Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

[dickey1331]

Boise is only saying no for now. Kinda the same situation with A$M.


Do you really care where I sent this from?

[DonkeyJote]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

Boise is only saying no for now. Kinda the same situation with A$M.


Do you really care where I sent this from?

I don't think it's the same situation at all. Why would Boise be so quick to jump to the Big East? There's a decent chance that the conference will consist of Cincinatti, South Florida, and Conference USA add-ons (since WVU wants to be SEC/Big 12, Louisville wants to be Big 12, UConn and Rutgers want to be ACC/B1G). How is that really more compelling than a MWC/Conf USA merger? I'm not saying they won't do it in the end. Maybe they will. But from where I'm sitting, it doesn't make sense for them to go. Imo, it only makes sense for Houston, SMU, and UCF as an attempt to give their programs more exposure, which could help them even with a Big East collapse. And it's still a very risky move. I don't think I'd do it. If these schools all decide to say no, the Big East is likely done as a BCS conference in three years. If it lasts that long, since all the schools will be clamoring to get out. Cincinatti and USF may be able to get absorbed into this new conference at that point. A conference with Boise, Fresno, Nevada, Hawaii, Houston, SMU, Southern Mississippi, UCF, etc. isn't a bad football conference. Heck, it's probably what the Big East would end up looking like anyway, but you wouldn't have to find a 2nd home for all of your other sports.

The SEC is stable. It makes a ton of money, and isn't going to be losing it's BCS AQ status anytime soon. Heck, they're probably closer to gaining a National Championship AQ than they are losing their BCS bid. A&M could feel completely comfortable joining that conference. The Big East is in big trouble. It's a conference in flux. They don't get a ton of money (there's all the talk of NBC wanting to buy their rights, but who's not to say they wouldn't just buy this big super conference instead?). 66% of the conference is looking for a way out. It's a totally different situation.

[dickey1331]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

I don't think it's the same situation at all. Why would Boise be so quick to jump to the Big East? There's a decent chance that the conference will consist of Cincinatti, South Florida, and Conference USA add-ons (since WVU wants to be SEC/Big 12, Louisville wants to be Big 12, UConn and Rutgers want to be ACC/B1G). How is that really more compelling than a MWC/Conf USA merger? I'm not saying they won't do it in the end. Maybe they will. But from where I'm sitting, it doesn't make sense for them to go. Imo, it only makes sense for Houston, SMU, and UCF as an attempt to give their programs more exposure, which could help them even with a Big East collapse. And it's still a very risky move. I don't think I'd do it. If these schools all decide to say no, the Big East is likely done as a BCS conference in three years. If it lasts that long, since all the schools will be clamoring to get out. Cincinatti and USF may be able to get absorbed into this new conference at that point. A conference with Boise, Fresno, Nevada, Hawaii, Houston, SMU, Southern Mississippi, UCF, etc. isn't a bad football conference. Heck, it's probably what the Big East would end up looking like anyway, but you wouldn't have to find a 2nd home for all of your other sports.

The SEC is stable. It makes a ton of money, and isn't going to be losing it's BCS AQ status anytime soon. Heck, they're probably closer to gaining a National Championship AQ than they are losing their BCS bid. A&M could feel completely comfortable joining that conference. The Big East is in big trouble. It's a conference in flux. They don't get a ton of money (there's all the talk of NBC wanting to buy their rights, but who's not to say they wouldn't just buy this big super conference instead?). 66% of the conference is looking for a way out. It's a totally different situation.

Because Boise would lose on TV money and a chance to actually lose a game or 2 and still make it to a BCS bowl game. The other members of the Big East have said they would raise the buyout if all of the teams accepted the invite. Why would the Big East invite Boise if they were gonna say no? Dont you think they talked about it before? I read somewhere that there is a 72 hour dead period in the BE after a vote. So invites will not come till after that 72 hour window is over. So the invite isnt "official" yet. If you read the article that Andy Katz wrote hes getting is information from the MWC. Boise is Big East bound.

[tehova]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

Do we have a logo for the new conference? Can we call it The Coalition of The Willing?


This is gonna be fun

[Redacted01]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

Do we have a logo for the new conference? Can we call it The Coalition of The Willing?


This is gonna be fun

Again... it's not a new conference. I might as well give up as too many people on the internet actually think they will be intermingled.

MWC plays a regular season, crowns a champion.

C-USA plays a regular season (and with the loss of UCF...), crowns a champion.

They meet! The winner gets a highly unlikely BCS bid. End of story.

