Conference Realignment Thread

[Butch Hobsons elbo chips]

If the Big East doesn't land the necessary number of invited schools, is there any chance they pursue a nightmare scenario of a football-only merger with the WAC? And would that preserve a BCS slot?

One of the pundits over at FOXsports already mentioned that a WAC-SUN BELT football only association similar to the MWC-ConfUSA merger could be next in line. It won't challenge for a BCS but it should creates stability and strength in numbers for FOOTBALL.

You might want a CAA-Big East merger with the CAA Football having the upper hand. :rolling:
And in that joke is a grain of truth, add the extra 22 football scholarships to the Top 4 teams in the CAA every year and tell me they couldn't at least finish in the middle of the BIG EAST.

The Philly area college team with the most fan support is clearly the University of Delaware Blue Hens.

Has anyone seen the latest James Madison Football stadium expansion to 25k seats? http://www.jmu.edu/bridgeforthstadium/
(those mountain folk take football serious and anytime UConn or Rutgers wants to come down to play them, they will drop their overalls and give them some "Ned Beatty" loving.)

Old Dominion football is 3 years old...they've sold out every seat of every game in their 19,782 capacity stadium. Wait til they actually get warmed up.

 

[LeftyTG]

Pitt is so-so in basketball, but yeah I think those moves make it likely the ACC is ahead of the Big East in basketball strength in the long term.

wait, what? Pitt is so-so in basketball? I feel dirty defending Pitt basketball, but they have been one of the top 10-15 programs in the nation the last decade (annual tournament flameouts notwithstanding). Since the 01-02 season, Pitt has been ranked in the top 10 every season. In that span of time, they have one 20 win season, 2 twenty four win seasons, and every other season with at least twenty seven wins, including two season with at least thirty wins. They've been the most consistent Big East basketball program the last decade and one of the top 2-3 Big East basketball schools.

Pitt is, most decidedly, not a so-so basketball school.

 

[SumnerH]

There are 14 schools in the conference, and Nova is only one. Nova should do what's best for the conference if they are going to stay around. If not, they can go join Xavier in the A-10.

Spot on.

Plus, the whole concept of "protecting your territory" via conference exclusion seems pretty iffy in college sports, where allegiances to schools often outweigh geography. It's not as though Temple ceases to exist by not being in the Big East, and local rivalries often seem to drive interest in all teams involved. Having UNC, Duke, and NC State or USC and UCLA in the same conference seems beneficial to those schools rather than having cross-town schools that you don't (or sporadically) play.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Butch, that's an incredibly pessimistic view of Temple's stadium situation, and deliriously optimistic view of Nova's stadium situation

Temple: The MAC and ESPN have far more to do with scheduling than the Eagles. Obviously they have say but the ESPN overlords have more. Temple have 7 home games this year. Four on Saturdays, one the Friday after Thanksgiving (like a lot of schools), one vs Nova Thursday Sept 1 (the first day games were played this year), and a Wednesday night ESPN game. Not much different a schedule than most Big East schools.

Nova: PPL isn't going to start expansion until 2014 at the earliest, and that's only to get to 20,000 seats. Plans to go to 27K will be at least a year later, and 30K (if it happens) after that. The Union and MLS are taking their time because they might not be able to consistently fill 30,000 seats, which would make it the largest soccer-specific stadium in MLS. Meanwhile, Nova avg. attendance last year, coming off a national title, was under 9,000. Two years ago for a national semifinal playoff game the attendance was 4,171.

Yes, Delaware has a larger following than either Temple or Nova. Maybe combined.

And yes the USF president is deluded. I've interviewed a few times, she's on another planet, and has crazy eyes. I've warmed up to the idea of UCF joining, since USF's never lost to them in the WAR for I-4, and a renewed rivalry might get some buzz going.

 

[bowiac]

wait, what? Pitt is so-so in basketball? I feel dirty defending Pitt basketball, but they have been one of the top 10-15 programs in the nation the last decade (annual tournament flameouts notwithstanding). Since the 01-02 season, Pitt has been ranked in the top 10 every season. In that span of time, they have one 20 win season, 2 twenty four win seasons, and every other season with at least twenty seven wins, including two season with at least thirty wins. They've been the most consistent Big East basketball program the last decade and one of the top 2-3 Big East basketball schools.

