BaltimoreFan

I gotta say, I'm all about cheap jerseys, but if it looks like crap, you might as well just spend $15 on a t-shirt. I've thought about doing this, and have come close, but some of the numbering is just awful. They can't seem to match-up the two sides of a baseball jersey either.

It shocks me how few fans can actually spot a fake jersey. I was at Ravens training camp and one woman was going on and on about how her daughter was in Korea and they have authentic jerseys for only $15. She pointed out that her son had a Ray Lewis one they bought. It didn't look even close. Honestly it made the jerseys on this site look amazing. The fonts were all wrong, the bird head logo was on the sleeves instead of the Baltimore shield, and the material looked more like a hockey jersey than a football jersey. I'd never pay $250 for an authentic jersey, but I'd rather do that than pay $15 for that piece of crap.

I'd rather be able to remember who division foes are kthxbye. The problem with ACC and this alignment is that you could shuffle the lineup annually and nobody would know the difference.

EDIT-Also, the Big Ten plays more than football. Michigan State and (sometimes) Illinois aside, the Land Division is one craptacular basketball division.

Well the Big Ten doesn't have to use the division in the other sports. The ACC only uses theirs in football, basketball is just a single table. But you do have a point. I have no idea what the ACC's divisions are for football. That may have something to do though, with the fact that I slowly stopped watching the conference after expansion.

So with Texas staying put, the Big 12 will have ten teams and the Big Ten will have 12 teams.

Riiiiight...

Do you think they will trade names? Or even come up with entirely new numberless names? My thought was that the Big Ten would change its name to something like the Great Lakes Conference (or something like that) if they became a superconference. I think something needs to happen because the names have been confusing for a while, now its only become worse.

-Maryland gets the next invite. Maryland gives you again footprint. The school provides you access to the Baltimore and DC markets, which combined is good enough to be the 4th largest market in the country. Question here is if those in charge of Maryland want to jump off the titanic or not.

The Big Ten would be stupid if they did not offer to Maryland, if they were concerned with their TV network. The Terps are the only team in the Baltimore and DC area, that is truely shared by both markets. The Capitals have become more popular in Baltimore lately, but I think that's more of a bandwagon thing for now. All other teams are completely seperate. So in that case, the Big Ten would really be getting the #4 TV market.

Also, every is talking about the Big 4 Superconferences, Big 10, Pac-10, SEC, and ACC/Big East, dominating college football. That will be interesting, because I think the Mountain West will be better able to compete in football rather than the ACC/Big East (other than the fact it wouldn't have 16 teams). The ACC/Big East would embarrass themselves in any football playoffs/bowls they'd get invitied to (although they would probably dominate in basketball). If the Mountain West is left out, that will probably create a whole new postseason controversy.

Boise State has defected to the Mountain West.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5276064&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

Matter of time really.

But what truly bugs me about all these articles is that none of them explicitly says when the conferences will realign in their new forms.

I know most have said that the new Pac-10(16?) and the new Big 10 would go into effect in 2012. Now, what about Boise? Will this be this year or next?

Yahoo says Boise State's move to the MWC will be effective July 1, 2011.

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=ap-mountainwest-boisestate

So the very latest rumors are that the Big Ten will also invite Syracuse, Rutgers, Notre Dame, and Maryland to join. Pierce the heavens, baby.

Presumably Missouri prays that Notre Dame remains stubbornly obstinate about their independence in this scenario.

I stated this earlier in the thread, but I think Maryland would accept that invitation. I hear alot of fans complain about the "Carolina bias" in offciating. This may be the school's chance to move out of the shadows of the Carolina teams.

Is there any possibility of doing football-only conferences, with the "traditional" conferences remaining for the other sports?

I know it's highly unlikely, but these shifts pretty well ruin college basketball.

That's what I hated about the 2004 ACC expansion. It didn't really make football any better, the championship game was always boring. Then basketball was completely ruined. I use to be a huge college basketball (ACC specifically), but the expansion made me slowly lose interest. This year I only watched a couple tournament games. I can see these potential Super Conferences doing the same for other college basketball fans.

I really hope we don't go mega expansion. The Big Ten adds one and the Pac-10 adds two. That's it.

I think everyone agrees with you, but the ball is in the Big Ten's court. Whatever they decide essentially happens. Hopefully they're not too greedy.

Well... Vandy, GT, and MD have all been mentioned by someone close to the situation, according to ESPN. They literally described it as "Think outside the box." Vandy could work. It's in Big Ten Country, and would be one of the lesser teams like NW and Illinois. It also brings them into the basketball discussion, which is why I think the Big Ten would rather have Syracuse before Rutgers.

I could see Maryland being a dark horse candidate to join (this is assuming a 5 team expansion to make a super conference). Alot of Maryland fans have complained about the "pro-Carolina" officiating of the ACC. I've seen fans arguing to join the Big Ten years ago after bad games. If offered a spot, Maryland may take it.

Also I don't think geography is really relevant anymore. If the Big Ten wants to make a Super Conference, their going to get the 5 best teams they can. There's much less concern with travel distances these days.

I'm pretty torn on this. On one hand, I'm kinda excited to see what kind of changes would happen if this expansion does happen. OTOH, I'm worried the new superconferences will "ruin" college sports.

I used to be a huge ACC fan when I was younger. I was really excited when they expanded. However I hated it very quickly. Football didn't improve enough, in fact I would argue it stayed about the same. The conference tournament game has been pretty craptastic IMO. This in turn lead to basketball becoming watered down. It really ruined the two sports for me and now I'm not really a fan (thats not the only reason, but it was a big one). Hopefully this expansion doesn't have the same effect.

I don't think Notre Dame will accept. They have their own TV contract for football, no way they would want to share one.

It will be interesting to see how all this turns out.

I did some baseball players that were traded as prospect a later became stars. Here are a few more:

Adam Jones with the Mariners:

Jeremy Guthrie with the Indians:

Scott Kazmir with the Mets:

Matt Garza with the Twins:

Time Wakefield with the Pirates:

Grady Sizemore with the Expos:

sorry if some of these have already been posted, I haven't look through this whole thread in a long time.

What are the consequences of having a white roof while playing baseball? I can only think about what they originally tried to do in the Astrodome. White baseball plus white roof equals dropped baseballs.

I think the roof is retractable. So it would only really be a problem during bad weather.

Interesting design, hopefully they actually build this. As the author mentioned Florida would probably be a nice place for a stadium. Yet the state's two teams own perhaps the two worst stadiums in the bigs. It would certainly make it easier to watch Devil Rays games on tv (I hate watching the O's play either @ Tampa or Toronto. The domes are kinda depressing.)

Can anybody find a picture of Jay Buhner with the Yankees? I've looked but can't find one.

I like seeing alot of baseball players that were in the minors with different teams. Here are a few examples off the top of my head:

Chris Young- White Sox:

Hanley Ramirez- Red Sox:

John Maine- Orioles