This is the second entry in my series on relegation in college football.
Today, we look at 2006.
A simpler time. A time of Pooka shell necklaces. Sideburns. Hollister. Old Spice body spray. Coors Light.
Miami
took a big step back this year, going 6-6 in the regular season and then
narrowly defeating Nevada in the Micron PC Bowl in Boise on a Chavez Grant interception.
Chavez Grant. A name I hoped to never type again.
I watched that game
on one of the last nights I ever spent in Wisconsin, spending half the night
with my recently un-casted left ankle soaking in a hot Epsom salt bath while it was
-15 degrees outside. I would soon thereafter have a full on 80s movie level
meltdown at a party on a farm (wish I was kidding) in which I told everyone they wouldn't see me until I moved
back and bought the factory they all inevitably would end up working in just to
shut it down, Bain Capital style.
Something about Coastal Elitism probably fits in here ___________.
Anyway,
here's how the relegation would have gone:
ACC
- Arkansas State
Big
East - Akron
Big
10 - Toledo
Big
12 - Iowa State
Pac
10 - Stanford
SEC
- Mississippi State
Mississippi
State a long time member of the SEC makes it 2 years and 2 relegations for the
state of Mississippi. Tulsa stays in the SEC, while Boise and TCU keep their
spots in the Pac 10 and Big 12.
One
of the things that was most interesting about this project was taking a look
back at how bad some of these teams were. Stanford, probably the 2nd or 3rd
best program of the last 5 years, was EASILY the worst team in the Pac 12 in
2006. There's a reason they eventually had to hire Jim Harbaugh, whose previous
head coaching experience was at the University of San Diego...and that's it.
Meanwhile,
Akron, Toledo and Arkansas State all go immediately back down. Remember how I
said Arkansas State was a product of its environment and earned a fluky
promotion? I was right. Even playing in the Sun Belt in real life in 2006, they
ranked 113th in the nation in F/+. They were bad in real life and I projected
them as winless in the ACC.
And
the promotions:
Conference
USA- Houston
MAC
- Central Michigan
Mountain
West - BYU
Sun
Belt - Ole Miss
WAC
- Hawaii
At
Large - Oklahoma State (also in the mix: Southern Miss, Ohio, Utah)
In
the Expansion Draft, the SEC strikes first and brings Ole Miss back. The Big 10
stays true to its footprint and takes Central Michigan. The Big 12 reclaims
Oklahoma State, while the Big East...a conference that had been cognizant of
the impact of TV markets since it expanded to include Miami and Pitt in the
nineties...expands to Houston, a Top 10 TV market. The Pac 10 takes BYU, and
the ACC, bringing up the rear, is saddled with Hawaii. Woof.
Imagine
THOSE road trips. It's early, but I think it is safe to say that we are already
beginning to see the ACC as the Greater Fool in these relegation transactions.
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