Pitt is, most decidedly, not a so-so basketball school.

This was my sense. If you asked me (as a less than serious college basketball fan) to the name the top programs, I would have guessed something like: Tier 1 - Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn; Tier 2 - Louisville, Syracuse, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Pitt.

Is that really wrong?

 

[LTF]

[nitpicking]Michigan State has been to five Final Fours since 2000. They probably deserve to be in Tier 1.[/nitpicking]

 

[Butch Hobsons elbo chips]

So faced with an option of adding a Philadelphia BIG EAST Football team that 13/16 schools in the League had no objection towards and in the interest of doing what's best for the League to protect poachers coming from....let's say the ACC, we had Rutgers, WVU and PITT all blocking Villanova's Football upgrade last April 10th which was over 7 months after the League approached Villanova to do their due diligence.
Hey wait a minute!! Isn't PITT one of the teams that is LEAVING the BIG EAST and admitted to talking to ACC for over a year before announcing their defection? And they were standing in the way of the BIG EAST adding a Football Program to stabilize the BIG EAST CONFERENCE with a 10th football team at the same time???

LUUUUUCY, you got some explaining to do. :c070:


What was UCONN's football attendance in the 1990s?
I am sure you will be good enough to print those averages here for everyone since you raised the specific question of the FCS attendance for a school before moving up.

What was Temple's attendance averages from 1991 to 2003 in the Big East? (maybe you'll do a better job than you did on those MAC attendance figures that were oversetimated) Again I am sure you will be kind enough to show everyone what Temple supporters are capable of doing if presented with a higher level of competition like the 2002/2003 BE Conference schedules (which was considerably more popular group of teams than the projected Big East of 2014)

As far as stadiums, The EAGLES control when Temple can have use of the Lincoln Financial and Temple, MAC can only sort thru their options. If you think they are choosing to play on a Thursday and in previous year a 5pm Start on a Friday for their biggest non-Penn State draw in over a decade then you are smoking something funny. The dates of those Mayor Cup games was universally objected to by both schools but they had only few options were available.

AND if you are going to use my own objections to PP&L Park word for word, you should at least give me a proper reference note in your comments.
Villanova and UNION officials have repeatedly said they are comfortable that expansion past 20K could be accelerated if financing of the expansion (ie. Villanova foots part of the bill) was in place.
Villanova is already hosting a HOME Football game this Fall in both Franklin Field & PP&L Park.
Citizens Bank Park is available for hosting College football, NHL Hockey and any "individual" events that are outside the Phillies Baseball season.
That stadium that TEMPLE can't draw flies to is NOT exclusive to them. The Eagles aren't letting another team play a season at the LINC but they can allow Penn State to play Notre Dame if they want or Villanova play a single game providing the date is available.


The discussion comes down to the same point.
Temple was never idenitfied as a solution to the League's problem. Villanova even after it's documented shoddy treatment by the Conference did not BLOCK Temple Football.
The League is reportedly making 6 invitations and EVERY FOOTBALL PROGRAM they are inviting offers more than Temple Football. It's been reported ad nauseum that Temple Football is still one of the alternatives on the table IF someone declines.

 

[Butch Hobsons elbo chips]

Plus, the whole concept of "protecting your territory" via conference exclusion seems pretty iffy in college sports, where allegiances to schools often outweigh geography. It's not as though Temple ceases to exist by not being in the Big East, and local rivalries often seem to drive interest in all teams involved. Having UNC, Duke, and NC State or USC and UCLA in the same conference seems beneficial to those schools rather than having cross-town schools that you don't (or sporadically) play.

1) Villanova plays Temple in "local rivalry". It's called the BIG 5. They play AT Temple this December. They play 18 BE games and still take on the 4 rivalry games each season. It's cumbersome and doesn't give them a lot of room in OOC scheduling but Jay Wright wants them to keep playing them.

