DCDuck

How many schools in the B1G play lacrosse? Oh, I almost forgot to mention Maryland's athletic department is flat broke, nobody at UM cares about football, and they don't have the tradition of a school like Indiana to make up for it in basketball. They DO have basketball tradition and the founder of Under Armour is an alumn. Maryland's basketball tradition is a fraction of Indiana's basketball tradition. Maryland isn't a blue-blood by any stretch of the imagination. It's still telling when Kevin Plank is your personal ATM and you still have a $1.2 million budget shortfall in the athletic department. Maryland's ADs Debbie Yow and Kevin Anderson have botched the football situation to where they're basically paying Ralph Friedgen $2 million a year to watch the Terps play on TV, or provide color commentary, or whatever it is Fridge is doing these days. The only advantage I'd see for any other school in the B1G in Maryland joining is Penn State finally getting a real rival in football. Maryland students and alumni have been begging and pleading with the AD to schedule a game with Penn State. UM-PSU in football is a big deal here, even though it has been decades since they last played.

How many schools in the B1G play lacrosse? Oh, I almost forgot to mention Maryland's athletic department is flat broke, nobody at UM cares about football, and they don't have the tradition of a school like Indiana to make up for it in basketball.

Maryland isn't really a rival, so that would go if need be. I know the Huntington crowd and the state government would like to keep the "coal bowl" alive, but I don't think it's an untouchable rivalry. I was about to say, there seems to be a whole lot of gnashing of teeth over a game that I didn't realize had all this bad blood. I was under the impression Maryland only cared about Virginia, and not some Appalachian hilljacks. And yeah, my general read is that West Virginia would love to be rid of Marshall as an annual opponent. ------------------------------------------------------------ FWIW I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the College Football Premiership were to push for a 4 non conference, 9 conference 13 game schedule. Maryland's biggest football rivals are (in order) Penn State, West Virginia, and Virginia.

I can't see WV playing Marshall, Pitt AND Maryland every year out of conference. One of those three will probably get axed, and it's probably not going to be Marshall (the governor of West Virginia pretty much strong-armed WV into keeping that series alive).

There are these things called "Non-Conference Games". Perhaps you have heard of them. Oh, you mean those spectacles where a BCS team pays a FCS team a large sum of money to get clobbered in their home stadium for the benefit of ticket sales and concessions, and doesn't challenge the BCS team in any significant way? Depending on how these super-conference schedules work out, the non-conference might shrink to just two or three games. Some classic rivalries might be preserved, but I'm not so certain on others.

But FSU was a football power located in a large populated State with many major media markets. WVU is a good football team located in a small less populated state with no major media markets. WVU doesn't have the extra stuff for the conference to overlook the academics like with FSU. They give Pittsburgh a travel partner along with their biggest rival in the sport that matters (football), and also gives Maryland their second-biggest rival in the sport that matters. UConn and Rutgers might add media markets in the northeast, but those programs have lukewarm fan support. UConn especially. I mean, UConn is a basketball school, but even as a basketball school they have terrible fan support. CBS had to pay students from Rice University to dress up in UConn gear at the Final Four so that they wouldn't have to pan over chunks of empty seats in the UConn student section. How much fun do you think it would be to play against UConn in a half-empty stadium every other Saturday?

WVU's academics are not an issue. Florida State's were pretty much just as mediocre as West Virginia's when they joined the ACC in 1992. Anyway, I thought about it, and I can't see "super-conferences" working for more than a year or two. Syracuse abandoned its two biggest rivals in basketball (Nova, Georgetown), and Pitt abandoned its biggest rival in football (WVU). Remember a couple years ago when the Big XII had the Texas-TTech-Oklahoma three way tie atop the division? Remember all the controversy that went along with that? How do you think that's going to work out with eight teams per division? Money speaks louder than school pride, rivalries, tradition, history and geography, evidently. I for one think it's pretty sad that everyone is chasing the almighty dollar. I wonder what will happen to Louisville and Cincinnati if the Big East does dissolve. Those are two football-playing schools with a solid tradition in basketball and that are located in some pretty good media markets.

Syracuse, yes. Pitt, not so much. 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. Anyway, I hate to see Syracuse/Georgetown turn into a once-a-year affair. That's one of the better rivalries in college basketball, even if it doesn't get the ESPN "omfg classic stuff here!" treatment that Duke/UNC receives.

