Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[heavybass]

I was thinking Northern Iowa and Idaho.

[TrueYankee26]

7 minutes ago, heavybass said:

I was thinking Northern Iowa and Idaho.

Idaho makes sense.. they were in FBS before.

[Burmy]

4 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Idaho makes sense.. they were in FBS before.

Whole reason they went down to FCS is because they presumed that, because of their previous FBS status, they would be perennial national title contenders on the lower level.

As you can tell, that has not happened...I don't think they've even made the playoffs since relegating.

[Red Wolf]

7 hours ago, Burmy said:

Whole reason they went down to FCS is because they presumed that, because of their previous FBS status, they would be perennial national title contenders on the lower level.

As you can tell, that has not happened...I don't think they've even made the playoffs since relegating.

 

The reason they dropped down wasn't about potentially winning in FCS, it was about not wanting to be an FBS independent. Putting together an independent schedule when you don't have the name brand of Notre Dame, Army, or BYU is a nightmare. That's why New Mexico State and Liberty played twice in the regular season back in 2019.

 

Las Cruces, New Mexico is a hard place to get teams to come out to play at if they aren't compelled to by a conference. NMSU was able to count on visits from one of UTEP or New Mexico every year.

 

Who's coming to Moscow, Idaho regularly? They could get games against Washington State easily enough, but not on their side of the border. Boise State stopped playing Idaho the moment they weren't in the same conference. And in case you're wondering, they had seven seasons to rectify that. They could have gotten NMSU up there (again, they played a team twice in a single season) every other year, but now that the Aggies have a conference home that would be more difficult.

 

The other independents during that timeframe are either too good to go to Moscow, or are too far to want to go there. They could probably get games with Liberty and UMass. Maybe UConn as a longshot (they didn't play NMSU during their indy phase). After that, you've got Notre Dame, Army, and BYU, all of whom have little trouble filling out a schedule, certainly not enough of an issue for them to need to play in the land of lentils.

[DCarp1231]

PAC12 should just dissolve. 
 

Have the southern teams (Arizona, ASU, etc) join the Big 12

 

Mid-Pacific teams go to B1G

 

The northern teams plus NDSU & SDSU merge join the Mountain West forming a new Rain Belt Conference

[McCall]

3 hours ago, DCarp1231 said:

PAC12 should just dissolve. 
 

Have the southern teams (Arizona, ASU, etc) join the Big 12

 

Mid-Pacific teams go to B1G

 

The northern teams plus NDSU & SDSU merge join the Mountain West forming a new Rain Belt Conference

You can't just separate them regionally. The Arizona schools plus Utah and Colorado would most likely end up in the Big 12. But of the two "mid-Pacific", only Stanford has a chance to end up in the Big Ten. Otherwise it could be Big 12, Mountain West or even Independent. California, if the PAC-12 ceases to exist, would either end up in the Big 12 or Mountain West, most likely. Of the northern schools, Oregon and Washington would go Big Ten or Big 12, at the very least. There's no way both or either of those two schools would end up in the Mountain West. Oregon State and Washington State? Yeah. Mountain West. If they can't get into the Big 12. Point is, there's a lot more to it than just geographically grabbing a region of schools and moving them to so and so conference.

[heavybass]

Rain Belt? Now that's silly.... it be the opposite of the Fun Belt.

[Geoff]

idk, man. Some of us like the rain.

[TrueYankee26]

RIP St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers athletics

 

[jlog3000]

Talk about a shocker that was unexpected. Saint Francis (N.Y.) is a D-I school right? And if so, that would be another blow for the NEC.

[Seadragon76]

1 hour ago, jlog3000 said:

Talk about a shocker that was unexpected. Saint Francis (N.Y.) is a D-I school right? And if so, that would be another blow for the NEC.

 

Yes it is and man, does it hurt for the NEC. To think, less then 24 hours ago, Fairleigh Dickinson was the toast of the college basketball world despite losing to Florida Atlantic.

 

What this does is put the league down to eight members for the foreseeable future... which is not a bad thing, mind you. In Basketball, you get an 8 team league. Football still has their 8 teams (7 full members and Duquesne). 

[jlog3000]

42 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

Yes it is and man, does it hurt for the NEC. To think, less then 24 hours ago, Fairleigh Dickinson was the toast of the college basketball world despite losing to Florida Atlantic.

 

What this does is put the league down to eight members for the foreseeable future... which is not a bad thing, mind you. In Basketball, you get an 8 team league. Football still has their 8 teams (7 full members and Duquesne). 

 

True, and good point. As long as the minimum amount of schools for a conference to promote and compete is 8 in order to maintain the automatic bids for their sponsored sports, it seems that way.

 

And if that is official, will the NEC rebound back with new expansion members or wait til their new callups to become full D-I members for that (i.e.: Stonehill, who just joined during this school year), or even in a worse case scenario (which is having upto 8 members and staying that way forever without expanding at all, shades of the MEAC in that route)?

[Seadragon76]

14 minutes ago, jlog3000 said:

And if that is official, will the NEC rebound back with new expansion members or wait til their new callups to become full D-I members for that (i.e.: Stonehill, who just joined during this school year), or even in a worse case scenario (which is having upto 8 members and staying that way forever without expanding at all, shades of the MEAC in that route)?

 

It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep their eyes peeled for schools in the region that are looking to make the jump to D-I.

 

I know that Le Moyne and New Haven are the most likely targets for them since that would give them a nice round number (10) to work with.

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, Seadragon76 said:

 

Yes it is and man, does it hurt for the NEC. To think, less then 24 hours ago, Fairleigh Dickinson was the toast of the college basketball world despite losing to Florida Atlantic.

 

What this does is put the league down to eight members for the foreseeable future... which is not a bad thing, mind you. In Basketball, you get an 8 team league. Football still has their 8 teams (7 full members and Duquesne). 

 

A school I didn't know played football until a few years ago.

[Burmy]

Why was relegating to D2 or D3 not an option?

[sportsfan7]

3 minutes ago, Burmy said:

Why was relegating to D2 or D3 not an option?

St Francis just moved campuses, so a big issue for them was lack of facilities. Men's Basketball played this year at Pratt Institute, which played in the USCAA (below the NAIA) until about 5 years ago.

[jlog3000]

So that means St. Francis (NY) pulled a Lincoln Christian (a former NAIA/NCCAA school), meaning that they just dropped/discontinued its entire athletics program, but is keeping the school alive; which would mean that St. Francis would still remain active (hence the campus moving and expansion). Recently Trinity International (an NAIA school) did it similarly too.

[TrueYankee26]

1 hour ago, jlog3000 said:

So that means St. Francis (NY) pulled a Lincoln Christian (a former NAIA/NCCAA school), meaning that they just dropped/discontinued its entire athletics program, but is keeping the school alive; which would mean that St. Francis would still remain active (hence the campus moving and expansion). Recently Trinity International (an NAIA school) did it similarly too.

Speaking of local schools closing/in danger of closing, I figured this will be in your wheelhouse since these schools are not D1.

 

Bloomfield College will merge with Montclair State, and New Jersey City University (NJCU) & William Paterson have been aggressive in balancing their budget so they cut down their funding. Sad to see these colleges struggle particularly NJCU since it is in my city and I had family who graduated from there

[4_tattoos]

If San Diego State win's the national championship, is a Pac-12 invite guaranteed at that point?

[McCall]

49 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

If San Diego State win's the national championship, is a Pac-12 invite guaranteed at that point?

Not necessarily. Although I think they'll get one anyway. Just not BECAUSE the won  a National title.