Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[CrimsonBull9584]

16 hours ago, Geoff said:

Exactly. They're like UCF.

 

UCF is UCF, they don't want to be called the University of Central Florida. TCU has long been insisting on being TCU, not Texas Christian or Texas Christian University. It's ruffled some feathers with older alums but not enough to turn off donations.

 

I guess I'm confused on this point. It's like KFC. They don't want you to call it Kentucky Fried Chicken because the connection to "unhealthy food", but we all know what the reality is. (Side note, people I've met from Asian call it Kentucky Fried Chicken and I have to explain to them that we call it KFC for shot). Why would anyone get upset by calling the university by its actual name? And, I thought, that UCF didn't want to be called C. Florida and that University of Central Florida or Central Florida was acceptable use in the style guide. 

[CrimsonBull9584]

15 hours ago, sportsfan7 said:

As far as religious schools go, TCU is pretty non-religious

How can you have the word "Christian" in your name and be "non-religious"?

[GDAWG]

21 hours ago, See Red said:

 

It's the school. It's part of its Honor Code to not play on Sundays because of the Sabbath.

 

 

I thought so, because I remember watching highlights of Utah Jazz home games on Sunday Night.

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

How can you have the word "Christian" in your name and be "non-religious"?

 

I live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and TCU is nothing close to what Liberty is as a religious school.    It's not as deeply religious as Liberty is.  

[MJWalker45]

On 9/13/2021 at 6:45 AM, Seadragon76 said:

Why in the world would Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss move to the Sun Belt? Wouldn't that be a downgrade for each of them??

I feel like it's more likely that Sun Belt teams would want to move up to the American, rather than the other way around. Marshall probably does have some things in common with Appalachian State, but I don't think they'd give up trips to Dallas over trips to LA-Monroe and LA-Lafayette. 

On 9/13/2021 at 4:13 PM, Lights Out said:

 

CUSA, the MAC and the AAC are all dumpster fires, the MWC doesn't make any geographical sense for these schools, and they're obviously never getting called up to the P5, so the Sun Belt is the only real option.

The MAC isn't really a dumpster fire, but they aren't anything that moves the needle in terms of having that one team that dominates every year. That looks to be their biggest detriment at the moment. 

 

14 hours ago, BBTV said:

Would there be any chance that the ACC would consider adding Temple?  It gets them into Philadelphia (not that anyone cares about college football), fills a gap between Virginia and Boston, and... well that's it.  Temple basketball hasn't been relevant in years but was once a top program, and Temple football hasn't been anything since Matt Rhule left.

Unless Temple basketball and football improved I don't see why the ACC would want them, unless someone like North Carolina left for the Big Ten and they felt like they needed a bigger name to sell TV space.

 

[Brian in Boston]

On 9/13/2021 at 2:13 PM, Lights Out said:

 [T]he Sun Belt is the only real option.

 

As opposed to the pragmatic option, which would be for most schools in the "Group of 5" conferences to honestly assess their football programs and opt to compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

[Red Wolf]

4 minutes ago, Brian in Boston said:

 

As opposed to the pragmatic option, which would be for most schools in the "Group of 5" conferences to honestly assess their football programs and opt to compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

 

[sportsfan7]

4 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

How can you have the word "Christian" in your name and be "non-religious"?

As a current student, the only noticeable aspects of religion are the requirement for every student to take a religion class (not necessarily Christian) and pregame prayers. The school also doesn't have honor codes like Baylor, BYU, or Liberty.

[Geoff]

8 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

 

I guess I'm confused on this point. It's like KFC. They don't want you to call it Kentucky Fried Chicken because the connection to "unhealthy food", but we all know what the reality is. (Side note, people I've met from Asian call it Kentucky Fried Chicken and I have to explain to them that we call it KFC for shot). Why would anyone get upset by calling the university by its actual name? And, I thought, that UCF didn't want to be called C. Florida and that University of Central Florida or Central Florida was acceptable use in the style guide. 