Notre Dame. Cowboys... Redskins Dan Snyder...

Notre Dame.

Supposedly, the ACC has no problem with Texas keeping the Longhorn Network, unlike the Pac-12 and SEC do. And, Texas would still be a big fish in the ACC. That's because with Florida State and Va Tech as their only real possible threat, they'd dominate the ACC. Isn't that what people said about Miami joining the ACC in 2005? The U isn't at the level Texas is. Coming off a 5-7 season, and looking somewhat suspect this season as well? lol... come on thats like saying the Yankees aren't an top team because they had a few bad seasons. Texas has been a powerhouse for over half a century. In Texas's case they fell off the map from 1984 'til 1998. 14 years seems like more than "a few bad seasons". And if you ask me, they've only been a power since Mack Brown arrived. Prior to their Rose Bowl win in '05, their last time they ended a season ranked no.1 in either poll was 1963.

to The Longhorn Conference.

Supposedly, the ACC has no problem with Texas keeping the Longhorn Network, unlike the Pac-12 and SEC do. And, Texas would still be a big fish in the ACC. That's because with Florida State and Va Tech as their only real possible threat, they'd dominate the ACC. Isn't that what people said about Miami joining the ACC in 2005? The U isn't at the level Texas is. Coming off a 5-7 season, and looking somewhat suspect this season as well?

Supposedly, the ACC has no problem with Texas keeping the Longhorn Network, unlike the Pac-12 and SEC do. And, Texas would still be a big fish in the ACC. That's because with Florida State and Va Tech as their only real possible threat, they'd dominate the ACC. Isn't that what people said about Miami joining the ACC in 2005?

Why wouldn't Boise State be part of the four super conferences? - Tiny little niche market - Good at two sports (football, wrestling), mediocre at best in all others - Academics comparable to a four-year community college Boise State could barely hold serve in basketball when they were in the WAC. How do you think they'd manage going up against the likes of Texas and Kansas on a yearly basis?

Boise State in all of them? Really? I don't think that will ever happen.

For shame? I'm a Louisville fan so I will be perturbed if they are left out in the cold but football is the money maker in this modern age. Even with Louisville being the most profitable program, that doesn't guarantee a league that has them will be as profitable. I say it's a shame because I find basketball to be about twice as watchable as football. Three times as many teams, three times as many games, and upsets on top of upsets. Never mind that my team (Virginia Commonwealth) lacks a football team - I root for Air Force in football. Even so, The Mtn. invisibility non-withstanding, I find basketball more enjoyable to watch. No layoffs (Even with a Conference Championship game, teams still end up sitting on their rumps for three weeks waiting for the January bowls). No BCS. And teams are actually punished for loading their non-conference schedules with pushovers and cupcakes (just ask Colorado). I believe realignment will seriously harm the great institution that is the NCAA Tournament, if not kill it outright. What incentive do the "Fantastic Four" have to play against Mississippi Valley State in the first round of the dance if they could make just as much money (if not more!) breaking off and having their own exclusive tournament?

Where does that leave TCU? Pac-12? Nope, the Pac will never take a religious school. It's why we didn't take BYU along with Utah. I thought the reason stemmed from BYU's religious obligations concerning athletic competition on Sundays (which would have messed up the Pac-12 basketball tournament, among other things). There would be no such issue with TCU.

Better yet, where does that leave Louisville and Cincinnati? ... wait, I just remembered nobody involved in the decision-making process gives a lick about basketball. For shame.

West Virginia has absolutely no rivalries at all in the SEC, and they don't add anything in terms of media market exposure.

The Lakers' logo looks dated and amateur - one of my least favorite logos in all of professional sports.

I liked the Bruins "pooh bear" alternates.

While the conference's roots are tenured (Big 8 and SWC), but the Big 12 in it's current form is only 15 years old. When the commissioner lets Texas and Oklahoma play by a different set of rules than the other ten schools in the conference.

DePaul was actually a good program when the Big East invited them. Providence might not have been a blueblood but they were pretty solid in the '80s and '90s. All it takes is one bad recruiting class to cripple a program for half a decade. And not everyone can be on top; a good team can become a mediocre one if the competition is that strong week-in and week-out. You'll end up seeing a lot of 7-5 or 8-4 records among teams that are used to being dominant.

If you ask me, I can't see a 16-team conference working in football. It barely works in basketball in the Big East. That's not going to stop them from trying, though.