pianoknight

In some of the lower divisions, I can understand why schools may wish to shuffle around from D-II, D-III, etc. At those levels, athletic programs and universities are less funded and they need to do what they can to keep the college's bank account healthy. But the transfer up from D-II to FCS, or then FCS to FBS, just seem much too big of a challenge for most schools to handle. When you look at some of the recent FBS jumps (App. State, Ga. Southern), they've tended to be fairly successful FCS schools, but they're essentially trading like-for-like by moving up to a lower tier FBS conference like the SunBelt or Conference USA. It's not like UMass is going to suddenly turn into the next Notre Dame, Alabama or Oklahoma. The ONLY way I see it making sense is that by bumping up to a mid-major conference, they gain a bigger pool of "blue bloods" to play against. A lot of the Power 5 conferences are moving away from scheduling FCS teams (the B1G has set a deadline for 2016), so moving into the low end of FBS would allow them to still play a team like Michigan and get a big pay day. When Nebraska played Southern Miss a few years ago, they originally moved the game from the USM campus to a neutral site, and then again to a home game in Lincoln. USM's athletic department felt they could make more money allowing Nebraska to pack in 90k+ fans and get only a visitor's cut of the take rather than trying to fill their 20k seat stadium in Hattiesburg. As we get more entrenched in the FBS playoff model and the Power 5 garnering more autonomy away from the NCAA, I can see there being a bigger push for FCS teams to jump up into the SunBelt, MAC, Mountain West, AAC and C-USA, before that option goes extinct and they're stuck.

Huge mistake if they do. All of their success at the FCS level has to do with their ability to recruit guys who'd rather start for YSU than sit on the bench for a Akron or Kent State. That's gone if they become just another Ohio MAC program. Always found it odd how many Ohio schools have football programs. I know it was once a recruiting hotbed and perhaps closer to the geographic center of the game, but it's still odd to me. You don't see nearly the same density in Illinois or Indiana, for example, despite them having pretty much the same attributes as Ohio does (region, population, big cities/small cities, etc) Illinois and Indiana do have some FCS-level programs too. The difference is that the MAC (uniquely) fought back against the NCAA's 1982 purge of the small conference teams from then Division I-A I guess that's it. Must be an Ohio thing. Do they refer to it as "The" MAC?

Huge mistake if they do. All of their success at the FCS level has to do with their ability to recruit guys who'd rather start for YSU than sit on the bench for a Akron or Kent State. That's gone if they become just another Ohio MAC program. Always found it odd how many Ohio schools have football programs. I know it was once a recruiting hotbed and perhaps closer to the geographic center of the game, but it's still odd to me. You don't see nearly the same density in Illinois or Indiana, for example, despite them having pretty much the same attributes as Ohio does (region, population, big cities/small cities, etc)

With the talk about the WVU Athletic Department sucking wind because of travel costs, I can't imagine what adding schools in Florida would do. It's not as problematic for football, per se, but I'm sure the athletic budgets of every school not called Sooners or Longhorns will be stretched with basketball road trips that stretch from Lubbock, TX to Ames, IA out to West Virginia and then down to Florida. It's like traveling to March Madness every week.

It's per football scoop, which is very suspicious. Football Scoop is basically football rumor Wikipedia. It doesn't have to be true but you can email football scoop with your "scoop" and see if they believe it enough to post it. I doubt this is true.I believe they were the ones who "leaked" that Jim Tressel was taking the Nebraska job as well? Anyway, regarding Pelini, I think Bo would do very well with a Pac-12 or Big XII team as DC, maybe head coach. His defensive scheme at Nebraska worked well in the Big XII, actually, but faltered in the more run-heavy Big Ten. He runs an NFL-style defense that seeks to get pressure from the front four, allowing time for the LBs and secondary to get their coverage set. It's a read-and-react sort of thing that works wonders against pass-heavy teams such as the No Fun League or the gunslingers that Nebraska used to see in the Big XII (Bradford, McCoy, Reesing, Weeden, Harrell, etc). Pelini needs to be in a place where he can attack teams who favor the pass. Unfortunately, the Big Ten ain't that place.

Also, there was talk a while back of the Big Ten being interested in Kansas and Oklahoma. The big question was whether state legislatures would force a sale of KSU and Okie State as part of a package deal. Honestly, I'm not sure why so many people get up in arms about it. Split conferences seems to work just fine for Iowa and Iowa State, or Texas and Texas A&M for that matter. But either way, I would not be surprised to see the Big XII fold in a few years, especially if anything happens to UT-OU. No matter how well TCU and Baylor perform, the strength of the conference still largely resides in Norman, OK and Austin, TX.

I saw that on my Facebook newsfeed as well. I contacted the artist (Firefly, I believe) a while ago and told him about it. The page appears to be busted now. Perhaps Production Tees got wind of the copyrighted material?

University of Nebraska - I'm a native Nebraskan and grew up in the 1990s era of dominance. Tommie Frazier, Ahman Green, Mike Brown, Grant Wistrom, etc. Went to high school with Heisman winner Eric Crouch and watched him tear Nebraska High School teams to shreds - and then tear Big 12 teams to shreds. For me though, the big thing about Nebraska has always been winning - but winning the right way. We don't have the most National Championships or Heisman Winners. We have plenty mind you, but it's about playing your very best because of the love of the sport. Nebraska leads the nation in Academic All-Americans. Wild stat - Tom Osborne graduated more Academic All Americans at Nebraska in his 25 year tenure than any other school has in their entire history. Google it if you don't believe me. Also, things like supporting Team Jack and maintaining the NCAA Sellout Streak are just a way of life for Nebraskans. It's not some PR move our football team adopted, it's the way that real-life Midwesterners live their lives day in and day out. We help our neighbors, we go to church, we pack our stadium on Saturdays.

