Seadragon76

In other conference based news:

West Virginia and Big East settles lawsuit. WVU now onto the Big 12

BTW: WVU's first Big 12 conference football game is September 29th against the soon-to-be RGIII-less Baylor Bears

Well, here I go...

Seahawks/Mariners/Washington Huskies: I was originally born in Washington State. To me, that is where my loyalities lie. Loyality is important to me... I would never, ever, EVER turn my back from where I am originally from and the teams, even if they all suck (like in 2008).

Iowa State: To help fit in with where I live, which is Iowa. I would never, ever, EVER root for a Big Ten team (like Iowa). I grew up in Pac-10 country and if there is one thing I know is that the Big Ten (Plus 2) was all about the boring football... You know, 'three yards and a cloud of dust'.

Hurricanes: Somewhat random here. I remember getting a mug that had the Hurricanes on it, so I went with it.

Wait, wait wait.. There's bad blood between Oregon and Oklahoma? Since when??

Big East could take a look at Umass.

They came this close to joining the Big East back in the late 90's-early 2000's. Had their basketball program not had violations I think they would have.

They've been a pretty good 1AA football school, basketball team has been fair to good the last few seasons, (they were in the NIT championship game back in '08) its a very large school, may not be a bad choice.

Is UMass still moving to the MAC for 2012?

As far as I know, UMass is still going to the MAC for football only in 2012. Any move to the Big East could mean moving all of their programs from the Atlantic 10 to the Big East and I don't think they want to make that move.

But if the Big East were a 7-team conference, they'd lose their BCS bid. That alone would destroy the conference by lowering its stature, and potentially sending its other football schools running to conferences that would give them a chance at a BCS bowl.

Even if Villanova were to opt into 1-FBS ball, would such a small school without stature in the football world be enough to keep schools like Connecticut, West Virginia and Louisville from bolting? In that scenario, bringing Villanova into the fold would be for naught.

Good point. Now, I don't know for sure if this whole situation would finally force the BCS to revoke the Big East's bid (it probably would), but the NCAA has stated that you need eight members to be a football conference (the WAC is currently facing this issue with the losses of Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii and the additions of two football schools Texas State and UTSA along side non-football members Denver, Seattle and UT-Arlington). To me, Villanova holds all the cards. I understand your point that little Villanova might not be enough to save the Big East in football, but I think that in order to survive, Villanova may need to make that jump.

It seems like this alone would potentially force the Big East to refocus as a basketball only conference, lest they try to save both football and basketball and tear apart the conference completely by making no one happy

It may be the only way, man. Saving both of them could be possible, but at what cost?

Anyone else get the feeling that LetsGoOakland9 is becoming the new KevinW.?

Nope. Personally, I don't care. Let's stick to the thread's main topic, OK spleen?

I guess I ought to throw out my two cents on what's going on.

-The ACC made a proactive move by getting Syracuse and Pittsburgh. With everyone else in a 'wait and see' mode, the ACC made this move to say that it will do something. Syracuse has been on the mind of the ACC for quite a long time. Remember, Syracuse was the team the ACC wanted alongside Miami and Boston College in the last round of expansion before the Virginia Legislature butted in for Virginia Tech. Pitt is just the extra cherry on top for the ACC.

-The Big East isn't as buried as many are saying. To me, the one team that can save the Big East in football is Villanova. As it stands, there will be seven football schools (this includes incoming member TCU) and 15 overall members. Villanova making the jump to FBS would give the Big East the necessary eight members to survive in football. But, should Villanova say no to making that jump, the Big East might be in big trouble and may have to take in the scraps of the Big 12 to make things work.

-What about the non-football schools (outside of Villanova, of course. This group also includes Georgetown because I don't think they are going to make that jump to FBS football in my, or anyone else's, lifetime) in this whole issue? Sooner or later, those schools are going to start wondering if they really matter in the whole scheme of things? History has taught us that super conferences don't work in the Division I level (Looking at you, WAC). Those schools may just jump ship and form some sort of non-football conference that would make them all happy.

To answer your question about Baylor, DCDuck: I remember that when the Big 12 was formed, the Texas Legislature pushed the conference to add Baylor because the governor at that time was a Baylor grad.

Houston and SMU (and to an extent, Rice) would be perfect for the Big 12. Both Houston and Rice gets them back into the Houston market and SMU is more then willing to get into a BCS conference. Why not, you know?

The biggest issue with SMU moving to the Big 12 is three fold...

1. The Big 12 has the Dallas-Fort Worth market under wraps with Texas, so adding SMU wouldn't help that much. Heck, I bet you that on a very busy weekend in Dallas-Fort Worth, SMU Football is easily on the lower end of 'Top 10 Sporting Event' lists.

