I previously have posted things where I created whole new conferences, rearranged the current ones to where all conferences had a championship game and also to where they all had 10 teams to play a full round robin. The problem with my scenarios for a playoff were that one had a 12 team and the other a 10 team set up. I stated I believed that I only wanted teams that won their conference to be in the tournament.

Here is something new. An eight team tournament involving only conference champions meaning tearing down the current 11 conference and creating eight, 15 team conferences. Except that wouldn't work great either now would it. Bring eight schools up from the FCS. Add one to each of the super conferences and now you have eight 16 team conference.

Split each conference into two, eight team divisions. Play the seven division games as well as two rotating teams from the other division. Add three nonconference games and stay with 12 total regular season games.

Hold a conference championship game and the winner is in the tournament. Eventually the current weak teams should be able close the gap a bit in terms of recruiting and level of competition now that all teams have more of a shot at the national championship.

First lets establish the 8 conferences and then based on region we can figure out what school is best to move up.

Lets start out west.

PACIFIC 16

Pretty obvious to Start with the established Pac 10. Adding 5 current FBS schools and a FCS school in the region is the hard part. Since we are trying keep things even, we can't just move the strongest in and leave the weak to try to survive. Bringing in Nevada, Hawaii, Fresno State, San Jose State and San Diego State and moving Cal Poly up fills in schools that would likely fill the middle of the Pac 10. Cal Poly was selected because over the last few seasons they have had pretty good success and not had any losing seasons since 2002.

So now Divisions

North- Cal, Nevada, Oregon, Oregon State, San Jose State, Stanford, Washington, Washington State

South- Arizona, Arizona State, Cal Poly, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Diego State, UCLA, USC

I would suggest a Championship game in San Francisco at Candlestick.

MOUNTAIN WEST

The team to move up is Montana. They have pretty much cornered the market on the Big Sky Conference. Since 1993 they have either won or shared the title all but 2 years.

The Pac 10 pretty much stayed in tact and added to it but the Mountain west will change up a bit more.

Keeping Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, TCU, Utah, UNLV and Wyoming, along with the addition of Montana means the conference needs seven more schools.

Adding in Boise State, Idaho, New Mexico State and Utah State from the WAC brings the total to 13.

UTEP fits right in as well as Colorado. Texas Tech is the final school I would add due to its location. The Addition of Boise State, Colorado and Texas Tech increase the strength of the conference while the other schools keep the middle competitive.

West- Boise State, BYU, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico State, Utah, Utah State, UNLV

East- Air Force, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico, TCU, Texas Tech, UTEP, Wyoming

Championship game played in Denver at Invesco.

BIG 16

I have already eliminated a couple schools from the Big 12 so we can move to this region.

Texas, Baylor, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State is actually all I am keeping here. So I need to find 11 schools to add. Rice, Houston, SMU, North Texas, Tulsa, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana Monroe, and LSU are my choices to move in. Moving up from the FCS is McNeese State. They are a more consistent team than most of the other FCS teams in the region.

North- Arkansas, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, SMU, Tulsa, North Texas

South- Baylor, Houston, Louisiana Monroe, LSU, McNeese State, Rice, Texas, Texas A&M

Texas Stadium or Reliant Stadium would be my suggestions for the championship game.

HEARTLAND

Next I have to do something with the left over Big 12 schools and for the region, it looks like I am going to have to merge in some Big 10 Schools.

Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and Missouri now form a conference with Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana. This Conference still needs a few more though. I figure just hold the states in whole here. Northern Illinois and Ball State from the MAC and Notre Dame. That brings me to finding an FCS school. I like Northern Iowa here. They have been the top of the Missouri Valley for a while.

West- Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Northern Iowa

East- Ball State, Illinois, Indiana, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Purdue, Wisconsin

For a championship game the I say Soldier Field since Chicago is fairly central for this conference region.

