Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[Dilbert]

So now 3 of the now 4 power conferences are bi-coastal, with the SEC as the only holdout.  Oregon State prior to yesterday seemed pretty strong on rebuilding a new PAC conference, while Washington State is more than likely Mtn West bound. Hopefully Oregon State comes to their senses and follows.

[4_tattoos]

Now that UNLV's hopes of joining the PAC 12 are all but dead now, do they get kicked out of the Raider's stadium at some point? How long are they required to stay there? What benefit do the Raiders get in letting them occupy their stadium a couple Saturdays each fall now that UNLV is seemingly Mountain West for life? UNLV home games at Allegiant can't be a significant cash cow. I've caught a couple of their games on TV, they weren't exactly selling out the house.

[McCall]

1 hour ago, 4_tattoos said:

Now that UNLV's hopes of joining the PAC 12 are all but dead now, do they get kicked out of the Raider's stadium at some point? How long are they required to stay there? What benefit do the Raiders get in letting them occupy their stadium a couple Saturdays each fall now that UNLV is seemingly Mountain West for life? UNLV home games at Allegiant can't be a significant cash cow. I've caught a couple of their games on TV, they weren't exactly selling out the house.

I don't think their letting UNLV play there had anything to do with them having to get into the Pac-12 or any power conference.

[Dilbert]

15 hours ago, 4_tattoos said:

Now that UNLV's hopes of joining the PAC 12 are all but dead now, do they get kicked out of the Raider's stadium at some point? How long are they required to stay there? What benefit do the Raiders get in letting them occupy their stadium a couple Saturdays each fall now that UNLV is seemingly Mountain West for life? UNLV home games at Allegiant can't be a significant cash cow. I've caught a couple of their games on TV, they weren't exactly selling out the house.

No. The move had absolutely nothing  to do with a potential move to the PAC. UNLV's contract with Allegiant Stadium effectively prohibits the university from holding events at Sam Boyd Stadium in what is essentially a no-compete clause. In exchange for shutting down the stadium, UNLV receives annual compensation of up to $3.5 million over a 10-year period from the Raiders.  Basically the Raiders are paying UNLV (who owns Sam Boyd Stadium) to not use the stadium. Outside of the 2021 UNLV commencement (normally at the Thomas & Mack Center but moved for social distancing), the stadium has pretty much sat empty, as any events that would have normally gone to Sam Boyd have moved to Allegiant.  With the stadium being over 50 years old, and being an outdoor venue in the hot Las Vegas climate, id imagine its days will be numbered soon.

[LMU]

Also, despite being a dumpster fire it’s not like Temple is being evicted by the Eagles any time soon so I don’t think UNLV has much to worry about.

[4_tattoos]

Oddly enough both Wazzu and Oregon State played on the road against MWC teams week 1.

[BBTV]

1 hour ago, LMU said:

Also, despite being a dumpster fire it’s not like Temple is being evicted by the Eagles any time soon so I don’t think UNLV has much to worry about.

I’m not sure if it’s fair to call Temple a dumpster fire anymore, it’s just that they keep switching coaches every time they have a good season and one leaves  (ex. Al Golden,  Matt Rhule).  Temple pays between $2M-$3M per season to play at the Linc, so they won’t be evicted till those checks bounce. 
 

 

[Burmy]

58 minutes ago, 4_tattoos said:

Oddly enough both Wazzu and Oregon State played on the road against MWC teams week 1.

And both clobbered their MWC opponents...whenever they join, expect one of them to end up with the Group of Five's playoff seed for at least the first couple years of the expanded playoff.

[tyst13]

I appreciate this potential (if unlikely) path forward for Oregon State and Washington State: do nothing and stall.

 

https://www.cougcenter.com/2023/9/3/23857832/pac-12-realignment-mountain-west-wsu-cougars-osu-beavers

[GDAWG]

 

[TBGKon]

It will be very interesting to see how the Army-Navy game is handled.  I've heard suggestions that the game will still remain after the conference championship weeks and will be considered a non-conference game.  That of course doesn't mean that Army-Navy won't play each other in conference scheduling or in a potential conference championship game.

[jlog3000]

1 hour ago, TBGKon said:

It will be very interesting to see how the Army-Navy game is handled.  I've heard suggestions that the game will still remain after the conference championship weeks and will be considered a non-conference game.  That of course doesn't mean that Army-Navy won't play each other in conference scheduling or in a potential conference championship game.

 

I wouldn't mind at all personally. Heck, imagine if that would happen, but that's if both Army and Navy had the best conference records and the rest of the others would not be close. That would be a marquee game for the AAC before conference championship week.

 

And on a sidenote, would it be a bit wise for the conference to get a non-football school to pair up with Wichita State?

[crashcarson15]

On 9/2/2023 at 11:51 AM, BBTV said:

Can someone explain to a non-college sports fan why those two schools were so unattractive to any of the major conferences?  Is it just on-field performance? Or that they’re not worth anything from a TV market / revenue standpoint?

