Non-BCS Conferences Replaced with others? Topic

schroedess26
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Just a thought when I was looking at South Alabama of knight. They won a National Championship in year like 5 or something.

Has there been a thought of conference restructuring ever? With the MAC, WCC, or something taking away a power conference spot for the prestige?

I know it wouldn't be sudden, but lets say over the course of 20 seasons WIS time the conference is consistently better. Maybe it could even be regional specific so Sun Belt would have to replace the ACC or SEC as they are from the South East or something like that. Over the course of 20 seasons or even more the prestige would eventually be transferred to the Sun Belt, they would become the BCS and the ACC or whoever that was failing ends up getting dropped to the second tier or what not.

Just wondering thoughts on this. Probably wouldn't work but I thought it would kinda spark a little competition for the minor D1 conferences to see who could be the first to become a power conference or something.
1/4/2010 8:29 PM
zhawks
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It is very possible to raise a lower level conference to the level of the BCS, we raised the Big Sky in Phelan to a B-.
1/4/2010 8:33 PM
dalter
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There's no reason it would have to replace another conference. If the Sun Belt, SEC and ACC were all good, then they could all have good conference prestige.

We had the CAA-Rupp up with the power conferences for awhile, including NC's from combalt (Delaware) and cbriese (UNC-Wilmington). And Kelby/LM/etc had CAA-Naismith in pretty comparable territory, although no NC's to the best of my knowledge (please correct me if I'm wrong, fellas). I think Ivy-Allen is pretty much there right now, with two recent national champs and a conference rpi in the top five most seasons. In Big Sky-Allen, we were #3 in rpi last season and sent six to the NT, and are #6 rpi so far this season.

If you get a strong group of coaches together, I actually don't think it's that hard to get a conference rpi in the top 5 or so and send a solid # of teams to the postseason. What's difficult is keeping those coaches in the conference ong-term; some will leave for a BCS program, others just drop a team, etc.

And unlike a BCS conference, where good vacancies generally get filled, it's often quite difficult to fill a high-prestige vacancy in a mid-major, because those who are qualified generally opt for a BCS school unless they're specifically seeking out that conference.
1/4/2010 8:43 PM
schroedess26
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Ah okay good to know. I thought there was a cap on prestige for a conference. I know individual teams can get up to A+ but didn't know conferences could raise to the level of BCS if they were not.

Thanks guys
1/4/2010 8:53 PM
zhawks
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I will get you a link to my old Weber team and you can use the schedule page on theirs to see what the Big Sky looked like when they were a b-.
1/4/2010 8:56 PM
zhawks
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http://whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Schedule.aspx?tid=14059
1/4/2010 8:59 PM
Weena
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The A-10 in Iba is at the BCS level. We're rated B+ tied with the PAC 10 and ahead of everyone else. We have won the NC 5 of the last 10 seasons (3 different schools) and had 3 runner-ups. Yes, we have a good corps of longtime coaches but we also have openings and some turnover. It can be done.
1/4/2010 9:21 PM
daveymac
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Quote: Originally Posted By zhawks on 1/04/2010It is very possible to raise a lower level conference to the level of the BCS, we raised the Big Sky in Phelan to a B-




that was a crazy tough conference with so many great coaches, which one of them was it that went 16-0 in conference one year and won a national title another year? :)
1/5/2010 12:54 AM
zhawks
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Quote: Originally Posted By daveymac on 1/05/2010

Quote: Originally Posted By zhawks on 1/04/2010
It is very possible to raise a lower level conference to the level of the BCS, we raised the Big Sky in Phelan to a B-.





that was a crazy tough conference with so many great coaches, which one of them was it that went 16-0 in conference one year and won a national title another year? :)
I believe it was that coach of PVAM... Can't recall his name tho...
1/5/2010 9:13 AM
fd343ny
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but of course the baseline prestige of those schools remains lower and so if there is a falloff they plummet faster than a BCS conference, right?
1/5/2010 9:42 AM
daveymac
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yes it does FD, and it can plummet fast
1/5/2010 12:41 PM
jpmills3
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Quote: Originally Posted By dalter on 1/04/2010

And unlike a BCS conference, where good vacancies generally get filled, it's often quite difficult to fill a high-prestige vacancy in a mid-major, because those who are qualified generally opt for a BCS school unless they're specifically seeking out that conference.

This really hits the nail on the head. The Rupp CAA, as referenced above, lost both Cbriese and Combalt to retirement right after they won championships. However, BCS coaches were not leaving a BCS school to take over those positions, and other successful coaches from mid-major programs were not qualified to take over the A+ programs behind. So Simmy took over. And you know what happens once simmy gets his hands on a team. Its like watching Steve Phillips operate in a room fully of chubby interns - not pretty.

Once Simmy started taking the conference down with him, it less incentive for people like HBMerlin to keep things running. Now, there are like 2 coaches in the CAA, but its like a ghost ship conference.

Long story short, I think they need to make it easier to move into a good mid-major position. If a coach has had 2 seasons will solid success at an ok program (say a 1st round exit in the NT a couple years in a row), they should be able to make the move to a better mid-major rather than let Simmy take over. I know its football, but its on my mind (so), but Urban Meyer moved from Bowling Green after like 2 years, then moved to Utah for another 2ish years, and then to Florida. In HD, he would never have been able to get the Utah job, and that is a shame.
1/5/2010 1:34 PM
cheeznsweet
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And there's a limit to how high the conf prestige can realistically get as well in the non-power conferences. I'm in Ivy-Allen which Dalter mentioned above - we've had 2 of the last 4 NT champs, a PIT champ recently, we're averaging top 4 RPI year in and out for the last 4 years or so, we regularly send half of the conference to the postseason...and our conf prestige is C+ which is a third of a letter grade BEHIND the SEC which has generally finished 7th-10th in RPI -- behind multiple non-power conferences every year.

So, yes, you can be competitive with the power conferences in a mid-major but there's a limit to how that gets reflected in prestige.
1/5/2010 1:43 PM
zhawks
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Quote: Originally Posted By fd343ny on 1/05/2010but of course the baseline prestige of those schools remains lower and so if there is a falloff they plummet faster than a BCS conference, right
I tend to disagree, while yes they would fall faster then a true BCS conference school it wasn't a Huge fall over 1-2 years, yes it did happen but the conference as a whole did slow that down quite a bit imo.
1/5/2010 2:24 PM
antonsirius
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Quote: Originally posted by dalter on 1/04/2010We had the CAA-Rupp up with the power conferences for awhile

Ah, those were the days. I chipped in with a Sweet 16 from VCU, as I recall.

You kids today, you don't know, what with your iPhones and hula hoops and all. And get off my lawn!
1/5/2010 2:39 PM
Non-BCS Conferences Replaced with others? Topic
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