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

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

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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Comments

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 David Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 2:09 PM EDT reply actions

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 David Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 2:15 PM EDT reply actions

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

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 David Hooper on Jul 10, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions