Pat Ford's Proposed Rocky Mountain Conference

Pat Forde just wrote this article yesterday:



https://www.si.com/college/2020/06/29/ncaa-college-football-conference-realignment?fireglass_rsn=true



Here is the overall realignment:


Pat Forde Conference Realignment.PNG

And the details of the conference that he placed BYU in:


Rock Mountain Conference.PNG

His main focus was to make everything regional and somewhat balanced.

The radical realignment highlights:



*A 120-school ecosystem, with 11 current FBS members relegated to FCS and one elevated from that level. Congratulations to North Dakota State; condolences to UTEP, Texas State, UTSA, South Alabama, Louisiana-Monroe, Bowling Green, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Coastal Carolina, Troy and Liberty. (Relegation/elevation can be revisited every three seasons.)



*Ten leagues, each with 12 members, each designed to maximize proximity and reduce travel demands and costs. All current conference structures are broken and reassembled. There are no more than eight Power 5 programs in a single new conference, and no fewer than four. And there are no independents—yes, Notre Dame is in a conference.



*In football, each school will play a full round-robin schedule plus one nonconference game (no FCS opponents). The nonconference opponent will be locked in for a minimum of four seasons before there is an opt-out to schedule someone different. There will be no conference championship games.



*All 10 conference champions, plus two at-large teams chosen by a selection committee, advance to the expanded College Football Playoff. The teams are seeded by the committee. The top four receive a first-round bye, while seeds 5–8 host seeds 9–12 at their home stadiums the first weekend of December. Quarterfinals are played the next week at the home stadiums of seeds 1–4. The semifinals and championship game are conducted under the current CFP format.



*There still will be bowl games for the teams that don’t make the CFP. Just fewer of them, which nobody should mind.



*The conferences will work for basketball and other sports as well—in fact, it will be better for nonrevenue sports in terms of travel cost savings. The 230-odd non-FBS programs that are part of NCAA Division I will remain aligned pretty much where they already are, with a few exceptions.

Also, "FBS Profile Rank is a 1–120 metric that combines a school’s five-year average Sagarin football ranking; its 2020 U.S. News & World Report National University ranking; and its 2018–19 Learfield Cup all-sports ranking."



Overall, I like this and think that it benefits BYU greatly. We would get access to the playoffs. We would play some P5 teams every year. And I think we probably got the second easiest conference (Penn St. got relegated to the Yankee Conference, LOL). Yes, BYU plays more P5 teams this year than they would in this conference. But with a stable conference the schedule would also be balanced meaning not having four killer teams off the bat and all pancakes at the end. I like how relegation/elevation (I think you mean PROMOTION?!) can be revisted every three years or so.



Even in this somewhat easy re-balanced conference, I don't think BYU is a lock to finish top 3 every year. Top 5 yes or at least I certainly hope so.



If I were to make any changes I'd like to add one or two more beefier teams, but I'm not sure exactly which changes I would make. Wyoming and New Mexico seem the favorites to kick out, but which regions take them in? Do we take two California schools or two Texas schools? Maybe a Cal and TCU? San Diego St. and Houston?



What do you guys think? Of course this will never happen, but I would love for BYU to be in a conference like this.

My reaction to this is essentially better than nothing.



I think I prefer the four 16 league setup that is also going around with BYU and Boise St. joining the Pac16.

I like it, all of it. Regional conferences, all conference champions get into the playoff. It will never happen. Too much money from the power conferences given up to teams that they don't feel are worthy to get it.