Just for fun…UK’s hypothetical new conference

[CNJ1966]

I said years ago that I wished some of the “traditional basketball schools” could form a conference. It would make basketball season awesome, and in football, the conference would be extremely competitive pretty much from top to bottom. And we would have a chance to actually WIN the league most years in football (basketball too, obviously).
Take 10 teams…play everybody in football, leaving 3 OOC games…play everybody twice in basketball (18 conference games). So here’s my ten teams:

1-4…UK, Kansas, UNC, Duke…those four are non-negotiable.
5 and 6…Louisville and Indiana…both schools with historically better basketball than football programs, and both traditional rivals for UK.
7-10…this is where it gets harder to choose. But my picks would be Purdue (fairly close at 250 miles from Lexington), Vandy (traditional rival and close for south and western Ky fans), Michigan St (good basketball tradition for the last 25 years) and Illinois (pretty high in all-time basketball win percentage).

Near misses: Syracuse (too far north), UConn (football program is not quite competitive enough), UCLA (too far west)

Now, as I said in the thread title, this is (unfortunately) a hypothetical, a pipe dream, but MAN I think it’d be a fun schedule every year!

Would this be your ten teams? Should we go with 12? Just interested to see what my fellow fans think

 

[R.O.T.Muckinfush]

Don't think regional differences really matter anymore and uconn not much worse in fb than uk or vandy or most of these schools. I say add the near misses and create a conference. Would be more competitive and fun than getting curb stomped every week.

 

[CNJ1966]

Don't think regional differences really matter anymore and uconn not much worse in fb than uk or vandy or most of these schools. I say add the near misses and create a conference. Would be more competitive and fun than getting curb stomped every week.

You’re correct about regional differences not mattering, but remember…this is like a party, you can invite whomever you want. So personally, I’m looking for 10 teams that are as close to KY as possible, in case I want to go an away game.

Now that I think about it, I might trade out Illinois for Arkansas. If you were around for the 90’s, you’ll remember Arkansas and us had a heckuva rivalry. And they’re about on our level in football

 

[truebluewildcat]

We could play those teams semi-regularly in the OOC.

CMS and brass are obsessed with Lake Erie regional commuter schools though.

Why go to UCLA and host maybe promote the brand and snag a few kids from LA area when you can play Toledo or EMU at home exposing the brand to the talent rich Kentucky, and maybe some Ohio kids who may want to watch on ESPN 37 deportes U?