Just came onto this thread. As an occasional concept poster and hobbyist, this infuriates me - especially for you guys who do this for a living. This is probably below the belt, but I'd try contacting those people in a polite fashion - merely to obtain an email address - and then signing that address up for all kinds of heinous spam. It's probably not super ethical of me, but then again neither is stealing other people's work and claiming credit. Citing sources and giving credit is like Internet 101. Hacks like this fool deserve to get an inbox full of animal porn or something.

North Carolina Panthers? Maybe he meant the lesser known name of the team? North & South Carolina Panthers (of Anaheim).

Largely true, and the local talent that wants to stay in the New England area typically winds up at BC, Syracuse or maybe Rutgers.

Idaho? I suppose it's about the only place for them to wind up, really. You can make a geographic stretch for NMSU since they're pretty much in the same southern sunshine region, but it seems odd that a state who borders Canada would be in the SunBelt conference with schools who are ~100 miles from Cuba. --edit-- Apparently, Idaho and NMSU were original members of the SunBelt back in 2001 and left in 2004. Who knew?

I find this stuff intriguing, although hockey isn't my sport. Graphic overlays can really change the perception of a game.

The Big Ten had apparently looked into Oklahoma, Kansas and Vanderbilt. Infer what you will. http://collegesports...om-big-12.html/ It's also been announced that the semi-finals of the 2014 FBS playoff will take place at the Rose and Sugar Bowls, and the championship game at Cowboys' Stadium in Dallas. If there wasn't pressure for 4 mega-conferences already, I think that the advent of playoffs may force it. With two semi-finals, you're going to get the champions of 4 major conferences most years. The 5th champion will be left out. I could honestly see something that looks a lot like NFC (PAC + B1G) versus AFC (SEC + ACC/B12) coming in future years.

The fact that you had to actually explain this is somewhat appalling. I fear for our Interwebs.

Despite this move by the ACC, I still think we will eventually see 4 power conferences who call the shots.

No, Maryland will leave. ACC = 14 total teams when all the dust settles. - Maryland departure brings them down to 11. - Pitt & Syracuse brings them up to 13. - Louisville brings them to 14.

I'm actually happy about this and hope it prevents further Big Ten expansion into ACC schools. I have nothing against UNC or UVA - in fact, they're great pickups for basketball and other sports - but I feel like culturally, the Big Ten should continue to look at schools like Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma if they wish to pursue expansion.

Hey, we'll finally get to play Iowa in my grad year here. Two teams in the same conference shouldn't go four years in a row without playing each other. Kinda nice that we'll be in the "easy" division too. But this really screws over IU. Indiana would have been hosed regardless. Don't tell me that they would expect to win a West division against Wisconsin, Northwestern and Nebraska. No, but they would have had a better shot at 6-7 wins a year. That's fair. Bowl eligibility is much more achievable.

Hey, we'll finally get to play Iowa in my grad year here. Two teams in the same conference shouldn't go four years in a row without playing each other. Kinda nice that we'll be in the "easy" division too. But this really screws over IU. Indiana would have been hosed regardless. Don't tell me that they would expect to win a West division against Wisconsin, Northwestern and Nebraska.

20+ team conferences are stupid. A better option would just be a partnership with another conference, like the proposed Big Ten / Pac-12 deal that fizzled out. That way, you're playing a bunch of (technically) non-conference opponents, but they cycle through every couple of years, so you have at least some decent familiarity with them.

UVA, UNC and GT are the three ACC names that come up most. Kansas and Mizzou come up often, too. I'd love for the Big Ten to just everyone in the nuts and take Oklahoma and Texas. It'll never happen, but Neb/Ok/Tex vs Mich/tOSU/PSU would be pretty damn solid ways anchor divisions.

I hadn't seen that piece on UNC. Despite what critics say about the rivalry with Duke, I honestly think UNC and UVA are probably the next two dominoes in the Big Ten's plan.

Been hearing rumors about UVA and Big Ten expansion. Virginia, UNC and others have long been under the microscope for possible Big Ten expansion, but the new wrinkle I'm hearing is related to divisional alignment in the B1G. The conference has been dragging their feet for a long time on the new divisions. The most talked about option is an East/West split, with Indiana and Purdue carved up. Which school will go to which division is an otherwise (relatively) simple solution, but there's some buzz saying that the Big Ten brass is using this "massively difficult decision" as a stalling technique so they can keep tabs on the Maryland-ACC lawsuit. It seems pretty likely that the Big Ten would expand again to 16 or more teams, so I'm also forced to believe that they would already have some mock divisional alignments in place. It would be legendarily short-sighted if they didn't. So, long story short -- if Maryland wins the suit, the B1G is free to raid more ACC schools and possibly lay out their 16/18/20 team alignment plan. If the ACC wins, then the B1G just rolls ahead with the East/West split for now and puts the larger plan on the backburner.

Wow, I kicked off a 5h|t storm with that crack about women judges. Guess I forgot the sarcasm filter.