NCAA College Football Pyramid: 1999-2000

Don't you love it when the DCV starts a feature ... gets it 10-80% finished ... only never to re-visit it again?  Dolberry does.  And as a result I'm starting another one ... the NCAA college football pyramid.

Everyone hates the BCS, right?  Basically, only a handful of teams every year have a chance to win the "national championship" (i.e., 4-5 SEC teams, 2-3 Big 12 teams, USC, and Ohio St.).  What Dolberry is proposing is for the BCS to acknowledge the limited nature of their competition by establishing a Premier League w/ the top 20 football programs.  Below that league there would be lower levels of 24 teams each, w/ as many sublevels (Level 2, Level 3, etc.) as there are schools w/ programs.

Wait, you say.  That would be unfair.  Only 20 teams would have a chance at the top prize.  Well, I don't think the BCS really cares, but in order to not entirely disenfranchise the programs outside the Top 20 the ... the teams outside the Top 20 would have an opportunity to be promoted into a higher league, including the Premier League, by finishing in the top 3 at their current level.  Conversely, the bottom three teams in each league would be demoted (or relegated) to a lower level.

This is, of course, patterned after the English football league system (at least at the rudimentary level at which Dolberry understands it).  Somewhat ironic that the English football structure is substantially more "American" (in that it allows for universal upward mobility) than the current gentry-like BCS system.

Anyway, using the Sagarin rankings as a guide and 1998 as my starting point for league assignments, here's how the 1999 and 2000 seasons would have ended up in Dolberry's football pyramid.

So, in the inaugural year, 1999 ... the Seminoles are crowned the Premier League champions, while UCLA, Missouri, and Tulane (?) are booted out of the top league.  Chad Pennington led Marshall to a Level 3 title.  Sparty and the Illini won Levels 2 and 4, respectively.  Louisville finished 8th in Level 3.

In 2000, newly promoted Miami (FL) is crowned the Premier League champs.  Arkansas, Bama, and the Nittany Lions get the boot from the PL.  Louisville again finishes 8th in Level 3.  Kentucky gets booted from Level 2 and will have to face the Cardinals in Level 3 in 2001 ... which I'll post tomorrow night.

Or maybe this'll be the last we ever see of the pyramid ... who knows?