2) You're right, it is not as though Temple ceases to exist but they won't be hosting 9 BIG EAST basketball opponents each year in Philadelphia where Villanova has built it's brand up to draw on average 18,500 to First Union for BE Games. It's simple business. If you flood the Philly market with 9 more BIG EAST games then Villanova loses revenue as the demand goes down from the general population. They are a small private school of 7000 undergrads and Basketball revenue is important to their Athletic funding since they won't be getting BCS football revenue that an upgrade would have provided. A decision not made by the Conference but by 3 specific Football schools, one of whom (PITT) was simutaneously defecting while destabilizing the Big East by blocking expansion.

3) UNC, DUKE & NC State all play BCS football together. USC & UCLA both play BCS football together.
Strange that you don't ask why VILLANOVA AND TEMPLE weren't both invited to play BCS Football in the Big East together with all that local rivalry drive interest stuff you are spewing out.

Marshall Football didn't get recomended by WVU.
UMASS Football at Gillette didn't get recomended by UCONN.
But Villanova who was being denied access to BCS Football by 3 specific Football schools out of 16 MEMBERS still gave the OK to Temple Football and the League refused Temple anyways.

A Big East source said that on a league conference call earlier in the week, Villanova spoke out against Temple as an all-sports member, but after several basketball schools spoke against Temple for all sports, Villanova said it had "no problem" with Temple playing football in the league. Skeptical of this? "It 100 percent happened," the source said.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Jesus, we seem to have struck a nerve. I apologize for that, that wasn't my intention. I'm trying to look at this objectively, which is why, even as a USFer, I'm not really against UCF joining. It'll help the league, and recruiting, for each school to visit Florida each year. USF:UCF:itt:Temple, at least in the Big East.

First, every number I got was either from wikipedia or box scores.

You cannot compare the upgrade at UConn, the flagship state university with over 30,000 students, and probably over 250,000 alumni, and Nova, a tiny private school with 7,000 students. Nova would be the second smallest school in FBS behind Tulsa, about the same size as Rice and Wake, schools with long FBS football tradition.

Be realistic. Nova was blocked because they don't have a large enough fanbase to support football. As far as the stadium goes, I'd be happy for you to increase the size of my home if you'll pay for it. That's more or less the deal the Union would have with Nova. The Big East doesn't need a half-full soccer stadium.

They didn't host anyone at Franklin Field; that's Penn's home field and therefore it was a home game for Penn. All of 10,071 people were there to watch it. And while they are hosting a game at PPL this year, Delaware fans will probably outnumber Nova fans

I understand your argument about adding more Big East basketball games in Philadelphia, but I don't think Temple would be anything more than second fiddle to Nova.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Meanwhile, Boise St says they never got an invite from the Big East. Weird.

 

[SumnerH]

This was my sense. If you asked me (as a less than serious college basketball fan) to the name the top programs, I would have guessed something like: Tier 1 - Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, UConn; Tier 2 - Louisville, Syracuse, Ohio State, Michigan State, and Pitt.

Is that really wrong?

[nitpicking]Michigan State has been to five Final Fours since 2000. They probably deserve to be in Tier 1.[/nitpicking]

You're right, I probably underrate Pitt because of their under-performance in the NCAA tournament; that's such a small sample that it's likely a lot more luck than anything else.

And, yeah, MSU is a top-tier program.

I'd definitely put Texas and UCLA in the mix as well, and probably Florida and Arizona too.

 

[Skeesix]

Meanwhile, Boise St says they never got an invite from the Big East. Weird.

Could the story have been planted by someone who wants to see the Big East collapse?

 

[Chemistry Schmemistry]

Could the story have been planted by someone who wants to see the Big East collapse?

More likely a blogger trying to make a name for himself. Just like 97% of what we read about conference realignment.

When people stop paying attention to anything written based on an "anonymous source well-placed within X University," this crap will stop as well.

 

[moondog80]

What exactly is in it for the basketball only schools to go along with this ridiculous plan of adding whatever misfit programs are left over once the superconferences are settled? It may work for football, but it's only going to water down basketball and utterly suck for all the other sports. They're going to do it so they can keep Cincinnati on the schedule? Do the Georgetowns and PCs get any football money?

