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Division 1 College Conference Realignment


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UTEP might be stuck where they are in the newly reformed C-USA unless the Mountain West swoops in and takes them (which doesn't look like will happen any time at all).

 

Here's my thoughts..

 

-Wouldn't it be a downgrade for Southern Miss and Marshall to go to the Sun Belt? I understand that both schools are possibly seeing the writing on the wall and want out, but it doesn't make sense to me.

-Old Dominion might have a decent plan, on paper, to save C-USA. Adding Liberty and James Madison would be a starting point towards that plan.  The problem becomes this: Who else would join this newly reformed C-USA and what to do with the biggest outlier in the plan in UTEP? Does this conference take in Little Rock and UT-Arlington to help out UTEP despite both schools not having football? Do we see more FCS schools move up as to help ODU in this plan? There's a lot of things going on here.

 

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24 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

-Wouldn't it be a downgrade for Southern Miss and Marshall to go to the Sun Belt? I understand that both schools are possibly seeing the writing on the wall and want out, but it doesn't make sense to me.

 

No. The Sun Belt passed C-USA on the field and in media rights, and it only gets better with two football schools shoving out the two non-football schools.

 

25 minutes ago, Seadragon76 said:

-Old Dominion might have a decent plan, on paper, to save C-USA. Adding Liberty and James Madison would be a starting point towards that plan.  The problem becomes this: Who else would join this newly reformed C-USA and what to do with the biggest outlier in the plan in UTEP? Does this conference take in Little Rock and UT-Arlington to help out UTEP despite both schools not having football? Do we see more FCS schools move up as to help ODU in this plan? There's a lot of things going on here.

 

Even if they had football, Little Rock and Arlington do nothing to help UTEP. Little Rock is closer to every current Sun Belt school (and even Marshall) than they are El Paso. The only team that would help UTEP in any meaningful way is New Mexico State because of geography and willingness to be a full, football playing member.

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1 hour ago, Geoff said:

How are people still stuck on the shift in the Sun Belt-CUSA dynamic?

 

It's fair. Only so many people are going to pay enough attention to G5 conferences to know what's going on and most people think of the Sun Belt as being closer to their inaugural season when the champion had a losing record. Whereas people might still remember when Conference USA had Cincinnati, TCU, Louisville, Houston, and when they had Southern Miss and East Carolina when they were both really good.

 

Not to mention it was C-USA that was poaching Sun Belt schools last time around, so in most circumstances that would mean C-USA is the better option. It's unusual for their to be a flip like that. Imagine if the SEC, after taking Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Missouri ended up being surpassed by the Big XII somehow. It's a much more extreme example since the SEC never hemorrhaged teams of their own like C-USA did, but it's still odd.

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9 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

 

It's fair. Only so many people are going to pay enough attention to G5 conferences to know what's going on and most people think of the Sun Belt as being closer to their inaugural season when the champion had a losing record. Whereas people might still remember when Conference USA had Cincinnati, TCU, Louisville, Houston, and when they had Southern Miss and East Carolina when they were both really good.

 

Not to mention it was C-USA that was poaching Sun Belt schools last time around, so in most circumstances that would mean C-USA is the better option. It's unusual for their to be a flip like that. Imagine if the SEC, after taking Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, and Missouri ended up being surpassed by the Big XII somehow. It's a much more extreme example since the SEC never hemorrhaged teams of their own like C-USA did, but it's still odd.

 

^^^ This.

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9 minutes ago, heavybass said:

Well it's official now.... wonder what happens to Wichita State?

If they chose to leave, the only viable options would be the Ohio Valley or the Missouri Valley.  A sleeper could be the Big East who has an odd number,  and WSU could be a travel partner with Creighton.

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53 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

If they chose to leave, the only viable options would be the Ohio Valley or the Missouri Valley.  A sleeper could be the Big East who has an odd number,  and WSU could be a travel partner with Creighton.


Considering the neo-Big East’s emphasis is on college basketball, I’d say that should be where Wichita State goes. That and the ready-made rivalry with Creighton.

