Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[Seadragon76]

21 hours ago, CrimsonBull9584 said:

So the WAC lost Lamar today. What is going on with the WAC? Schools keep leaving so quickly but there's been no real reason that I can find. Anyone know what's up?

 

I personally think that Lamar is more then happy to be back in the Southland where they can compete. They were absolute gutter trash in the WAC in terms of football and men's basketball. They were a little more competitive in women's basketball and baseball.

 

Not to mention that it gives the Southland ten teams now.

 

As for the WAC - well, I have a feeling that football might be on the chopping block come 2024.

[GeauxColonels]

On 7/11/2022 at 7:27 PM, CrimsonBull9584 said:

So the WAC lost Lamar today. What is going on with the WAC? Schools keep leaving so quickly but there's been no real reason that I can find. Anyone know what's up?

I think the WAC hung its football aspirations hat on the addition of Sam Houston St and the other Texas schools with the intent to move up to an FBS league in the future. I’d argue that none of the current membership institutions are even close to being ready to make that jump, and once SHSU and NMSU were poached by CUSA many had to rethink the league (I’d argue that SHSU probably isn’t either). Geographically, it’s incredibly wide-spread with a pocket of Texas schools, a pocket of Utah schools and other members spread over 3 other states and extreme southern Texas. The travel costs for these schools had to had significantly jumped. 
 

I suspect that Lamar realized that it was a poor financial decision and that they’d rather cut their losses now rather than carry the burden any further. After Lamar’s decision to go back to the Southland, UIW decided to stay put in a more stable FCS league.

[Burmy]

2 hours ago, GeauxColonels said:

I think the WAC hung its football aspirations hat on the addition of Sam Houston St and the other Texas schools with the intent to move up to an FBS league in the future. I’d argue that none of the current membership institutions are even close to being ready to make that jump, and once SHSU and NMSU were poached by CUSA many had to rethink the league (I’d argue that SHSU probably isn’t either). Geographically, it’s incredibly wide-spread with a pocket of Texas schools, a pocket of Utah schools and other members spread over 3 other states and extreme southern Texas. The travel costs for these schools had to had significantly jumped. 
 

I suspect that Lamar realized that it was a poor financial decision and that they’d rather cut their losses now rather than carry the burden any further. After Lamar’s decision to go back to the Southland, UIW decided to stay put in a more stable FCS league.

So the million-dollar question is, where does SFA go?  They said they're staying WAC for now, but that conference has been a house of cards for about a decade now.

 

Do they try and follow their archrivals to FBS (CUSA or elsewhere?)  Do they follow the lead of Lamar and UIW and seek forgiveness from the Southland?  Or do they hope against all hope that they can attract more teams to the WAC (possibly more D2 teams seeking to make the jump)?

[GDAWG]

2 hours ago, Burmy said:

So the million-dollar question is, where does SFA go?  They said they're staying WAC for now, but that conference has been a house of cards for about a decade now.

 

Do they try and follow their archrivals to FBS (CUSA or elsewhere?)  Do they follow the lead of Lamar and UIW and seek forgiveness from the Southland?  Or do they hope against all hope that they can attract more teams to the WAC (possibly more D2 teams seeking to make the jump)?

 

Probably the latter and they might target teams in the Lone Star Conference.  In that case, they may want to go after West Texas A&M, who just recently opened a brand new on campus football stadium.

 

Another option is that they try to lure Prairie View and Texas Southern out of the SWAC.

 

 

[TrueYankee26]

Pac 12 and Big 12 talks end. Bye bye to any chance of a merger.

 

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/34264518/sources-big-12-pac-12-partner-talks-officially-end

[GeauxColonels]

5 hours ago, GDAWG said:

Probably the latter and they might target teams in the Lone Star Conference.  In that case, they may want to go after West Texas A&M, who just recently opened a brand new on campus football stadium.