The geography doesn't help, but I also think a big challenge is that Oregon State and Washington State have rarely, if ever, been involved in blockbuster games.

 

The model/push from the TV networks with the Big Ten and SEC in particular seems to be to more or less manufacture a handful of "big games" each week vs. creating a depth of offerings (which has been the case over time). USC definitely helps the Big Ten's media partners do that, and both Oregon and Washington have been to the playoff since its inception. The Big Ten now has four top-tier media draws (Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State and USC), plus a solid reserve of programs to pit against them to create "big game" inventory in three time slots each week. The SEC will have a similar dynamic, with a bunch of top-tier media draws, a couple of which will likely play each week. Obviously Oregon State and Wazzu don't fit that bill.

 

Specific to the Big XII, their contract with ESPN had a pro-rata deal to add up to four Power 5 schools to the league. While not super relevant athletically over the last decade-plus, Colorado was a founding member of the conference, and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are all more natural fits for the league than either of the PNW schools would've been. I don't think Oregon State and Washington State raise the average value of school in the Big XII if the league would try and re-negotiate an 18-team contract, particularly considering that the Big XII is placing some amount of value on basketball (which made Arizona in particular a strong target).

 

With the ACC, it was difficult enough to get the league to add Cal and Stanford, and the travel concerns that were a significant roadblock would be exacerbated with Oregon State and Washington State. At least with Cal and Stanford, they're strong cultural fits with many of the institutions in the league, and most importantly, both are located in the Bay Area and can be (1) hit in a single road trip for sports other than football and (2) reached direct on commercial flights to SFO by half the league (the other half of the league pretty much being the schools who can't fly direct anywhere to begin with). 

[McCall]

53 minutes ago, jlog3000 said:

 

I wouldn't mind at all personally. Heck, imagine if that would happen, but that's if both Army and Navy had the best conference records and the rest of the others would not be close. That would be a marquee game for the AAC before conference championship week.

 

And on a sidenote, would it be a bit wise for the conference to get a non-football school to pair up with Wichita State?

Why would they?

[jlog3000]

4 hours ago, McCall said:

Why would they?

 

Why not? I mean, it would be worth a shot. Plus it was only a suggestion in theory, not a proposed demand.

[McCall]

4 hours ago, jlog3000 said:

 

Why not? I mean, it would be worth a shot. Plus it was only a suggestion in theory, not a proposed demand.

But what's the reasoning for there to be a second non-football school? Like, why would they feel that that's something they need to do?

[Burmy]

The University of West Georgia is the newest school to join the Division I ranks...starting next year, the Wolves will play in the ASUN and begin the transition process to DI.

[jlog3000]

11 minutes ago, Burmy said:

The University of West Georgia is the newest school to join the Division I ranks...starting next year, the Wolves will play in the ASUN and begin the transition process to DI.

 

About time. And although it's good and all, but why now, when the A-Sun and WAC were (and still are to this day) were proverbially on life support (if they wanna try to remain as separate conferences to try to keep football as a conference-sponsored sport alive)? And even if the UAC partnership-turned-reality is still intact, compared to the WAC, maybe the A-Sun still has hope to reinstate it back as a conference-sponsored sport, just as long as the conference's members meet the requirement for an automatic bid (currently they have 4, and with West Georgia making it 5, just 2 shy for making to 7), or they absorb the WAC football schools to become affiliates for the A-Sun on football, as the WAC itself is in dire doom, especially after the premature exits or depatures (like Lamar and Incarnate Word [kinda]) and the move-up hype (like Sam Houston State did).

 

At least the OVC is trying to rebuilt it back to an extent, when they added Western Illinois to join this school year (with football following suit next fall), although they are in a partnership with the Big South (cuz it only has like 2 schools out of 10 in total with that sport, excluding 'non-scholarship' Presbyterian), hence the OVC would be at 11 full members (with like 7 of them playing the sport [just enough for the conference to reinstate it back for an automatic bid under its watch, only 8 would be a bit ideal and to avoid another raid of conference realignment], excluding the 'non-scholarship' ones in Morehead State). Who knows if the OVC would re-add football, but have the others within the partnership to become affiliate members for that sport? That would be simple fix of a negotiation, thus ending the Big South's chances to become an FCS conference again.

 

 

[Burmy]

Saw a discussion on another board that hints that a lot of D2's larger schools are not happy where they're at, with several D2 schools closing entirely and the smaller schools being the ones to jump up...specifically among the Gulf South's current membership, that post speculated that Valdosta State and West Florida might join West Georgia in the ASUN, with Mississippi College and Delta State looking to the Southland and perhaps the rest of non-football UAH's teams joining their hockey team in D1.

[Geoff]

What UAH hockey team? There hasn't been varsity hockey at UAH since 2021. 

 

Admittedly, I don't travel in athletic circles locally but there's no chatter around town of UAH going D1.