 

[Clears Cleaver]

the new, NEW big East ahs four teams ranked in the top 25 (Boise, WVU, SMU and Houston) versus only two for the ACC. UConn, what are you thinking?!?!?!? :c070:

The Big East knows that the targeted schools are not going accept (except for UCF, who will accept anything) until at least the exit fee is raised to $10M from $5M. The Big East is supposed to be voting on that shortly.

This whole thing is a joke. At the end of the day, it all comes down to Missouri and the Big 12, who has to decide how many teams they want. and then if they stay, who the SEC takes as team #14. If not Mizzou, then likely an ACC team.

 

[ivanvamp]

Meanwhile, Boise St says they never got an invite from the Big East. Weird.

Weird or not, there's no way Boise State should be in the Big East. They are from IDAHO for God's sake. I mean, not that anyone here doesn't know geography, but just to make the point, see exactly where Idaho is:

It's west of the Rocky Mountains. It's considerably west of the University of Arizona, which plays in the PAC-12. Boise St. is actually west of a slender portion of *CALIFORNIA*.

 

[Infield Infidel]

IMHO the only way it would work would be to have two divisions with 8+ teams, one east and one west, then the teams playing a conference title game. But that boat sailed when Mountain West and C-USA merged. This is an instance when the Big East needs to wave it's AQ status at a lot of teams instead of a team here and a team there. "Hey you can have your merger and wait 3 years to maybe get AQ, or you can join up with us and be AQ next year"

As for Missouri, Ivan Maisel says SEC athletic administrators are against it (but this'll come down to presidents anyway)

The SEC presidents will decide which school to invite as the league’s 14th member. Athletic administrators, I am told, don’t want Missouri because of the travel to Columbia. For instance, it’s 1,000 miles from there to Gainesville, Fla. Add the remote nature of so many SEC campuses, and travel of non-revenue teams will incur a sharp increase in either time (commercial travel through Atlanta) or money ($30,000 charter flights).

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/tag/_/name/missouri-tigers

 

[RingoOSU]

The distance thing seems like such BS to me. Gainesville to Columbia is about 80 miles further than Gainesville to College Station, or 20 miles further than Gainesville to Fayetteville. It's on the limit sure, but nothing that conferences haven't done before. A simple Fuck You Missouri should suffice.

 

[mabrowndog]

The distance thing seems like such BS to me. Gainesville to Columbia is about 80 miles further than Gainesville to College Station, or 20 miles further than Gainesville to Fayetteville. It's on the limit sure, but nothing that conferences haven't done before. A simple Fuck You Missouri should suffice.

Yeah, no shit. Plus the frequency of inter-divisional games requiring such travel for either FL or MO will be, what, maybe once every 3 or 4 years?

Are they just going to add Cincinnati since it's a Delta hub?

 

[Chemistry Schmemistry]

Are they just going to add Cincinnati since it's a Delta hub?

That's '10s thinking. The Big Ten will have its own airline by the end of the decade.

 

[gopats84]

Missouri closer to joining SEC

The person said that Missouri’s decision to apply for membership to the SEC was “inevitable and imminent,” although a specific timeframe has yet to be set. Missouri’s Board of Curators will meet on Thursday and Friday at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where the process of withdrawing from the Big 12 and applying to the SEC is expected to begin.

So for those scoring at home, the Big 12 will now be the Big 12-2-1+1-1

 

[Sea Dog]

Yeah, no shit. Plus the frequency of inter-divisional games requiring such travel for either FL or MO will be, what, maybe once every 3 or 4 years?

Are they just going to add Cincinnati since it's a Delta hub?

According to some rumors, every season. Supposedly, Alabama and Tennessee want to continue their rivalry game and were willing to block any expansion move that would jeopardize that game. Problem is, if Auburn went east, then the Alabama-Auburn game would become the cross-division rivalry game as opposed to Alabama-Tennessee.

One way around that: Force Mizzou to compete in the SEC East, if they wanted in the conference bad enough. Mizzou's rivalry game would be Texas A&M, much like how Arkansas and South Carolina were paired as rivals when they entered the SEC.

