Neat Idea

[mad dog]

A friend of mine over at utopiafootball.com plotted the geographic locations of all the D-I Football schools and realigned everyone based on where they are located. Came up with some interesting results.

ACC

Tulane

Southern Miss

Miss St

Alabama

Ole Miss

Arkansas State

Memphis

Vanderbilt

Mid Tenn State

Tennessee

Clemson

South Carolina

Big 12

Rice

Houston

Texas A&M

North Texas

Texas

Baylor

TCU

SMU

LA Monroe

LA Tech

LA Lafayette

LSU

Big East

Boston College

Uconn

Army

Rutgers

Temple

Maryland

Navy

Syracuse

Big 10

Illinois

Northern Illinois

Northwestern

Indiana

Purdue

Notre Dame

Louisville

Ball State

Kentucky

Miami Ohio

Cincinnati

Conference USA

Oklahoma State

Oklahoma

Tulsa

Arkansas

Kansas

Missouri

Nebraska

Kansas State

Iowa State

Iowa

Minnesota

Wisconsin

MAC

Western Michigan

Michigan State

Central Michigan

Eastern Michigan

Michigan

Toledo

Bowling Green

Marshall

Ohio

Ohio State

Akron

Kent State

Mountain West

BYU

Wyoming

Colorado

Colorado State

Air Force

New Mexico

New Mexico State

UTEP

Texas Tech

Pac 10

San Diego State

USC

UCLA

Cal

Stanford

San Jose State

Fresno State

UNLV

Arizona State

Arizona

SEC

Florida International

Miami

Florida Atlantic

Central Florida

South Florida

Florida

Florida State

Troy

Georgia

Auburn

Georgia Tech

UAB

Sunbelt

East Carolina

Duke

North Carolina

North Carolina State

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

Virginia

West Virginia

WAC

Washington

Washington State

Oregon

Oregon State

Idaho

Boise State

Nevada

Utah State

Utah

Independent

Hawaii

Buffalo

Pitt

Penn State

[Hunter Green]

[UNT_playmaker]

DUKE IN THE SUN BELT, HA!

[emmitt01]

DUKE IN THE SUN BELT, HA!

←

That's not exactly the same Sun Belt though.

[mad dog]

That's not exactly the same Sun Belt though.

←

Yeah, at this point, conference names are only loosely tied to occupants, but mostly due to geography...

[Monkeypox]

Yeah, at this point, conference names are only loosely tied to occupants, but mostly due to geography...

←

Why couldn't Penn State, Pitt, and Buffalo just go into the Big East?

[mad dog]

Iono... I didn't put it together. It really could be any way you want, though.

[gksmith]

"Dreamer....silly little dreamer...."

Notre Dame as part of a football conference - never in a million years will that happen.

No other football team has the NATIONAL following that the Irish have. They are like the Boston Red Sox Nation. There are a LOT of Irish fans EVERYWHERE. They get a huge following where ever they go (not all of those fans at the Cotten Bowl traveled from South Bend). They go to a bowl game and have to share their money with NO ONE!

Big 10 (aren't they changing their name to "The Big Conference" in the fall...since they have 11 teams) has been woowing the Irish for decades for that very reason.

[forevereagle]

This is a BIG dream. Removing Nebraska from the Big XII would be comprable to removing T.O.'s head from his @$$; impossible. They have been there since the Big IIX, and I don't think that's gonna happen. You'd have better luck if you just changed the names of the conferences. Not that this would happen, though it does look to be a good idea.

[mad dog]

Not that this would happen, though it does look to be a good idea.

←

And that's my point. Not that I'm saying this would ever happen in a million years, but that it would be nice to have totally regional matchups.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---How much "Kickapoo Joy Juice" have they been drinking??? It would not surprise me a lot to see UNT, SMU, Tulsa, Rice, Houston, Texas State, UTEP, LLU, and perhaps another college or two ( TCU or NMSU? ) to eventually get together but never those groups mentioned. CUSA and the Belt both look a bit unstable to me and I am not convinced the Big East which is so large is either which could cause changes to everyone else. They have a football group and a basketball only group. The above group I mentioned would provide local opponents, should improve attendence for everyone and increase fan interest inside the state and region.

The ACC and SEC will change very little if any. Vandy (the most likely) isn't going to kill the money milkcow and the rest like having one team that they are almost certain to defeat.

I think my grouping is actually fairly possible.... That would add UNT and LLU, from the Belt plus Tx-State to what is now CUSA west.----and the CUSA east could add from the remaning Belt teams --most likely, Middle Tenn, FAU, FIU, ASU, and Troy. Both groups would be more regionallized and would create more fan interest and improve attendence for most. I would think that each part would have a new conf name, or at least one of them would.

Edited March 22, 2006 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Guest ike]

Why dont they just get it over with and merge CUSA and Sunbelt (i always hated that name!) and form a nice big fat conference with two divisions (EAST vs WEST).

Imagine the possibilities... power to negotiate TV, print, etc... bowls... a worthy championship... maybe even respect...

Please, just leave out SMU...