Could super conferences get too big?

Cuban is against
super conferences.

You can have too much of a good thing. Mark Cuban made some great points this week with his blog against the idea of super conferences. I agree with him on a lot of points.

How big is too big? I get that super conferences will get some sweet television contracts, but if all of that money is split among 16 or 20 teams, doesn't everyone get a smaller share? How big can a television contract be?

I'm also anxious to see how the travel issue plays out. When you take away the regional rivalry games, fans are less likely to travel to the away games. Some OU fans may make the trip to see a marquee game like USC or Oregon, but are fans in Norman going to make it all the way to Corvallis, OR, or Pullman, WA? Probably not many. Conversely, they may make a trip to Ames, IA, to see Iowa State even though it's not a great game, but it's at least driving distance.

Possible Pac-16 West                           Possible Pac-16 East
USC                                                        Oklahoma
UCLA                                                       Oklahoma State
Oregon                                                    Texas
Oregon State                                           Texas Tech
Washington                                             Colorado
Washington State                                    Utah
California                                                 Arizona
Stanford                                                   Arizona State

Sure, USC and OU will be in the same conference,
but how often will they actually play each other?

The other issue is the scheduling. In football, you can't play everyone in a 16-team league. I'm assuming that a team will just play seven games within its own division then two games with teams from the other? So, for Texas and Oklahoma, they'll be in a conference with Oregon and USC, but hardly ever play them. Maybe they'll see the Trojans once every two or three years? That would mean USC actually visits Norman or Austin every four years or so.

Like most people do, we're only thinking about football here. What about other sports? Yesterday, I was imagining a Big East basketball slate with 20 teams. Let's image that the Big East adds the orphaned Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri after the Big 12 collapses. How do you make a 20-team basketball schedule? Do you just make a 19-game slate in which everybody plays everyone once? Syracuse and Georgetown fans are already upset that they no longer have a home-and-home. Imagine how Kansas and Missouri fans would feel about that. Do you expand to a 20-game slate with one home-and-home with a "rival?" Do you divide it into divisions with home-and-homes within your division? Then you'd never see some teams from the other side. A lot of schools would balk at the idea of being in the Big East but not getting to showcase their programs in east coast markets.

Here's a crazier idea: divide the Big East into four divisions. I don't have clever names yet like Leaders and Legends, and I don't see a way to balance the talent evenly while preserving rivalries, but here's my best shot:

Imagine a 20-team Big East basketball slate.
Kansas and Missouri still have to play twice, right?

Hypothetical Big East Division 1
Georgetown
Syracuse
Connecticut
Pittsburgh
West Virginia

Hypothetical Big East Division 2
Villanova
St. John's
Rutgers
Seton Hall
Providence

Hypothetical Big East Division 3
Cincinnati
Louisville
Marquette
Notre Dame
DePaul

Hypothetical Big East Division 4
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
TCU
South Florida

Wow. That's a mess, but you could play home-and-homes with every team in your division and maybe play three teams from every other division. That's 17 conference games. I know it's unbalanced (Division 1 is loaded), and I know a Kansas State home-and-home with South Florida doesn't excite anybody, but that's the best I can do.

Of course, I'm really just hiding my bigger fear: The Big East could kick out non-football schools like my alma mater, Marquette, as well as DePaul, Seton Hall, and Providence. I would guess the Big East would keep high profile non-football schools in large markets like Georgetown and St. John's. Then the Big East would be back to a manageable 16 teams. I hope that doesn't happen, but I realize it's possible.

My point (and Mark Cuban's): huge super conferences create issues with schedules that fans and coaches will hate. I would love it if somehow the Big 12 could be preserved and maybe bring in some teams like TCU, SMU, and Houston, but I know I'm fighting an uphill battle there.

I guess we'll just have to sit back and watch the experiment take place and raise more complaints as it goes along. You know, kind of like we do with the BCS: presidents and television executives like it, fans and coaches hate it, but it's the way of the world.