College football's sleeping giant awakens.

Cincinnati is an Independent football school until they join Conference USA in 1995 and they should be a natural fit for the ECC as they would be automatic rivals to Pittsburgh and West Virginia, Louisville is stretching it a bit but just by over the Ohio River is another rival to Cincinnati.
 
Cincinnati is an Independent football school until they join Conference USA in 1995 and they should be a natural fit for the ECC as they would be automatic rivals to Pittsburgh and West Virginia, Louisville is stretching it a bit but just by over the Ohio River is another rival to Cincinnati.
Cincinnati is also good at hoops, so they would be the 14th school if ND decides to remain independent. Although UConn is almost nonexistent in football you have to get them in because of Jim Calhoun's national powerhouse hoops program. Even though football is king in terms of $$, college basketball is a strong #2. Plus if you get UConn in this "East Coast Conference," they have the best women's hoops team on an almost yearly basis.

If you want to go to 16 closer to the present (sometime around 2015 or so), then you have to persuade Villanova to go D-1 in football (you're getting them for hoops) and get a school like Central Florida for football
 
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INHO you are missing some things about college football. The reason college football is a religion in the south and much of the west is because for many, many years it had no competition from the NFL. Miami was the only team in Florida until the Bucs in 1976. The Big 10 has always placed the Rose Bowl above all else. People in the NE just don’t watch or care about college like the NFL. I’ve lived in Chicago and Syracuse. They basically didn’t know college football existed, even in Syracuse. I’m not sure that FSU would have joined your league either. Bowden turned down the SEC in 1990 because he didn’t want that tough of a schedule. They picked the ACC because it sucked in football and was good in basketball. Just don’t see FSU wanting to play in the North late in the season. Same thing for Miami. The SEC also picked all of the expansion teams in 1990. South Carolina had voted before even asked to join the SEC if asked. By cherry-picking FSU and Miami you get 4 titles in the years you noted. Without them that league is not very good. The SEC still had 3 titles in that timeframe. Notre Dame hasn’t joined a conference in OTL. Why would they in any ATL? They have NBC and like their independence. From 2003-current the SEC has 12 titles from 4 different teams. That conference would have one, if FSU had joined. It’s interesting but I just don’t see a NE conference beating the SEC or Big 10 with tv money or ratings.
 
INHO you are missing some things about college football. The reason college football is a religion in the south and much of the west is because for many, many years it had no competition from the NFL. Miami was the only team in Florida until the Bucs in 1976. The Big 10 has always placed the Rose Bowl above all else. People in the NE just don’t watch or care about college like the NFL. I’ve lived in Chicago and Syracuse. They basically didn’t know college football existed, even in Syracuse. I’m not sure that FSU would have joined your league either. Bowden turned down the SEC in 1990 because he didn’t want that tough of a schedule. They picked the ACC because it sucked in football and was good in basketball. Just don’t see FSU wanting to play in the North late in the season. Same thing for Miami. The SEC also picked all of the expansion teams in 1990. South Carolina had voted before even asked to join the SEC if asked. By cherry-picking FSU and Miami you get 4 titles in the years you noted. Without them that league is not very good. The SEC still had 3 titles in that timeframe. Notre Dame hasn’t joined a conference in OTL. Why would they in any ATL? They have NBC and like their independence. From 2003-current the SEC has 12 titles from 4 different teams. That conference would have one, if FSU had joined. It’s interesting but I just don’t see a NE conference beating the SEC or Big 10 with tv money or ratings.
But IRL, Miami and Florida State are in the ACC, and they play games in northern areas in November. Before that, Miami played football in the Big East, and traveled to places like Virginia Tech and Boston College, where it could be cold in November. I see the rest of your point, but avoiding cold weather isn't part of the argument. Those schools are struggling for internal reasons (lack of $$ for the football program + no Orange Bowl in Miami's case, sheer incompetence in FSU's case).

