College football expansion could work

A college football shakeup has been a hot button issue recently, and a column by The State's (SC) Ron Morris has brought the firestorm to South Carolina. In his piece, Morris makes note of a giant college football conference realignment that, among other things, would put South Carolina back in the ACC, a conference it left in the late 1960s.

Though I don't agree with Mr. Morris' (no relation to me) idea that USC would go back to the ACC, I do agree there is a big conference shift that will, eventually, give us a college football playoff.

After a long, and scientifically inexact process, I was able to come up with seven "Superconferences," based loosely on region.

One important thing to note: These changes only effect football, while leaving all these conferences I did away with, intact for basketball, baseball and other sports.

Conferences such as the SEC, ACC, MAC, and Mountain West would remain, while the Big 12 has a schism and splits, remaking the Southwest Conference (SWC), and the Big 10 becomes the Big 16 and PAC-10 becomes the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). These moves also move the Sunbelt down to Division I-AA.

Start with the SEC. To start off, they lose Arkansas to the Southwest, but gain Georgia Tech, South Florida, Central Florida, Tulane and Memphis, keeping with the East and West divisions.

East
--Georgia
--Georgia Tech
--Florida
--Tennesee
--South Carolina
--Vanderbilt
--UCF
--USF

West
--Alabama
--Auburn
--Ole Miss
--Miss. State
--LSU
--Tulane
--Kentucky
--Memphis


The ACC goes through its second major expansion. With the loss of Georgia Tech, the ACC scrambles and grabs West Virginia from the Big East, along with Rutgers, Louisville, East Carolina and Marshall. The divisions are kept.

Atlantic
--Clemson
--Boston College
--Florida State
--Wake Forest
--NC State
--Maryland
--East Carolina
--Rutgers

Coastal
--North Carolina
--Duke
--Miami
--Marshall
--Louisville
--Virginia
--Virginia Tech
--West Virginia

Next, the Big 12. As mentioned, the conference has a schism between the South and North. The South splits, renames itself the Southwest Conference and picks up Arkansas to renew old SWC rivalries. Next, it grabs what is left of C-USA's Western division, along with New Mexico, New Mexico State, Southern Miss., UAB and Louisiana Tech.

West
--Texas
--Texas Tech
--Texas A&M
--Oklahoma
--Oklahoma State
--Baylor
--New Mexico
--New Mexico State


East
--Arkansas
--Southern Miss
--UAB
--Houston
--Rice
--SMU
--Tulsa
--UTEP
--Louisiana Tech

Next, the Big 10. All but Iowa stays, who joins up with the former Big 12-North teams. The biggest piece of this puzzle is that Notre Dame is forced to join the Big 10. The next step is that the Big East is dealt the death blow, and loses Pittsburgh, UConn, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Temple out of the MAC. Now, it is the Big 16.

West
--Minnesota
--Wisconsin
--Michigan
--Michigan State
--Ohio State
--Illinois
--Notre Dame
--Northwestern

East
--Purdue
--Indiana
--Pittsburgh
--Penn State
--UConn
--Temple
--Syracuse
--Cincinnati


Now, the MAC. As it looks extinction in the mouth, Iowa, along with the Big 12 North join together, and decide to join the MAC.

Midwest
--Iowa
--Iowa State
--Kansas
--Kansas State
--Missouri
--Nebraska
--Bowling Green
--Kent State
--Northern Illinois

Great Lakes
--Buffalo
--Ball State
--Akron
--Eastern Michigan
--Central Michigan
--Western Michigan
--Toledo
--Miami (Oh)
--Ohio

Next, the MWC. Colorado is picked up by the conference to really add some joice to their rivalry with Colorado State. Boise State, Idaho, Nevada and Utah State. The conference did lose New Mexico, New Mexico State and San Diego State.

North
--Wyoming
--Boise State
--Idaho
-- Utah
--Utah State
--BYU

South
--TCU
--Air Force
--Colorado
--Colorado State
--Nevade
--UNLV

Finally, the PCC. This conference picks up Fresno State, San Jose State, San Diego State and Hawaii. Though this is the smallest conference, the growth of California schools is so high that spots will be given to future schools.

North
--Oregon
--Oregon State
--Washington
--Washington State
--Stanford
--California
--San Jose State

South
--Southern Cal
--UCLA
--Fresno State
--San Diego State
--Arizona
--Arizona State
--Hawaii


I realize it isn't perfect, and that the Great Lakes division in the MAC is a little...weak.

You may be asking now, "How the playoff works?"

I'll let you know as soon as I think of it.