College Football Realigment, Here We Come...

So, Texas A&M set the ball rolling, now it's at ramming speed with Pittsburgh and Syracuse applying for the ACC.  So, how will the new shape of the conferences shake out?  Driving around today, I heard a tease about an interview with Beano Cook about his thoughts on the realignment.  I missed the interview, but since that guy is still pissed about the forward pass being legalized, I don't give 2 shits what he has to say.  So, how can we take the current six BCS conference system and realign it more interestingly?

ACC	Big 10	Big 12	Big East	Pac 12	SEC
Boston College Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina NC State Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest	Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern Ohio State Penn State Purdue Wisconsin	Baylor Iowa State Kansas K. State Missouri Oklahoma OK State Texas Texas A&M Texas Tech	Cincinnati Connecticut Louisville Pittsburgh Rutgers S Florida Syracuse West Virginia	Arizona Arizona State California Colorado Oregon Oregon State Stanford UCLA USC Utah Washington Wash. State	Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU Miss. State Ole Miss South Carolina Tennessee Vanderbilt

Now, let's look at the alignment with the latest rumoured movement:

ACC	Big 10	Big 12	Big East	Pac 12	SEC
Boston College Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina NC State Pittsburgh Syracuse Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest	Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern Ohio State Penn State Purdue Wisconsin	Baylor Iowa State Kansas K. State Missouri Oklahoma OK State Texas Texas Tech	Cincinnati Connecticut Louisville Rutgers S Florida West Virginia	Arizona Arizona State California Colorado Oregon Oregon State Stanford UCLA USC Utah Washington Wash. State	Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU Miss. State Ole Miss South Carolina Tennessee Texas A&M Vanderbilt

So, as you can see, the Big East is dead as a football conference. What happens to their teams?  Let's see what we can do with those teams?

ACC	Big 10	Big 12	Pac 12	SEC
Boston College Connecticut Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina NC State Pittsburgh Syracuse Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest	Illinois Indiana Iowa Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern Ohio State Penn State Purdue Wisconsin	Baylor Iowa State Kansas K. State Missouri Oklahoma OK State Texas Texas Tech	Arizona Arizona State California Colorado Oregon Oregon State Stanford UCLA USC Utah Washington Wash. State	Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU Miss. State Ole Miss South Carolina Tennessee Texas A&M Vanderbilt West Virginia

I moved UConn into the ACC purely for the fact that if basketball is considered in realignment, that would be a natural fit. I've moved West Virginia into the SEC based on the rumors that have been swirling. Unfortunately, Rutgers, Cincy, South Florida and Louisville don't make the first cut. But since we are going to eliminate the Big 10 and make 4 conferences of 16 teams, they might find a home somewhere else. So, now to dole out the remaining Big 12 teams. (Which now has 10 teams, while the Big 10 now has 12 teams.  Nice job, people.)

ACC	Big 10	Pac 12	SEC
Boston College Connecticut Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina NC State Pittsburgh Syracuse Texas Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest	Illinois Indiana Iowa Iowa State Kansas K. State Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern Ohio State Penn State Purdue Wisconsin	Arizona Arizona State California Colorado Oklahoma OK State Oregon Oregon State Stanford UCLA USC Utah Washington Wash. State	Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky LSU Miss. State Missouri Ole Miss South Carolina Tennessee Texas A&M Vanderbilt West Virginia

So, Baylor and Texas Tech didn't make the cut.  I put Texas in the ACC for a couple of reasons.  First, that is this week's rumor.  Second, I think the ACC would be the most willing to accept the fact that Texas has their own cable network.   They are quite a ways away from another ACC team but thems the breaks.  So, I have 16 ACC teams, 15 Big 10 teams, 14 Pac 12 teams and 15 SEC teams.  So, let's see who we have left to fill up the last 4 places:

Baylor, BYU, Rutgers, Cincy, South Florida, Louisville, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Boise State, TCU and Texas Tech.

ACC	Big 16	Pac 16	SEC
Boston College Connecticut Clemson Duke Florida State Georgia Tech Maryland Miami (FL) North Carolina NC State Pittsburgh Syracuse Texas Virginia Virginia Tech Wake Forest	Illinois Indiana Iowa Iowa State Kansas K. State Michigan Mich. State Minnesota Nebraska Northwestern Notre Dame Ohio State Penn State Purdue Wisconsin	Arizona Arizona State BYU California Colorado Oklahoma OK State Oregon Oregon State Stanford TCU UCLA USC Utah Washington Wash. State	Alabama Arkansas Auburn Florida Georgia Kentucky Louisville LSU Miss. State Missouri Ole Miss South Carolina Tennessee Texas A&M Vanderbilt West Virginia

My last spot in the the Pac 12 came down to Boise State, Texas Tech and TCU.  I figure that the new Pac 16 would go for TCU to get into that Dallas market.  So now we've got our four 16-team superconferences, but let's go farther.  Let's turn each conference into four divisions:

ACC
Northeast	Atlantic	Tobacco Road	Southeast
Boston College Connecticut Pittsburgh Syracuse	Clemson Maryland Virginia Virginia Tech	Duke North Carolina NC State Wake Forest	Florida State Georgia Tech Miami Texas

Big 16
Heartland	Leaders	Legends	Metro
Iowa Iowa State Minnesota Nebraska	Illinois Michigan Michigan State Purdue	Indiana Notre Dame Ohio State Penn State	Kansas Kansas State Northwestern Wisconsin

Pac 16
Northwest	Mountain	UCal	Central
Oregon Oregon State Washington Washington State	Arizona Arizona State BYU Utah	California Stanford UCLA USC	Colorado Oklahoma Oklahoma State TCU

SEC
North	Missala	Midwest	Southeast
Kentucky Louisville Tennessee Vanderbilt	Alabama Auburn Miss State Ole Miss	Arkansas LSU Missouri Texas A&M	Florida Georgia South Carolina West Virginia

So, maybe controversial decisions, but I tried to keep geographies and natural rivalries consistent. Now we have 4 divisions in each conference, we can have 2 rounds of conference championship games for all the division winners. Might as well make it interesting, each division winner plays in a 4 team playoff for the conference titles and all of the conference winners play in a 4 team playoff for the National Championship.  So we now have a 16-team playoff system that looks like a 4-team playoff system. The changes will probably come fast and big in the next year or more, so I doubt that any ideas are completely off the table.  I'm sure lots of people will disagree with my ideas and choices.