thespleenenator

Pitt has been "showing itself" to the other conferences, trying to get out of the BEast for a while. Strangely enough, their chancellor is head of the Big East Committee. The irony is kind of laughable.

That's actually what the article talks about. He was preaching conference unity for the last few weeks and telling the other Big East teams they had to stick together, and well, now look what happens.

We've been talking for the last few weeks how the Big XII was on the verge of destruction and in the matter of two days, I think we've seen the fatal shot to the Big East in football. The conference is now down to 6 teams and unless they raid one of the mid-majors or take the scraps of the Big XII, I think it's likely by the end of next week, two BCS conferences will cease to exist.

FYP

Apparently, the ACC wants to add to more teams, and Texas has made a pitch to them.

It's official that they've applied, not official that they're apart of the ACC yet.

In about 18 hours though, that'll be a different story, assuming no one in the Big East pulls a Baylor.

Just read it on the bottom crawl, they've been accepted. Can't find a link, but it said BREAKING NEWS while I was watching the Stanford-Arizona game that they'v been voted in.

It's official: Pittsburg and Syracuse are part of the ACC.

Here's my take on what I think what will happen that I posted in the concepts a while back.

As expected the Big 12 folds. Also, the Big East unexpectedly disappears. The rest of the conferences pan out like so: (links in conference names)

Big Ten - As soon as the Big East becomes no more, the B1G brings in Pitt quickly. They bring in Kansas because of their strong basketball program and Missouri follows. After the new teams join, Notre Dame finally agrees to make the move. The conference championship game is in Detroit, MI

SEC - When the Big 12 starts to crumble, the SEC is quick to grab Texas A&M and Baylor. Clemson and Florida State follow from the ACC. Championship game in Atlanta, GA

PAC-16 - The PAC-12 would soon also feed off of the fallen Big 12 as they expand east and grab Texas Tech and Kansas State. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State soon follow. The new conference is called PAC-16. Championship game in Los Angeles, CA

ACC - Once Florida State and Clemson leave for the SEC, the ACC takes Connecticut and West Virgina. Later on they eat up most of the Big East taking South Florida, Rutgers, Syracuse, Cincinnati. This leaves the Big East left in the dark. Championship game in New York, NY

Mountain West - Boise and TCU are unable to find a willing conference since they have weak basketball programs. The Mountain West wants to merge with the WAC. That gets turned down, but the WAC programs like the idea. They all join except for Louisiana Tech. UTEP joins as well. The WAC folds. Championship game in Denver, CO.

MAC - Not much going on here. They only extend an offer to Marshall and they accept. Championship game in Cleveland, OH

C-USA - With Marshall and UTEP gone, the C-USA is looking for new members. With their conferences gone, Iowa State and Louisville are left in the dust. No one comes knocking, so they join the C-USA. Championship game in New Orleans, LA

Sun Belt - With the WAC gone, the Sun Belt Conference nabs Louisiana Tech. Championship game in Jacksonville, FL

Texas decides to go independent joining Army, Navy and BYU.

So now for the scheduling.

For the 16 team conferences, the given team will play all other 7 divisional opponents. They only get one protected rivalry from the other conference.

14 team conferences are the same, but they have two protected rivalries because there obviously isn't 8 team divisions. So you can guess how 10 team conferences work. *All teams play 4 non-conference games.

The independents will all play each other once and you'll know why later.

Now, I've decided to go with a tournament instead of bowls. I'm going with a 32 team bracket. The conferences are all guaranteed a certain amount of tourney spots.

B1G gets 4 tourney spots

SEC gets 4 tourney spots

PAC 16 gets 4 tourney spots

ACC gets 4 tourney spots

MWC gets 3 tourney spots

C-USA gets 3 tourney pots

MAC gets 2 tourney spots

SBC gets 2 tourney spots

The top 2 Independents also get tourney spots.

This leaves for spots, the 5th and 6th place teams from the B1G, PAC, ACC and SEC conferences will have a play-in for those final four spots.

The bracket will be named after the #1 one seeds. The B1G bracket winner will play the ACC bracket winner. The PAC16 bracket winner plays the SEC bracket winner. The national championship location changes yearly.

I have no idea how the hell you think the SEC would take Baylor but not Louisville. Plus, a 32 team bracket would make the season too long.

