Miami
had a talented, yet (unsurprisingly) underachieving squad in Randy Shannon's
3rd season, headlined by a season opening win over Florida State (which I wrote
about in this very blog, I have no idea why I am still doing this, this is
depressing).
Now
in the Big 12, it would have been interesting to see how the Jacory Harris-led
offense did in this wide open conference. Miami beat Oklahoma that year after
Sam Bradford's injury, and we know that Texas was a bear of a team that made
the national title game behind Colt McCoy. Other than that, it would have been
fascinating to watch, as there were a lot of wide open offenses in the
conference…Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, etc.
Kansas,
checking in at a mediocre but respectable 54th in F/+ under the leadership of
human bean bag chair Mark Mangino, ended up losing the relegation battle.
Relegations:
ACC
- Buffalo
Big
East - Rice
Big
10 - Air Force
Big
12 - Kansas
PAC
10 - Arizona State
SEC
- Vanderbilt
Finally,
the team that started this craziness goes down, as Vanderbilt breaks the state
of Mississippi's vice grip on the bottom of the SEC, finishing slightly behind a
Tulsa team in decline.
The
ACC finally gets a break, when the team it is hoping to expunge actually sucks
as Buffalo goes down, giving a bad Maryland team a break. Don't look now but
this also guarantees a 3rd season of ACC football for Troy. Effing Troy.
Rice
comes plummeting back to Earth and proves their at-large bid was a fluke,
finishing nearly dead last in F/+, while Michigan narrowly holds off Air Force.
Arizona State is the latest established power to fall victim to the PAC 10's
remarkably adept job of bringing in new teams, as they are unable to beat out
promoted sides Boise, BYU and Stanford to stay in the upper flight despite an
F/+ of 66th...good enough for survival in most years.
Promotions:
Conference
USA - East Carolina
MAC
- Ohio
Mountain
West - Texas A&M
Sun
Belt - Mississippi State
WAC
- Washington
At-large:
Navy (also in the mix: Houston, Nevada, Minnesota)
While
no one is going to be elated about getting East Carolina or Ohio to join their
conference, there are no true dogs in this year's group of promoted teams;
maybe some cannon fodder, but no true crap. Washington is an historic program,
and Mississippi State and Texas A&M bring much to the table. Meanwhile
Navy, despite their gimmick offense and recruiting disadvantages, has played
good football for years and is located close enough to the Baltimore and DC
markets / recruiting grounds to make them a nice little add on at the bottom of
a conference.
The
SEC gets Mississippi State back, the PAC 10 nabs Washington and the Big 12
reclaims the Aggies. The Big 10 goes for Navy to replace Air Force, the Big
East gets East Carolina, and the ACC as always has to settle for the leftovers,
this year being Ohio.
If
you want to maintain your prestige as a conference in this system, you need 2
things to happen. First, the teams that are supposed to win need to actually
win. Losing a marquee program is very difficult to make up for, because the
pool of teams coming up is usually pretty thin. Second, you need a dominant
team to emerge every season. When your teams cluster together in the second
tier of the national rankings, you end up back filling your conference with
teams like Ohio, Buffalo and Troy. Weak teams in weak markets that generate weak ratings and weak affiliate fees; if you have more than one of those teams
at a time, it creates a generational problem for your league.
Think
about it like the Republican Party. If you continue to fill your base with
morons, eventually those morons become integral to your party. And then, even
if you want them gone, it's too late.
We
are 5 years into this thing, and the ACC isn't dead, but it is teetering over
the abyss.
No comments:
Post a Comment