Nerdlinger
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RE: Divisionless Football Conferences?
(01-30-2018 05:34 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: So there is already at least one large conference that lacks divisions and uses protected matchups for football: the Big Sky Conference. There will be 14 football schools in the Big Sky in the 2018 and 2019 seasons (technically 13, as UND is FCS independent but is still playing a Big Sky schedule). Each team has 2 protected rivals, as shown here.
Right now they're using an 8-game conference schedule, but they may be moving to 9 games in 2020. That year North Dakota football joins the MVFC, leaving 13 football schools once again. Presumably, if the conference sticks with 2 protected matchups, MSU and UNC (UND's partners) will just play each other.
Since Idaho is rejoining as a football school this year, EWU is losing its protected matchup with UM. This could be reversed in 2020 by increasing the number of protected matchups. This also would allow Idaho to play ISU every year. Having 3 protected matchups in a 13-team conference means that one team is perpetually going to end up with 2 or 4 protected matchups, so perhaps 4 matchups across the board would be better.
Here's my proposal for the protected matchups for 2020 on:
Cal Poly: Sac State, UC Davis + NAU, SUU
EWU: Idaho, PSU + Montana, MSU
Idaho: EWU, Montana + ISU, PSU
ISU: Weber + Idaho, Montana, MSU (- PSU)
Montana: Idaho, MSU + EWU, ISU
MSU: Montana + EWU, ISU, UNC, (- UND)
NAU: SUU, UNC + Cal Poly, UC Davis
PSU: EWU + Idaho, Sac State, UC Davis (- ISU)
Sac State: Cal Poly, UC Davis + PSU, Weber
SUU: NAU, Weber + Cal Poly, UNC
UC Davis: Cal Poly, Sac State + NAU, PSU
UNC: NAU + MSU, SUU, Weber (- UND)
Weber: ISU, SUU + Sac State, UNC
With an 8-game schedule, each team can play half the 8 non-protected opponents every year. A 9-game schedule is doable; it just makes these pairings more frequent. Note that a 9-game conference schedule with 13 teams means one team will end up with 8 or 10 conference games. The team affected by this can be rotated annually.
Here's the Big Sky schedule proposed above in table form, plus 2 more columns of opponents:
Code:
SCHOOL OPPONENTS WITH 2 PROTECTED | ADD'L OPPONENTS WITH 4 PROTECTED | ADD'L OPPONENTS WITH 6 PROTECTED
CAL POLY Sacramento State UC Davis | Southern Utah Northern Arizona | Idaho Northern Colorado
EASTERN WASHINGTON Montana Portland State | Idaho Montana State | UC Davis Sacramento State
IDAHO Portland State Idaho State | Montana Eastern Washington | Montana State Cal Poly
IDAHO STATE Idaho Weber State | Montana State Montana | Northern Colorado Southern Utah
MONTANA Montana State Eastern Washington | Idaho State Idaho | Weber State Portland State
MONTANA STATE Northern Colorado Montana | Eastern Washington Idaho State | Portland State Idaho
NORTHERN ARIZONA Southern Utah Northern Colorado | Cal Poly UC Davis | Sacramento State Weber State
NORTHERN COLORADO Northern Arizona Montana State | Weber State Southern Utah | Cal Poly Idaho State
PORTLAND STATE Eastern Washington Idaho | UC Davis Sacramento State | Montana Montana State
SACRAMENTO STATE UC Davis Cal Poly | Portland State Weber State | Eastern Washington Northern Arizona
SOUTHERN UTAH Weber State Northern Arizona | Northern Colorado Cal Poly | Idaho State UC Davis
UC DAVIS Cal Poly Sacramento State | Northern Arizona Portland State | Southern Utah Eastern Washington
WEBER STATE Idaho State Southern Utah | Sacramento State Northern Colorado | Northern Arizona Montana
The first 2 columns of opponents are for a conference schedule with 2 protected opponents, the next 2 columns are additional opponents for a schedule with 4 protected opponents, and the last 2 columns are even more opponents for a schedule with 6 protected opponents.
And here is an alternate divisionless schedule that includes NMSU, in case they decide to throw in the FBS towel like Idaho:
Code:
CAL POLY Northern Arizona Sacramento State UC Davis | Southern Utah | New Mexico State
EASTERN WASHINGTON Portland State Montana Idaho | UC Davis | Sacramento State
IDAHO Montana Idaho State Eastern Washington | Portland State | Montana State
IDAHO STATE Montana State Idaho Weber State | Montana | Portland State
MONTANA Idaho Eastern Washington Montana State | Idaho State | Weber State
MONTANA STATE Idaho State Northern Colorado Montana | Sacramento State | Idaho
NEW MEXICO STATE Southern Utah Northern Arizona Northern Colorado | Weber State | Cal Poly
NORTHERN ARIZONA Cal Poly New Mexico State Southern Utah | Northern Colorado | UC Davis
NORTHERN COLORADO Weber State Montana State New Mexico State | Northern Arizona | Southern Utah
PORTLAND STATE Eastern Washington UC Davis Sacramento State | Idaho | Idaho State
SACRAMENTO STATE UC Davis Cal Poly Portland State | Montana State | Eastern Washington
SOUTHERN UTAH New Mexico State Weber State Northern Arizona | Cal Poly | Northern Colorado
UC DAVIS Sacramento State Portland State Cal Poly | Eastern Washington | Northern Arizona
WEBER STATE Northern Colorado Southern Utah Idaho State | New Mexico State | Montana
The first 3 columns of opponents are for a conference schedule with 3 protected opponents, the additional 4th column is for a schedule with 4 protected opponents, and the additional 5th column is for a schedule with 5 protected opponents.
With 14 teams, the Big Sky could instead go with a 2-division alignment, like so:
North: Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Colorado, Portland State
South: Cal Poly, New Mexico State, Northern Arizona, Sacramento State, Southern Utah, UC Davis, Weber State
But of course there's less incentive to do so in FCS, where there are few conference championship games due to the tournament.
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EDIT: As it turns out, the Big Sky is not actually planning to move to 9 conference games in 2020: https://www.foxsports.com/college-footba...ule-102116
This is evidenced by Cal Poly's 2020 schedule, which can be found here: https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/cal-poly/
(This post was last modified: 01-16-2019 08:49 PM by Nerdlinger.)
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