Seadragon76

1.) It's not going to be anytime soon. Liberty isn't a bad team... it's the school itself. The politics they espouse there is pretty dangerous. Why do you think the Sun Belt and Conference USA wanted nothing to do with Liberty when they made the move up? The moment Liberty does something that is even remotely controversial, those conferences would be getting big time glares for letting them in. 2.) Whatever drugs you're on.. please share. There's NO way on on this planet or any other planet or even this forsaken timeline that North Dakota State jumps ship to the Big Ten. First off is academics - 13 of the 14 Big Ten members are in the AAU, probably the most prestigious academic organization in North America (Nebraska was part of it before they left in 2011). Invitations for the AAU are extremely rare. Why am I bringing this up? It might be a sticking point for most of the schools. Secondly is the massive overhaul NDSU would need to undertake in order to be in the Big Ten's radar. The Fargodome, where they play in football, is 5.5 times smaller (in terms of capacity) then Michigan Stadium. Hell, the smallest stadium in the Big Ten (Northwestern's Ryan Field) is 2.5 times larger in terms of capacity. It's the same with other sports. In terms of football is the extra money it would take - Where do you think they can come up with the money for an extra 22 scholarships in the middle of an economic downturn?

Back to MLS for the next planned phase of play, which would be a return to the regular season and the playoffs. The playoffs remain the same format wise. In terms of games, I'm looking at 20 games minimum so they can at least get the playoffs going in mid-October. Now, some teams will have 5 games under their belt thanks to the Group Stage of the MLS is Back Tournament. Well, that means there's 15 games left for them. In the case of FC Dallas and Nashville, they have 18 games left. To help minimize travel issues, the conferences will be split into two 'pods'. The Western Conference has two 6 team pods and the Eastern Conference has two 7 team pods. Here's how they break down... Western Conference Pod A: LAFC, LA Galaxy, Portland, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver Western Conference Pod B: Colorado, FC Dallas, Houston, Minnesota, Sporting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake Eastern Conference Pod A: Columbus, Philadelphia, Montreal , New England, New York City, New York Red Bulls, Toronto Eastern Conference Pod B: Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, D.C. United, Inter Miami, Nashville, Orlando The teams in the Western Conference will play their pod rivals three times for the remaining 15 games. The teams in the Eastern Conference will play a home and home series with the other teams in their pod, which makes 12 games. The final three games are against the nearest rival teams. FC Dallas and Nashville will also play three games against each other to make up for the games lost due to them leaving because of the virus.

This is going to be a five year process, so the earliest St. Thomas can become a full time Division 1 member is 2026. It's enough time to fix this issue.

Time for a What if... this time, the MLS is Back Tournament. Since it's not easy to put in 26 teams into 6 groups, things change in my version of it. Play In Round Each conference has a play in game to help round the numbers out. Miami and Nashville, as the newest teams, will be in these games against the worst teams from each conference from last season (there's not enough data to use this season, so last season will be used). So, the games would be this... Western Conference - Nashville SC vs. Vancouver Eastern Conference - Inter Miami CF vs. FC Cincinnati Group Stage After the two play in games, the group stage begins. Now, two weeks before the play in round, the groups were decided upon.thanks to rankings from the previous season. The Western Conference are in Groups A, C, and E while the Eastern Conference are in Groups B, D, and F. Group A -Los Angeles FC -Minnesota United -FC Dallas -Houston Group B -New York City FC -Toronto FC -New England -Columbus Group C -Seattle -LA Galaxy -San Jose -Sporting Kansas City Group D -Atlanta United -D.C. United -Chicago -Orlando City Group E -Real Salt Lake -Portland -Colorado -Nashville FC/Vancouver winner Group F -Philadelphia -New York Red Bulls -Montreal -Inter Miami CF/FC Cincinnati winner Each group has a day, so that makes it 18 days for the group stage Knockout Stage The top 2 in each group advances along with the four best third place teams for the Knockout Stage. It's based on each conference, so... Western Conference -Group A Winner vs. Wild Card #1 -Group C Winner vs. Wild Card #2 -Group E Winner vs. Group A Runner-Up -Group C Runner-Up vs. Group E Runner-Up Eastern Conference -Group B Winner vs. Wild Card #1 -Group D Winner vs. Wild Card #2 -Group F Winner vs. Group B Runner-Up -Group D Runner-Up vs. Group F Runner-Up The finals would be West vs. East.