 

[jsinger121]

With Missouri on the way out the Big 12 should go get Boise State, SMU and Houston.

 

[WestMassExpat]

With Missouri on the way out the Big 12 should go get Boise State, SMU and Houston.

SMU and Houston are never going to enter the discussion, either by Neimas or one of the big ADs like Dodds. Their stadiums (~32,000) are well below the league average; SMU with it's 11,000 students and Houston, a commuter school with 15 percent of students on campus, don't fit some of the basic traits of Big 12 members. I'm not up on Boise's recent run-in with the NCAA infraction committee, but assuming it's low-level stuff I think they'd be an intriguing football-only member. However I still wouldn't put them above WVU, BYU, or Lousiville on the add list.

Edit: *Neinas

 

[Royal Reader]

According to some rumors, every season. Supposedly, Alabama and Tennessee want to continue their rivalry game and were willing to block any expansion move that would jeopardize that game. Problem is, if Auburn went east, then the Alabama-Auburn game would become the cross-division rivalry game as opposed to Alabama-Tennessee.

One way around that: Force Mizzou to compete in the SEC East, if they wanted in the conference bad enough. Mizzou's rivalry game would be Texas A&M, much like how Arkansas and South Carolina were paired as rivals when they entered the SEC.

The average distance between Columbia and existing SEC West schools (plus A&M) is 610 miles. The average distance for Eastern schools is 685 or so. It would be more NE and SW divisions, but Missouri does border Kentucky and Tennessee. I'd think in that alignment it might actually make more sense to break up some of the less historic SEC pairs and have a Mizzou-AR divisional rivalry - what with Fayetteville being the closest other SEC school to Columbia.

 

[Sea Dog]

With Missouri on the way out the Big 12 should go get Boise State, SMU and Houston.

Louisville, West Virginia, Cincinnati and BYU: Pick three. Those will be the candidates.

The Big 12 solidified its Texas presence with TCU, guaranteeing the northern schools perhaps one game on Texas soil annually. There's no need for SMU, Houston, Rice or any other Texas schools -- they're good there. now it becomes adding markets to make up for the loss of the St. Louis market (KU dominates KC). Boise State simply doesn't add the market, and the Big 12 isn't like the Big East in that they need Boise State's football program to keep a BCS bid, because that's secure.

 

[jsinger121]

Big East has upped their exit fee to 10 million dollars.

 

[Sea Dog]

Big East has upped their exit fee to 10 million dollars.

Contingent on expansion plans. In other words, if Navy, Air Force or others don't commit, the exit fee doesn't get bumped up.

 

[Clears Cleaver]

Contingent on expansion plans. In other words, if Navy, Air Force or others don't commit, the exit fee doesn't get bumped up.

$10M is not going to deter one team for leaving for the Big 12 or ACC or Big 10 if those options became available

 

[PaulinMyrBch]

Potential dominoes...

Mizzou to SEC...WVU to Big12....others to Big East...

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/

from my phone...linkage issues, but in the globe...

 

[Infield Infidel]

I'm an idiot

 

[Infield Infidel]

superubermegaconference?

While the Big East considers its next move on expansion, it is now being asked to consider a plan that would create a nation-wide football conference incorporating between 28 and 32 teams in four divisions from Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference as well as the Big East.

According to sources from those conferences, the plan was devised as a way that the Big East could ensure its place as one of the six conferences receiving automatic BCS bids.

The document, which was obtained by The Globe, reveals an alternative plan which would help the Big East maintain its AQ status -- automatic qualification -- but also provide access to the Mountain West and Conference USA, who hope to gain such status.

Under the plan, Super Conference would consist of four divisions: West, Mountain, Central and the Big East.

In the 32-team format, the West Division would consist of Boise State, Hawaii, UNLV, Nevada, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and San Jose State.

The Mountain Division would consist of Air Force, Wyoming, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP, SMU, Tulsa and Houston.

The Central Division would consist of Marshall, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, UAB, Rice, Temple and Louisiana Tech.

