Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

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Clonehomer

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The Big 12 is tough as hell as it is but just suppose for fun what some above have thrown out comes true and you add Gonzaga (although honestly I don’t think it’s a good idea because post Few what are they?) Creighton, Villanova and UConn or something like that. Good God better get ready for a lot of our good to really good hoop’s teams to have worse records than they would elsewhere because that would be insane.

I do wonder how the UCF CBB coach feels about this. They are about to become the "night off" opponent that the conference hasn't had in a long time. And it isn't like the Big10 where you have 6 to 8 of those programs to play each other. UCF is going to get pounded night in and night out for the foreseeable future. Yes, that give opportunities to recruit better, but that's a long process to build a program.
 

Clonehomer

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You can do 13 teams with an 18 game schedule mathematically. I still don’t think they add them though. They don’t bring enough value

24 games starts to get into a long conference schedule. And to me, going away from a double round robin would be a massive mistake. I'd much prefer to stay with the double round robin and 12 teams rather than go to 13 or 14 teams and have to lose that.
 

Hoggins

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I do wonder how the UCF CBB coach feels about this. They are about to become the "night off" opponent that the conference hasn't had in a long time. And it isn't like the Big10 where you have 6 to 8 of those programs to play each other. UCF is going to get pounded night in and night out for the foreseeable future. Yes, that give opportunities to recruit better, but that's a long process to build a program.

No different than TCU in 2013 and they adjusted eventuality. It’s just gonna take time, money, and a commitment to winning.

Rising tide raises all boats type of situation
 

Hoggins

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24 games starts to get into a long conference schedule. And to me, going away from a double round robin would be a massive mistake. I'd much prefer to stay with the double round robin and 12 teams rather than go to 13 or 14 teams and have to lose that.

I agree, but the odds of a 22 game conference schedule are about 0%
 
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Clonehomer

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No different than TCU in 2013 and they adjusted eventuality. It’s just gonna take time, money, and a commitment to winning.

Rising tide raises all boats type of situation

I don't remember the conference being such a behemoth back then though. Teams tended to have more ups and downs and the bottom of the league was there even if the members of that bottom tier weren't consistent.
 

Ace000087

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The Big 12 is tough as hell as it is but just suppose for fun what some above have thrown out comes true and you add Gonzaga (although honestly I don’t think it’s a good idea because post Few what are they?) Creighton, Villanova and UConn or something like that. Good God better get ready for a lot of our good to really good hoop’s teams to have worse records than they would elsewhere because that would be insane.
I can only think of a Few reasons to add Gonzaga.
 

Clonehomer

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I agree, but the odds of a 22 game conference schedule are about 0%

Just gotta start it in December and drop some of those out of conference games. I know one home and home series on ISU's schedule that I wouldn't mind a bit dropping.
 

CascadeClone

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Gonzaga is a pawn. Talk about them to let them know we are expanding and see what the landscape is like up in the PNW. So we can say, Hey UW and UO, we’ve flown that and looked around, seems like we could work together. You still consider those two the big prize. Gonzaga just gets you a mess. You don’t focus memberships on a sport that is projected to be 20%. You focus on the 75%.
Tend to agree. Keeps the topic warm, gives the bigger targets (UW, UO, M4) a little FOMO.

Unless... would Yormark set up a "parallel" basketball only league? Say the Big12 exists as today with 12 (maybe someday 16) football teams. But you create a basketball only nationwide league with 30ish teams.

Take the Big12 core, add the Big East, the Zags, maybe a couple others that make sense from the A-10, MoValley, MWC or something. You get up to 32 teams and you could play a significant conference only schedule, have a big conf tourney, etc. IDK if it makes financial sense or not, just thinking out loud.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
Tend to agree. Keeps the topic warm, gives the bigger targets (UW, UO, M4) a little FOMO.

Unless... would Yormark set up a "parallel" basketball only league? Say the Big12 exists as today with 12 (maybe someday 16) football teams. But you create a basketball only nationwide league with 30ish teams.

Take the Big12 core, add the Big East, the Zags, maybe a couple others that make sense from the A-10, MoValley, MWC or something. You get up to 32 teams and you could play a significant conference only schedule, have a big conf tourney, etc. IDK if it makes financial sense or not, just thinking out loud.
The problem is, we would be promoting teams if we took them from anything but P6 level. Gonzaga is the rare situation where they are an outlier in their conference. The conferences are concerned with tournament expansion meaning they will lose AQ status for their champs. This means we would be helping other teams avoid that and be diluting each current members chances.
 

