it seems to me that the mass exodus of d3 is going to have trickle down (or trickle up) effects on the other divisions. at d2, there are some coaches who want to stay, some who want to move up, and some who want to move on. those who move up/on have always been replaced by the d3 coaches who move up. but, without a large pool of d3 coaches, i don't see how they will be able to replace vacating d2 coaches, eventually resulting in a similar fate for d2.
i really hope this is not the case, as i find d2 to be much more fun than d1 except for the 2-3 days of recruiting. but, i think that is wishful thinking. if true, it seems trying to consolidate ourselves into particular worlds is the best way to keep some good d2 worlds. however, this basically screws the d1 in worlds that are mostly devoid of d3/d2, with nobody moving up to replace those leaving. the coaches in those worlds would either have to move on, or join the populated worlds
i think the long term effect is a slow movement from 10 worlds to whatever HD can really sustain, which is not necc a bad thing, although it seems there will be many casualties along the way. many coaches keep a team because they like playing in a particular conference, or because they have grown attached to that team. if a world becomes a ghost town, many people will just drop teams without replacing them. so, if we have 10 worlds, and really have enough people for 6, then in the consolidation effort, we might drop to 4. or worse.
so, it kind of makes me question this consolidation effort. im not sure its better to have 4 relatively full worlds than to have 50% more teams occupied spread across all 10. having to give up teams and start over just sucks too much. but that is basically what the consolidation efforts will lead to, if successful. being spread out, people can consolidate into conferences, which at least is less painful. and as long as the game gets fixed in time for new coaches to exceed retiring ones, all 10 might stay afloat.
it may seem a little dramatic to suggest an entire world can die, but i look at tark d3 with about 60 human coaches or something, and it does not seem very far fetched to me. my d2 conf, who used to run full, is down to 9. it seems the shrinking of d2 has already begun. as d3 continues to empty, it will only accelerate the decline of d2, which in turn, would accelerate the decline of d1. as it is, the number of big 6 openings each season appears to be much higher than they were a year ago. they continue to fill, for the most part, but for how long?