As for ND, they were in a rough patch that started after Holtz left and continued until Brian Kelly arrived, where they were basically changing coaches every 3 years. So I could exclude them and that conference would still be strong in football up until the issues pop up at Miami, FSU and PSU
 
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Hypothetical end of year Associated Press college football rankings per year with "East Coast Conference" schools, assuming no changes due to improved recruiting due to this being a stronger conference:

1990: #3 Miami, #4 Florida State, #11 Penn State
1991: #1 Miami, #3 Penn State, #4 Florida State, #11 Syracuse
1992: #2 Florida State, #3 Miami, #6 Syracuse, #21 Boston College

In 1993, Virginia Tech and Louisville get added as the 11th and 12th teams.

1993: #1 Florida State, #7 West Virginia, #8 Penn State, #13 Boston College, #15 Miami, #22 Virginia Tech
1994: #2 Penn State, #4 Florida State, #5 Miami, #23 Boston College (note: Penn State would have played #1 Nebraska for the national championship that year if they weren't in the Big 10 IRL, because the Big 10 champion had the mandatory Rose Bowl bid at the time).
1995: #4 Florida State, #10 Virginia Tech, #13 Penn State, #19 Syracuse, #20 Miami

In 1996, Notre Dame and UConn are added as the 13th and 14th teams, and NBC buys the rights to telecast all the football and regular season basketball games.

1996: #3 Florida State, #7 Penn State, #13 Virginia Tech, #14 Miami, #19 Notre Dame, #21 Syracuse
1997: #3 Florida State, #16 Penn State, #21 Syracuse

BCS era begins in 1998

1998: #3 Florida State, #17 Penn State, #20 Miami, #22 Notre Dame, #23 Virginia Tech, #25 Syracuse
1999: #1 Florida State, #2 Virginia Tech, #11 Penn State, #15 Miami
2000: #2 Miami, #5 Florida State, #6 Virginia Tech, #15 Notre Dame
2001: #1 Miami, #15 Florida State, #17 Louisville, #18 Virginia Tech, #21 Boston College
2002: #2 Miami, #16 Penn State, #17 Notre Dame, #18 Virginia Tech, #19 Pittsburgh, #21 Florida State, #25 West Virginia.

For the first decade of its existence, this theoretical conference would be the unquestioned best in the country in football. After that, you need a lot of butterflies to occur to keep it that way:

--Miami doesn't fall apart post 2005
--Florida State doesn't fall apart at the end of Bowden's tenure
--Penn State doesn't have the Sandusky scandal

I think all those things are unavoidable. Miami decided to commit less $ to its football program after about 2005. Bowden is irreplaceable at FSU, and the Sandusky scandal would have broken at some point
I was planning on Temple being expelled from the conference much like they were in OTL and replaced by Louisville and the conference staying at 12 teams until 2005
 
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After a few successful seasons, seeing the success of the SEC Championship game, the ECC announced it's intentions to expand by 1994.

An agreement was reached to host it's 1994 Championship Game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ on December 15th.

The expansion candidates were Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, Louisville, South Carolina, Georgia Tech, and Cincinnati.

Ultimately, the conference would invite Virginia Tech and South Carolina to join for the 1994 season. For the 1994 season, the conference would realign into 2 divisions.

The ECC North consisting of

Boston College

Penn State

Pitt

Rutgers

Syracuse

Temple

And ECC South consisting of

FSU

Miami

Virginia Tech

South Carolina

Maryland

West Virginia
 
Plus if you get UConn in this "East Coast Conference," they have the best women's hoops team on an almost yearly basis.

Having that kind of talent in conference is like a rising tide raising all boats. Pitt did it by joining the Big East. They recruited kids who couldn't go to St. Johns, Seaton Hall, or Syracuse from New York and ditto for Georgetown from DC area. Plus the Big East Tournament was played in Madison Square Garden, another draw for kids from NYC.

Having UConn's WBB program will raise the level of the competition in the conference. You'll get plenty of girls who might not be able to play for UConn, but will be able to play against them. Plus you'll get girls who realize that they can be a star on another team or sit on the bench at UConn.