KnappShack

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Tend to agree. Keeps the topic warm, gives the bigger targets (UW, UO, M4) a little FOMO.

Unless... would Yormark set up a "parallel" basketball only league? Say the Big12 exists as today with 12 (maybe someday 16) football teams. But you create a basketball only nationwide league with 30ish teams.

Take the Big12 core, add the Big East, the Zags, maybe a couple others that make sense from the A-10, MoValley, MWC or something. You get up to 32 teams and you could play a significant conference only schedule, have a big conf tourney, etc. IDK if it makes financial sense or not, just thinking out loud.

Play some games in China or Europe. Dip into Toronto and Mexico City.

NBA Lite.

The Big 12 already pissed away the opportunity to be the premier football conference. We're basically mid-major at this point in football.

Grab the premier basketball prize and grow that business

Suites in Hilton!!
 
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Hoggins

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I don't remember the conference being such a behemoth back then though. Teams tended to have more ups and downs and the bottom of the league was there even if the members of that bottom tier weren't consistent.

Kenpom conference rank since 2013 (TCU & WVU joined)

2013 - 3rd
2014 - 1st
2015 - 1st
2016 - 1st
2017 - 1st (only 2004 ACC was ever better)
2018 - 1st
2019 - 1st
2020 - 2nd
2021 - 2nd
2022 - 1st
2023 - 1st

It’s always been this tough.
 

CascadeClone

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The problem is, we would be promoting teams if we took them from anything but P6 level. Gonzaga is the rare situation where they are an outlier in their conference. The conferences are concerned with tournament expansion meaning they will lose AQ status for their champs. This means we would be helping other teams avoid that and be diluting each current members chances.
That's a good point. Although I think there would be more risk of missing the tourney for say, St Bonaventure in the Big12, rather than say, West Virginia. In the A-10, the Bonnies just need to be better than the A-10, whereas in the Big12 they have to be better than half the league. That's a tougher row to hoe for a small school.

Maybe you keep the conferences separate entities but do some kind of merger/partnership? Add 1 team to the BigEast and now you have two 12-team conferences and could do 2-3 cross-conference games per team every year... and have a pre-season tournament. Games in Toronto and Mexico City like KnappShack said. Anything that brings attention and cash. It's a metric ****ton of good content, for sure.
 

BCClone

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Not exactly sure.
That's a good point. Although I think there would be more risk of missing the tourney for say, St Bonaventure in the Big12, rather than say, West Virginia. In the A-10, the Bonnies just need to be better than the A-10, whereas in the Big12 they have to be better than half the league. That's a tougher row to hoe for a small school.

Maybe you keep the conferences separate entities but do some kind of merger/partnership? Add 1 team to the BigEast and now you have two 12-team conferences and could do 2-3 cross-conference games per team every year... and have a pre-season tournament. Games in Toronto and Mexico City like KnappShack said. Anything that brings attention and cash. It's a metric ****ton of good content, for sure.
Not necessarily better than half, we dot 7/10 in last year I believe. So just not a bottom feeder
 

FriendlySpartan

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I do wonder how the UCF CBB coach feels about this. They are about to become the "night off" opponent that the conference hasn't had in a long time. And it isn't like the Big10 where you have 6 to 8 of those programs to play each other. UCF is going to get pounded night in and night out for the foreseeable future. Yes, that give opportunities to recruit better, but that's a long process to build a program.
It’s not just UCF, if your BYU or Cinci you have to be dreading the change. Even a school like Houston that usually only has a couple losses will have to get used to having 8-10.
 
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Clonehomer

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It’s not just UCF, if your BYU or Cinci you have to be dreading the change. Even a school like Houston that usually only has a couple losses will have to get used to having 8-10.

BYU and Cincinnati have a history of basketball success and support. They may be down a bit, but I don't see any reason to think they won't be a powerhouse again and probably quickly. UCF is essentially building from scratch when it comes to a power conference level team and support structure.
 

HFCS

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It’s not just UCF, if your BYU or Cinci you have to be dreading the change. Even a school like Houston that usually only has a couple losses will have to get used to having 8-10.

Houston is good, but they'd have Kansas record at best right now. Possibly worse. Even in Phi Slamma Jamma days when they were the most talented program by far they didn't have to face competition like recent Big 12.

Cinci had 8 years in a pretty stacked at the time Big East. The fan base probably has the best idea of what they are in for in basketball.