It's all about branding. Yes, the name of the university is what it is but as far as branding the athletics, they wants to kinda get away from the negative connotations of being considered a directional.

8 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

How can you have the word "Christian" in your name and be "non-religious"?

It's been discussed a couple times before in this very thread but TCU was founded by what's kinda like a protestant version of the Jesuits. They love and value their religion but not at the expense of education. Now the school is affiliated with the Disciples of Christ but the DOC don't have any say in how the school is run.

[Lights Out]

20 hours ago, Brian in Boston said:

 

As opposed to the pragmatic option, which would be for most schools in the "Group of 5" conferences to honestly assess their football programs and opt to compete in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision.

 

It's not that simple. These schools would arguably lose even more money by dropping down to FCS. When Idaho did it, they lost around half of their contributions and ticket revenue overnight (and they were already struggling at the FBS level).

 

It turns out that the actual choice for most of these schools is to either keep treading water at the FBS level and trying to find the most stable home whenever realignment happens, or to drop football entirely. And because football is by far the most important college sport, you can understand why they're reluctant to drop it.

[McCall]

What they need to do is elevate the Power 5 conferences to a new level, leave the Group of 5 schools in FBS to create three Division I levels. Some FCS schools (North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana, etc.) can probably move up to FBS and compete with the likes of the Group of 5 schools. Schools like Boise State, Memphis (since Houston, UCF, Cincinnati and BYU are already moving to the Big XII) and a few others could probably go to the Power 5 level.

 

So Division I would look like this:

- "Power 5" (working title): SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, Pac-12 (+Notre Dame & some other schools moving up)

- FBS: Mountain West, American, Sun Belt, MAC, C-USA

- FCS: As is

[CrimsonBull9584]

3 hours ago, McCall said:

What they need to do is elevate the Power 5 conferences to a new level, leave the Group of 5 schools in FBS to create three Division I levels. Some FCS schools (North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana, etc.) can probably move up to FBS and compete with the likes of the Group of 5 schools. Schools like Boise State, Memphis (since Houston, UCF, Cincinnati and BYU are already moving to the Big XII) and a few others could probably go to the Power 5 level.

 

So Division I would look like this:

- "Power 5" (working title): SEC, Big Ten, Big XII, ACC, Pac-12 (+Notre Dame & some other schools moving up)

- FBS: Mountain West, American, Sun Belt, MAC, C-USA

- FCS: As is

 

Why? Why is it necessary to "elevate" the Power 5? Why do we even need a Power 5 and Group of 5? Why not just FBS? Why is there this artificial division between the teams? Texas is equal to Rice in all the requirements to be an FBS program, so why push down on Rice and elevate Texas when they are equal? I never understood this stupid division between teams. To me, it's just a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. For someone reason the Power 5 schools love to punch down at everyone who is not them. Why not just make all of FBS equal? Why not allow all 10 conference an equal share of the pie? I do not understand why we treat 5 conferences like Gods and the other five like pitiable children. 

[sc49erfan15]

Austin Peay to the ASUN, if anyone's counting.

 

https://www.theallstate.org/report-austin-peay-plans-move-to-asun-conference/

 

Peay spent 59 years in the OVC.

[rams80]

On 9/15/2021 at 10:14 AM, CrimsonBull9584 said:

How can you have the word "Christian" in your name and be "non-religious"?

 

Because changing the letterhead and brand is a pain in the ass.

[rams80]

1 hour ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

 

Why? Why is it necessary to "elevate" the Power 5? Why do we even need a Power 5 and Group of 5? Why not just FBS? Why is there this artificial division between the teams? Texas is equal to Rice in all the requirements to be an FBS program, so why push down on Rice and elevate Texas when they are equal? I never understood this stupid division between teams. To me, it's just a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. For someone reason the Power 5 schools love to punch down at everyone who is not them. Why not just make all of FBS equal? Why not allow all 10 conference an equal share of the pie? I do not understand why we treat 5 conferences like Gods and the other five like pitiable children. 

