It's always fun speculating on what may be, no matter how improbable the chances are that it might happen. With that being said, I have cobbled together a highly improbable Super Conference for your dissection. I put the US News rankings for all the schools next to their names and arranged the conference into three Divisions.
East Division
O$U - 49
PSU - 63
UM - 24
IU - 76
MD - 58
RU - 63
MSU - 80
UMass - 66
Central Division
NU - 9
IA - 88
WI - 42
MN - 66
NE - 133
PU - 53
IL - 47
KU - 124
West Division
Stanford - 6
Oregon - 103
USC - 24
UCLA - 22
Colorado - 103
Washington - 58
Cal - 22
Utah or AZ - 97
As you can see I have created a 24 team Super Conference, which greatly expands the BTN's reach.
I added UMass to the East Div to give us a footprint in the Boston market. Academically they fit, even though the sports may be iffy.
I've added KU to the Central Div, because, like them or not, they are a National Brand that is still currently relevant. They don't bring much to football, but in BBall season, they'll give us a lot of pub.
The New West Division is comprised of the best of the Pac-12. I'm not a big fan of annexing them, due to logistical nightmares, but I thought it was worth playing with the idea. I'm somewhat ambivalent between Utah & AZ. They are academically equivalent and if I had to choose, I'd probably go with Utah, since it's a bit closer.
Scheduling for football would require everyone to play all Div opponents (7 games), 2 in one Div and one in the other, plus 2 OOC games. Div Champs + highest ranked team with the best record would be in a 2 game playoff for Conf Championship.
BBall scheduling would be unsatisfying, since you would play everyone in your Div only once, then 7 in one Div and 6 in the other. There would be no second games against anyone and that's assuming a 20 game Conference schedule.
You could delete one team from each division and end up with 21, which would make scheduling easier, but you decrease the footprint, which cuts revenue, and revenue is what this is all about.
East Division
O$U - 49
PSU - 63
UM - 24
IU - 76
MD - 58
RU - 63
MSU - 80
UMass - 66
Central Division
NU - 9
IA - 88
WI - 42
MN - 66
NE - 133
PU - 53
IL - 47
KU - 124
West Division
Stanford - 6
Oregon - 103
USC - 24
UCLA - 22
Colorado - 103
Washington - 58
Cal - 22
Utah or AZ - 97
As you can see I have created a 24 team Super Conference, which greatly expands the BTN's reach.
I added UMass to the East Div to give us a footprint in the Boston market. Academically they fit, even though the sports may be iffy.
I've added KU to the Central Div, because, like them or not, they are a National Brand that is still currently relevant. They don't bring much to football, but in BBall season, they'll give us a lot of pub.
The New West Division is comprised of the best of the Pac-12. I'm not a big fan of annexing them, due to logistical nightmares, but I thought it was worth playing with the idea. I'm somewhat ambivalent between Utah & AZ. They are academically equivalent and if I had to choose, I'd probably go with Utah, since it's a bit closer.
Scheduling for football would require everyone to play all Div opponents (7 games), 2 in one Div and one in the other, plus 2 OOC games. Div Champs + highest ranked team with the best record would be in a 2 game playoff for Conf Championship.
BBall scheduling would be unsatisfying, since you would play everyone in your Div only once, then 7 in one Div and 6 in the other. There would be no second games against anyone and that's assuming a 20 game Conference schedule.
You could delete one team from each division and end up with 21, which would make scheduling easier, but you decrease the footprint, which cuts revenue, and revenue is what this is all about.
