incentives to put more money/energy into their programs.
I'm sure it would never happen, but I would really love to see something like this happen.
