Around the SB Nation: Utah can, in fact, do more

by Joel on Jul 10, 2009 12:01 PM EDT in Rocky Top Talking Points Comment 4 comments

Utah says that there is nothing it can do to better its chances to compete for the national championship. Team Speed Kills begs to differ. As a fan of a team from a major conference, you need this information.
Michigan State blog The Only Colors takes the, uh, opportunity presented by a slow-news July to design a completely overhauled college football system that includes conference realignment, relegation of a couple of teams to a lower division, mandated conference scheduling, and an eight-team playoff.
The Rivalry, Esq. has several helpful tips on how to survive July, including learning the history of your team (check), re-watching your favorite games from the 2008 season (um, check!), studying your team's depth chart (put that on the to-do list), and trying out a new tailgating recipe (that, too).
Congratulations to Black Shoe Diaries and Black Heart Gold Pants, both of whom have been interviewed by the Big 10 network.

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One question I have with all of the conference realignment theories:

How does that affect all of the other sports that a university has?

by Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 2:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

And no,

I don’t favor a soccer-style approach to conference alignment.

Neither would the next major-conference team who gets downgraded because of a 3-9 year.

by Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 2:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

There needs to be relegation...

but it should be based on a school’s commitment to playing I-A football, not just its record. There needs to be about 20-30 teams cut from division I-A, and then there needs to be requirements put on I-A schools as to how many lower-division schools they can schedule.

I want to see higher minimum average attendance requirements (if you can’t put 18K in the stadium, you can’t play big-boy football). The business of joining weak leagues like the Sun Belt and expecting big paydays is watering down the game.

by CornFromAJar on Jul 10, 2009 3:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That I can agree with,

and as you say, that’s a completely different issue from soccer-style relegation.

There’s a point here that a lot of people miss about Utah. It’s a pretty big school and they take their sports very seriously. They’re one of the few to sport a very competitive gymnastics program, for example, and they operate on a larger scale than most “major” conference schools. As a then-WAC/now-MWC lifelong fan, I have always worried that they and BYU might bolt for the PAC-10 if offered. They meet all the requirements, but I think a lot of the PAC-10 schools don’t want the added competition.

But, as seen in Sparty’s tables, it’s convenient to view Utah as ‘just another mid-major’. They’re not.

by Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs