- Steelman
- superadminguy
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- From: The Wild West
- Registered: 5/19/2019
- Posts: 1,752
Re: Collegiate Football in Torland (1999)
The following historical entry has been added to the history post in the beginning of the thread, but worth highlighting here for context:
The Doubek Plan, The Larsen Effect, and the '99 Realignment System
One of the priorities for newly-appointed Vice President David Doubek, after Geoff Townsend had been promoted to President after the assassination of Foster in 1972, was to continue to push for additional regional opportunities for higher education in Torland in places where the bigger universities lacked proper reach. In conjunction with the higher educational board, Doubek identified six locations for regional universities which would each be tied to a larger state university system. These schools were officially founded in 1975 as Central Galapetra, East Tamokeva, Northern Granago, South Cabriga Isles, Southern Solinza, and Western Lismane. While sports and athletics were not a high priority for these schools, many of them developed athletics programs, some notably in the national sport of ice hockey. By the mid-90s, most of these regional additions had built enough infrastructure for collegiate football and requested that UTAC build a plan for admission.
It was in the early 90s that then-Vice President Ellen Larsen, herself embroiled in the Osorio Scandal of the Civic Liberty Party's shady election-rigging accusations, looked to launch a new directive for education and collegiate athletics for Torland, part of her overall plan to distance herself from Osorio and create a runway for her own run for President in 2000. She worked closely with Jon Marc Girard II and UTAC to help construct a fresh realignment for college football and institute more bowl games and a brand new playoff system with substantial government and state funding. Larsen was adamant that a fresh focus on regional rivalries and increased bowl and playoff games would boost the overall landscape of college football to great new heights and recommended that every conference be given a makeover with these guidelines in mind. She also recommended that the regional schools be admitted into UTAC for college football, which would bring the total number of universities in UTAC to 62.
The season of 1999 was chosen to institute these new changes. Two new bowl games were established (Dream Bowl, Rader Bowl) and the most prestigious bowl games were given double duty in the newly devised Playoff System, with a new National Championship game to be held at a rotating neutral site. Meanwhile the overall conference alignment took on drastic changes as schools looked to take advantage of the new monetary benefits by switching to more regionally-based conferences.
Pinkerton State College changed its name to Antedon College in 1993. IS-Kirkenport decided to officially change its name to Kirk State in 1997. The Pakola State system saw some name changes in 1998 as Pak State Alko became Alko State and Pak State Silkeboro became Silkeboro State. Its other satellite campus in Tangi, however, remained as Pak State Tangi.
Here is an updated map and graph of conferences:
AHS Admin. Creator of the THL, PUCH, WHA: Redux and Retroliga.
- Steelman
- superadminguy
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- From: The Wild West
- Registered: 5/19/2019
- Posts: 1,752
Re: Collegiate Football in Torland (1999)
Instead of creating new graphics to show the playoff system right now (I'll make one when we get to the playoffs), I'll use two screenshots instead which will show the bracket and my standings & playoff tracker in Google Sheets:
Basically every school will play 12 regular season games, a mixture of in-conference and non-conference matchups. The Oracle Poll is provided by Oracle Media, one of the largest sports coverages in Torland. The Poll will be updated preseason, weekly, and post-season prior to the playoffs. Additionally, many of those same sportswriters will vote on the season's MVP trophy known as the Legge for the best overall player in college football.
Basically the six conference leaders at season's end plus two at-large bids based on rank and merit by the committee will be awarded eight seeded playoff berths. These teams will advance to a neutral-site National Championship for the new Foster Cup trophy to name a champion. The 6 remaining bowls will be awarded to the remainder of ranked schools or deserving teams based on the committee's opinions. Independent schools have the hardest path, currently having to secure an at-large bid against all of the other conferences.
Due to the new format, the #3 seed is viewed as the most valuable since it will likely be held against a lesser South Sun opponent in the #7 slot. While the committee valued parity with the #1 and #2 seeds not having automatic matchups against lesser teams, many schools have already complained that the format is too rigid and doesn't reward in-season domination. It remains to be seen how the new format will hold up.
AHS Admin. Creator of the THL, PUCH, WHA: Redux and Retroliga.
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Thread Starter- Steelman
- superadminguy
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- Registered: 5/19/2019
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Re: Collegiate Football in Torland (1999)
With that, we have arrived at the release of the 1999 Oracle Preseason Poll! Each poll will include a Top 15 of all 62 teams in UTAC, plus an "On The Bubble" listing of the next three best teams in alphabetical order.
The Preseason Poll riled up plenty of fanbases with Solinza being selected #1. The top five are all considered fairly even, with little consensus among pundits. All five received first-place votes, indicating that the top of the board could go any direction early in the season. A Week 1 Primetime matchup between #1 Solinza and #7 Abrieden figures to be an early shake-up at the top, while the Friday Night #10 Granago vs #15 Forstana State matchup could also quickly influence the latter half of the early rankings. Independent service academy Renfro Prep (Army) at #12 could put some fear into schools vying for an at-large bid, while the oft-maligned South Sun Conference lacks any credibly ranked teams. One sportswriter has Estas A&M as his top South Sun team all the way at #40. Lupine League school Gavas being added as a bubble team gives the historic conference some credibility this season, though most pundits are tenuous on any real contenders. Of teams not listed on the poll, pundits are high on Granago State, Cabriga State, Rosa Nence, Alko State, and Cauldron Valley as sort of a "Next Five" going into the season.
With the Preseason Poll now revealed, fanbases are getting prepared for Week 1 matchups later this month.
What schools are you rooting for this season? As always, happy to answer any questions about any school or part of the Torland universe!
AHS Admin. Creator of the THL, PUCH, WHA: Redux and Retroliga.
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Thread Starter- Steelman
- superadminguy
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- From: The Wild West
- Registered: 5/19/2019
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Re: Collegiate Football in Torland (1999)
The UTAC weekly schedule features a regular slate of time slots, each with corresponding local and national broadcasts. A typical game week begins with the localized 3:00pm Friday Kickoff slot. While not having a specific national designation, parts of these games are often available nationwide leading into the 5:00pm National broadcast. Friday Night Fever is the Primetime broadcast at 8:00pm. For specialized weeks, the Friday kickoff slot and 5:00pm slot can be expanded based on need but UTAC prefers to keep most of their games on Saturdays with only a few select games on Friday nights.
The Saturday Morning Kickoff is a Nationally televised game at 9:00am. The morning slot will usually have about 4-5 concurrent local game broadcasts, depending on the weekly schedule, but can also expand depending on need. The first Primetime slot of the day is the 12:30 College Game Day broadcast, along with a handful of concurrent localized game broadcasts, which can also expand based on need. Two National broadcasts headline the 3:00pm and 5:00pm time slots, also each with several concurrent localized games. These slots have a fixed total of five games each.
The Saturday Night Showdown is the premier Primetime broadcast event every week, held at 8:00pm to cap off the game week. Primetime broadcasts are heavily decided by rankings, top matchups, and marquee rivalries. There is some flexibility every week for game switching on the Primetime slots if the network should prefer to flex a higher profile matchup.
A crossed-swords icon will designate a rivalry matchup. With that explanation out of the way, we can now reveal the full Week 1 schedule!
The Showdown is the big early season show stopper, featuring a pair of heavyweights with #1 ranked Solinza versus in-state non-conference rival #7 Abrieden. With the Sycamores heading down the road to the massive Abrieden Memorial Stadium, known as the Palace. The 100k-plus fan capacity will be absolutely raucous.
Newly-named Silkeboro State will kick off the new season in San Ferrio against the Ironheads. After that, the Wingate Owls will look to knock the Gophers off the 'Noll as big underdogs against Lismane State. The Fever matchup will pit an excellent ranked versus ranked matchup with Granago visiting the Green Bears. The #10 Lions will look to start strong against a rising Forstana State squad that is ranked #15 to start the year.
A senior military cadet school rivalry between Josef Yusey and Howerton State will get the action started for the Saturday Kickoff. The 12:30 Game Day broadcast will feature the powerful #4 New Dosa Hornets up against their longtime rival of Trowburgh. The Big Blue will travel to Vensessor at The Ru in what figures to be a great matchup.
The 5:00pm National broadcast will feature #13 Dosa State visiting their new conference mates at Granago State. The Tigers were considered by many to be close to being ranked so the Dozers will have their hands full.
AHS Admin. Creator of the THL, PUCH, WHA: Redux and Retroliga.
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