Conference Realignment – Choose Your Own Adventure Style!

Remember those awesome choose-your-own-adventure novels from childhood?  How about a grown-up version related to college football?  Conference realignment remains the biggest story in college sports and now YOU can determine its landscape choosing who goes where.  But be careful, not all choices are equal; while some realignment decisions make conferences and teams stronger, others doom them to failure.

Start Now!

All the credit for this idea goes to Chadd Scott of SEC/ACC/C-USA site ChuckOliver.net. We spent hours pouring over scenarios and building this game. While not every possibility is covered, I think it’s a fun way to see how conference realignment is very much like a game of chess or Jenga!

What Would You Do…If You Were The SEC?

In this Friday’s installment of “What Would You Do…” I want to tie into something that generated a lot of discussion this week both on the site and on numerous radio shows: super conferences.

If you were the SEC Commissioner, or even just one of the member institutions, what would you do about conference realignment going forward? Would you be the first to make a move for a school like Texas A&M? Would you be the first to try to expand to sixteen? Would you wait for another conference to make the move first? Feel free to take this discussion anywhere you want – these are only questions to get you started.

If you need some inspiration, here are my thoughts from earlier this week on super conferences. You can also hear my discussion with Tim Brando about super conferences here.

What Would You Do If…You Were A Big 12 AD?

Time for our weekly Friday “What Would You Do If…” post!

What would you do if you were a Big 12 Athletic Director (at any school other than Texas)? You can pick one individual school or talk about the conference in general. What if anything would you do to compete with the Longhorn Network? What would you be asking the conference to do to improve the conference? Would you be looking to move to another conference?

Feel free to take this anywhere you want – those were just some questions to get you started.

Happy Friday!

What Would You Do…If You Were Gene Smith?

On Fridays I like to have a little fun and encourage some participation on the site with “What Would You Do?” This week I want to know what you would do if you were Gene Smith, Ohio State’s Athletic Director. I’ll leave this open-ended – you can speak to what you would have done over the past months as the Tressel scandal unfolded or what you would do going forward.

Can’t wait to see what you all would do if you were in Gene Smith’s shoes!

What Would You Do…if You Were AD?

*I’ve revised the prompt – you don’t have to stick to the six automatic-qualifying conferences. You can be the AD of any school in the FBS.

I’m going to start a new Friday segment called “What Would You Do?” Each week I’ll present a different question and solicit your response. This is your chance to be a part of the BusinessofCollegeSports.com!

Bill Hancock, the BCS’ top executive, recently said at a seminar, “Our business is so many people’s hobby.” Thank goodness that’s true, because it’s what keeps this website going. So, let’s play a little Fantasy College Athletic Director today.

What would you do if you were the Athletic Director of a FBS school? I hear you all complain about everything from why players aren’t paid to department’s who need student fees to balance the budget to why academics aren’t put first.

If you were an Athletic Director, what would you do first? Pay cuts for all coaches? Meet with your university’s President and urge him to join Shurtleff’s forthcoming suit against the BCS? Implement new academic eligibility rules for your athletes?

I once asked on Twitter how fans would make changes and got this response, which I think is pretty typical, from @Randletr: “oh no! You’ve got me all wrong–I just want to complain, I don’t actually want to work for a solution. #brutalhonestyTuesday”

So many of the issues you all perceive as problems seem to be too far down their respective paths to turn the train around. How do you stop escalating coaching salaries? I discussed this before, and I’ve also shown you the effect a coach like Gus Malzahn can have on a program. Can you really just scale back salaries?

What about the Great Facilities Race? I showed you yesterday how much Michigan is spending on facilities alone. Would you do only necessary repairs on your facilities and quit trying to keep up with the Joneses?

Let me know what you would do if you were Athletic Director!

P.S. You do not have to stick to the questions I asked – they’re only food for thought.