That may be the most likely scenario. There were rumblings that the Southland was going to go that route before Lamar came crawling back and UIW flip-flopped. I’m curious, though, as to how many of those schools have the budget necessary to move up to Division I athletics.

[GDAWG]

1 hour ago, GeauxColonels said:

That may be the most likely scenario. There were rumblings that the Southland was going to go that route before Lamar came crawling back and UIW flip-flopped. I’m curious, though, as to how many of those schools have the budget necessary to move up to Division I athletics.

 

Maybe West Texas A&M and that's it.

[Cujo]

College football conference alignment by 2030.

 

Big Ten      SEC      Everyone else

 

[McCall]

6 minutes ago, Cujo said:

College football  conference alignment by 2030.

 

Big Ten      SEC      Everyone else

 

I'm pretty sure you can make Arizona, New Mexico and West Virginia all blue.

 

And the SEC will still sweep the "final four".

[BBTV]

Also pretty sure Alaska can be yellow.  Hawaii definitely becomes a battleground state between the two.

 

Also, what happens when the B1G invades Canada?  Southern Ontario should probably be blue.

[Seadragon76]

16 hours ago, GDAWG said:

 

Maybe West Texas A&M and that's it.

 

From what I've been looking at, West Texas A&M is very happy to be in Division 2.

[McCall]

4 hours ago, BBTV said:

Also pretty sure Alaska can be yellow.  Hawaii definitely becomes a battleground state between the two.

 

Also, what happens when the B1G invades Canada?  Southern Ontario should probably be blue.

Big XII, ACC and Pac-12 are exiled to the Yukon.

[Burmy]

CBS Sports reports that the Big Ten is officially evaluating California, Stanford, Oregon and Washington to determine whether or not to admit them into the conference.

[Dilbert]

At this point they might as well. It at least gives UCLA and USC some closer travel.  Notre Dame is just gonna Notre Dame. No sense just waiting on them twiddling their thumbs. Have Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado, Washington State, and Oregon State join the Big 12 and disband the Pac 12

[McCall]

1 hour ago, Dilbert said:

At this point they might as well. It at least gives UCLA and USC some closer travel.  Notre Dame is just gonna Notre Dame. No sense just waiting on them twiddling their thumbs. Have Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Colorado, Washington State, and Oregon State join the Big 12 and disband the Pac 12

I could honestly see Oregon State and Washington State ending up in the Mountain West. They don't bring anything to table while being geographically outliers.

[Burmy]

Slipped under everybody's radar, but last week Campbell announced it was joining the CAA for 2023.

[Dilbert]

Cant say Im not surprised by this. The Big South is on its last legs. Next year the Big South and Ohio Valley are supposed to do some kind of alliance for football.

[Burkell007]

I think the CAA is trying to box in the socon, Campbell would of fit in nicely there but now the CAA scooped them up. I’ve heard they are trying to be on (somewhat) even level of the A-10 & almost near the big east. I’m surprised the socon has not tried to poach  Kennesaw St. form the a-sun. It be a good fit with Mercer as a travel partner, while we are at it maybe add on North Alabama in a few years. Good fit in between Samford & Chattanooga.

[crashcarson15]

Not necessarily a conference realignment thing, but IU and Purdue are splitting IUPUI like they did IPFW a few years ago. IUPUI has always been IU with some Purdue mixed in, so I would assume IU-Indianapolis will be the D1 moniker when the change goes through in 2024 (the opposite change from IPFW, which was always Purdue with some IU mixed in).

 

I will be curious if Purdue-Indianapolis chooses to sponsor athletics -- they're likely to have a pretty decent enrollment compared to IU-Fort Wayne.

[Francis10]

The press conference currently going on confirms that IU Indianapolis (presented with no hyphen) will be the name and that there will be a task force to study athletics, but the intention is for IU to absorb the athletic operations rather than Purdue and to remain in the Horizon League.

Purdue sounds like they're imagining their continued presence essentially to be Purdue Community College, feeding into West Lafayette.