I do like the idea of Cincinnati joining as well.

My thoughts,
 
The main test of the conference is going to be when the second tv broadcast rights contract comes up and depending on how the ratings are and more importantly the demographics of the viewership a significant boost in the right fees may cause other schools in the Northeast to inquire if there is any room to expand.
Boston University dropped football IOTL in 1997 and more money coming in from tv may make them decide to upgrade their program.
Also I think that conferences are going to raid other conferences much more frequently with South Carolina being targeted by the ACC and SEC as South Carolina has more fans wanting to see schools like Alabama, Florida, and Georgia from the SEC and Clemson from the ACC instead of BC and Temple.
 
The main test of the conference is going to be when the second tv broadcast rights contract comes up and depending on how the ratings are and more importantly the demographics of the viewership a significant boost in the right fees may cause other schools in the Northeast to inquire if there is any room to expand.
Boston University dropped football IOTL in 1997 and more money coming in from tv may make them decide to upgrade their program.
Also I think that conferences are going to raid other conferences much more frequently with South Carolina being targeted by the ACC and SEC as South Carolina has more fans wanting to see schools like Alabama, Florida, and Georgia from the SEC and Clemson from the ACC instead of BC and Temple.
OTL FOX have been a massive boom for college football, if anything a second contract is done deal but the third one would be interesting, spreading games or maybe fox would push the equivalent of an early college RSN for them, like BIG TEN NETWORK or the Longhorn one

I think with the money brought to the table, Boston U might do everything to expand the football program, they just need the right coach for it
 
Here's a list of conference championship venues for the ECC in 2021:

Football- MetLife Stadium

Basketball- Barclays Center

Ice Hockey (yes the conference sponsors hockey in the future with hockey only members)- TD Garden.

Baseball- MCU Park
 
Baylor, Houston, Iowa St. Kansas St, Oklahoma St, Texas Tech being forced to play as independents after the failure to form a new conference announced a deal to combine their individual tv rights and play on ESPN with ABC having the rights to broadcast important games.
The schools are hoping that this deal will interest other schools to form a new conference.
The schools are being called the “Leftover 6 Conference”.
 
The inaugural ECC Championship game pitting Miami against Penn State was a huge ratings success. One of the highest TV ratings ever recorded for a college football game. 14 million people tuned in to the game.

In a thriller, Penn State won on a last minute Hail Mary from Kerry Collins to Joe Jurevicius, 26-24.

Penn State would later accept an Orange Bowl berth to play Nebraska for the National Championship
 
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The inaugural ECC Championship game pitting Miami against Penn State was a huge ratings success. One of the highest TV ratings ever recorded for a college football game. 14 million people tuned in to the game.

In a thriller, Penn State won on a last minute Hail Mary from Kerry Collins to Joe Jurevicius, 26-24.

Penn State would later accept an Orange Bowl berth to play Nebraska for the National Championship
So we're in 1994 already? plus that means the ITTL Orange BOWL is a proto BCS in all but name because this
 
(Others: Mention this game and the effect on college football)
The ECC directly competes against the SEC for the top recruits in the country, with Penn State, Florida State and Miami leading the way.
The ECC alternates championship game sites between Giants Stadium, RFK Stadium, and the Citrus Bowl in Orlando
Penn State most likely beats Nebraska in 1994 for the national championship
 
So we're in 1994 already? plus that means the ITTL Orange BOWL is a proto BCS in all but name because this
Well yeah, I figured everyone else would mention it but fine here are the Conference Champions in football from 1990-1994

1990: Miami

1991: Miami

1992: Miami

1993: Florida State

1994: Penn State
 
The ECC directly competes against the SEC for the top recruits in the country, with Penn State, Florida State and Miami leading the way.
The ECC alternates championship game sites between Giants Stadium, RFK Stadium, and the Citrus Bowl in Orlando
Penn State most likely beats Nebraska in 1994 for the national championship
Actually Pro Player Stadium in Miami
 
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