The Pac-16 can go to Alcatraz

Or something more colorful, you decide.

Upon hearing this morning that the Pac-10 apparently doesn't stand for Pacific, or Ten, or caring about anything other than revenue (and why I'm so incredibly worked up over the Big 12 getting eaten alive is a curious thing, but I digress) and are willing to take on basically half the Big 12 so that they can get a Texas d. USC conference championship (which would be nice), I decided to go back to the drawing board in my old realign college football project.

The premise is/was simple. There are 120 teams in Div 1-A college football, which makes for a very nice and neat 10 12-team conferences or 12 10-team conferences. While the 12 team is probably preferrable for having a conference championship, I am not a fan of it. I am married to the ten team idea, each team playing each other team once, a conference championship decided in conference play with three non-conference games for all those oh-so precious regional rivalries that apparently only the fans care about. Who the hell wants to see Baylor play Arizona State every year, anyway?

So the methodology is simple. I averaged out Jeff Sagarin's ratings (which are weighted for strength of schedule, among other things) over the last ten years for each of the 120 teams (or however many were available if the team has been around for less than ten years). Teams get averaged out and placed into five tiers (if you play NCAA football, think of these as five-star down to one-star prestige teams for funsies). Each tier is then sorted out by longitude and then latitude, making 12 pairs per tier, for 5 x 2 = 10 teams per conference. Sure, some traditional rivalries are gone, but I don't think the conferences really care about that. That's what non-conference games are for. (If you can't get the sarcasm dripping through your monitor, I pity you.)

ALSO: there are two teams in 1-AA that are definitely above the rest of the pack, going back through the last ten years' records. Also, there are two 1-A teams that are weak. Buffalo and Florida International, you have no place in 1-A football. Montana and Appalachian State, have fun with the big boys (App State, you already have).

(Bonus: if you like the 12 team deal, go ahead and make six tiers instead of five, and then your conferences have the 12 teams for a conference championship. Actually, this is a little neater if you want a 16 team playoff; 10 conference champs with 6 at larges is a little better than 12 conference champs and 4 at larges, but I digress, and the structure of a postseason is probably a much longer rant.)

I didn't go ahead and name the conferences, but here they are: a balanced, 12 conference solution for college football. It goes without saying that this would have massive ramifications and shouldn't be carried over to basketball or any other sport. I would think this should be re-evaluated and the conferences re-balanced every 10 years or so, so that there's no more weak conferences and power conferences, rankings and bowl games are nice and even (this is another thing that will need to be re-arranged).

CONFERENCE 1
California
Idaho
Montana
Nevada
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
Washington
Washington State
Wyoming

CONFERENCE 2
Arizona State
Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
San Diego State
San Jose State
Southern Cal
UCLA
UNLV
Utah State

CONFERENCE 3
Air Force
BYU
Colorado State
Louisiana Tech
Nebraska
North Texas
Oklahoma
SMU
Tulsa
Utah

CONFERENCE 4
Arizona
Baylor
Colorado
Houston
New Mexico
New Mexico State
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
UTEP

CONFERENCE 5
Alabama
Arkansas State
Kansas State
Iowa
Iowa State
Louisiana-Monroe
Minnesota
Northern Illinois
Oklahoma State
Vanderbilt

CONFERENCE 6
Arkansas
Auburn
Kansas
Louisiana-Lafayette
LSU
Memphis
Rice
Southern Miss
Texas A&M
UAB

CONFERENCE 7
Ball State
Eastern Michigan
Illinois
Indiana
Michigan
Northwestern
Purdue
Tennessee
Western Michigan
Wisconsin

CONFERENCE 8
Cincinnati
Florida State
Georgia
Middle Tennessee
Mississippi
Mississippi State
Missouri
Troy
Tulane
Western Kentucky

CONFERENCE 9
Akron
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Kent State
Louisville
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Ohio State
Toledo
Virginia Tech

CONFERENCE 10
Appalachian State
Clemson
Florida
Georgia Tech
Kentucky
Marshall
Miami-Ohio
Ohio University
South Carolina
South Florida

CONFERENCE 11
Army
Boston College
Connecticut
Maryland
Navy
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Temple

CONFERENCE 12
Central Florida
Duke
East Carolina
Florida Atlantic
Miami-Florida
NC State
North Carolina
Virginia
Wake Forest
West Virginia