NEW MAC

Continuing on through the same area leads to a lot of MAC schools and only a handful of schools from the current BCS conferences. To keep this conference looking even and strong this has to be done just right.

Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan, Toledo, Bowling Green, Ohio State, Miami(OH), Cincinnati, Ohio, Kentucky, Louisville, Vanderbilt, Tennessee are my 15 FBS schools. I have three Big 10 schools, three SEC schools and 2 Big East schools to go along with 6 MAC schools. I feel this gives the conference a bit of balance. Eastern Kentucky is my choice for an FCS school.

North- Central Michigan, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Toledo, Western Michigan

South- Cincinnati, Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky, Louisville, Miami (OH), Ohio, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

Paul Brown Stadium is fairly central for this region so I say play the championship game here.

SEC

The remaining schools in the SEC are where I am going to start. By my count I still have Mississippi, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, Florida, and Georgia. I think I am going to kick South Carolina out to one of the other remaining conferences.

Starting west and moving east I am going to bring in Louisiana Monroe, Tulane, Southern Miss, Memphis, UAB, Troy, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee. For an FCS school I will bring up Jacksonville State. I had a couple schools in the are that all had similar records over the last few years.

North- Georgia, Georgia Tech, Jacksonville State, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, Mississippi, Mississippi State, UAB

South- Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Louisiana Lafayette, Southern Miss, Troy, Tulane

I like Jacksonville Municipal Stadium to host this championship game.

 

ATLANTIC SOUTH

I only have two more conferences to go. Working my way up the east coast, I have to break down the remaining schools to 2 groups that appear even.

Miami, South Florida, UCF, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Western Kentucky, Clemson, South Carolina, Wake Forest, North Carolina, North Carolina State, East Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech and Marshall are the 15 for the conference with the addition of the no brainer or Appalachian State.

North- Appalachian State, Duke, East Carolina, Marshall, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Western Kentucky

South-Central Florida, Clemson, FAU, FIU, Miami, North Carolina State, South Carolina, South Florida

Bank of America Stadium works for me here for the championship game.

NORTHEASTERN

Seven down leaving our remaining schools for the last conference.

Virginia, West Virginia, Akron, Kent State, Pitt, Maryland, Navy, Penn State, Buffalo, Syracuse, Army, Rutgers, UConn, Boston College, Temple are the remaining 15 schools. New Hampshire gets the nod to move up.

East-Army, Boston College, Maryland, Navy, New Hampshire, Rutgers, Temple, Uconn

West- Akron, Buffalo, Kent State, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, Virginia, West Virginia

I say take your pick here for a stadium to host the championship game. Lincoln Financial Field is fairly central so I suppose that could work.

If you stayed with me through all that I hope it all made sense. Let me know what you think.

I love college football. It is my favorite sport to watch. I am an Oregon Ducks fan.

Before the season starts, I read two to three preview magazines. Cover to cover, every team.

I wake up at 6:45 a.m. on Saturdays which gives me enough time to jump in the shower and run to Starbucks to get home to sit and watch College Gameday at 7a.m.

I watch football all day long. 9 a.m. to whatever time the last game ends, sometimes after midnight if the game is at Hawaii.

I have 5 tvs set up in my living room. The largest is a 46in LCD. Then I have a 30in flat wide screen. Next is 2 19 in, old school types and finally a 13in. I also use my DVR on occasion.

Out of 120 DIA teams, including probationary Western Kentucky, there was only one team I did not see play a game, Louisiana Lafayette.

I traveled to a few games as well so that nearly eliminates a day of games. Over the years I have even traveled to watch games that didn't involve my team.

Why, one may ask, would I spend money on airfare, hotel, car and tickets, to see games that my team isn't even in??

The love of the game.

I feel like I am fairly well informed on the rest of the country. Not as well as Oregon but still enough to know what's going on for the most part in every conference. More than just the premier teams and players too.

