In the coming months, the 12 university presidents of the schools that will make up the Pacific-12
Conference will vote on a proposed divisional realignment plan for football. Currently, the proposal calls for North and South divisions of schools.
Oregon would join Oregon State, Washington, Washington State, Cal and Stanford in the North, while
Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, USC and UCLA would occupy the South. The merits of Oregon’s inclusion into the North division — particularly as it pertains to the Los Angeles television market and fertile recruiting area — have been debated ad nauseam.
I have no interest in this debate because I do not fundamentally accept the Pac-12 North and the
Pac-12 South. My realignment plan is far more radical and ambitious. Larry Scott, if you’re reading this, my contact information is located at the bottom of this piece, and I am looking forward to discussing the size of my royalty check.
Ready for it? Here goes.
I propose that the Pac-12 schools be lumped into a single division, called the “Pac-12 Conference”. Each school in the division will play every other school in football in a round-robin scheduling format.
Need to process that for a second? Go ahead. I’ll wait.
And yes, you read me correctly. Forget divisions and intra-conference politicking. As of right now, the
Pac-10 Conference schools play nine conference games toward determining a winner. Coaches and players at every school harp on a single fact: You know, at the end of the day, which team is truly the best team in the conference. It’s the team that wins.
It’s so zen, so beautiful and so simple, which means college football fans would immediately detest it.
You think this can’t be done? Try and stop me. In a world where the Bowl Championship Series is allowed to exist with limited questioning toward the higher-ups that control it, what’s wrong with upending the traditional schedule? Who says that teams have to play three non-conference games, eight or nine conference games, and a championship game? What’s wrong with one non-conference game, 11 conference games and possibly a conference championship game? (More on that later.)
Non-conference games are the furthest thing from sacred in college football. The cost of playing Football Championship Subdivision teams is negligible at best and downright embarrassing if the big school loses. The same goes with most Football Bowl Subdivision teams; no one really wants to be caught dead hosting Kent State, Louisiana-Monroe, or any college football team in New Mexico, New Jersey or New York.
The most advantageous out-of-conference scheduling is also the most ambitious. Public opinion will swing your way with big wins and even close losses, as Oregon State found out when it was ranked with two losses. So pick up your marquee off-season matchup, and then the Pac-12 is immediately flung into the conference season. Every team for itself.
Worried about money? How much more could home dates with Charleston Southern or Ball State land you as opposed to Colorado or Utah? And, even better, the games against the new guys count. Ticket revenue should average out based on the excitability of the fan base — in this conference, that’s pretty
high outside of Los Angeles.
Still want that conference championship game? Sure. Pit the conference’s top team against its second-best team, shack them up at a neutral field in the second full weekend of December, and presto — instant buzz and sponsorship dollar generator.
So the season will be a little longer — 13 games, 14 with a bowl, maybe 15 if the school’s athletic director scheduled a home-and-home with Hawaii. If Larry Scott was making decisions based on
offending the Warriors, this conference would truly be going the wrong direction.
Finally, how would this look in the grand scheme of the college football landscape? For the top team, remarkably well. After all, most teams struggle through eight or nine conference games with intact win percentages. The pressure cooker that is 11 games would earn a newfound level of respect.
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A master plan for Pac-12 scheduling predicament
Daily Emerald
October 19, 2010
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