(02-08-2017 03:31 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: I would do it like this though...
AAC
East: UConn, Temple, East Carolina, UCF, USF
South: Cincinnati, Tulane, Memphis, Houston, SMU
Central: Navy, Tulsa, Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico
West: San Diego State, UNLV, BYU, Boise State, Wyoming
You have most of the original MWC plus most of the original CUSA plus UConn and Temple. It's a national conference with regional divisions.
That's a good group. The difficulty comes in aligning the divisions.
- Navy would object to replacing Houston and SMU with CSU and New Mexico.
- Cincinnati would want to remain in the East.
- Wyoming would need to stay with CSU (50 miles apart) and Front range schools
I think you could see five 4-team *scheduling* divisions:
EAST: UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU
SOUTH: USF, UCF, Memphis, Tulane
CENTRAL: Navy, Houston, SMU, Tulsa
MOUNTAIN: Air Force, CSU, Wyoming, New Mexico
WEST: SDSU, UNLV, BYU, Boise St.
Air Force-Navy would be the only locked cross-division game. And, perhaps have MOUNTAIN v. WEST and EAST v. Florida schools and Navy and CENTRAL (excl. Navy) v. Memphis/Tulane more often than not.
AAC Championship game simply takes the top-2 teams based on conference W-L records, tie breakers based on head-to-head, then CFP rankings.
For Olympic sports,
EAST: UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, USF, UCF, *VCU
CENTRAL: Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Tulane, Memphis, Air Force, New Mexico
WEST: SDSU, UNLV, BYU, Boise St., CSU, Wyoming, *Gonzaga
12 intra-division games (H-H) and 8 cross-division games. AFA and UNM play CSU and Wyo each season and more WEST teams than EAST. Tulane and Memphis play more EAST than WEST.