PH'15: Conference Discussion

[JeffHCross]

You guys couldn't make it easy with picks that made logical sense to lump into conferences, could you?

Here's the breakdown of teams chosen and where they fit geographically:
Mountains & Plains
:Boise_State: (skip), :Colorado: (Papa), :Kansas: (Jeff)

Texas
:SMU: (snoop), :Houston: (Escobar)

Ohio/Midwest
:Cincinnati: (marcotte)

South
:Southern_Miss2: (Agency), :NC_State: (ecirp), :Georgia_Tech: (JB)

Note that I'm skipping G for now because he's not planning to play any games.

So, first thing that I notice is that other than marcotte in Cincinnati, this actually sets itself up pretty easily. He could be put with the Texas schools and everyone else lines up nicely.

However, the second thing I notice is that, with the exception of me, everyone is with the same users they were in a conference with for at least part/most of the DPD. Not sure if people are okay with that or would rather get some new opponents. Let me know.

I could see the Mountain/Kansas group going to either the Pac--12 or Big XII (Papa, curious how you'd feel about playing Texas). The Texas schools & Cincinnati could be either Big Ten or Big XII (snoop, marcotte, Escobar, what about playing Penn/Ohio State or Michigan). And the southern teams would be an obvious fit in the SEC.

Curious what you guys think about my questions and if you have any other suggestions. I could see a couple other geographic groupings working (namely Southern Miss with Texas and Cincy joining the ACC schools). We could also say screw geography and just do it randomly or something.

[Papa LoneStar]

I'll be down to be with the Texas schools....I plan to lay a foundation in Texas & California for recruiting....would prefer Pac 12, but whatever works for the OD will work for me.

[marcotte14]

I think the Mountains and Kansas should go into PAC12 with the addition of Texas and maybe OU.

The Texas group and Cincy in B1G with the addition of Florida State and maybe Miami.

The south group in SEC.

We are still planning on having Conf. Champ games right?

[JeffHCross]

Yep, planning to have conf championships just to reduce how much we have to change.

[skipwondah33]

I was thinking Pac-12 as well. Have no problem playing same group...Papa, Snoop and Jeff. Think I owe a trip to SMU against Snoop

[TheAgency]

I'm down with the alignment. We are starting all the coaches at the same level right?

[skipwondah33]

Actually thinking it doesn't matter to me if coaches aren't started the same. Some teams are better than others so coaches being rated higher/lower shouldn't have to be the same.

Fine with either direction but our team ratings and even prestige aren't equal.

[psusnoop]

Jeff I'm fine with playing PSU and the likes. It will only help me gain the north east in recruiting along with Texas :)

Skip, I'm down for that lol.

[skipwondah33]

Skip, I'm down for that lol.Don't think I ever visited you at Penn State did I? Wasn't sure. If we're in same conference then it won't matter lol...but I'll visit you first if so.

[Escobar]

It can be PAC-12, B1G, and SEC along with being organized how you have it grouped geographically.

[JeffHCross]

Alright, here's the conferences as I see them.



B1G West
B1G East


Northwestern
Houston


Minnesota
SMU


Nebraska
Michigan State


Wisconsin
Michigan


Texas
Cincinnati


Iowa
Ohio State


Oklahoma
Penn State






Pac North
Pac South


Stanford
Arizona State


Colorado
Arizona


Kansas
UCLA


Oregon
Washington


USC
Cal


BYU
Oklahoma State






SEC West
SEC East


Auburn
Alabama


Arkansas
Florida


LSU
Georgia Tech


Missouri
NC State


Miss St
UCF


Ole Miss
South Carolina


Texas A&M
Tennessee




Oklahoma State was moved to the Pac-12 to eliminate Papa getting the only non-user conference rivalry game in Utah. Texas/Oklahoma was moved to B1G to prop up that conference. In terms of average OVR, the conferences are damned even (within .7 pts) and the user divisions are 91.25, 91.25 and 91. The one problem I see is that there are no gimme games whatsoever in the SEC. The B1G and Pac-12 both still have some lower teams that may or may not be on conference schedules (there are no gimme division games for anybody). The SEC doesn't have that. I can't figure out an easy way to fix that, unfortunately, unless I keep Vanderbilt and move somebody like Virginia into the SEC.

The Pac-12 has two less teams, but at this time I believe they will still play the same number of conference games. I'll be testing all of the conference moves out tomorrow.

[skipwondah33]

With the divisions the way they are in, will that make the CC games possibly weaker? Can't imagine any of the teams in the Pac-12 South beating even the CPU teams in the North...even if all 3 of us were to finish in the last 3 spots for example.

Unless the key was making it difficult to even get there alone, never mind winning it. Which probably will be the case haha.

Edit: I haven't even looked at these teams to know if they are good or bad or not haha, so take all this for what it's worth

[JeffHCross]

Honestly skip, the intention was solely to make the divisions as even as possible and conferences as even as possible. The CCG is something that I generally expect a user to win. We're keeping the CCG because of the amount of work it would take to remove enough teams to not have CCGs, not because of added difficulty or anything like that.

Because we can only guarantee division schedules and not non division, I was generally trying to make the user division the hardest. But as I said, the general point was to make the user divisions even.

That said, given your example of the Pac 12 South, most of the Pac 12 South teams are in the mid 80s. The top Pac 12 teams are 91 OVR.

[skipwondah33]

Gotcha.

Yeah after hopefully what is tough to make it in general, the CCG would be won regardless by a user.

Nice to the CCG's back

[JeffHCross]

Since Skip was asking about the level of competition in the conferences, here's an updated conference list with OVR ratings.




B1G West
B1G East


Northwestern (83)
Houston (79)


Minnesota (81)
SMU (77)


Nebraska (88)
Michigan State (90)


Wisconsin (88)
Michigan (88)


Texas (88)
Cincinnati (81)


Iowa (83)
Ohio State (99)


Oklahoma (93)
Penn State (88)






Pac North
Pac South


Stanford (91)
Arizona State (90)


Colorado (84)
Arizona (90)


Kansas (75)
UCLA (91)


Oregon (91)
Washington (86)


USC (91)
Cal (90)


BYU (86)
Oklahoma State (88)










SEC West
SEC East


Auburn (91)
Alabama (95)


Arkansas (88)
Florida (90)


LSU (93)
Georgia Tech (86)


Missouri (88)
NC State (86)


Miss St (88)
Agency (??)


Ole Miss (88)
South Carolina (90)


Texas A&M (90)
Tennessee (90)



As you can see, the Big Ten is more up and down, with Ohio State and others ranked high but also some lower ranked teams. The Pac-12 and SEC are more across the board tough, though Alabama and LSU are higher than any Pac-12 teams.

[skipwondah33]

Blame it on me lol

Thanks for all the work put in for this Jeff