A Modification to My Radical Realignment Scheme

Earlier this year, I published what I termed a "radical" realignment scheme for college football, consisting of 16 6-team conferences that would play double-round robin conference schedules. At the time, I mentioned that the postseason could simply be a seeded, 16-team "March Madness"-style playoff tournament consisting of the conference champions. However, I realize that a different approach may actually prove even more interesting.

Each of the 16 6-team conferences can easily be paired with another to form a two-division, 12-team conference. Here's what that would look like:

Pacific 12 Conference
North Division: Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, Utah, BYU
South Division: Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State

Mountain West Conference
West Division: Hawaii, San Jose State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Nevada, UNLV
Mountain Division: Boise State, Utah State, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico

Big 12 Conference

North Division: Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Arkansas
South Division: Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Houston

Big Ten Conference
West Division: Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Illinois
East Division: Purdue, Indiana, Notre Dame, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State

Big East Conference
West Division: Syracuse, Boston College, Pitt, Penn State, West Virginia, Maryland
East Division: UConn, UMass, Army, Rutgers, Temple, Navy

Atlantic Coast Conference
North Division: Virginia, Virginia Tech, UNC, NC State, Duke, Wake Forest
South Division: Clemson, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Florida, Miami

Southeastern Conference
South Division: LSU, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn, Georgia
North Division: Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis, Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Tennessee

American Athletic Conference
East Division: Appalachian State, East Carolina, Central Florida, South Florida, FAU, FIU
West Division: Tulsa, TCU, Baylor, Rice, SMU, Tulane

Under this modified proposal, each division would still play a double-round robin regular season schedule. The winner of each division would play each other for the conference championship. The winners of each conference championship would advance to the playoff quarterfinals, with set bowl match-ups against another conference champion, as follows:

Rose Bowl: Pac-12 vs Big Ten

Cotton Bowl: Mountain West vs American

Sugar Bowl: SEC vs Big 12

Orange Bowl: ACC vs Big East

The semifinals would pit the Rose and Cotton Bowl winners against each other in the Fiesta Bowl, while the Sugar and Orange Bowl winners would play in the Peach Bowl. The winners of the Fiesta and Peach Bowls would then play each other for the national championship.

In addition to the playoff bowls, each conference would send three other teams to bowl games, for a total of 32 bowl berths among the 96 teams in this proposal. The conference championship losers would play in the following bowl games:

Holiday Bowl: Pac-12 vs Big Ten

Bluebonnet Bowl: Mountain West vs American

Liberty Bowl: SEC vs Big 12

Citrus Bowl: ACC vs Big East

The runners-up in each division per conference would play each other in a play-in game for the next set of bowls:

Aloha Bowl: Pac-12 vs Big Ten

Sun Bowl: Mountain West vs American

All-American Bowl: SEC vs Big 12

Gator Bowl: ACC vs Big East

Finally, the third place finishers in each division would also play each other for the spots in this set of bowls:

Las Vegas Bowl: Pac-12 vs Big Ten

Alamo Bowl: Mountain West vs American

Independence Bowl: SEC vs Big 12

Hall of Fame Bowl: ACC vs Big East