Time for "Mid-Majors" to re-align.

I'm not delusional enough to think that the Big East realigned because I suggested it. I didn't even suggest adding Creighton and Butler. But in case somewhere out there IS reading: Here's a proposal for the next great realignment. First an explanation:

The NCAA has rescinded the corrupt and stupid rule that a conference needs to have 12 teams in order to have a highly profitable football conference championship game. Also, the AAC is the big loser in the new playoff system; whereas most football conferences will make a LOT more money, the ACC will lose almost half of their FBS revenue. The AAC never made any sense, other than as a disastrous attempt to meet the championship requirement. It's an ungainly attempt to wed teams which have good basketball programs and want to develop good football programs to teams which have decent football programs and need to form alliances.

The American sheds Connecticut, Tulsa, Tulane, East Carolina and Southern Methodist who are largely out of their league in football. Tulsa's not bad, but they're a small school with little chance at getting batter. Connecticut's a great basketball team, but a lousy football team. This allows U-Conn to re-join the Big East in basketball, and stay in a football conference. U-Mass joins U-Conn for football, along with aspiring FBS teams from the FCS, Villanova and Richmond. There's an eight-team football conference.

In basketball, Wichita St., S.F. Austin, South Dakota St and Northern Iowa can join the new conference for non-football sports, creating a far more geographically rational conference of mostly Great-Plains teams. And also one that's as competitive in basketball as the American was.

Meanwhile, VCU aspires one day to be in a FBS conference, so they can join the American for the day that happens, and enjoy a strong basketball conference in the meanwhile. The new American conference should also attract BYU, which has been looking for a conference since anti-religion bigots seem to have blocked their bid to join the Pac 10. It will be a far stronger football conference, but as a basketball conference it will even have more tournament-quality teams and fewer weak teams, meaning those quality teams will see more of each other. So, here is the new, smaller American Athletic Conference (listed by their pre-season football rankings):

The new spun-off conference will be more basketball-centered for now, with seven of of nine teams likely to be competitive in their pursuit of an NCAA bid next year. At the same time, many of its football teams will be poised for growth. Here they are, listed by their 2015-2016 basketball RPI rankings:

There are a lot of winners: the entire American conference, the entire new conference, Brigham Young, Connecticut, Massachusetts. But despite being raided, the Atlantic 10 doesn't really lose. It loses VCU and Richmond, but it hands on to U-Mass and one of the teams that the Big East would have eventually raided them for. And 11 or 12 teams is a more manageable size, anyway.

If there is a big loser, it's the Midwest Valley Conference (MVC) . But with Creighton already gone to the Big East, the MVC was no longer a mid-major with realistic aspirations to becoming a major; It was a minor conference with two or three decent teams who ate up all the attention. Maybe Southern Illinois can even join Northern Iowa and Wichita State in the new conference. (There's no guarantee S F Austin will fit in.)

The MVC will always be a proving ground for teams with aspirations to go elsewhere. Like Iowa and Nebraska (now in the Big 10); Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma St. (now in the Big 12); Missouri (SEC); Creighton and Butler (Big East), Saint Louis (Atlantic 10), Tulsa, Saint Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, and Memphis (American); and Louisville (ACC).

I dislike the new arrangements, but given that's the world we're in, Nebraska is ok in the Big 10. Missouri or Kansas would be ok too. The Big Ten is midwestern, and it feels more natural for it to expand to the heartland rather than the east coast. It has gone east, of course, to capture tv markets and a new recruiting base. The way college football works today, the only real question is whether the Big Ten, the ACC, or the SEC will be the first to sign up west coast teams.

Notre Dame would have been a natural for the Big Ten all along, and a better fit than Northwestern (for reasons that speak well of Northwestern), but Notre Dame has a great thing going as the top independent and the flagship Catholic school. But if Notre Dame is going to go the conference route, the Big Ten is the best fit.

Northwestern is in Chicago, and has a student body of 25,000 students. That makes it about twice the size of Notre Dame, and the Big 10’s anchor in Chicago. And it has a long, long, long association with the Big 10. The fact that it never became a power has more to say about their presence of ethics and academic standards than their lack of sufficient student body or market.

Although I would say that if the Big East football conference hadn’t been torn apart by 12-team rule for playoffs, Northwestern may have been a comfortable fit. Of it hadn’t been for their football program, they might have formed a great conference with Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Louisville, Saint Louis, Dayton, Marquette, DePaul, etc.

I’d also suggest they should form a round-robin basketball tournament like the Philly 5 or the Boston Beanpot, with Notre Dame, DePaul, Loyola, Marquette, Northern Illinois, Valparaiso, etc.

>> The way college football works today, the only real question is whether the Big Ten, the ACC, or the SEC will be the first to sign up west coast teams. <<

From the Pac-12? I don’t think so. But the rumors of Texas to the Big Ten would be equally moronic.

BYU would be a good addition, but Memphis?

The Big Ten is for flagship schools, not local branches.

The board of Notre Dame is gradually moving more conservative, although the hippy in Rome isn’t helping things. If the Big 12 were going to bust out of the lower Great Plains enough to add BYU, I think Notre Dame would be the (perhaps unattainable) goal.

If Notre Dame is unattainable, I think Houston would make more sense than Memphis. For now, it has a weaker basketball reputation, but it’s a far better football school. And the entire 70,000-student body of the UH system would think of it as their team.

I looked at attendance as well as competitiveness.
Memphis had 44k a game last year for football, as I recall.

Houston could work though....it’s a bigger potential market,
in terms of city size and student body size..

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