I think that helps all three schools. The southern most location now is in Florida... starting next season, it'll be South Carolina as the southern most location for these schools. I think that in the next round of realignment, travel costs will play a much larger role then they traditionally do. I mean, they do play a role most of the time... but now with all the schools feeling that money crunch, travel costs might loom large.

From reading that, a few things come to mind... one is that Morgan State is basically waiting out the storm, then saying that they'll commit to the MEAC. Another option could be that they might move, but would be seen as a selfish plan considering that their inter city rivals and in state rival have committed to making it work with the MEAC. The last option could be a complete 'nuclear' option: Dismantle the entire sports program... but that's way too risky for any school, let alone a D-I HBCU, unless there is viable proof that your school can't support it.

Here's another one that slipped on by... UC Riverside, out of the Big West, changed their look recently. Here it is. All the info is here.

Exactly. There's talk of maybe the MEAC schools dropping down to Division II and possibly merging with the CIAA, but that is a literal last ditch plan there.

Delaware State staying in the MEAC helps. What concerns me is the talk of trying to expand... there's not a lot of HBCU's that are willing to make the leap to Division I right now.

Normally, a Division III school that is moving to Division II wouldn't get noticed... but D'Youville (from Buffalo) is making that move. To go with this move, they're changing their nickname from the Spartans to the Saints.

Right now, the remaining eight schools in the MEAC are probably concerned with this exodus going on. They could (but not hoping) lose Coppin State or UMES since they're non-football schools. Any school that plays football jumps ship and this conference is in trouble.

Hmm.. I heard Delaware State was looking at the NEC.

That has to be one of the most boring looks I've ever seen... It just looks so dull.

That might be the best analogy for that move. I also feel that since RMU is so close to Pittsburgh, it helps with the ideal that the Horizon League is a league of hub cities... Chicago, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Detroit, Cleveland, Dayton, Youngstown and now Pittsburgh.

If I remember correctly, it was about that long between the announcement of IUPUI joining the Horizon League and when they were added. Anyway, the moves that have been talked about are now official: NJIT heads to America East and Robert Morris goes to the Horizon League (as part of this move, the football program heads to the Big South in 2021 after a season of being an Independent)

Add a 'T' to the 'PUI' and you'd get "Ptooey'.

Well, America East is a lot closer for NJIT then anyone in the A-Sun.

Which is why most people usually call it Ooey-Pooey.

The solution here? Pair Illinois-Chicago with Purdue Fort Wayne. Here's how it would work.. -UIC and Purdue Fort Wayne -Green Bay and Milwaukee -Oakland (MI) and Detroit Mercy -IUPUI and Northern Kentucky -Cleveland State and Wright State -Youngstown State and Robert Morris

Okay, how far is it from Youngstown to Pittsburgh?

How would they dork up the rotations? If anything, adding them makes it easier.

They technically have their own network via ESPN+

The Horizon is probably looking for someone to help even the numbers since Purdue Fort Wayne joins the league in July. Robert Morris, being in Pittsburgh, isn't that far off from the league's geographical footprint. It makes sense.

I honestly like Tessitore in the Monday Night booth. It might be me, but more often the not... the games he is involved with are entertaining as all hell. Even when he did college football.

We got an Archer fan here (:P) I like what you did for Saskatchewan. I feel the same way: They are like the Colts and the Jets: Simple straight forward looks that you can easily recognize. I also like the additional stuff for Winnipeg. I always thought that the plain 'W' was boring and felt... I dunno, plain.