Yeah, right now, we'd be a top 6 team, but there's a lot of year to play out still. I think the critical things with regards to relegation are:
1. How the finances are handled (if you get more for being in the top tier)
2. Scheduling. In order for this to work, you need to have similar schedules for all of the teams. For example, if you end up one season not playing Hawaii, UNM, or UNR, but then another team ends up having games against all 3 of those teams, but not Air Force, Fresno or BSU, it's really not equivalent. Ideally, you'd play each team twice, once home and once away, but that would be too many games. I'm not sure how you could balance it to make it fair for everyone in that regard
The scheduling
The goal here is to create interesting, high-stakes matchups for fan experience and television purposes, relying on the previous season’s standings and the current season’s standings to orchestrate pairings.
A team’s schedule would include two non-conference opponents, seven intra-conference games and three crossover games. For instance, in Year 1, Oregon State plays two non-conference games that they schedule, seven games against all the other Pac-12 teams and three games against those from the Mountain West.
Previous season results determine a pecking order to arrange matchups, such as:
- a Week 1 rematch of the previous year’s Pac-12 championship game.
- a Week 1 game between the two teams promoted from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 and two teams relegated from the Pac-12 to the Mountain West.
- a Bracket Buster Weekend in early to mid-November, where pairings are determined two weeks prior and are based off of current standings with the intent on arranging compelling, crossover matchups.
From the article:
The entire season builds up to a crescendo of a final week that features three games:
- A Relegation Game between the sixth- and seventh-placed teams in the Pac-12. The loser is relegated to the Mountain West. The eighth-place finisher in the regular season is automatically relegated.
- A Promotion Game between the second- and third-placed teams in the Mountain West. The winner is promoted to the Pac-12. The regular-season champion of the Mountain West is automatically promoted to the Pac-12.
- The Pac-12 championship game, where the winner has a significant chance to advance to the newly expanded College Football Playoff.
What if the Pac-12 and Mountain West changed the way college conferences operate by borrowing an idea from European soccer leagues?
sports.yahoo.com