Forget College Football Realignment. What If We Just Start Over, Risk Style?

Three days ago we thought the best part of the Big 12 was going to join the Pac-12 and the rest of the Big 12 was going to join the Big East. Now, it looks like the only thing that's going to happen is a commissioner or two will lose his job. Oh, right, and Texas A&M, Syracuse, Pittsburgh and I'm sure some other teams will have new homes as soon as they can pack up and move out of their current conferences.

Regardless of where the rest of the schools end up, we all realize how ridiculous the current idea of a "conference" has become. TCU joined the Big East and is 1,800 miles away from the conference office. That's more than one full day of driving, if you drove all night and barely stopped to pee. To get from one Big East school to another, you have to drive through three other CONFERENCES. It's ridiculous.

So let's reboot. Let's start over and figure out what the conferences would look like from a purely regional standpoint. What if we didn't worry about which teams were able to compete "at the highest level"? Remember, 10-15 years ago, nobody knew anything about Boise State. If they can do it, why can't Akron or ECU do it?

Let's also forget, most importantly, about the current TV deals. Let's assume in this post-apocalyptic college football landscape that there are no deals with ESPN or Fox or Big Ten Network or Longhorn Network or NBC. Let's start over, with an NFL-style deal that shares the TV revenue equally between all school and all conferences. I know that will never happen, but you can't tell me it would be worse than what we have now.

Let's also assume that the FCS schools, other than those who have already declared to be joining the FBS, don't exist. Well, they can exist, but a conference like the current Big East, made up of half football schools and half non-football schools, cannot. It's ludicrous.

The original model I worked up had teams grouped first by state, then by region, keeping all the teams in each state together. This made little sense when you look at the geography of some of the teams. Cincinnati is much closer to teams in Kentucky than Akron. UTEP is closer to New Mexico State than any other school in Texas. So this is football without borders, focusing on territories like the board game Risk. College Football Risk—I cannot believe this game does not already exist.

Last, let's say the BCS doesn't exist. Hallelujah. Let's assume this new brand of college football has 24-team playoff system. You'll see in the model below that there are 10 reconstructed conferences. The winner of each conference would make the playoffs as an automatic qualifier. The other teams would be at-large selections, with byes going to the eight highest-ranked teams in the country.

Oh, and remember, NONE OF THIS WILL EVER HAPPEN but have fun with the thought that one day…it could. We'll start west and go east. Reverse bias, I suppose.

THE PACIFIC

Name the conferences whatever you want. I tried to keep sensible regional names.

Here are the teams in the Pacific Conference: UCLA, Fresno State, California, San Jose State, Stanford, San Diego State, USC, Hawaii, Boise State, Idaho, UNLV, Nevada, Oregon State, Oregon, Washington State, Washington.

Oh, one more note we forgot to mention before. Let's assume everyone in the country plays eight conference games and four non-conference games, leaving room for lower-level teams to get a few competitive games and making sure traditional rivalries can still take place each season. Because of that, most schools will not play every team in their conference each year. Let's hope they'd be smart about keeping traditional rivalries going, as well as creating new ones based on geography. Washington State and Idaho are about 15 miles from each other, so it makes sense they would play a conference game every year. Travel to Hawaii would come every third or fourth season.

THE MOUNTAIN

Here are the teams in the Mountain Conference: Arizona State, Arizona, Colorado, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico State, New Mexico, UTEP, Utah State, BYU, Utah, Wyoming.

There is obviously some regional overlap. It makes more sense for Arizona and Arizona State to play a team from Southern California than a team from Wyoming, but that can be taken care of in the non-conference part of the season. The other issue with this conference—and a few others—would be determining if it's strong enough for an automatic bid to the playoffs. But with more at-large than automatic bids, it doesn't have to be an issue.

THE PANHANDLE (AKA TEXAS)

Here are the teams in the Panhandle Conference: Baylor, Houston, North Texas, Rice, SMU, TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Texas Tech, UTSA

Sorry UTSA and Texas State, in this model, you probably wish you didn't join the FBS. Look, Texas basically thinks they invented the sport, so why not create a conference with 11 teams from the Longhorn State? They could even get their own network! If only we could think of a name.

You'll notice two things about this group. First, UTEP isn't there. UTEP is so far from the other schools, and so close to the state of New Mexico, we thought it made sense to give UTEP a chance to play more local games. Remember, the point of this exercise is to keep conferences local.