2. SMU's current stadium is awfully small, even by Big 12 standards. They would need to add about 10,000-15,000 seats to be comparable to the other schools (To compare, the smallest Big 12 stadium right now is Oklahoma State's Boone Pickens Stadium at 48,000 seats... That is 16,000 more seats then SMU's Gerald J. Ford Stadium)

3. I know football has been the driving force behind all these movements, but what's not to say that the Big 12 wants a school that is strong at both football and basketball. Tank has the right idea... TCU is good at football, but they are mediocre at basketball right now. Memphis is great at hoops, but they are possibly one of the worst teams at the FBS level right now. What's not to say that if the Big 12 expands, they want to look at a school that has the best of both worlds.

Well it looks like this is happening. TAMU has moved up their board of regents meeting to discuss conference affiliation and ESPN is reporting to expect a press conference shortly afterwards. Also the quotes from the Big 12 people sounds like A&M is leaving.

Oh boy... Looks like the Big 12 is going to be dead in the water now. Who would of thought that Texas A&M would be the one that gives it the potential death knell?

The Las Vegas TV Market. That's what the UNLV Rebels would bring.... and a decent basketball team.

Personally, this talk of Texas A&M jumping ship scares me a little. I live in Iowa State country and the talk is that the Big 12 dies off, the Cyclones are stuck in limbo until someone picks them up.

Well, since the baseball plan flopped (badly, might I add), it's time to head to another sport: College Football.

The current plan is to keep it at 120 teams, so the four that are moving up (Umass, South Alabama, Texas State and Texas-San Antonio) would have to stay at the FCS level.

There would be 10 conference of 12 teams, meaning one conference will be dissolved.

Let's begin, shall we?

ACC

The ACC drops Boston College for East Carolina. That's the biggest move they make.

ACC Coastal

-Duke

-North Carolina

-Maryland

-Virginia

-Virginia Tech

-Wake Forest

ACC Atlantic

-Clemson

-East Carolina

-Florida State

-Georgia Tech

-Miami of Florida

-North Carolina State

Big East

The Big East makes the most moves in the new format. They add Army, Navy, Temple and Boston College to the mix.

Big East North

-Army

-Boston College

-UConn

-Rutgers

-Syracuse

-Temple

Big East South

-Cincinnati

-Louisville

-Pittsburgh

-Navy

-South Florida

-West Virginia

Big Ten

The Big Ten finally gets Notre Dame to join after years of courting them. They replace Nebraska in this realignment plan.

Big Ten Lakes

-Indiana

-Michigan

-Michigan State

-Ohio State

-Penn State

-Notre Dame

Big Ten Plains

-Illinois

-Iowa

-Minnesota

-Northwestern

-Purdue

-Wisconsin

Big 12

With Nebraska returning to the fold, the Big 12 remains, for the most part, unchanged.

Big 12 North

-Colorado

-Iowa State

-Kansas

-Kansas State

-Missouri

-Nebraska

Big 12 South

-Baylor

-Oklahoma

-Oklahoma State

-Texas

-Texas A&M

-Texas Tech

Mountain West

The Mountain West gets Utah and BYU back plus the schools they will add from the WAC in Boise State, Fresno State, and Nevada.

Mountain West Mountain

-Air Force

-BYU

-Colorado State

-New Mexico

-TCU

-Wyoming

Mountain West West

-Boise State

-Fresno State

-Nevada

-San Diego State

-UNLV

-Utah

Pac-12

The Pac-12 gets San Jose State and Hawaii to replace Utah and Colorado in the plan.

Pac-12 North

-California

-Oregon

-Oregon State

-Stanford

-Washington

-Washington State

Pac-12 South

-Arizona

-Arizona State

-Hawaii

-San Jose State

-UCLA

-USC

SEC

No changes in the SEC.

SEC East

-Florida

-Georgia

-Kentucky

-South Carolina

-Tennessee

-Vanderbilt

SEC West

-Alabama

-Arkansas

-Auburn

-LSU

-Mississippi

-Mississippi State

Conference USA

Conference USA keeps most of it's members despite losing East Carolina to the ACC. To replace East Carolina, C-USA adds Louisiana Tech to it's West Division and moves Tulane to the East.

Conference USA East

-Central Florida

-Marshall

-Memphis

-Southern Miss

-Tulane

-UAB

Conference USA West

-Houston

-Louisiana Tech

-Rice

-SMU

-Tulsa

-UTEP

Mid-American

After losing Temple, the MAC stays put.

