The East Coast (Properly) Realigned, Part 2

Two weeks ago I laid out my high level plan for a rightsized realignment of major college football. Now, it's time for the details.

With last week’s interlude to analyze new offensive line coach Ron Crook behind us, let’s return to the topic of realignment. If you missed Part 1 in this series, I would recommend going back and reading it before proceeding.

The 12 conferences I propose are too many to cover in one article, so I’ll go four conferences at a time, starting with the East Coast.

Northeast

The Northeast Conference is by far the weakest of the 12 conferences. Such is the state of football in that part of the country. In a ten year span, one would have to believe that Penn. St. would win the conference six or seven times, Pitt once or twice, and the remaining teams might combine for two conference titles.

Over the last 25 years, aside from Penn St., Pitt and Boston College are the only schools in the conference to win more than half of their games. It’s not so much that these teams never win as it is that they can rarely string together winning seasons.

I know what you’re thinking - there is no way these teams could ever comprise a win-and-you’re-in conference. But look closer. This conference would cover four major media markets:

• New York City (#1): 7,348,620 households, average income: $75,023

• Philadelphia (#4): 2,942,800 households, average income: $65,573

• Boston (#9): 2,424,240 households, average income: $70,455

• Pittsburgh (#23): 1,160,220 households, average income: $47,582

With those four markets, this conference would almost assuredly net a lucrative television contract. TV money buys better facilities and better coaches. And down the line, that translates into better performance on the field.

No surprise, Penn St. likely would have won the conference in 2022. Penn St. would probably win a bunch of conference titles at first, but the competition would likely stiffen over time.

Capital Region

One of the major flaws of the current college football setup is that too many games do not matter. There are too many buy games in which the only goals for the favorite are to avoid losing and avoid injuries. Too many historical rivalries have been shelved. Too many teams are out of playoff contention after the first two weeks of the season. Winning a conference championship doesn’t even really matter that much in the grand scheme of things (2021 Georgia is only the latest example).

Virginia Tech currently plays ODU, Marshall, and Liberty much more than most fans would like. Those games would mean a lot more if they were conference games. Then, the Hokies would have something to gain.

Playing in the same conference with West Virginia would ensure that that rivalry game gets played annually, as it should. Given their military traditions and geographic proximity, Navy and Virginia Tech would be a unique matchup that would bring a lot of positive attention to the men and women in uniform. Maryland and Virginia round out the league and are good fits on multiple fronts. Put a playoff berth on the line, and I think this would be a very competitive conference year in, year out.

The conference is chalk full of rivalries and big brother-little brother games. WVU would have to play in Huntington every other year. That would be an awesome scene. Hokie fans saw how amped up ODU and Liberty fans were to host Virginia Tech this year. Imagine getting the Hokies at home on even footing every two years. No, the stadiums are not huge (yet), but pound for pound, these schools have pretty solid fans. And with the importance of every game, both for playoff and historical reasons, I would wager that attendance would be high.

Any one of four teams could have won the conference this year. None of them are Virginia Tech. A James Madison-Liberty game in the final week of the season with a playoff berth on the line would be bonkers. ESPN College Gameday would, no doubt, be there. It would be November Madness at its finest. Just imagine being the JMU kicker, with your team down a point, three seconds remaining, and you are lining up to attempt a game winning 47-yard field goal. That would make for incredible television, an amazing in-game atmosphere, and would be the talk of the region for decades to come.

Carolinas

As conference go, this one is like the love child of a James Taylor song and a classic by the Eagles:

• “In my mind I’m going to Carolina…”

• “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”

Eight teams packed into two states - can you say “bus trip”? In conference play, you almost guarantee Duke will average at least 25,000 fans per home game, and maybe even generate a sell out or two due in large part to the traveling fanbases of their opponents.

East Carolina, especially, has a rabid-in-a-good-way fanbase, that would gladly set up shop in Wallace Wade to cheer for the road team. I also love the idea of Coastal Carolina getting a shot at Clemson and South Carolina every year.

So long as Dabo is at Clemson, the Tigers would be favored to win the conference most years, but there are plenty of teams capable of capturing the title. And Hokie fans need not strain hard to imagine the facility enhancements that the added revenue would support at Appalachian St., Coastal Carolina, and, to a lesser extent, East Carolina.

Southeast

Looking at the conference map, I can almost taste the heat and humidity on my tongue. Imagine The U never having to travel north of Athens, GA in order to play a conference game. It almost makes too much sense. If you are holding out hope that the boosters will clamor for a return to the good old days with jaunts up to Chestnut Hill, MA and Syracuse, NY, well, good luck with that.

If it seems a bit much having Georgia, Florida, Florida St., and Miami all in the same nine-team league, I would note that seldom have any two of those schools had elite teams at the same time, and never have there been three at once. The Southeast would be roughly on par with the current SEC West - certainly tougher than the Northeast, but out of conference scheduling would compensate. Penn. St. would likely arrange to play two high level teams per year in an effort to boost their seeding, while Georgia would likely only play one (and UGA would still probably be favored).

Think about how basketball scheduling works. In years when a coach thinks he has a National Championship contender, he will go out and schedule out of conference games against other great teams in order to boost the team’s resume and the players’ toughness.

But there is no guarantee that this would always be a great league. See Exhibit A: 2022. Outside of Georgia and Florida St., this was an awfully pedestrian conference.

On Deck

I’m brushing up against the email length limit, so I’ll wrap things up for this week. Next up - tornado alley!