Second, you'll realize that there are 11 teams in this conference. Right now, people hate having odd numbers, but it really doesn't matter. Teams schedule byes all the time in college football, so planning a bye during the conference slate might actually benefit your team. Besides, the off week for one team is an opportunity to get a non-conference game in. If the TV schedules are coordinated, it would be much easier to balance conference games with non-conference games throughout the year. And don't worry about needing 12 teams to host a title game. That rule is completely arbitrary anyway.

THE MIDWEST

Here are the teams in the Midwest Conference: Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa State, Iowa, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Arkansas.

Yes, this is basically the old Big 12 without the Texas schools and with Tulsa and Arkansas. Remember, Arkansas might hate leaving the SEC to go back to the Midwest, but in this model, the SEC doesn't exist anymore. And with all the revenue from TV being shared, Arkansas has a much easier chance of getting to the playoffs in this conference than the former SEC.

I know one thing: Oklahoma sure would love to play in this conference every year.

THE GREAT LAKES

Here are the teams in the Great Lakes Conference: Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Toledo, Notre Dame, Bowling Green.

Could you imagine a conference with Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame? Sure, the directional schools, save Northwestern sometimes, would have trouble competing in this group for a while, but once the revenue from playing all these big-time opponents comes rolling in, the playing field would be, to some extent, more level.

THE MIDEAST

Here are the teams in the Mideast Conference, which is made up of teams in the Midwest, but not as west as the other Midwest: Illinois, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Kentucky, Purdue, Ball State, Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio, Ohio State, Miami University, Marshall.

This is most of the schools from Ohio with those from Kentucky and Indiana. Marshall is basically lost in no man's land and rounded out the field. Illinois makes sense in this region because of where it's located in the state. Plus, I'm sure they'd love being able to avoid Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan State every year. That said, Ohio State and Purdue are in this conference and it just makes too much sense to have Cincinnati and Louisville in the same conference as Kentucky.

THE SOUTHERN BELT

Here are the teams in the Southern Belt Conference. Replace Southern with Sun (or with Bible) if you want: Alabama, UAB, Auburn, Troy, Arkansas State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Middle Tennessee, Memphis.

This is SEC blasphemy, I know. There was no way to keep the traditional SEC teams together. Even a 24-team conference seemed unruly. This is a little more organized, and keeps the focus on the northern part of SEC country.

The biggest issue with this conference is the disparity between the haves and have-nots. Putting Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee in with the likes of Louisiana-Monroe and Middle Tennessee? That's really not fair. But again, let's remember, the revenue for all teams will be shared. Eventually, this could even out a bit.

THE GULF COAST

Here are the teams in the Gulf Coast Conference: South Florida, Florida, FIU, Miami, UCF, Florida Atlantic, Florida State, Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette, LSU, Southern Miss, South Alabama.

We basically chopped a line right across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi to make this conference. It should be a Florida-only conference—and by far the most fun conference to watch every week—but there aren't enough teams. Adding LSU can only make that conference better. Plus, every team can charter one of those awesome planes that's also a boat to every game!

THE COASTAL

Here are the teams in the Coastal Conference: Duke, Wake Forest, ECU, North Carolina, NC State, South Carolina, Clemson, Virginia, Virginia Tech.

Basically it's the ACC without Maryland, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Miami and with South Carolina and ECU. That's terrible. There is a good case to be made for us to move both Georgia schools into this conference, giving the Coastal 11 teams to 13 in the Southern Belt. What do you say to that?

The good thing about only having nine teams in this conference is that it's the only league where all the teams would play each other every year, making a champion pretty easy to determine.

THE NORTHEAST

Here are the teams in the Northeast Conference: Connecticut, Navy, Maryland, Boston, College, Massachusetts, Rutgers, Army, Buffalo, Syracuse, Penn State, Temple, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Kent State, Akron.

Look, if you think that Akron and Kent State won't eventually be on the Big East radar, you're kidding yourself. The bigger issue than who is in this conference is who is not. The Big East can't survive with basketball-only schools pulling the league's attention away from football. I love Big East basketball, but in this day and age, a split league just doesn't work.

Having said that, this conference could work. People might question the automatic bid, but with teams like UConn, BC, Maryland, Rutgers, Syracuse, Penn State, Pittsburgh and West Virginia, there's enough big-time money being spent already to justify a spot. Actually, this conference is better than the current Big East. What am I saying?

So that's it. Radical realignment based on geography, TV markets, ease of travel and regional rivalries. It almost seems too easy, which is one reason why it will never happen.