Division 1 College Conference Realignment

[4_tattoos]

Now that I think about, UConn football may have potentially gotten screwed more than any other FBS program due to conference realignment. IIRC the ACC raid of the Big East happened right when their program was transitioning from FBS Independent to Big East football.

 

I'm not saying UConn would have become a juggernaut program had Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College stayed in the Big East in an alternate timeline. I'm not saying the Big East would have become what the SEC became. However, UConn's football program had the rug pulled from underneath it. They expected their program to become part of a power conference. Instead they ended up becoming part of the Big Least, then were downgraded to the American and downgraded further back to independent status.

[heavybass]

Uconn to the Big XII you say? It gives Cincinnati and West Virginia a proximity rival and an eastern block rival in UCF

[TBGKon]

 

[Seadragon76]

It'll make basketball in the Big XII must watch television considering the potential firepower of the conference.

 

Think about it - UConn vs. Arizona was once just a potential national championship game.

[Burmy]

15 minutes ago, TBGKon said:

 

I know UConn football's fallen on hard times as of late...but why the five-year gap between Olympic sports and football?

[WestCoastBias]

lol the Big 12 is pretty much the Island of Misfit Toys, there's like three different conferences based on geography combined into one single conference. 

[TBGKon]

47 minutes ago, Burmy said:

I know UConn football's fallen on hard times as of late...but why the five-year gap between Olympic sports and football?

I did hear there were some conditions before full acceptance, possibly including an average home attendance of 35k or more for football in a 2 year period.

 

If I'm UConn I wait out the ACC cases with Clemson and FSU before jumping.

[schlim]

The Big 12 feels like the IHL to the NHL, nothing inherently wrong with the product, just a weird mishmash of leftovers and places not big enough for the big leagues.

[SavardToColton]

No disagreements that the Big 12 is going to become a hodgepodge island of misfit toys. That said it is clear to see the strategy. Big 12 is being proactive against the SEC and Big 10's influence that could lead to a P2 and maybe even breakaway situation with the two conferences. And while football undoubtedly drives the bus compared to basketball, March Madness is huge in its own right. The Big 12 is saying to the B1G and SEC "if you want to separate or do something with basketball you can't ignore us." You can't have college basketball without Kansas and UConn, much less the other programs in the Big 12. And if the ACC breaks apart if FSU and Clemson leave, that's just gravy for the Big 12.

 

 

That said, while I can rationalize and recognize the realpolitik strategy of the Big 12 here, can't say it's a good thing for College Basketball reading the tea leaves. We're heading for a split sooner than later and what makes March Madness special is under a high level threat. 

Edited August 28 by SavardToColton
caught a small spelling error

[LMU]

Give the SEC credit.  They're the last power conference with an accurate name.

[sportsfan7]

3 hours ago, LMU said:

Give the SEC credit.  They're the last power conference with an accurate name.

Yea, I think I've mentioned it before, but even though UT and OU to the SEC started this latest round of realignment, it feels hard for me to be mad at them. Although I wish the move never happened, it wasn't that out of line with previous realignments. What the Big 10 did on the other hand...

[Sec19Row53]

36 minutes ago, sportsfan7 said:

Yea, I think I've mentioned it before, but even though UT and OU to the SEC started this latest round of realignment, it feels hard for me to be mad at them. Although I wish the move never happened, it wasn't that out of line with previous realignments. What the Big 10 did on the other hand...

You mean Conference USA? Oh wait, that name's taken 

[Geoff]

5 hours ago, LMU said:

Give the SEC credit.  They're the last power conference with an accurate name.

Debatable.

[LMU]

12 hours ago, Geoff said:

Debatable.

Not really. If you divide the continental US into fourths at the midpoint all of the SEC teams do in fact reside in the southeast quadrant.

 

[McCall]

10 hours ago, Geoff said:

Debatable.

Geography is debatable?

[Dilbert]

18 hours ago, LMU said:

Give the SEC credit.  They're the last power conference with an accurate name.

[Dynasty]

On 8/28/2024 at 4:47 PM, LMU said:

Give the SEC credit.  They're the last power conference with an accurate name.

 

I'll play a bit of devil's advocate.  Yes, they were able to retain their geography, but you could say it came with being the creator of the domino effect that led to the geographic destruction everybody else experienced recently. You could say their move of acquiring Oklahoma and Texas put pressure on the B1G to poach and ultimately destroy the Pac-12, leaving the "survivors" seeking refuge into what is being called a misfit conference now. You can give the SEC credit; they're the biggest geographic winners, but maybe also screw them.

 

Spoiler

Of course, we have had other geographic anomalies happening in other conferences, though I was really only putting light on the recent events.

 

[McCall]

3 hours ago, Dilbert said:

For the record, I live in Missouri and am less than 70 miles from Arkansas and Tennessee, and less than 40 miles from Kentucky.

[Dilbert]

20 hours ago, McCall said:

For the record, I live in Missouri and am less than 70 miles from Arkansas and Tennessee, and less than 40 miles from Kentucky.

 

im 10 minutes from Kentucky. Im in Ohio, which is not the south, but Kentucky is. Id consider southern Missouri in the south, but central and northern Missouri in the midwest. Columbia  is nearly parallel with Cincinnati. Id put them and anyone in and north of St Louis, Jefferson City, Sedalia in the midwest, while Joplin, Springfield, Ozark, and Cape Girardeau the south.

[McCall]

4 hours ago, Dilbert said:

 

im 10 minutes from Kentucky. Im in Ohio, which is not the south, but Kentucky is. Id consider southern Missouri in the south, but central and northern Missouri in the midwest. Columbia  is nearly parallel with Cincinnati. Id put them and anyone in and north of St Louis, Jefferson City, Sedalia in the midwest, while Joplin, Springfield, Ozark, and Cape Girardeau the south.

Yeah, but I usually go by the state as a whole for the major state universities, rather than they're exact city. Columbia's not much further north than Lexington and is in a state that, as you say, is partially in the south. And I can tell you, southern Missouri, where I've lived my whole life (save the first 3 years when I lived in southern Illinois), is not the prototypical "midwest". It's far more a mix of the south and southern plains (Oklahoma, Texas) as you go further west.