Also, I fully understand that the biggest winner here is the Pac-10 (where I coach a team in Knight), and the biggest loser is the Big 12 (at least that's the case in Knight, which would lose an A+ and B+ team).

Or Iowa?

It's almost impossible to do something like that.  People like the conferences they are in.  How would you feel if you were one of the coaches being moved?

@cornfused: I mentioned Iowa because it seems like their traditional rival would be Missouri or Iowa State (both Big 12). I coached Iowa once, and I was fairly unfamiliar with the school...I asked about rivals, and there weren't really any. I'd be fine with Notre Dame moving, but they're actually a lot farther away from the Big 10's center.

@dahsdebater:

"It's almost impossible to do something like that."

Why? Do you work at WIS? I'm actually asking, because maybe it IS impossible.

"People like the conferences they are in. How would you feel if you were one of the coaches being moved?"

I'm note entirely sure everyone likes their conferences. They don't really have a choice, after all. But I don't think i'd mind being moved if, say, I'd been a lifelong Utah or TCU fan and I was moving up to a big conference. And I think I'd want to reflect realism. If I was a Huskers fan, I'd want to play against the teams Nebraska faces in real life. For almost all of the schools except Fresno State and Hawaii, the move is to a lateral prestige conference or up. As for those two schools, they never belonged in a top tier conference to begin with (especially Hawaii, which is the worst state to recruit at in WIS).

I agree it would be annoying to certain coaches but I find the realistic perspective interesting in that coaches will adapt and get to where they want to be or be happy with the new surroundings. Much like in real life where I'm sure not all the coaches and fans are happy with realignment.

I for one like the idea, but see great difficulty implementing it.

I hope they make changes to mirror real life. Only problem is, Fresno State on this game is in the pac10. A big 6 conf. Being moved to WCC would suck for the coach coaching Fresno State having to leave a big 6 conf.

i really don't like this idea - and i think there are a lot more important things for WIS to work on.

the reason I don't like this is because it is a logistical nightmare. anybody moving out of big 6 would be absolutely furious, and rightly so. WIS has said they can't change the 12 teams per conf deal, at least not without a major amount of work. and why does someone not in a big 6 deserve to get moved up?

i also think the conference comrodery is a big deal. sure, not every conf is like that, but a lot of confs are fairly close and people like playing with the guys they are playing with. splitting people up is just ridiculous. you also have to ask yourself - what do you gain here? to me, you don't really gain much. a couple guys whose alma maters went to big 6 confs get happy. woohoo. but really the # of big 6 schools doesn't change, the # of mid majors doesn't, and no strategy is added to the game. i just don't see the point. and considering the considerable hurdles, i think it is a really bad idea (no offense)

Someone did a complete realignment of all the D1 conferences a few weeks ago. Can anyone find that thread? It'd be interesting to see if his changes matched these.

Not a bad idea in principle, but it still doesn't get us to real life, and some of the issues other people have brought up are valid.  Doesn't add a whole lot, but if they did it, I think people would be angry at first, a few would quit, but mostly adjust to it.  I think Big 12 is one of the few, if any, that have been perfect, of course that will change.  Until the conferences are totally out of whack, probably better to avoid this.

Another user figured out a much more elaborate realignment, and I definitely prefer his to mine (though Notre Dame still gets weirdly shuffled).

You could at least switch Notre Dame and Nebraska in the next few months.  Then the Big 10 (12) would be exactly right.