As the conference realignment madness continues, it is clear that there is no central figure or organization guiding college football for the greater good of the game. Instead, a money grab for television revenue by college administrators, athletic directors, and conference commissioners is dictating the future of college football, and it is headed in the wrong direction.
If there were any sanity or order to college football, the conferences would look something like what you see below. Rather than a conglomerate of business interests focused solely on chasing the green, the conferences would be fairly organized in the best interests of all involved -- by geography.
As the BCS and meaningless bowl games continued to ruin the the postseason of the most passionate sport in the country, Project Playoffs was born out of the need to create an equitable plan to crown a champion. While many suggested a small playoff to solve the problem, Project Playoffs recognized that nothing would be solved without conference realignment first.
But not the kind of conference realignment college football is experiencing today. Instead of the ever-expanding mega-conferences, the conferences should be getting smaller.
Now eight years after the creation of Project Playoffs, it has become clear that the postseason is no longer the primary problem in college football. It is the greedy conferences and college administrators hypocritically citing the best interest of the student-athlete on one hand while actually caring very little about the best interest of the students or fans as long as the money continues to roll in.
Project Playoffs has taken the top 81 schools by football attendance and divided them into nine geographically correct conferences. Though it will never happen because the greedy college administrators don't want to part with their conference television money, this realignment plan is the most sensible solution to what is currently transpiring.
Using the Massey Comparison Rankings, which take every poll and computer rating into account, below is a projection of how the standings would be in each of these realigned conferences as of Week 3.
Each conference winner gets an automatic birth into the 16-team playoff, and the next best seven teams according to an all-encompassing rating system would also make the playoff. Then all 16 teams are seeded regardless of conference finish using the same all-encompassing rating system.
Click here for a full explanation of Project Playoffs.
Mid-South
1 Oklahoma (2-0)
6 Oklahoma State (3-0)
8 Texas A&M (2-0)
13 Arkansas (3-0)
TCU (2-1)
Texas (3-0)
Baylor (2-0)
Texas Tech (2-0)
Houston (3-0)
Southern
2 Alabama (3-0)
3 LSU (3-0)
Auburn (2-1)
Mississippi State (1-2)
Tennessee (2-1)
Vanderbilt (3-0)
Southern Miss (2-1)
Kentucky (2-1)
Ole Miss (1-2)
Northwest
4 Boise State (2-0)
9 Oregon (2-1)
Utah (2-1)
Washington (2-1)
Air Force (1-1)
BYU (1-2)
Colorado (1-2)
Oregon State (0-2)
Fresno State (1-2)
West
5 Stanford (3-0)
USC (3-0)
Arizona State (2-1)
San Diego State (3-0)
California (3-0)
Arizona (1-2)
Hawaii (1-2)
UCLA (1-2)
UTEP (2-1)
Midwest
7 Wisconsin (3-0)
12 Nebraska (3-0)
Illinois (3-0)
Missouri (2-1)
Iowa (2-1)
Iowa State (3-0)
Kansas State (2-0)
Kansas (2-1)
Minnesota (1-2)
Atlantic
10 Virginia Tech (3-0)
North Carolina (3-0)
Maryland (1-1)
North Carolina State (2-1)
Wake Forest (2-1)
Virginia (2-1)
East Carolina (0-2)
Marshall (1-2)
Duke (1-2)
Southeast
11 South Carolina (3-0)
14 Florida (3-0)
Florida State (2-1)
South Florida (3-0)
Clemson (3-0)
Georgia Tech (3-0)
Miami (1-1)
Georgia (1-2)
Central Florida (2-1)
Northeast
15 West Virginia (3-0)
Penn State (2-1)
Navy (2-1)
Pittsburgh (2-1)
Syracuse (2-1)
Connecticut (1-2)
Rutgers (1-1)
Army (1-2)
Boston College (0-3)
Big North
16 Michigan (3-0)
Notre Dame (1-2)
Ohio State (2-1)
Michigan State (2-1)
Louisville (2-1)
Cincinnati (2-1)
Northwestern (2-1)
Purdue (2-1)
Indiana (1-2)
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