When I first started getting into college football more on a national level I decided I needed to make every conference matter. I decided I should pick a team from every conference an that would be my team for the year. Some times I had a reason for the team I picked but for the most part I didn't.

I enjoyed the first season I did this I do it every year now. Watching as many games as possible and following more than just the Oregon Ducks gave me a better appreciation for the differences in the fans and the game in the west, east, south and midwest.

Next season give it a try. It makes the conference races a bit more interesting. Or maybe try being a fan of your teams nonconference opponents. If they have a good year it helps your team with a better strength of schedule.

However you choose to follow the season and spend your Saturdays, enjoy it.

As far as I know no one can really predict the future but that doesn't stop people from trying to predict who will win in a match up between two teams. Some people even go as far as to try and predict things like the final score and how many yards superstar players will have. Honestly I have no problem with this. I do it with pick em's through the regular season and bowls.

The thing that does bug me is people that believe they could predict an entire mythical season for a team if they played in another conference. Statements of a team being overrated and how they would be lucky to make a bowl if they played in another conference. Or how conference x is so weak that a mid to low level team from conference y would win the whole thing every year.

I read a lot of message boards and these are the kinds of things I see. I'm not trying to single out the SEC or Big 12 but that's typically where this stuff comes from. I don't know that I have ever heard the Big East or ACC fans make statements like these.

I hear a lot how Ohio State or USC would barely be 9 win teams in the SEC or Big 12.

Really based on what?

Biased opinion? Really there can't be much more than that.

Even the so called experts don't get them all right all the time. I remember hearing the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl were going to be a lot closer than what they ended up being.

If the experts can't get single games right why do everyday people, or as I like to refer to us, fanalysts, believe they can predict a whole mythical season that will never happen?

There is no way to prove how USC or anyother team would do in the SEC or Big 12.  There is no way we will ever know, but stop saying you know they would never win the conference or that they would only win 9 games at best because you really don't know that for sure. 

The Pac 10 has been the most varied conference in the country.

What does that mean?

That no other conference has had the varied success and downs that the schools in the Pac 10 have had.

Yes, right now we can all pick USC to win the conference and you would be making a pretty safe bet. This wasn't true when the BCS started.

Yes, Washington was the only team without a win and arguably the worst team in the country this season. They were #3 in 2000.

In the world of college football there is a very "What have you done for me lately" attitude. People can throw stats all around but it is easy to adjust those to fit your needs. One school can boast about the most wins ever while another will say we have the most this decade. One school can claim the most bowl appearance ever but maybe they lose a lot of them so they don't talk about that part. I feel that since the current era of football uses the BCS to determine the champion, I am going to use the BCS years here.

Conference Titles

So how would someone decide that there has been varied success happenings in the conference when, like I said, right now USC is dominating? First of all, they aren't dominating as easily as a lot of people think. Three of their seven Pac 10 titles were split. Washington State, Cal and Arizona State have all shared the title with them.

Oregon, in 2001, was the last team to win it outright before USC's current run.

In 2000 Oregon shared it with Oregon State and Washington, their biggest rivals.

In 1999 Stanford, yes Stanford, was the top of the Pac 10.

That brings us to the first year of the BCS and UCLA was the champion of the Pac 10.

Did you follow me through all that? If you count the schools I named, nine out of 10 teams have won or shared the conference title since the BCS began. The one school that didn't win it was Arizona. They were second place that first year having only lost one game to the champ, UCLA. The Wildcats went on to beat a #14 ranked Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.

Compared to the other major conferences:

(I am only going to count those by current schools of the conference)

ACC has had 4 champs out of 12 schools

Big 10 has had 8 champs out of 11 schools

Big 12 has had 6 champs out of 12 schools

Big East has had 5 champs out of 8 schools

SEC has had 6 champs out of 12 schools.

Only the Big 10 was close to the percentage of schools that had either won or shared the conference title in the last 11 seasons and even that wasn't that close.

