[Farm93]

2 out of 3 is not fine with me.  I won\'t insult anybody else\'s arguments about wanting to play weaker teams, but I care about bragging rights among my friends.  As most in my circle are UCB, UCLA or USC alums, I care about those games most.  And I would prefer to play them every year.

But history says you/we will lose and once the losing trend is clear it will be tough to break.  Once Stanford starts losing it gets very hard to break the trend because winning gets bowl invites that produce extra practice time and a significant recruiting edge.  Those goodies produce more winning advantages.

In the divisional alignment if C.a.l and Stanford are playing UCLA and USC.  That will mean that the other teams will NOT be playing UCLA and USC.  They will play one or the other, but not both.  The balance of power in the North and the South will almost certainly get cemented in stone.

UW and Oregon will rule the North.  Their consistent strength generated by the forced alignment will give them a recruiting edge, more practice time, more winning, more fans, and more conference power.
USC and UCLA will rule the South.  Not only will they be in LA, but thanks to an arrangement made in 2010 they will also avoid playing Oregon and UW consistently.

Kids will learn that UW, Oregon, UCLA and USC all have a systematic advantage that significantly increases their odds of getting into the conference championship game and big time bowl games.

Meanwhile Utah, Colorado, Arizona and ASU will fight for third in the South and OSU, WSU, C.a.l and Stanford will fight for third in the North.  One of you lucky eight will get an invite to the VEGAS Bowl.  Woo hoo!

FWIW, my gripes go away if C.a.l and Stanford are in the Cali division.   Then the schools would just be playing everyone in their division, just like the others.  That\'s fine, at least for me.

FWIW2, it is almost like the poor Baltimore Orioles.  Their fans insist on playing in the division with the Red Sox and the Yankees.  Tradition, rivalries, etc.  But all that really does is destroy any chance they might have at ever reaching the playoffs.  Good players don\'t want to go there, which creates more losing.  And oddly, the worse they get the more they then NEED to play the Red Sox and the Yankees to fill their stadium.

[Farm93]

2 out of 3 is not fine with me.  I won\'t insult anybody else\'s arguments about wanting to play weaker teams, but I care about bragging rights among my friends.  As most in my circle are UCB, UCLA or USC alums, I care about those games most.  And I would prefer to play them every year.

But history says you/we will lose and once the losing trend is clear it will be tough to break.  Once Stanford starts losing it gets very hard to break the trend because winning gets bowl invites that produce extra practice time and a significant recruiting edge.  Those goodies produce more winning advantages.

In the divisional alignment if C.a.l and Stanford are playing UCLA and USC.  That will mean that the other teams will NOT be playing UCLA and USC.  They will play one or the other, but not both.  The balance of power in the North and the South will almost certainly get cemented in stone.

UW and Oregon will rule the North.  Their consistent strength generated by the forced alignment will give them a recruiting edge, more practice time, more winning, more fans, and more conference power.
USC and UCLA will rule the South.  Not only will they be in LA, but thanks to an arrangement made in 2010 they will also avoid playing Oregon and UW consistently.

Kids will learn that UW, Oregon, UCLA and USC all have a systematic advantage that significantly increases their odds of getting into the conference championship game and big time bowl games.

Meanwhile Utah, Colorado, Arizona and ASU will fight for third in the South and OSU, WSU, C.a.l and Stanford will fight for third in the North.  One of you lucky eight will get an invite to the VEGAS Bowl.  Woo hoo!

FWIW, my gripes go away if C.a.l and Stanford are in the Cali division.   Then the schools would just be playing everyone in their division, just like the others.  That\'s fine, at least for me.

FWIW2, it is almost like the poor Baltimore Orioles.  Their fans insist on playing in the division with the Red Sox and the Yankees.  Tradition, rivalries, etc.  But all that really does is destroy any chance they might have at ever reaching the playoffs.  Good players don\'t want to go there, which creates more losing.  And oddly, the worse they get the more they then NEED to play the Red Sox and the Yankees to fill their stadium.