Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[jlog3000]

15 minutes ago, Burmy said:

Apparently UIndy's Board of Trustees meeting is tonight...so we will have an answer very soon in that regard.

 

Which we all will look forward to it after tonight. And depending on how the outcome might be, I wonder if it will help the momentum for the OVC to re-gain back to the 12-member school threshold (with 7 or 8 of them having football) in the future.

 

And that might mean that the Big South might need to find another conference to form a partnership (or have some of their non-football schools to add the sport to possibly save it as a conference-sponsored sport.

 

Also, we still don't know yet if the A-Sun and the WAC are just letting this slide and being okay or making it acceptable to have the 'MVFC' gimmick (a.k.a. the 2-conference partnership for football for just one automatic bid with little chance of error for an at-large bid) instead of trying to be 2 separate conferences with 2 different champions by just finding any expansion candidates in a few years to a decade.

[Seadragon76]

On 9/29/2022 at 2:38 AM, jlog3000 said:

I saw some rumor tweets that Le Moyne might be heading to D-I as a full member (not just baseball), and might eventually join either the MAAC or the Northeast (NEC). And might wait to see if it's true or not that UIndy is planning to move upto D-I (and eventually joining the OVC) or rather stay in D-II.

 

I saw the Le Moyne rumor on Reddit myself. Not a bad idea for them - They used to be an associate member of the MAAC in baseball and women's lacrosse. The only question would be who would take them. The MAAC would love to reach 12 teams... but the NEC and America East would like to have a word as well.

 

As far as Indy goes... As @Burmy mentioned, the Board is Trustees is meeting tonight. But, the AD for the school just stepped down.

 

This leads into three possible scenarios that could go down here:
-UIndy moves to Division I and joins the Ohio Valley Conference.

-UIndy stays in Division II, but joins the Great Midwest.

-UIndy basically stays put - both in Division two and the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

 

Let's look at these options one-by-one.

 

Option 1: The OVC does need football bodies, especially considering the alliance with the Big South beginning next season. Seven football playing schools would be nice, but you end up with an odd number for basketball. I think the OVC doesn't mind that much.

 

Option 2: The Great Midwest has basically taken members from other Midwestern based leagues, namely the GLIAC, but they have taken a few members from the GLVC (Namely Ashland, a former member, and Kentucky Wesleyan). Adding UIndy gives them 11 football schools, which is an odd number for that sport - but 14 for everything else (Let's not forget that the G-MAC is adding Thomas More, an NAIA school, next season as well)

 

Option 3: Status quo, nothing changes. We all move on to the next possible D-II school wanting to make the jump.

[Burmy]

Not sure whether it means they're just delaying the proposal even further or outright rejecting it...

[jlog3000]

To be fairly honest, I'm not sure either. But if I had to guess, I would say the latter scenario. I hope it's the former scenario. Although as of this moment, it's still early due to their own athletic director resigning.

[TBGKon]

 

[Red Wolf]

Kennesaw plays at an 8k stadium in an already crowded Atlanta FBS market. Seems like a move up would be rough for them, but C-USA is rough right now too.

[Geoff]

That stadium was designed with easy expansion in mind.

 

The KSU to CUSA move almost seems like, "hey, FIU is asleep at the wheel, just replace FAU with another Owls team. It'll be fine."

[Dilbert]

CUSA probably went with Kennesaw because Georgia State is smart not to leave the Sun Belt.

[jlog3000]

I wonder if that latest move would somehow give C-USA an opportunity to return back to 12 member schools (which is the bare minimum, with or without division play) in a few years from that point on, and eventually heading upto 14.

[McCall]

11 hours ago, jlog3000 said:

I wonder if that latest move would somehow give C-USA an opportunity to return back to 12 member schools (which is the bare minimum, with or without division play) in a few years from that point on, and eventually heading upto 14.

Bare minimum for what? Conference championship game? They did away with that rule. Plus C-USA is now essentially the minor league for the American, which itself, is just a jumping point for only a handful of schools wanting to show off for a shot at a potential power 5 opening.

[jlog3000]

1 hour ago, McCall said:

Bare minimum for what? Conference championship game? They did away with that rule. Plus C-USA is now essentially the minor league for the American, which itself, is just a jumping point for only a handful of schools wanting to show off for a shot at a potential power 5 opening.

 

I'm excluding that part (a.k.a. the CCG or conference championship game), I was referring for other sports that conference sponsors, not just only football.

[nickp91]

I think Kennesaw State in C-USA is a good move it would match Georgia State in the Sun belt conference in the Atlanta market

[jlog3000]

I agree @nickp91Which makes some sense for each conference to have a team in a similar or identical market.

[heavybass]

C-USA did a smart move? Really?

[Seadragon76]

21 hours ago, jlog3000 said:

I wonder if that latest move would somehow give C-USA an opportunity to return back to 12 member schools (which is the bare minimum, with or without division play) in a few years from that point on, and eventually heading upto 14.

 

12 might be a stretch at this point. The goal for C-USA is survival and adding in Kennesaw State helps insure their survival.

 

Being in the Atlanta area, the school is a big hub for the conference. It makes it easier for everyone to partner up in certain sports, like basketball. In fact, it would work like this:

 

-New Mexico State and UTEP

-Sam Houston State and Louisiana Tech

-Jacksonville State and Middle Tennessee State

-Western Kentucky and Liberty

-Kennesaw State and Florida International

[TBGKon]

On 10/7/2022 at 10:43 PM, jlog3000 said:

I wonder if that latest move would somehow give C-USA an opportunity to return back to 12 member schools (which is the bare minimum, with or without division play) in a few years from that point on, and eventually heading upto 14.

CUSA pretty much went from mid tier G5 to low tier G5.  The Sun Belt and CUSA essentially swapped.

[GDAWG]

The Sun Belt Commissioner recently got an extension due to all of the moves he's made recently, from adding James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion and Southern Miss to a TV deal for all sports on ESPN (namely on ESPN+ but still a good deal).

 

Meanwhile, CUSA has a TV deal with.....Stadium.  

[McCall]

On 10/9/2022 at 9:38 AM, TBGKon said:

CUSA pretty much went from mid tier G5 to low tier G5.  The Sun Belt and CUSA essentially swapped.

Hell, before the early 2010's mass realignment, CUSA was probably the top G5 conference along with the Mountain West (Big East being considered a power 5 conference at that point). Then their best schools moved to the ashes of the Big East (American) and CUSA was forced to replenish with FCS schools pretending to be FBS.

[Red Wolf]

On 10/8/2022 at 3:09 PM, nickp91 said:

I think Kennesaw State in C-USA is a good move it would match Georgia State in the Sun belt conference in the Atlanta market

 

I don't see why that's a good idea. Atlanta is already saturated with FBS schools between GSU and Ga Tech in the city and UGA not far away. Kind of feels like the ill-advised markets-based expansion that doomed C-USA in the first place.

 

11 hours ago, McCall said:

Hell, before the early 2010's mass realignment, CUSA was probably the top G5 conference along with the Mountain West (Big East being considered a power 5 conference at that point). Then their best schools moved to the ashes of the Big East (American) and CUSA was forced to replenish with FCS schools pretending to be FBS.

 

C-USA made a bad bet by going after schools in major markets. It sort of made sense as a lot of their old schools were Metro Conference schools previously. They just didn't necessarily consider whether those schools were committed to the nightmare that is major college football and then topped it off with a dreadful media deal that shoved them off onto CBSSN, Stadium, and Facebook. Kind of hard to leverage the big markets when nobody can find your games. See also: Pac-12.

[PrimalCookie]

Kennesaw State to C-USA is official.