PrimalCookie

They did try once. But it was for these abominations:

Just about everything else about A&M's 2020-present jerseys is better, but they should've kept the shoulder stripes. It was a look exclusive to them among big college teams and looked great in general.

...oh. Well, that's not quite what I was imagining. If the purple wasn't there and it was purely yellow rays, it'd be better. With that said, I still don't hate it, and I'm really happy they finally tried something out of the box after 7 years.

I can't find anything on Twitter myself, but on the r/OCLions kit release megathread they said someone on Twitter posted this picture: ...which if it's true I'm so incredibly excited. Take my money, all of it

Oooooh, now you're talking City. I'm a lot more excited now. A sunset inspired design and purple shorts? Yes please. EDIT: Another teaser! Seems like a sunset on water. I'm thinking white with a gold reflection pattern that gets thicker further and further down the shirt? We'll see, but I'm excited.

I'd still prefer red as a callback to the USL days, but that would also be nice. Anything but plain white, I'm begging you Adidas.

Orlando City away coming Friday. They haven't teased anything about it yet, but 99.99% chance it's another plain white shirt.

Re: the Magic, I absolutely LOVE it. It pays tribute to every design in team history, even the super bland 04-07 look (the shoulder stripes). The original wordmark coming back is always a win. “Why not us? Why not now?” in the pinstripes is one of those things that no one will ever see from more than a foot away, but it’s an amazing detail. The original comet ball streaking down the side panels with the sublimated stars from the early 2000s jerseys in there is also brilliant. Instant buy for me, although it’s be even more of an instant buy if it had blue instead of orange. ….that doesn’t make sense. But you know what I mean.

Southern Miss makes it official: Marshall, Old Dominion, and James Madison should be announced later this week. Marshall is appointing a new university president on Thursday so they want to wait to make their final decision until he/she gives it the go ahead - I'm not sure what the holdup is for the Virginia schools but everything I've seen says they'll be officially in by next week at the latest as well.

Perhaps I spoke too soon.

It can’t be overstated how huge of a deal this is for Marshall. The Sun Belt has way better geography, pretty much all of their historic rivals from the FCS days, and is quickly becoming one of the top G5 (soon to be G4) conferences. Basically the only thing that would make it better is if WKU was also tagging along. That’s got to be it for C-USA. They’re down to just 5 members spread all across the country, and their previous top target Liberty is no longer interested. At this point it’s a matter of where the others end up. Right now I’d guess UTEP goes to the WAC, but I have no idea where everyone else will - maybe A-Sun?

Both are way outside of pretty much anyone's geographic footprint and are possibly the 2 worst programs in college football at the moment. Plus, neither would leave their regular conference (Big East for UConn and Atlantic 10 for UMass) in non-football sports because it would be a massive step down. So, it's not that surprising that no one wants them.

The talk on Marshall boards that my dad's on is that Marshall and Southern Miss to the Sun Belt is basically a done deal (the smoke has been there for a few months, and IIRC the SBC commish was spotted in Huntington about a month ago) and that the conference doesn't want to go past 12 after that - meaning the remaining 6 in C-USA are pretty much screwed (but especially UTEP, who I'm expecting to go the New Mexico State route of indy in football and WAC in everything else). C-USA will have to cobble together some semblance of a conference from this. Liberty is probably a top contender, as is James Madison. Adding Connecticut and Massachusetts as football only members (since neither would leave their regular homes for this Frankenstein league) would do pretty much nothing but pad numbers considering how terrible both are, but it might be necessary in the short term. After that, who knows, because I'm not sure who might be in the position to move up from FCS. An aspect of the AAC expansion that I haven't seen many people talking about is Wichita State. I can't imagine they're very happy with these additions from a basketball standpoint - the most recent tournament appearances from each team (aside from North Texas, who went dancing this year for the first time since 2010) are 2015 (UAB), 2011 (UTSA), 2005 (Charlotte), 2002 (FAU), and 1970 (Rice). They're probably wishing they never left the Missouri Valley right now.

This is one of those jerseys that I'm half ashamed to admit that I think look amazing. It's so early 2000s and I love it. I don't really like the white and red versions of this either, just the yellow one.

With the Mountain West schools out of the picture, I think the top targets will be UAB, Appalachian State, FAU, and either Rice or UTSA. C-USA is about to be unrecognizable, if they even survive this at all - I remember seeing reports that Marshall and Southern Miss to the Sun Belt is gaining steam.

Or UCF, or BYU. With the recent statements by some Big 12 ADs (I think Texas Tech and Iowa State were the most vocal ones), I won't be surprised if the Big 12's not done expanding yet. However, I wouldn't hold my breath if I'm San Diego State, as I think Memphis easily gets in over them. Unless they want to go to 16, but that seems pretty unlikely.

For the Army-Navy Game, I think they'd make a deal so that it's never a conference matchup and they continue it as an OOC on it's own week thing. UNC and Wake Forest have scheduled OOC games with each other before, so it's not unprecedented. For right now, I think the Mountain West will stand pat at 10. I'm sure they'd like to have the Montana duo, but there's nothing that says they want to move up to FBS (in fact, Montana had the chance in 2010 and turned it down). Maybe they'll take a swing at North and South Dakota State, but they probably wouldn't want to leave their in state rivalries behind and the travel would be much worse than in the Missouri Valley. From FBS, it's pretty slim pickings. If the conference wanted UTEP or New Mexico State they'd already be in by now, and what other options are there - North Texas? UTSA? Rice? The MWC is pretty boxed in by their geography, especially after (potentially) losing their Colorado members. The real wild card pick would be Gonzaga and Saint Mary's, but as with the Montanas/Dakotas I'm not sure they'd want to join.

Nope. The first 4 out were Boise State, Memphis, SMU, and USF, and no one else was seriously considered.

Absolutely, and if I'm not mistaken they've tried in the past. However, the MWC has never shown any interest in adding them.

Expanding based on markets and nothing else is what made C-USA the hollow husk it is today. If I'm the AAC I want proven success and/or large fanbases above everything else, and the first four that come to mind are UAB, Appalachian State, Marshall, and Army (who won't accept, even with Navy in the conference, but it's worth a try). After that I don't know - FAU maybe? Southern Miss? Liberty? I think the first three adds would be a slam dunk, as would Army if they can somehow get them, but the problem is there isn't really a fourth option that pops off the pages. I can't see them poaching the Mountain West aside from maybe Air Force if they get Army, but no one in the MWC makes even a little sense geographically for the American (and, aside from Boise State and San Diego State, no one really makes sense competition-wise either). I can't imagine Wichita State is very happy with their current situation. They left their longtime home in the Missouri Valley to become the only non-football member in a football-centric conference that's now losing it's three most valuable members. Where do they even go from here? They're in a much worse position now than if they'd never left the MVC.

Or do the same thing but with no permanent outside of pod opponents. Then you go to 9 conference games and do rotational divisions: - Odd years: A and D, B and C (East/West) - Even years: A and C, B and D (Outer/Inner) The final 2 games come from the pods that will never be matched together in a division, in this case A and B and C and D. With that system, everyone plays everyone in 2 years, and hosts everyone in 4 years. Georgia and Auburn will cry about losing their annual game, but it'll still happen every other year and it's best for the conference as a whole. SEC Network proposed pods identical to yours except Texas A&M and Arkansas were swapped (the reasoning was that makes it so every pod has 2 traditional powers except for B), but if I were the SEC I'd swap Arkansas with Missouri, putting all the former SWC teams together (and Oklahoma, because you can't split them from Texas).