Mid-American East

-Akron

-Bowling Green

-Buffalo

-Kent State

-Miami of Ohio

-Ohio

Mid-American West

-Ball State

-Central Michigan

-Eastern Michigan

-Northern Illnois

-Toledo

-Western Michigan

Sun Belt

The Sun Belt welcomes back Utah State, New Mexico State and Idaho (former Sun Belt members) back to the fold. This also effectively kills off the WAC.

Sun Belt East

-Florida Atlantic

-Florida International

-Middle Tennessee

-Troy

-UL Monroe

-Western Kentucky

Sun Belt West

-Arkansas State

-Idaho

-New Mexico State

-North Texas

-UL Lafayette

-Utah State

A playoff system will also be added on.

-10 team playoff, conference champions only.

-Teams will be seeded via conference position in the Conference RPI.

-First Round games are #10 Seed at #7 Seed and #9 Seed at #8 Seed

-The Quarterfinals are also held at the higher seed.

-The current BCS bowls will host the Semifinals, Third Place Game and National Championship. It'll rotate between the four games every year.

-Teams that don't make the playoffs will be allowed to play in other bowl games.

The problem is trying to get a good divisional format while trying to attain some sort of geographic sense. Minnesota was the oddball in the first attempt largely because of their location. They are farther away from the other Central based teams. I may have to tweak it so that it would look better.

As for the schedule: I think 160 games is a nice even number. Why 162 games? 160 is good enough, but I may tweak it to try and make it work better.

What's not to say that the Yankees actually have a bad year, or the Red Sox or the Rays?

I understand the problem, but I'm not going to blow this idea up because of someone being worried about the power in the East.

Time for my take on some realignment.

MLB

With the line between the leagues being blurred farther and farther every day, the time has come to take out the old and once timeless names for something that makes sense. Let me introduce to you Seadragon's MLB Realignment...

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division

Boston Red Sox

New York Mets

New York Yankees

Philadelphia Phillies

Toronto Blue Jays

Atlantic Division

Baltimore Orioles

Cincinnati Reds

Cleveland Indians

Pittsburgh Pirates

Washington Nationals

Southeast Division

Atlanta Braves

Houston Astros

Miami Marlins

Tampa Bay Rays

Texas Rangers

Western Conference

Midwest Division

Chicago Cubs

Chicago White Sox

Detroit Tigers

Milwaukee Brewers

St. Louis Cardinals

Mountain Division

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

Minnesota Twins

Kansas City Royals

San Diego Padres

Pacific Division

Anaheim Angels

Los Angeles Dodgers

Oakland Athletics

San Francisco Giants

Seattle Mariners

Schedule Format:

-55 games against divisional foes (5 3-game series [3 at Team A, 2 at Team B], 1 2-game series [at Team B])

-60 games against the two remaining divisions (4 3-game series [2 at Team A, 2 at Team B])

-45 games against the other conference (1 3-game series)

OK, someone explain to me why the WAC, which needs a football school to stay under FBS standards (which states that you need 8 football playing schools to remain in the FBS or else you won't count.. in an odd way), wants Texas-Arlington, who doesn't have football and won't have it for the time being.

I have an idea: Stop trying to poach the Southland Conference of it's members and aim for someone else. If you have to, add Cal State Bakersfield and hope that either them, Denver or Seattle wants to start football up (which is basically a no-chance-in-hell plan).

Or you can always ask Houston Baptist. They want to play football and they need a new home after the Great West implodes.

BTW, is Denver going to be a non-football member when it joins the WAC?

Yep. Denver and Seattle are the Non-football members while Texas State-San Marcos and UTSA are joining the WAC with football in tow.

And rams80 makes a very good point: The goal of some of these programs that have started football programs as of late, like Lamar, is to reach the FBS level. The WAC would provide a decent home for the football program and it would help satisfy Louisiana Tech from being so far out from everyone else.

The outlook for the WAC still looks bleak. Unable to get a FCS school to move up this year, they settle for non-football playing Seattle.

They really don't have many option in terms of football playing schools to attract. UL-Lafayette and North Texas for current FBS schools along with FCS teams in Sac State, Lamar, Sam Houston State, Montana, Montana State, and Cal-Poly.

I want to say that at least a handful of those schools have already turned the WAC down.

I know that Montana and Cal Poly have said no already to the WAC. Sacramento State just doesn't have the resources availible at the moment for a jump to FBS and there's no chance in hell Montana State goes anywhere without Montana.

This leaves Sam Houston State and Lamar, both schools having ambitions to move up to FBS level play, as the most likely options for the WAC. But, what does that do to the Southland should these two schools jump ship?