In case anyone's surprised:

Oklahoma to Apply to Pac-12

Ok State to follow suit. Good night Big XII.

But OU isn't an AAU school, and neither is OK State. Oklahoma just became a Tier 1 institution this past January. What happened to those precious, unwavering academic standards that the PAC-12 claims to be obsessed with?

Money is better than Academics. Boise has neither.

Boise State will never be in the Pac-12, 14 or 16. Case closed. Let's move on.

Ahmen.

How would Boise State NOT make sense? Just because they never played in a legitimate conference? I'm sure if the Pac-12 could lure Texas over, they would be willing to make some adjustments to their TV schedules or do whatever they need to do with negotiating with ESPN or whoever runs the TV contract, to bring Texas in.

The Stanford caliber schools will never consort with a jumped-up community college. They've said as much.

To add, and I may be naive here, Boise doesn't have any other worthwhile athletics (like basketball, at the least). The Pac-12 is collectively competitive in every sport.

Yes, like for example wrestling and, its defending champion, Boise State.

If wrestling mattered, Iowa State would be a team conferences would want.

This looks bad on the Big XII schools, IMO. The league and all it's members were fine with A&M going to the SEC and gave the league their blessing. Ish actually gets real and Baylor says, "We lied, we're gonna sue." Then everyone else in the league except Oklahoma says "YEAH! Me too!"

Because all the other schools know, other than Oklahoma (and now texas) know that if A&M leaves, they have a very uncertain future ahead of them, especially Baylor.

Depending on how the Big Ten positions itself... they could be the last conference to brag about Football, Basketball, and Academics.

If the Pac-12 gets Oklahoma and Texas, they can boast Football and Basketball... I guess.

And academics. Remember, we have Stanford, Cal, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, all of which are known for being good academic schools. Utah and Arizona are no slouches either, especially Arizona's Honors college, S.A.L.T, which is one of the hardest colleges to get into in the world.

SALT isn't our Honors College. SALT is the special needs student program. Our Honors College is excellent, though, and we are one of the foremost universities in the world for planetary science and astronomy.

Anyway, the fact that eight of the twelve Pac-12 schools are AAU members (ASU, WSU, OSU and Utah are the exceptions) speaks for itself.

Well that explains why my parents wanted me to go there. Anyway, if I were to rank to conferences in terms of academics, it would go like this:

1. Pac-12

2. ACC

3. Big Ten

(you could interchange those three for the most part)

4. Big East

5. SEC

6. Big nothing

Depending on how the Big Ten positions itself... they could be the last conference to brag about Football, Basketball, and Academics.

If the Pac-12 gets Oklahoma and Texas, they can boast Football and Basketball... I guess.

And academics. Remember, we have Stanford, Cal, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado, all of which are known for being good academic schools. Utah and Arizona are no slouches either, especially Arizona's Honors college, S.A.L.T, which is one of the hardest colleges to get into in the world.

Texas A&M accepted into the SEC? Virginia Tech would make more sense in the SEC. The B10 Ten can't afford to lose out on Mizzou.

Commence realignment landslide. Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, and Texas to the Pac-12.

The next week is going to be wild.

Texas won't end up in the Pac-12(16?). The conference has already told Texas they'd have to fold their baby, the Longhorn Network, into the Pac-12's new TV network. And that alone would be a deal breaker for Texas after the time and money they've put into it. I do think it's likely the two Oklahoma teams make the jump to the Pac-12, but word is Texas would rather explore saving the Big 12 with a slew of new additions (leaving them the king of the hill like they are today), or if that fails going the indy route for football with their other sports in the ACC.

Wouldn't the SEC make more sense?

A&M could go down tomorrow?

I can tell you one thing. The Big XII is gonna talk with all the teams, and they're going to say "Whatever the cost, T A&M cannot win the conference." That would just be the ultimate insult to injury.

Nebraska went to the Big 12 title game last fall, so not ike that can't happen

But they didn't win. And A&M might be is the entire reason the conference collapsed.

A&M could go down tomorrow?

I can tell you one thing. The Big XII is gonna talk with all the teams, and they're going to say "Whatever the cost, T A&M cannot win the conference." That would just be the ultimate insult to injury.