And the Big East Division would consist of Louisville, UConn, Rutgers, Cincinnati, South Florida, Central Florida, East Carolina and Navy.

http://www.boston.com/sports/colleges/extras/colleges_blog/2011/10/big_east_mwc_c-.html

Apparently, they would propose having 7 division games, then the 4 division winners would have a playoff for the BCS bid. I guess they would leave a week open at the end of the season, and the other teams would play an 8th conference game with an inter-division opponent TBA.

I don't know if the Big East would be interested. If the Big East was run well, they would have just grabbed some C-USA teams and joined up with the Mountain West. How C-USA, which has never even had a team in the BCS, got into the mix is a mystery to me.

 

[mauf]

$10M is not going to deter one team for leaving for the Big 12 or ACC or Big 10 if those options became available

Of course not.

My question is whether ND's exit fee doubles along with everyone else's. That fee doesn't have to be huge to keep ND from moving basketball and Olympic sports to the ACC.

 

[mauf]

According to some rumors, every season. Supposedly, Alabama and Tennessee want to continue their rivalry game and were willing to block any expansion move that would jeopardize that game. Problem is, if Auburn went east, then the Alabama-Auburn game would become the cross-division rivalry game as opposed to Alabama-Tennessee.

One way around that: Force Mizzou to compete in the SEC East, if they wanted in the conference bad enough. Mizzou's rivalry game would be Texas A&M, much like how Arkansas and South Carolina were paired as rivals when they entered the SEC.

Told you Alabama-Auburn was somehow going to be a problem.

Logical solution is to expand to 16 and add two ACC teams, but the SEC understandably doesn't want to rush that.

 

[JMDurron]

Told you Alabama-Auburn was somehow going to be a problem.

Logical solution is to expand to 16 and add two ACC teams, but the SEC understandably doesn't want to rush that.

Well, technically, Alabama-Tennessee is the problem. If I were Alabama, I wouldn't want to give up a traditional rivalry game either, particularly one against a rival that is completely overmatched. It would be like the Yankees switching their natural interleague rival from the Mets to the Phillies.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Another solution would be to go to a nine-game conference schedule, but that would be stupid. Eight games in the SEC are as tough as nine games in any other league

or they shift Kentucky west and Alabama and Auburn east

 

[JMDurron]

Another solution would be to go to a nine-game conference schedule, but that would be stupid. Eight games in the SEC are as tough as nine games in any other league

or they shift Kentucky west and Alabama and Auburn east

Putting LSU directly into the SEC Title game every year might just be simpler, and less bloody. Guaranteed games against Missouri, Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State every year? Holy crap.

Shifting Alabama can't really be in the cards at all. The absolute cornerstones, as I see them, in each division are Alabama and LSU in the West, and Florida and Georgia in the East. They both make geographical and strength-of-opponent sense. Swapping Auburn for Missouri makes the West slightly weaker (or massively weaker depending on where Auburn is in the talent cycle, but we're not talking a perpetually massive shift in strength of division, barring Chizik becoming the next Pat Dye), swapping any of those 4 teams to the other division for any reason turns the SEC into the Big 12 when Nebraska sucked.

 

[mabrowndog]

superubermegaconference?

http://www.boston.co...ast_mwc_c-.html

A lot of dominoes in that plan. It assumes West Virginia will depart for the Big 12, leaving only 5 football members. Some of the 8 remaining non-football Big East schools would need to approve it. Navy would have to sign on. And the 32-team version involves successfully poaching members from two other conferences: San Jose St, Utah St & La Tech from the WAC; and Temple from the MAC.

Seems like a lot of contingencies when at least 41 schools will have some sort of say in the matter. Plus all of the disrupted conferences would seemingly have to put on happy faces and play nice when they intra-compete as presently constructed in other sports.

And how much must it suck being an Idaho or New Mexico State fan? They'd be the lone remnants of the present-day WAC, and that conference is due to add 5 new members next year, two of which (Texas State-San Marcos and Texas-San Antonio) will be football members.

