Sports Czar, part 2

It seems as though expansion is the theme of 2010 in sports. The NCAA Tournament has added 3 teams, the Pac-10 and Big Ten (and the SEC and ACC- the Big 12 could be eviscerated) are exploring adding teams, and the NFL is debating whether or not to add 2 regular season games. If I were Sports Czar, these are the additions I would make...

NCAA Tournament:Now that the tournament is 68 teams, I would make the 4 opening round games between power conferences, with a 12 or 13 seed on the line. After one year of that, I would expand the tournament to 128 teams. Add a weekend of games, making the tourney a month-long affair, and coaches can then rest easier about a mediocre season ("but we made the tournament...")

Conference Expansion: The Big Ten is easy- add Notre Dame. The Irish play most of their schedule against Big Ten teams already, the Big Ten has its own network, and it just makes geographical sense. The Big Ten has 11 teams (with the addition of Penn St in 1990), so adding ND gives them 12 - the magic number for having a Conference Championship game in football.

The Pac-10 is a little different. There are no "natural" additions to be made since the schools are already paired as rivals (USC-UCLA, Arizona-Arizona St., Oregon-Oregon St., Washington-Washington St., Stanford-Cal). That means that bringing in 2 teams that are natural rivals. San Diego St.-San Diego doesn't work- too weak, too close. New Mexico-New Mexico St. doesn't have the gravitas of the other schools.

For basketball, Gonzaga makes sense- successful mid-major program, geographically close- but no football program. So they're out. I would love to add Boise St., but Idaho is their natural rival, and the Vandals suck. So they're out. Utah-BYU makes some sense, as Utah and BYU have good programs in football and basketball, but Utah isn't exactly on the Pacific, is it? Neither is Nevada, who could contribute UNLV-Nevada Reno.

After all that, however, I would add BYU and Utah to the Pac-10.

NFL Schedule: Commissioner Roger Goodell has thrown around the idea of adding two more regular season games, bringing the total to 18. I like this idea (more football=better), but think the NFL could really help the nature of the game by instituting a "rivalry" week as part of this schedule expansion.

I would make it so that each team would play a team in the opposite conference every year that they could generate a rivalry with. It would give fans another team to hate (sports hate is good), and make things interesting. These games would be played in Week 9- halfway there- and be locked in, home-and-home series.

Here's what I came up with:
DAL - HOU = Texas Bowl
NYG - NYJ = Battle for New York (or Jersey, where they actually play, or Swamp Bowl)
PHI - PIT = Battle of Pennsylvania
WAS - BAL = Crab Bowl
DET - CLE = Blue-Collar Bowl (could be ugly, but one of these teams has to get better, right? This also pits 2 pre-merger NFL teams against each other. Gotta love the history.
CHI - IND = Illinois vs Indiana (I know mid-westerners could get pumped for this)
STL - KC = Missouri Bowl
SF - OAK = Bay Bowl
GB - BUF = Small Frozen Bowl
TB - MIA = Sunshine Bowl
CAR - CIN = Feline Bowl
NO - TEN = Jazz vs Blues Bowl
ATL - JAX = The 2nd Largest Cocktail Party (behind the annual UGA-UF game, of course)
SEA - SD = Battle of Opposing Climates
ARI - DEN = Heat vs Altitude Bowl
MIN - NE = Large Frozen Bowl (Admittedly this is the weakest match-up. But it makes sense on some organic level, right? Minneapolis vs Boston, Dome vs Grass...No? Dammit.

I also toyed with MIN-BUF (4-Time SB Loser Bowl) and GB-NE (Cheeseheads vs Massholes), but I think I like the other match-ups better. Thoughts?