Have you ever wanted to blow up the BCS conferences and start over? Good. Because that's what we're doing here at Big East Coast Bias in association with the other fine blogs here at SB Nation in the SB Nation Conference Re-Draft Project.
Big East Coast Bias was selected to be one of the six commissioner blogs in this endeavor. After you read through the rules and objectives, we'll be asking for your thoughts on this project. Spoiler (or in case you don't want to read the whole post, we don't have to stick to the name "Big East" or select only from the Eastern time zone like we did in this conference re-draft post for the NCAA Football 12 video game).
Game Objectives. The purposes of the fantasy draft are: (1) to explore the values of individual schools by drafting them sequentially, and (2) to have fun strategically building a conference of schools.
There will be six conferences, and such conferences are NOT meant to be new versions of current conferences. That is, the objective of the game is not to create tweaked versions of what we already have. The goal is to draft schools based on their overall value, and to compile a conference of teams strategically and coherently.
What makes a school valuable? Well as one of the six conference commissioners, we leave that largely up to you, with a few important guidelines. First, bearing in mind that we are drafting athletics conferences, athletics should be weighted heaviest, if not exclusively.
While obviously we must consider athletics, the following are factors you may, but are not required to consider:
Academics
Co-eds
Weather/Desirability of Destination
Historic Success
Traditions
TV Revenue Potential
Ethics
Rivalries (two teams)
On the flipside, for purposes of this game there are two factors that are NOT to be considered. First, do not take travel/geographic concerns into consideration. In real life, Washington and Florida are unrealistic conference partners; in our world, that doesn't matter -- neither from a travel or time zone standpoint. Second, and related, while we may take individual rivalries into consideration (e.g. pairing Michigan and Ohio State), preservation of current conference history/rivalry/alliance is not to be considered. Hopefully for obvious reasons.
Finally, the goal is not to improve the status quo. The goal is not to create a conference that will actually play games. The goal is to use a draft to value schools and have fun strategically grouping them together.
In sum, there is no single way that schools must be valued and/or grouped together. Some may wish to create the best conference of all-around athletics-academics combination. Others may want to create a revenue superpower. There are any number of valid ways to do this. The only limitation is not creating a group that is based on regional and historical ties. Time to wipe the slate clean and start over.
Conference Commissioners. As mentioned above, there will be six conference commissioners, with Big East Coast Bias creating one of the six new conferences. The other five conference commissioners / adversaries include House of Sparky (Arizona State), BC Interruption (Boston College), Black Heart Gold Pants (Iowa), Team Speed Kills (SEC) and Red Cup Rebellion (Ole Miss).
An (incredibly) important note: The six conference commissioners will start with a blank slate. We don't get to start off by having any of the current or past Big East members in our conference. Similarly, House of Sparky, Black Heart Gold Pants and Red Cup Rebellion will not be starting with Arizona State, Iowa or Ole Miss in their conference already. We have to draft our favorite schools if we want them.
By luck of a random number generator, BC Interruption gets first pick in the draft. We're fourth? What did we do break a mirror and spill salt all over it? The complete draft order is as follows:
1. BC Interruption
2. Black Heart Gold Pants
3. Team Speed Kills
4. Big East Coast Bias
5. House of Sparky
6. Red Cup Rebellion
The draft will be a snake draft, with Red Cup Rebellion receiving the 6th and 7th picks. BC Interruption receives the first overall pick, but won't pick again until picks 12 and 13, and so on.
The draft is officially being run by the Oklahoma State Cowboys blog Cowboys Ride For Free. They will settle any disputes with an iron fist.
Schedule. This week, we are introducing the Re-Draft project and want to get the conversation going. We need to start thinking about the following questions:
Who would you, our dear readers, want to draft?
What kind of alliances do we seek?
What sort of values are we looking for in a particular program?
Who do we start with? Which college football program should we start building a conference around? Or, do we stay a basketball first conference?
What in the hell are we going to call this new conference???
On Monday, June 13, BC Interruption is on the clock. They have to submit their first overall pick of the draft next Monday. After making their pick, they will then consult with their draft choice (if SBN has a blogger for that school). BC Interruption and the draft pick will collectively decide on a draft strategy and make a second round choice.
By Friday of next week, each conference will have a commissioner, two schools and up to two more bloggers and SBN communities to collaborate with on picks. By Sunday, June 19, with a conference commissioner and two schools solidifying the conference's identity, we'll select the name of the conference.
On Monday, June 20, Cowboys Ride For Free will announce the conference names and recap the first two rounds of the draft.
After the big reveal of conference names and founding members, the draft will continue in much the same manner, with two draft picks a week for the next several weeks. Once a conference drafts 12 members, a conference can be capped. If we want, the draft will continue for conferences who wish to add more members. Now we can finally settle the matter of the Big East basketball size. However, we can only draft up to a maximum of 16 schools. So you know what that means...#BOOTDEPAUL
The complete conference rosters will be announced and discussed across the SB Nation community of NCAA sites on Monday, July 25.
Other points of note: When selecting a school, you are bringing on all of its NCAA-sanctioned varsity programs. This is why we are not taking DePaul. We want to take the best available overall package in an athletics department. Or do we? We can't post our strategy here. We're like General Turgidson: We aren't going to let them see the Big Board! Check out this Draft Kit at Cowboys Ride For Free for some ideas.
Stump for your school or tell us who we should select in the comments. Remember, if we pick your school first, we'll be consulting with you on a conference name and who to pick next.