 

[Infield Infidel]

Big East poo-poos that megaconference, just looking to go to 12. Which is dumb. Go to twelve, then lose someone and have to add teams again. Just go to 16, and keep the non-Big East newcomers in another conference for other sports

 

[Bigpupp]

And how much must it suck being an Idaho or New Mexico State fan?

Nothing is worse than actually being a fan of this team to begin with...

NMSU would benefit greatly (competitively anyways) from moving their football program to D-2. The games are horribly attended and, despite their recent non-sucking streak, they are constantly in the bottom tier talent-wise.

Basketball is where realignment would kill NMSU.

 

[gtg807y]

Hide the women and the Red Bull, Holgo the Barbarian is returning to the west, this time with his Mountaineer hordes.

West Virginia to Big 12

 

[BigMike]

The Big East is officially dead. UConn and Rutgers will probably be offering bribes to any conference that will take them pretty soon.

Maybe the MAC will

Might as well jump into the Conference USA side of the Conf USA/Mountain west conf

More interesting is the Notre Dame to the Big 12 rumors

Hook em Irish

 

[RingoOSU]

I don't get the appeal of forcing our students to travel all the way to Indiana if we don't get Notre Dame for football. The big 12 shouldn't be desperate like the Big East.

 

[gtg807y]

The Big East is officially dead. UConn and Rutgers will probably be offering bribes to any conference that will take them pretty soon.

That would be the ACC.

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

If any conference gets ND for everything but football, I think it's a certainty that there will be a guarantee of a certain number of football games, and I think the minimum guarantee would be four games (two home, two away). The appeal, then, is that ND is still a big name in football, regardless of recent success, those games are worth something both to the schools and to the conference as a whole (since the games away from ND would fall under the conference TV contract), and the conference would be the likely destination if ND were to determine that football were no longer able to remain independent.

 

[RingoOSU]

Ah, so basically OU and Texas would get ND every year and the rest of the big 12 would just have to make do. Makes sense now.

 

[Royal Reader]

I don't get the appeal of forcing our students to travel all the way to Indiana if we don't get Notre Dame for football. The big 12 shouldn't be desperate like the Big East.

Go for the Church school double. Add BYU football only (allowing the Cougars to keep their Olympic sports in the WCC which is a good fit).

 

[BigMike]

Would ND really want to play OU, UT, and USC every year? They'd never make a BCS game.

And that is different how? ND is no longer BCS relevant, and the only real chance they would have had to stay BCS relevant was lost when they passed up on the chance to join the Big East for all sports. Now they may sneak back into the BCS some year when everything comes together all at once and the schedule breaks right etc, but basically their days of being a consistent power are long over

I tend to doubt they would want to play OU and UT in the same year.

Admittedly I wanted ND and Nova in the ACC for all non football sports, so the ACC could call it a day and never have to worry about this expansion stupidity again (hah), but the ACC had no interest in teams that didn't commit to all sports. So hopefully the ACC will just stay at 14 for the long term

 

[Mr. Wednesday]

Ah, so basically OU and Texas would get ND every year and the rest of the big 12 would just have to make do. Makes sense now.

The only thing that's come out so far is a six-game commitment floated by UT via Chip Brown. That certainly wouldn't be "OU and UT while everyone else makes do". I don't think ND would want to be that tied down if it can be negotiated down to four games, but I think it's a little premature to jump to conclusions about a potential arrangement. It could be OU and UT every year, or it could be just UT every year, or it could be everything rotating.

 

[Infield Infidel]

I can't believe I'm defending ND, but when they get 10 wins, they are pretty much guaranteed a BCS bid.
It's happened thrice the past 11 years; 3/11 is a pretty good BCS clip


As for WVU/Mizzou, I know the markets are polar opposites, but I think the SEC is missing out on a chance at getting an absolutely insanely passionate fanbase in WVU. Their athletic programs are about the same quality wise, but Mizzou's fanbase won't rival anyone in the SEC. Plus they'll have to move other teams around to bring in Mizzou. Nebraska isn't a primo market but that's not what made them attractive to the Big Ten.

However, one positive with Mizzou is it seams one out of every four ESPN personalities went there, so SEC will get even more positive media attention