Oh yeah...

Nebraska-Omaha plans to join the Summit League, but will drop football and wrestling

Gosh, its been, like, a couple of weeks so here's some more.

The one rumor I like is the OVC adding North Alabama.

For those who don't know, North Alabama's current D-II home (Gulf South Conference) has been ripped apart when the six Arkansas schools left to join the three Oklahoma schools from the Lone Star Conference to create a new conference, which is now known as the Great American Conference.

This leaves five schools for football at the moment. The GSC is looking for new members, and one of the options is the University of New Orleans. The school has recently decided to change their plans and go to D-II instead of D-III and possibly add football in the near future.

UNA has a choice here: Either jump ship and move to D-I or wait it out and hope that the GSC can be revived in the near future.

But, if I remember correctly McCall... Didn't Utah State shoot down the MWC invite because they were loyal to the WAC's cause?

I wonder if that still plays a role in this little drama.

I personally think that the WAC will be OK. Idaho isn't going anywhere, especially to the Mountain West with Boise State in there. Let's face it, the Bronco fanbase isn't all that fond of the Vandal fanbase to begin with.

So, Idaho stays put. This also means that San Jose State and Utah State also stays put. Louisiana Tech and New Mexico State also stay put as to help the struggling WAC survive in what seems to be hard times for the conference. Oh, and let's not forget about Texas State, UTSA and Denver joining the WAC in 2012. 8 schools with 7 for football may not be the best scenario for the WAC, but this is the only option that works right now.

It's possible that the WAC may look into Seattle U. and Cal State Bakersfield as non-football members (In the Hawaii move to the Big West, someone had to be denied entry and that was CSU-Bakersfield) to reach an even 10 schools.

So, how soon before the WAC tries to pick up Eastern Washington?

Not. Going. To. Happen. Here's why:

1. Big Sky Stability - The Big Sky just added North Dakota and Southern Utah for 2012, giving it 11 full time members plus Cal Poly and UC-Davis as football only members in 2013 (That's an assumed date, BTW). This makes the Big Sky the largest FCS football conference and a leading force in the western half of the nation at the FCS level.

2. Distance Issues - Say that EWU does join the WAC? You're talking about having all of their teams play in Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico instead of what the Big Sky offers, which is shorter trips to Montana, Idaho, and Oregon (And, yes, there are some longer road trips there, but not to the extent of what the WAC would have).

3. Upgrading - I highly doubt that Eastern Washington would have the money needed to make an upgrade.

Here are some other moves I can see happening...

Butler to Missouri Valley in all sports (the current national runners-up seem primed for a step up, though not too big of one)

Jacksonville and/or Jacksonville State to Sun Belt (They're already doing quite well in FCS, time for a tiny step up, plus the loss of Denver and UNO leaves a hole for the Sun Belt).

That's pretty much it for now...

Both cases aren't likely.

Butler's case is location. Indianapolis, while being in the footprint of the MVC, is pretty much the heart of the Horizon's footprint. I don't think that Butler would leave it's home (and trips to major metro areas in the Midwest like Detroit, Cleveland, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Chicago) for one that is larger in scope.

The Sun Belt is probably happy as hell to get rid of Denver. They were the oddball in the Sun Belt, so seeing Denver join the WAC in 2012 makes the Sun Belt happy. Adding anyone right now is probably not on the radar unless they can find a way to convince UALR to get a football program going (or not. 11 members with 10 playing football is just as good).

I'm still think the Big East is the best choice for UMass.

While that does make sense, I have to think the big reason for this move is so the MAC can have a small piece of the Boston TV market.

With 14 football schools in the MAC, UMass would be great in the Eastern Division along with Buffalo and Temple, both being regional foes, and the Ohio schools. This would mean the Western most Ohio school would be in the Western Division to make it an even two 7 team divisions.

If anything, the CAA is starting to look awful shaky here. Hofstra and Northeastern drop their programs, Rhode Island is leaving for the NEC in 2013, Villanova and UMass are looking at FBS upgrades. With the additions of Old Dominion and Georgia State, the CAA is heading from a large 12 team beast of an FCS conference to one that, by 2013, may only have 9 members in the conference and just about half are associate members. Things aren't looking good for the CAA down the road.

Furthering the possible wrench in the Hawaii to MWC rumor:

Hawaii, Bakersfield, UC San Diego to Big West?

What rams said about Hawaii makes a lot of sense. CS-Bakersfield has been waiting for an invite to the Big West ever since they completed the move to Division I athletics.

UC San Diego seems like the oddball here. Are they even ready for a possible jump to D-I?