All Hell is potentially about to Break Loose in the NCAA's.

[Shocky]

No, this isn't a Tournament expanding to 96 teams thread. This is the potential of the Super Conference looming large on the landscape.

Super Conference: Essentially the Big East is the prototype of the Super Conference. It's a 16 team Basketball conference that absolutely dominates the scene right now. However, While the Big East is dominate in Basketball, it is the smallest of the Football conferences.

Enter, the Big 10. The Big 10 has long talked about the expansion to a 12 team conference (The Big 10 is currently 11 strong). What people weren't expecting, the Big 10 is talking about not expanding to 12, but potentially into a 16 team Super Conference. Unlike the Big East, this power conference would be strong in Football and Basketball.

The problem with this scenario, the main targets for Big 16 Expansion, happen to be Big East schools. The top rumored prizes are Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Rutgers (All Big East Schools), Mizzou (Big 12), and Notre Dame (Football Indy, Big East Basketball). The New Big 16 becomes a monster of a conference, while the Big East is left in shambles.


Now the potential for fallout is this. If the Big 10 goes to 16, in all liklihood, the Pac 10 is going to expand, the SEC will follow suit, and like wise the ACC. Most rumor mills have these 4 conferences surviving amongst the Super conferences, and the Big 12 and what's left of the Big East the scraps in which the conferences pick from.

So onto the loaded questions.

1. Is the Super Conference a good or bad idea?

2. Does the Super Conference help the BCS in the long run?

3. Which teams move to what conferences, and who is ultimately left in the dark?

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

No, this isn't a Tournament expanding to 96 teams thread. This is the potential of the Super Conference looming large on the landscape.

Super Conference: Essentially the Big East is the prototype of the Super Conference. It's a 16 team Basketball conference that absolutely dominates the scene right now. However, While the Big East is dominate in Basketball, it is the smallest of the Football conferences.

Enter, the Big 10. The Big 10 has long talked about the expansion to a 12 team conference (The Big 10 is currently 11 strong). What people weren't expecting, the Big 10 is talking about not expanding to 12, but potentially into a 16 team Super Conference. Unlike the Big East, this power conference would be strong in Football and Basketball.

The problem with this scenario, the main targets for Big 16 Expansion, happen to be Big East schools. The top rumored prizes are Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Rutgers (All Big East Schools), Mizzou (Big 12), and Notre Dame (Football Indy, Big East Basketball). The New Big 16 becomes a monster of a conference, while the Big East is left in shambles.


Now the potential for fallout is this. If the Big 10 goes to 16, in all liklihood, the Pac 10 is going to expand, the SEC will follow suit, and like wise the ACC. Most rumor mills have these 4 conferences surviving amongst the Super conferences, and the Big 12 and what's left of the Big East the scraps in which the conferences pick from.

So onto the loaded questions.

1. Is the Super Conference a good or bad idea?

2. Does the Super Conference help the BCS in the long run?

3. Which teams move to what conferences, and who is ultimately left in the dark?

I'm not too particularly fond of the Big East when it comes to basketball because I think it is a ridiculous amount of teams in one conference. The Big East could add two more teams to their conference but that's as far as I will go. I don't see any reason for the other conferences to add teams because the Big 12, SEC, and ACC are just fine. Dealing with football, it wouldn't hurt for the Pac-10 to add two teams and the Big 10 to add one so they could play conference tournaments.

As far as the super conferences helping the BCS, I can see that to an extent. It will give your Boise States and your TCU's more good teams to face and beat and hopefully it will give the Big 12 and SEC incentive to stop scheduling and play some real teams.

Here are the teams I would add to the Pac-10, Big 10, and Big East since they are the most likely to add teams in my opinion.

Pac-10: Boise State and Utah. I'm looking at it from more of a geographical standpoint. If you want to have a Pac-10 North and South here would be your alignment.


Pac-10 North: Washington, Washington St, Oregon, Oregon St. Boise St., Utah

Pac-10 South: UCLA, California, USC, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona St.


