I was reading about how the new game will let you realign the conferences in Dynasty Mode like they did in past versions, except that now you can have up to 20 teams in a league. And I know EA did a lot of leg work trying to make the game as realistic as possible (I, for one, think that Horns Down SHOULD be in the game). But it's still a video game, so I'm gonna do something unrealistic to make it more fun.
I think college sports are a lot more like European football than we care to admit. So like the Euro leagues, I'm going to have promotion and relegation across the conferences. There's going to be two systems, each of them with the same number of teams, each of them with five or six levels. Here's what I was thinking:
I had to do some rearranging with the top two levels to make sure both sides had the same number of teams. Oregon State and Washington State probably don't deserve to start off in the top tier, but again, I needed to make the sides even and they were just kind of floating on an island by themselves. I thought about starting Notre Dame off in the Big 12, but they're already sort of in the ACC and are geographically a better fit in the Big Ten. So instead, I had them start in the top tier and moved Clemson up as well.
Just like in the EPL, at the end of every season, I'll relegate the bottom three teams from every conference down a level and promote the top three teams from each league up a level. That way the best teams play in the best conferences (which is honestly how it should be). A team in the MAC might never make the CFP, but now there's some real incentive for making it to the conference championship game beyond a trophy.
Another thing I read about conference realignment in the game was that you still have to have 4 teams in each conference. So for Level 5, I just split Conference USA in half, kept FIU, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the league and sent New Mexico State, Sam Houston, UTEP, Louisiana Tech and Jacksonville State in the vacant "Pac-12." I might only promote two up from each conference since they're smaller leagues.
That leaves two independents: UConn and UMass. If I can add them to the Level 5 conferences, I will. But if not, we'll just keep them independent and call it Level 6 and automatically promote them the next year.
I have no idea how this will work out in a 12-team CFP. I am curious to see what kind of impact it has on recruiting. I've clearly put too much thought into this. I can't wait.
I think college sports are a lot more like European football than we care to admit. So like the Euro leagues, I'm going to have promotion and relegation across the conferences. There's going to be two systems, each of them with the same number of teams, each of them with five or six levels. Here's what I was thinking:
| Level | System 1 | System 2 |
| 1 | Big Ten + Notre Dame | SEC + Clemson, Oregon State & Washington State |
| 2 | ACC | Big 12 |
| 3 | American | Sun Belt |
| 4 | MAC | MWC |
I had to do some rearranging with the top two levels to make sure both sides had the same number of teams. Oregon State and Washington State probably don't deserve to start off in the top tier, but again, I needed to make the sides even and they were just kind of floating on an island by themselves. I thought about starting Notre Dame off in the Big 12, but they're already sort of in the ACC and are geographically a better fit in the Big Ten. So instead, I had them start in the top tier and moved Clemson up as well.
Just like in the EPL, at the end of every season, I'll relegate the bottom three teams from every conference down a level and promote the top three teams from each league up a level. That way the best teams play in the best conferences (which is honestly how it should be). A team in the MAC might never make the CFP, but now there's some real incentive for making it to the conference championship game beyond a trophy.
Another thing I read about conference realignment in the game was that you still have to have 4 teams in each conference. So for Level 5, I just split Conference USA in half, kept FIU, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the league and sent New Mexico State, Sam Houston, UTEP, Louisiana Tech and Jacksonville State in the vacant "Pac-12." I might only promote two up from each conference since they're smaller leagues.
That leaves two independents: UConn and UMass. If I can add them to the Level 5 conferences, I will. But if not, we'll just keep them independent and call it Level 6 and automatically promote them the next year.
I have no idea how this will work out in a 12-team CFP. I am curious to see what kind of impact it has on recruiting. I've clearly put too much thought into this. I can't wait.