Pac 10 90% of the schools have won or shared the title.

Big 10 72% of the schools have won or shared the title.

Rankings

A lot of people base their opinion for what they consider success on the rankings. I am not going to look at who was ranked preseason because a lot of those turn into busts by mid season. I am not going to look at week by week standings because who really cares who was ranked in week 4 before even getting into conference play. That's usually when most schools play all their DIAA and "easy" win teams from the non-BCS conferences. I am going to go based off of the last AP rankings of the season.

1998 4 Arizona, 8 UCLA

1999 19 Oregon

2000 3 Washington, 4 Oregon State, 7 Oregon

2001 2 Oregon, 10 Washington State, 16 Stanford, 19 Washington

2002 4 USC, 10 Washington State,

2003 1 USC, 9 Washington State

2004 1 USC, 9 Cal, 19 Arizona State

2005 2 USC, 13 Oregon , 16 UCLA, 25 Cal

2006 4 USC, 14 Cal, 21 Oregon State

2007 3 USC, 16 Arizona State, 23 Oregon , 25 Oregon State

2008 3 USC, 10 Oregon, 18 Oregon State

The Pac 10 has had all 10 of their teams ranked at least once in the final AP rankings during the BCS era. All of them have been ranked 16 or higher with eight of the ten achieving top 10 finishes. No other conference has had all its members ranked in the final top 25. No other conference has had 8 schools finish top 10 or 80% of the conference in the top 10.

Instead of listing all the schools for the other conferences I am simply going to tell you which ones have not been ranked at seasons end. Again, I am only going to count the current schools in the conference.

 

ACC: Duke, North Carolina

Big 10: Indiana, Northwestern

Big 12: Baylor

Big East: Connecticut, USF

SEC: Kentucky, Vanderbilt

 

Big 12 has had 11 schools in and the SEC and ACC have had 10 schools which is the same amount but they still can't say every member has been in the standings.

ACC: Florida St, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Boston College 4 of 12 have finished top 10

Big 10: Iowa, Michigan, Michigan St, Ohio St, Penn St, Wisconsin 6 of 11 have finished top 10

Big 12: Colorado, Kansas, Kansas St, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas 7 of 12 have finished top 10

Big East: West Virginia, Louisville 2 of 8 have finished top 10

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee 6 of 12 have finished top 10

Like I said, the Pac 10 had 80% of its schools finish top 10. The closest conference here was the Big 12 with a 58%. Not even in the same ball park.

BCS Bowls

Having a winning season and making a bowl game is one of the primary goals for teams. Right now all a team needs is a 6-6 record and in merely look better than all the other 6-6 teams.

The bigger goal than just making a bowl is making a BCS bowl. These bowls have become a class of bowls all their own.

Since the BCS started the Pac 10 has had 7 schools make an appearance. USC, Oregon, Oregon State, Washington, Stanford, UCLA and Washington State have all played in a BCS bowl. They have a record of 9-4 in BCS Bowls which is a win % of .692.

Comparing # of schools and records with the other conferences shows;

ACC has had 5 different schools with a record of 5-10 for a win % of .333

Big 10 has had 7 schools as well with a record of 8-11 for a win % of .421

Big 12 has had 7 schools as well with a record of 7-9 for a win % of .438

Big East has had 5 schools with a record of 3-3 for a win % of .500

SEC has had 6 schools with a record of 12-5 with a win % of .710

Comparing to the other conferences the Pac 10 has a better win percentage than all but the SEC. The Pac 10 does have one more school that has been in a BCS bowl though.

The Highs and The Lows

So far I have only been talking about the up sides of the conference but I did say that no other conference has had the ups and downs as the teams from the Pac 10. Here is a list of the high points and low points for each team. Again using only the final standing.

