The Official College Football Realignment Thread

[GoSooners]

Here is a good post I came across. It is about the best candidates for Big 12 expansion candidates.

---

I made a formula to evaluate Big XII expansion candidates.
Basically it will compute a score (the higher the better) based on a few critera that I selected.

The formula is: (Average Football attendance in 2014 + Current Undergrad enrollment) / (Distance to Norman + US News and World Report Ranking)

I picked these factors specifically because it seems to be a decent balance between distance to the approximate geographic center of the Big XII conference, interest in football specifically, academics, and overall student (then eventually alumni) population.

Realistic contenders for Expansion:

1) Memphis - 76.11 - helped immensely by it's proximity, hurt by its academic reputation
2) BYU - 76.01 - helped by its academic rating & football interest, hurt by it's distance (could add for football only)
3) UCF - 61.78 - helped by its massive undergrad enrollment, hurt by academics and proximity
4) Colorado State - 57.97 - Was basically middle of the road in every metric, attendance was low
5) New Mexico - 57.59 - Attendance was awful - similar to Colorado State, but hurt more by academics
6) Cincinnati - 51.48 - Also middle of the road in everything, attendance was lower than average
7) East Carolina - 44.08 - Helped by attendance, hurt by distance and academics
8) USF - 42.68 - Helped by enrollment size, hurt by distance, academics and attendance
9) Boise State - 30.26 - Below average to bottom tier at everything, especially distance and academics
10) Connecticut - 27.59 - Helped by Academics (best of the bunch), hurt by distance, enrollment and attendance


Just for shits and giggles, this is how some other teams of interest would compute using the same formula:

Texas A&M - 351.62 - Elite in every category
Arkansas - 231.56 - Always thought they'd be a good fit, too late now
TCU - 204.44 - low enrollment, but elite in distance and solid in academics
Nebraska - 200.77 - Solid across the board, attendance is elite
Missouri - 162.99 - Not quite as good as Nebraska, but definitely strong
Colorado - 79.50 - They were never a great fit culturally either

Maybe we should be looking at poaching some ACC Schools that aren't part of the Tobacco Road mafia...

Florida State - 104.69
Clemson - 94.10
Louisville - 73.72
Virgnia Tech - 73.13
GA Tech - 71.11
Pittsburgh - 50.92 (Distance hurts a lot, attendance numbers weren't great)
Miami - 41.74 (Distance too far)

I didn't put any schools in Texas other than Texas A&M and TCU - the Big XII should look for additional recruiting grounds and tv markets in states outside it's footprint. Follow the Big Ten / SEC model.

Obviously other factors have to be considered - but I thought it would be interesting to assign a numerical value to the process of examining expansion.

 

[BigdaddyQH]

BYU is not that far away. 1000 miles or so. To me, Cinci and Memphis are the two leading candidates. Cinci has a good football program and hoops program.

 

[cloverleaf]

BYU would be my main target (IF) I had a say for the Big 12. BD hit it on the head...travel to WV or BYU...what's the difference?

I strongly disagree with the promotion of Memphis for the Big 12. Good basketball school but football facilities and accomplishments of late are pitiful. Memphis football facilities are worse than many Division II schools. God awful!

Since travel (WV) doesn't seem to be a concern....why not pluck a Florida school. Take your pick..C. Fla...S. Fla.

 

[GoSooners]

BYU is not that far away. 1000 miles or so. To me, Cinci and Memphis are the two leading candidates. Cinci has a good football program and hoops program.

Both of these schools would probably work for the conference, with Cincy maybe a little less so because of the distance. I could be wrong, but like I've said before here many times, I don't believe BYU is ever coming to the Big 12. The conference TV providers will not allow it. They want to be able to broadcast conference games in all non revenue sports on Sundays and BYU will not play on Sundays. Ever. If it weren't for that, they would already be in the conference. And we all know they aren't going to change. I'm absolutely against any more Texas schools joining the conference. You want schools that will expand recruiting territory. Personally, I was against TCU coming into the conference. All it did was give relevance to a middle of the road program in a city that the Big 12 already owned. And it watered down recruiting in the DFW area. It is a big reason why OU has struggled getting into the top 10 in recruiting for the last several years. As far as future alignment is concerned, the one area that I'm keeping an eye on are these Grant Of Rights issues. If it doesn't hold up in court and the money becomes so huge that these schools make their moves anyway, I think we could have a free for all with alignment in a few years. It will probably all revolve around the ACC and Big 12. I still think the ACC is somewhat vulnerable unless Notre Dame becomes a full fledged member. I would love to get a school like Virginia Tech to go along with WV. And then maybe add Cincy or a Louisville if they can be coaxed to leave without paying a huge penalty. But right now the Big 12 brass refuse to even consider alignment, even though schools like Houston are trying to bully their way into the conference. Which is also a joke, a school like that trying to bully the Big 12.

 

[BigdaddyQH]

I agree with BYU never joining the onference and being against any more Texas schools joining the conference. If the conference expands (or should I say when?), The "South" Division is the 4 Texas schools and the two Oklahoma schools. Why change that by adding more Texas schools into the mix, forcing one, or both Oklahoma schools into the "North" Division? Again, the Big 12 Brass is going to have to change it's thinking. Being a conference that in all honesty lags far behind times when it comes to change, the Big 12 risks further damage in the recruiting area if once again, one of their teams does NOT make the final four. The Big 12 Conference is the loser unless they can get an undefeated team, and I do not see that happening in the forseeable future. None of their teams are good enough to runn the table. Making matters worse, the top two teams in theconference are Baylor and TCU. To be quite frank, who cares? OU and Texas, yes. I definately pay attention. Maybe Okie State. But Baylor and TCU? Pass