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Jan 25, 2022
12:47:31pm
krindorr Intervention Needed
Merging doesn't accomplish much - doubles the pie, doubles the slices...unless they take out some of the chaff

So let's think about what teams you would want, realizing that anything between 10-16 teams could make sense

You definitely want USC, Oregon, Washington - those are the marquee name programs. In the modern era ('92 on) they rank #11, #14, and #22 in Top 25 appearances and have all had some of the highest highs.

From the Big 12, you'll want Oklahoma St who has been consistently excellent - 35 appearances in CFP rankings (7th most all time), getting as high as #5. Those numbers are the same for Utah so they're in.

So teams that are definitely in are USC, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma St, Utah. Teams that are definitely out are Kansas and Oregon St

Other teams to consider:

Team Strengths Weaknesses
BYU

Strong football history (70s/80s)
Currently strong football
Strong non-football sports
Strong fanbase

New to P5
Redundant Geography
West Virginia

Period of dominance (RichRod era)
Eastern Time Zone access

Remote Location
Cincinnati

P5 History (Big East)
Current best team in either conference
Eastern Time Zone

New to P5
Smaller fanbase
UCF

Huge potential fanbase
Florida recruiting access
Very high highs for football
Eastern Time Zone

Geographically Remote
New to P5
Inconsistent with football
Other sports lacking

Houston

Huge city
Great recruiting area
Demonstrated willingness to spend big

New to P5
Baylor

Texas recruiting access
Currently very good

Wild swings with football
Historically weak program

TCU

Great location - Dallas
Important recruiting base
Some serious highs

Small student base
Kansas St

Some REALLY good years....
Terrible location

...that were a fair while ago
Iowa St Has recently surged into being pretty good Historically mediocre
Texas Tech In Texas (albeit a pretty sparsely populated area)

One of the worst FBS programs over last decade

Colorado

Very good in the 90s
Denver market, most of Colorado

One of the worst FBS programs over last decade

Arizona St

Phoenix market (huge + rapidly growing)
History of being above average

No real huge highs
Geographic overlap with Arizona

Arizona

Elite basketball school - almost as good as Kansas

Geographic overlap with ASU
Almost as bad at football as Kansas right now

UCLA

Huge tradition/prestige
Los Angeles market
California recruiting
Basketball/football success

#2 in LA market behind USC

Cal

Elite academics
Strong rivalries
California market/recruiting

Just terrible at sports
Geographic overlap with Stanford

Stanford

Elite academics
Strong rivalries
California market/recruiting
Top 10 team in early 2010s
Excellent non-football sports

Pretty bad currently
Geographic overlap with Cal

Washington St

I'm sure something will come to me...

Historically mediocre
Remote location
Geographic overlap with Washington

So looking at that I add BYU, Stanford, UCLA to the conference, and Wazzu, Texas Tech, Cal and Arizona are out.

So that gives us USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon, Stanford, Utah, BYU, Oklahoma St in the conference.  I want to make sure we get heavy Texas representation so TCU, Baylor, Houston are in.  I also respect Colorado's history and the Denver location, so Colorado is in.  Arizona St is in since we want at least one from Arizona/Phoenix area, especially with no other major conference teams there.  

That brings us to 13 teams.  So now to decide if I want to go further east with Cincy, UCF, West Virginia.  The alternative is to add one of Iowa St or Kansas St or to add both of them and one of the teams we've bumped out.  Ultimately, I want the upside of UCF so I think my final 3 are UCF, Cincy...and Kansas St.

West: Oregon, Washington, USC, UCLA, Stanford, Utah, BYU, Arizona St
East: Colorado, Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Cincy, UCF, Houston, Baylor, TCU

Conference is headquartered in either Denver or Dallas

krindorr
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krindorr
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