Big 10: Instead of trying to get Notre Dame, I would grab Iowa State from the Big 12 so you could have East and West divisions.

Big 10 West: Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois

Big 10 East: Indiana, Purdue, Ohio St., Michigan, Michigan St., Penn St.

Big East: The two teams I would add would be Notre Dame since they are affiliated with the Big East in basketball and maybe either Army or Navy since they are independents. You can figure the alignment yourself.

To combat Iowa State going to the Big 10, I would grab TCU from the WAC because I truly never felt them in that division and since they are in Texas, it would make perfect sense.

 

[Shocky]

I'm not too big of a fan of the Big East Basketball conference either. No doubt, the conference is about as fucking deep as it gets. However, I miss playing teams like Louisville twice a year. The Big East is a big monster, but it doesn't get very personal because you don't get the familiarization with opponents like you would in a smaller conference.

As far as what motivation for the others, Money. The Pac 10 traditionally follows the Big 10 like a younger sibling, doing whatever they do. If the Pac 10 follows the Big 10 to 16 schools, then clearly the other power conferences are going to do the same thing.

Conferences see this as a way to make their own networks, and try to get into as many big markets as possible. Also, the Conference Football championships are money in the bank, and that's what many are gearing for.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

I'm not too big of a fan of the Big East Basketball conference either. No doubt, the conference is about as fucking deep as it gets. However, I miss playing teams like Louisville twice a year. The Big East is a big monster, but it doesn't get very personal because you don't get the familiarization with opponents like you would in a smaller conference.

As far as what motivation for the others, Money. The Pac 10 traditionally follows the Big 10 like a younger sibling, doing whatever they do. If the Pac 10 follows the Big 10 to 16 schools, then clearly the other power conferences are going to do the same thing.

Conferences see this as a way to make their own networks, and try to get into as many big markets as possible. Also, the Conference Football championships are money in the bank, and that's what many are gearing for.

Let's say that all of the six major conferences go to 16 teams in football. That means that you are going to have to find 31 teams. That would mean the end for conferences like the WAC, C-USA, and the MAC but you could say that it's a good thing so the little schools won't complain about not getting to a BCS bowl.

I like it how the Big East in basketball is viewed as so superior to everybody else when they haven't had a team go to the championship game since 2004. The conference being so big sort of gives an excuse of their schools who do poorly in their conference still getting into the tournament because of how tough the conference. If you had a Big East go 8-10 or 7-9 in their conference and a team from a weak Pac-10 go 10-8, they would favor the Big East team because the conference is tougher. I'm not saying that the Big East being so big takes bids away from other conference, but I do believe it dilutes the conference to an extent.

 

[Shocky]

The Big East does well in the NCAA tournament. I don't think they have lost a first round game in at least the last two years, and they damn near get almost half the teams into the sweet sixteen. Last year they had two teams reach the final four. The conference is the best in the country, they've always lacked the Super team like a North Carolina that stands out. The conference is deep when it constantly gets multiple teams into the deep rounds of the Tourney.

As far as the 6 power conferences go grabbing up teams, I honestly think that two of the conferences go bye bye if this happens. Look at the big East, and say the Big 10 eats that conference alive. The Big East is left with a 12 team basketball conference. That's fine, but what about West Virginia, Cincy, Louisville, South Florida and UConn. They are football schools, and won't be happy being in a five team conference. If the ACC were to come along and ask four of those teams to join, four of those 5 teams jump without hesitation.

The bleed out effect in Basketball. What's left of the Big East (the once 16 team conference) is now an 8 team conference with no football schools. The Big East is going to get back to 16 basketball schools, and I'm willing to bet a ton of A-10 schools jump.

If this happens, I see 4 power conferences left for football. The Big 10 (16) in the North/Mid West, the ACC along the East Coast, The Southeastern Conference, and the Pac 10 (16). The power conferences are going to give a crap about the Atlantic 10, Conference USA, SWAC, WAC, Or MWC. The Power Conferences are about money, and the schools from the Smaller conferences are going to jump like crazy if they get the invite.