SALT LAKE CITY – A decade after the university’s sports environment underwent a makeover, including Utah joining the Pac-12 and BYU becoming independent, Sports Illustrated writer Pat Forde believes it’s time for yet another renovation.
The Forde Bowl subdivision, as SI artfully called its daydreaming realignment, would group teams in a way that makes far more geographic sense than some of the conferences are currently composed.
On a local note, the changes would include a new Rocky Mountain Conference featuring the Hive State’s three top tier soccer programs: Utah, BYU, and the State of Utah, along with Arizona’s Pac-12 transplants, the Arizona and Colorado, and Mountain West’s Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, New Mexico, UNLV, and Wyoming.
It would almost be a reinvention of the Back to the Future of the old WAC.
The new Pac-12 would support veterans Cal, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, and Washington State, while encompassing Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada, and San Diego.
In total, there would be 120 programs divided into 10 conferences of 12 teams: Deep South, Great Mideast, Great Midwest, Mid-American, Mid-Atlantic, Pac-12, Rocky Mountain, Southwest, Sun Belt and Yankee.
Forde believes that the new university landscape would be financially beneficial due to the closer proximity of schools at each conference. There are more advantages.
“If only this could be launched to the centralized leadership of college football that was interested in the good of the entire company. But that does not exist, and that is another column for another day, “Forde wrote. “What college football would gain from this realignment: uniformity; conference championships that really matter; increased access to a more lucrative tiebreaker; a more level playing field for the little ones; renewed regional identity; cherished rivalries preserved, restored and, in some cases, forced into a permanent existence. The benefits are abundant.
Forde said the realignment would make even more sense for basketball and sports programs’ budgets with no income due to travel savings.
Other highlights of Forde’s suggested makeover:
– The College Football Playoff would include the champion of each conference plus two at-large teams, with the first four seeds winning a first-round goodbye. There would still be bowl games for teams that don’t play in the playoffs.
– Each team would play 11 league games, matching the playing field in terms of programming.
– The plan would elevate the North Dakota State from the FBS, but Bowling Green, North Carolina, Liberty, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico State, San Jose State, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy, UTEP and UTSA they would be demoted from the FCS. The could be a descent / lift system every year there.
Forde admits there are flaws, including breaking the conference’s traditional rivalries and trying to make Power 5 schools share their riches with non-P5 schools, and academic incompatibilities.
“It will happen? Nah But it’s fun to think and discuss, “Forde concluded.” The Great College Sports Realignment that started in 2010 can be improved by hiring and expanding simultaneously. “