 

Because this pretends Alabama, which has flippin' hotel fountains in the locker room, and New Mexico State, which, um, needs to install central air in its locker room in the middle of the desert, are on the same footing.

 

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/sports/college/nmsu/2021/09/15/new-mexico-state-ad-addresses-football-locker-room-cooling-complaints/8352021002/

[Dilbert]

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/american-targeting-mountain-west-powers-among-handful-of-expansion-candidates-in-realignment/

 

The American is looking to replace UCF, Cincinnati and Houston and apparently is looking west. Their shortlist includes Air Force, Colorado State, Boise State, San Diego State from the Mountain West and UAB from Conference  USA. Boise State and Memphis are top targets for the Big 12 should they expand further.

 

I know Air Force has said they are happy with the Mountain West due to the proximity of their opponents, however if CSU and BSU join with them Air Force would also have Tulsa and SMU somewhat close in Texas, plus Navy for their yearly football game.

 

If Boise State joins I feel they would need at least one of the Colorado schools to go with them.

 

UAB has their shiny new stadium and is on an upward trend since the program was briefly discontinued.

 

San Diego State like Boise State are both powerhouse football schools in the MW but both are on an island away from other schools in the American.

 

Colorado State I feel is only just a lure to get Air Force to join.

[McCall]

2 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

 

Why? Why is it necessary to "elevate" the Power 5? Why do we even need a Power 5 and Group of 5? Why not just FBS? Why is there this artificial division between the teams? Texas is equal to Rice in all the requirements to be an FBS program, so why push down on Rice and elevate Texas when they are equal? I never understood this stupid division between teams. To me, it's just a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. For someone reason the Power 5 schools love to punch down at everyone who is not them. Why not just make all of FBS equal? Why not allow all 10 conference an equal share of the pie? I do not understand why we treat 5 conferences like Gods and the other five like pitiable children. 

It's not pushing down Rice, is accepting the fact that the Power 5 schools consistently have better programs. The top talent is going to Texa... bad example... to schools other than Rice. It's just the facts. The Power 5 conferences are considered a higher level, basically, and the statistics show it. Yes, you get programs occasionally outside the power 5 or power 5-esque schools (i.e. Boise State) that have a great season or seasons, but consistently, it's gonna be the Power 5 schools dominating. And the disparity is rather glaring. Creating a third level that not only gives the group of 5 schools a chance at a championship, but it also forces the power 5 schools to compete more against each other. I don't know why you're taking it so personally, but it really doesn't matter. I stated an opinion. I based my opinion and proposition on reality.

[Burmy]

4 minutes ago, McCall said:

It's not pushing down Rice, is accepting the fact that the Power 5 schools consistently have better programs. The top talent is going to Texa... bad example... to schools other than Rice. It's just the facts. The Power 5 conferences are considered a higher level, basically, and the statistics show it. Yes, you get programs occasionally outside the power 5 or power 5-esque schools (i.e. Boise State) that have a great season or seasons, but consistently, it's gonna be the Power 5 schools dominating. And the disparity is rather glaring. Creating a third level that not only gives the group of 5 schools a chance at a championship, but it also forces the power 5 schools to compete more against each other. I don't know why you're taking it so personally, but it really doesn't matter. I stated an opinion. I based my opinion and proposition on reality.

I agree with this proposal...and I have a name for the Power Five's subdivision: the Football Accolade Sudivision (FAS).

That way, we'd have an easy way to remember the levels (FAS, FBS, FCS), with each one competing for their own national championship.

[Geoff]

4 hours ago, sc49erfan15 said:

Austin Peay to the ASUN, if anyone's counting.

 

https://www.theallstate.org/report-austin-peay-plans-move-to-asun-conference/

 

Peay spent 59 years in the OVC.

So that sticks with the narrative that the ASUN wants to add schools already playing FCS football and put's the league at 6 teams playing ASUN football (take the hint, Liberty).

[heavybass]

Yeah if I was Liberty, I would hope the AAC sends the invite now