Realign conferences Topic

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Yeah but nobody has ever heard of Florida Gulf Coast so it's not a huge deal.....oh wait.
3/26/2013 10:45 PM
No, it would only work if they opened a new world. Imagine you are coaching in div II in a conf you loved, then get moved into div I where you are outmatched and don't want to be causing you to lose your job. Bad idea
3/26/2013 10:48 PM
Would cause a lot of headaches and not a whole heck of a lot in return, I see no reason why they would consider doing this.  Can't blame them either.
3/26/2013 11:12 PM
I think they should do it, do it in the off season and allow coaches to change jobs through the hiring process if they choose. People who start playing the game now are playing an outdated game with conferences and teams that aren't correct.
3/27/2013 9:09 AM
It's not as simple as it seems.  TCU, for instance, has been in  3 conferences in 18 months. Next season, Butler will be in it's 3rd conference in 3 seasons.  There's a DIII conference that's had over 30 different members in 15 years.

For fun, I tried to realign the D1 conferences.  No matter how you do it, with 12 teams/conference, you end up with some weird groups.  What would you do with the ACC's 17 teams?  Keep the original eight teams together of course.  Which 5 of these ACC teams would you exclude:  Louisville, Florida St, Miami, Virginia Tech, Boston College, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Georgia Tech or Syracuse????  You could put two of them, perhaps Notre Dame and Boston College, in the new Big East Conference with the other Catholic schools and Butler.
3/27/2013 9:36 AM (edited)
I understand that the 12 teams/conference cookie cutter makes life easier for people but why are we FORCED to live in that box again? 

Why can't teams play different numbers of conference and non-conference games, just like in real life? It might mean the coders have to have different schedule functions based on the conference affiliation but I don't see why it's not doable.

Honest question here because the make believe conferences really detracts from the game. I had a friend ready to sign up until they saw this and I got laughed out of the office for playing a "totally erroneous fantasy land game akin to dungeons and dragons built upon a big random number generator". Sadly I couldn't argue too much.
3/27/2013 9:49 AM
Posted by graff on 3/27/2013 9:49:00 AM (view original):
I understand that the 12 teams/conference cookie cutter makes life easier for people but why are we FORCED to live in that box again? 

Why can't teams play different numbers of conference and non-conference games, just like in real life? It might mean the coders have to have different schedule functions based on the conference affiliation but I don't see why it's not doable.

Honest question here because the make believe conferences really detracts from the game. I had a friend ready to sign up until they saw this and I got laughed out of the office for playing a "totally erroneous fantasy land game akin to dungeons and dragons built upon a big random number generator". Sadly I couldn't argue too much.
...so he was "ready to sign up", but then seeing that there were 12 teams/conference made him bring up something about how the game was built on a RNG and "laugh you out of the office"?

Sounds logical.

As far as the 12 teams/conference, I'd imagine it was originally done for ease of coding the scheduling.  However, you also have to look at fairness... If I were in a conference of 8 teams and you were in a conference of 16, should we get the same prestige bump for winning a conference title or the tourney?  And if you're going to realign the conferences, do you still force every conference to be in divisions? Or do you have to split that up as well to be more realistic?  Are they going to make these updates rolling from season to season?  And when do they make the changes since the worlds are all on totally different schedules?  It just makes life easier for WIS, basically, to keep everyone on a level playing field (in that respect, at least).  

It'd be a mess if they attempted it.
3/27/2013 10:02 AM (edited)
Granted, 12 teams/conference is easier for the programmers.

So,you're suggesting that a 16 team conference play 22 conference games (twice against each team in it's division; once each from the other division) and only 4 non-conf games?   That might be fine for a strong conference but, if you're in a weaker one, you depend on a strong non-conf schedule to compensate.  Even in a strong conference, you depend on a weaker non-conf schedule to reach the required .500 for the NT.

And what do you do with a 13 team conference?  There'll be a non-conf game every day.  Do you let WIS schedule it? 
3/27/2013 10:02 AM
Also, if each teams schedule was a function of the # of teams in the conference (i.e. if z conference members then, you play x conference games, y non-conference games and this is how the conference tourney seedings are paired up) then conference realignment becomes REALLY easy. You just change the name of the conference variable as teams change conferences, have it count the # of teams with that variable and then use the created function above. Once it's set up it's literally as easy as changing ONE field value.

So, what is it that I'm missing about forcing us into these 12 team leagues, because until we can get away from that there will always be wacky unrealistic conferences (and even teams in the entirely wrong division).
3/27/2013 10:08 AM
Posted by graff on 3/27/2013 10:08:00 AM (view original):
Also, if each teams schedule was a function of the # of teams in the conference (i.e. if z conference members then, you play x conference games, y non-conference games and this is how the conference tourney seedings are paired up) then conference realignment becomes REALLY easy. You just change the name of the conference variable as teams change conferences, have it count the # of teams with that variable and then use the created function above. Once it's set up it's literally as easy as changing ONE field value.

So, what is it that I'm missing about forcing us into these 12 team leagues, because until we can get away from that there will always be wacky unrealistic conferences (and even teams in the entirely wrong division).
So you think it would be good for teams to be yanked around? If someone is in division two and their team moves up they should be moved up without a choice? If someone stays in a conference and develops relationships with teammates and earns a place in a string conference and the team moves somewhere else suddenly he has to move?


What would you do with an independent school?
California state bakersfield and New Orleans in d1?

There are six more independents in division two ...

3/27/2013 10:20 AM
this is all about the balance between realism and game play

12 team conferences and the current allignment give priority to this as a game - and downplay realism

one could make other choices, but the balanced competition that 12 team conferences provide seems like a good thing

3/27/2013 10:22 AM
Posted by graff on 3/27/2013 10:08:00 AM (view original):
Also, if each teams schedule was a function of the # of teams in the conference (i.e. if z conference members then, you play x conference games, y non-conference games and this is how the conference tourney seedings are paired up) then conference realignment becomes REALLY easy. You just change the name of the conference variable as teams change conferences, have it count the # of teams with that variable and then use the created function above. Once it's set up it's literally as easy as changing ONE field value.

So, what is it that I'm missing about forcing us into these 12 team leagues, because until we can get away from that there will always be wacky unrealistic conferences (and even teams in the entirely wrong division).
Yes, for determining # of games, your "function" would work... but that's about the easiest problem available to solve.  Finding pairings for those games would be a nightmare.  You'd have to incorporate multiple off nights just so that everyone could get in at least X number of games with open pairings with whatever is left after users manually schedule some opponents (drastically shortening your available matchup possibilities).  People already complain about having a couple off nights... with having varied conference schedule lengths, that would undoubtedly increase.
3/27/2013 10:33 AM
Agreed, the conference alignments are not representative of real life.

BUT

There are easily a gajillion other things that I would rather see them spend development time on.  Even if I cared about conference alignment with real life (I don't), I would think long and hard on whether the "return" I would get would outweigh the cost of the change.  It's one of the least "wrong" things in the whole game.
3/27/2013 11:30 AM
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