I had a thought... now that Boise State is a major football school, do you think that the Pac-12 would ever take them in. The only problem I see with it is that Boise State is not really good at other sports. What are your thoughts?

I asked this to my uncle, who works for the Oregon athletic department, and he basically laughed at my face. Not only do they lack and prowess in any other sports, but their academics are way below Pac-12 standards. They're not even being considered.

Just invite Rice, Houston and SMU. SWC reunion, and it gets the conference membership back up to twelve.

Those schools are way too small and have way too little fan support to be in a BCS conference.

Both of the schools you bolded have larger enrollment than Wake Forest and Vanderbilt.

One could say the same about Baylor. How did they get into the Big XII and not Houston or Rice (SMU I could understand)? Baylor's football program was the laughing stock of the Big XII up until a couple of years ago, and they weren't exactly setting the world on fire in (men's) basketball either.

Those schools have much bigger athletic departments than Rice and SMU. And they actually have people show up to their games (Wake Forest nearly sells out most of their football games). It's possible that SMU could work if they garner enough fan support, but Rice is just too small and doesn't have any athletic support except in baseball.

Just invite Rice, Houston and SMU. SWC reunion, and it gets the conference membership back up to twelve.

Those schools are way too small and have way too little fan support to be in a BCS conference. From what I've heard, they're looking at BYU.

Link to Geoff's comment

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6861385/sec-extend-invitation-texas-leaves-options-open

LAND OF THE MEGA CONFERENCES

SEC

East

Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vanderbilt

West

Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Texas A&M

PAC-16

North

California, Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington State

South

Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech, Utah

ACC

Atlantic

Boston College, Connecticut, Louisville, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Syracuse, West Virginia

Coastal

Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest

BIG 16

Legends

Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska, Notre Dame

Leaders

Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

That makes perfect sense except that Texas will go independent. If that happens, Notre Dame is staying. That means that the B1G would have to go for a non BCS school (Navy perhaps?). The absolute best option for the Pac-16 would be AIr Force. It would give them a national following, along with a very athletically competitive school.

You honestly don't think Kansas Basketball makes money? Kansas is the Texas of Basketball, maybe Kentucky is a close second.

Yes, Kansas basketball makes money. Basketball and football are the two revenue sports of college athletics, but as we saw from last year, football is king. Football is driving all the decisions of conference expansion. When the Pac10 was trying to add 6 Big 12 teams last year, they went for Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. The only discussed variation was Butler instead of Colorado. If basketball was a factor, Kansas would have factored in or some other big conference would have at least been waiting to swoop them up. Instead, Kansas was faced with the sad truth that, basketball and all, conference realignment was about to leave them in the dust with the other 5 unwanted members of the Big 12. Football and the money it makes drove every decision and discussion for realignment last year. I seriously doubt that has changed.

Wait... what? Butler? I'm pretty sure they're aren't going to leave the Pioneer league any time soon.

Butler is in the Horizon League first, then please wait until later with a better formed realignment position. football money is what builds athletic departments is what makes for non-DVR tv for most ratings.

Read that to yourself again and see if you can make out what your saying.

You honestly don't think Kansas Basketball makes money? Kansas is the Texas of Basketball, maybe Kentucky is a close second.

Yes, Kansas basketball makes money. Basketball and football are the two revenue sports of college athletics, but as we saw from last year, football is king. Football is driving all the decisions of conference expansion. When the Pac10 was trying to add 6 Big 12 teams last year, they went for Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. The only discussed variation was Butler instead of Colorado. If basketball was a factor, Kansas would have factored in or some other big conference would have at least been waiting to swoop them up. Instead, Kansas was faced with the sad truth that, basketball and all, conference realignment was about to leave them in the dust with the other 5 unwanted members of the Big 12. Football and the money it makes drove every decision and discussion for realignment last year. I seriously doubt that has changed.

Wait... what? Butler? I'm pretty sure they're aren't going to leave the Pioneer league any time soon.

What part of "the only thing that these conferences are interested in is money" don't you get? The only major media market Kansas has to offer is maybe Kansas City. Mizzou offers KC and StL. There's no point in adding either of those schools. Nebraska convinced the B1G they gave them the Kansas City market, and Illinois already gives them the St. Louis market. The Des Moines "market" is there with Iowa, and K-State has the same problems as Kansas. You don't grasp why they want to expand.