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1 hour ago, Red Comet said:


Considering the neo-Big East’s emphasis is on college basketball, I’d say that should be where Wichita State goes. That and the ready-made rivalry with Creighton.

So that means Saint Louis is probably stuck in the A10...

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So now that the American expansion is official, let's consider division alignments.  Currently, Navy is in the west division but with the new additions, I think bringing them East makes more sense.

 

East

Temple

Navy

ECU

Charlotte

UAB

South Florida

FL Atlantic

 

West

Memphis

Tulane

Tulsa

North Texas

SMU

Rice

UTSA

 

Division crossover for an 8 or 9 game conference schedule (currently the American plays an 8 game conference schedule) is tricky.  Either way, a permanent crossover would be needed.  I think due to lack of history and connection to some opponents, a 9 game schedule might work better.  This would allow for 1 permanent crossover and 2 rotational crossovers.  That way you'd play every team every 6 years, and have a full rotation every 12 (home/road).  The only permanent crossover that stands out would be Memphis and South Florida because of their history dating back to the Metro and CUSA days of the 90s-2000s and maybe Navy-UTSA due to the military ties in that area.

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UTSA-Navy might be how you convince Navy to switch to the East by giving them at lease one guaranteed trip to Texas every two years with trips to Houston and DFW sprinkled in.

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Having talked to a guy that knows people who know things (so take that for what you will), it sounds like the rumor of Southern Miss, Marshall, Old Dominion, and James Madison to the Sun Belt is going to happen.

 

Which would leave us with a Conference USA made up of UTEP, Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, and Florida International. And there's some rumors out there that Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky could be heading to the MAC, leaving just UTEP, La Tech, and FIU in C-USA.

 

Potentially dire stuff. There is the possibility of C-USA's zombie corpse becoming a football only conference to survive in some form and then everybody finding homes elsewhere for their other sports. They could also conceivably cobble together FCS schools to make the move up, but I'm not really sure who all is actually capable of actually making that move.

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On 12/15/2009 at 4:16 PM, TheOldRoman said:
On 12/15/2009 at 3:58 PM, Sodboy13 said:

Outside of geography, there is no sense behind Notre Dame joining the Big Ten. The Big Ten needs Notre Dame; Notre Dame does not need the Big Ten. I'd put Syracuse down as a frontrunner here; three of their nonconference games this past season were against Big Ten teams. Clearly, there's an attempt to breed some familiarity.

 

1)I don't think the Big Ten NEEDS anybody 2)ND gives the Big Ten virtually nothing. They already have a presence in that state. Also, each B10 team makes more from the BTN than Notre Dame does from NBC.

LOL!!!   ND would give the B1G a ton.  ND does not care for the B1G though.

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5 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

Potentially dire stuff. There is the possibility of C-USA's zombie corpse becoming a football only conference to survive in some form and then everybody finding homes elsewhere for their other sports. They could also conceivably cobble together FCS schools to make the move up, but I'm not really sure who all is actually capable of actually making that move.

So basically what the Great West multi-sport conference (and later the WAC before the Southland teams joined) was...

bYhYmxh.png

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13 hours ago, Red Wolf said:

Potentially dire stuff. There is the possibility of C-USA's zombie corpse becoming a football only conference to survive in some form and then everybody finding homes elsewhere for their other sports. They could also conceivably cobble together FCS schools to make the move up, but I'm not really sure who all is actually capable of actually making that move.

8 is the minimum for an FBS conference. NMSU might be a lock given their proximity to UTEP and current FBS status. UCONN and UMass are probably additions of last resort, but I'm not sure how many schools are looking to move up and can. I've thought the Montana schools could and maybe Idaho wants to bounce back up. I don't think the Dakota schools would. Sam Houston is probably a good choice. Beyond that...Central Ark? MO St? Tenn St? Jacksonville St?

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The Montanas had an offer from the WAC a decade ago and noped out of it, can't think things have changed that much.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
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Today, we are all otaku.

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