Arizona: High- 1998 #4 12-1. Low- 2003 2-10

Arizona State: High- 2007 10-3 #16 Split Pac 10 title. Low- 2001 4-7

Cal: High 2004 10-2 #9, 2006 10-3 #19 Split Pac 10 title. Low- 2001 1-10

Oregon: High- 2001 11-1 #2 Pac 10 title. Low- 2004 5-6

Oregon State: High 2000 11-1 #4 Split Pac 10 title. Low- 2005 and 1998, 2001, 2005 5-6

Southern Cal: High 2004 13-0 #1 Pac 10 title, National Championship. Low- 2000 5-7

Stanford: High 1999 8-4 Pac 10 title, 2001 9-3 #16. Low- 2006 1-11

UCLA: High 1998 10-2 #8 Pac 10 title. Low- 2008 4-8

Washington: High- 2000 11-1 #3 Split Pac 10 title. Low- 2008 0-12

Washington State: High- 2002 10-3 #10 Split Pac 10 title. 2003 10-3 #9. Low- 2008 2-11

Every school has experienced success and defeat. Every team has had years where they were home during bowl season. When you look at the other conferences, there is at least one team that has not had a losing season in any of the BCS years. These are the schools that have not had a losing season since 1998.

ACC- Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech

Big 10- Ohio State

Big 12- Texas, Texas Tech

Big East- USF (since joining the Big East)

SEC- Florida, Georgia

The top and the bottom of the Pac 10 has flipped and switched over and over since the start of the BCS. The conference has only one team right now that has established itself among the nations elite. There are a couple that are on the up right now that are gaining ground. Three schools had their worst seasons here in 2008. With the way the conference has shown though, it could only be a matter of time before USC, Oregon and Oregon State are at the bottom and Washington and Washington State are on top again.

Hold On To The Ball

Buffalo 42 Ball State 24: Ball State lost four fumbles and threw one interception while Buffalo only lost 2 fumbles and threw no interceptions.

 

East Carolina 27 Tulsa 24: Tulsa threw five interceptions and lost two fumbles. East Carolina lost only one fumble and did not throw any interceptions.

Pitt 34 UConn 10: Connecticut threw five interceptions. Pitt lost a couple fumbles and threw one interception.

Anyone seeing the pattern?

Double Standard

Every year we hear how the regular season is a playoff. This year we had what looked like and what was being called a playin game in the SEC championship game. Now after that game is over, people are asking why Alabama should be penalized for losing late. Which is it folks?

They Haven't Seen This Yet

I keep hearing things like Oklahoma hasn't seen a defense like Florida. What I haven't heard is that Florida hasn't seen an offense like Oklahoma. Really though no one has. They rewrote the books when it comes to offense and points this season. I just feel like this is going to be one high scoring game.

Daniel Not Daniels

His name is Chase Daniel. There is no s on the end. Over and over I heard him called Daniels. I didn't know announcers had free reign to change peoples names. I guess we will have Sam Bradfords and Tim Tebows in the Championship game.

 Running Like the Best

Jahvid Best had 19 carries against Washington. The Result was 311 yards. This is enough to be the top individual rusher in the Pac 10. His total was 1,394 yards. Now there are new questions. What could he have done had he not left in the 3rd quarter? Would he be the conference leader if they were playing anyone but Washington?

7-5 and a Bowl is Good Enough For Now

At least that's got to be the belief in Arizona. With a 7-5 record and a berth in the Vegas Bowl. Mike Stoops has been on the hot seat for a a couple years now and it was believed he would need at least a bowl bid to be retained. Looks like for right now he is ok. Next season better see at least the same results if he wants to be around much longer.

The Reason Why Non BCS Conferences Don't Maintain Strength

Well at least part of the reason is because when a team has success, the BCS schools come in and take away the coach. Utah lost Meyer to Florida. Central Michigan lost Kelly to Cincinnati. Tulsa lost Kragthorpe to Louisville. Now Hoke, Gill, Wittingham, Patterson and Petersen are all the names that are being floated for major job openings.