You honestly don't think Kansas Basketball makes money? Kansas is the Texas of Basketball, maybe Kentucky is a close second.

hahahahaha spleen thinking that the B1G would add Mizzou, K-State, Kansas, and Iowa State.

Look, the only one of those four schools the B1G would go after would be Missouri. And I highly doubt they'd do that. They have the St. Louis market in Illinois and apparently the KC market in Nebraska.

Schools the B1G would be interested in? Notre Dame and Texas (as was rumoured, I hope not though) would be at the top of their list. I don't think they'd get Texas, but in a super-conference world, they'd maybe be able to snatch up Notre Dame. Besides that? Rutgers, Maryland, Boston College, and Vanderbilt is who I'd go after if I was the B1G, in that order. Rutgers would give the Big Ten access to the NYC media market for BTN, and Maryland supplies both the Washington, DC and Baltimore markets. While BC might seem a bit out of the way, that gives Boston (and to a lesser extent, most of New England) to the B1G, and Vandy would give them Tennessee.

Adding Notre Dame, Rutgers, Maryland, and Boston College would put the BTN in every state north of the Mason/Dixon line, plus Maryland and DC, as well as every state east of the Mississippi, plus Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Nebraska at least. That's what this is all about.

Iowas State and K-State are a bit iffy I'll given you that, but Mizzou and Kansas? Who wouldn't want those schools. In terms of football, yes, you're correct. But Kansas plays basketball too. They also have great track. Also, Iowa State is, along with Oklahoma State, are the top wrestling programs in the nation.

Average SAT score for WSU: 1590

Average SAT UNR: 1570

I looked at the same source (College Data) you did and you were right. My image for the university might be distorted because UNR has a great music and creative writing school, which is what I hope to in major in.

You might want to try your math again when you add up the three scores, but at least you finally see what the data shows.

And where are you getting UNR is one of the fastest growing universities? Enrollment hasn't really spiked up since 2007.

UNR's 4-year graduation rate is 15%. It's 6-year rate is 48%. Less than half the undergraduates finish school in six years. It's tough to grow when people are leaving.

I meant physically growing. Apparently, according people in the area, there are cranes running every day, and they're apparently going to renovate their stadium.

Look, I'm probably the biggest Nevada Wolfpack supporter on this board, went to the university (Didn't graduate form there due to many reasons, class offerings was one though), and live about 50 miles from Reno, but the idea that UNR could be accepted into the Pac 12/4/6 is really crazy. Sure, the city is growing, but that's mainly due to lower real estate prices than just across the boarder in California and the fact that work is insanely hard to find in this part of the state. Nevada's economy for the most part depends on two things, the fortunes of their meal ticket to the west, and gambling. California is in debt up to their eyeballs right now, and Nevada is paying because of it. EVERYTHING in the state is underfunded, including the school systems. Nevada has by far one of the worst educational systems in the entire country in terms of funding. Both UNR and UNLV have had major financial cutbacks in the past few years that have all but crippled their educational offerings. And when it comes to gambling, just look at the city of Vegas. You'd be hard pressed to find any other area of the country that was hit worse by the poor economy than Vegas. It's gotten so bad in Vegas that people are leaving at a faster rate than coming into town now. I for one would be giddy as a schoolgirl to see the Wolfpack find a way to join the PAC #, but there is simply no way that either of the Nevada Universities have the resources to do so any time soon.

Well, not going to argue with a native. Who's the next best bet then, Air Force? They have a big national following and great academics, but would a service academy join a BCS if given the chance?

Average SAT score for WSU: 1590

Average SAT UNR: 1570

I looked at the same source (College Data) you did and you were right. My image for the university might be distorted because UNR has a great music and creative writing school, which is what I hope to in major in.

You might want to try your math again when you add up the three scores, but at least you finally see what the data shows.

And where are you getting UNR is one of the fastest growing universities? Enrollment hasn't really spiked up since 2007.

UNR's 4-year graduation rate is 15%. It's 6-year rate is 48%. Less than half the undergraduates finish school in six years. It's tough to grow when people are leaving.

I meant physically growing. Apparently, according people in the area, there are cranes running every day, and they're apparently going to renovate their stadium.