You won't see ECU playing San Diego State and Hawai'i. You won't see New Mexico playing Memphis and Southern Miss. PerfectZero I believe mentioned that a Big Ten/ACC-like challenge would be cool, but I even think that is a bit much, as they won't have an even number of teams probably and if you are doing a one-off, you can't leave someone out to have an odd number of "conference" games.

[dickey1331]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

Again... it's not a new conference. I might as well give up as too many people on the internet actually think they will be intermingled.

MWC plays a regular season, crowns a champion.

C-USA plays a regular season (and with the loss of UCF...), crowns a champion.

They meet! The winner gets a highly unlikely BCS bid. End of story.

You won't see ECU playing San Diego State and Hawai'i. You won't see New Mexico playing Memphis and Southern Miss. PerfectZero I believe mentioned that a Big Ten/ACC-like challenge would be cool, but I even think that is a bit much, as they won't have an even number of teams probably and if you are doing a one-off, you can't leave someone out to have an odd number of "conference" games.

If Boise, AF, UCF, Houston and SMU all leave I really dont see how they get a BCS bid.

[Redacted01]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

If Boise, AF, UCF, Houston and SMU all leave I really dont see how they get a BCS bid.

Which is why I said a highly unlikely one. SMU and Houston are a ways off. Boise is not likely anymore, which means Air Force probably won't jump because Navy won't go to an unstable conference. Seems Boise still isn't content that the Big East will actually stay together. Though at the same time, playing a C-USA champion might actually hurt them to get into a BCS game as an at large if they were to lose. Boise either stays and has a harder path, or they leave to a conference that flops soon.

[Bondgirl0072]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

MWC, Conference USA plan football alliance

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7102822/mountain-west-conference-usa-announce-football-only-alliance

Texas AD to Texas A&M: Schedule full until '18

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7103015/texas-longhorns-deloss-dodds-tells-texas-bill-byrne-nonconference-schedule-full-2018

[coogrfan]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/10/14/mwc.cusa.merger/

MWC, C-USA merger makes sense with uncertain landscape ahead

The bald kid in The Matrix may as well have been explaining the fallout of conference realignment when he explained spoon-bending to Keanu Reeves.

For those not geeky enough to remember the exchange, here's the transcript:

Bald kid: Do not try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.

Keanu: What truth?

Bald kid: There is no spoon.

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky provided realignment's version of "There is no spoon" on Friday night as he answered a question about whether he thought C-USA's football merger with the Mountain West into a 22-team (for now, at least) mega-something would earn an automatic bid to the BCS.

"I don't think anyone can really predict what the future of the BCS will be or what it will look like at this point," Banowsky said. "We've had so much upheaval in conference associations and in our business over the last 18 months that the idea that the BCS would simply be rebooted as it has been in the past has a significant question mark around it." Given the chance, Banowsky didn't back off that statement. "Who knows what's going to happen? I don't think anyone has a clear idea what will happen in 2014 for sure -- whether there will even be a BCS. If there is, who will be in what conferences? What conferences will have access? Will there even be an automatic qualification?"

The merger of the football operations between Conference USA and the Mountain West seems quite a bit less insane using that logic. Banowsky and Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson began discussing this more than a year ago -- just after the first near-implosion of the Big 12 touched off a series of tectonic shifts that has yet to stop. The presidents of the league's 22 schools voted to approve the merger Friday.
On its surface, it sounds crazy. Why would merging one mediocre league with another mediocre league produce anything more than a giant ball of mediocrity? Look at it from Banowsky and Thompson's perspective. No one knows what the hell is going to happen. This BCS cycle ends after the 2013 season. Since the conferences have changed so much since the last deal was struck, why should we assume the format will in any way resemble the one in place now? Why should we assume the next iteration will even be called the BCS?

Given all that, it makes perfect sense to try an idea that two years ago sounded mad.

Expect Thompson to use that line of reasoning as he tries to convince Boise State and Air Force to decline the invitations they're about to receive from the Big East. Expect Banowsky to do the same as he tries to convince Central Florida, Houston and SMU to stay. Thompson acknowledged Friday that Boise State and Air Force have been in discussions with the Big East. Banowsky acknowledged that UCF has been in discussions, but did not confirm Houston or SMU. Boise State and Air Force would join only in football, while Houston, SMU and UCF would be full members.
(We'll pause here to soak in the deliciousness that is the possibility of a BCS automatic qualifying league crawling to Boise State to salvage any hope of staying in college football's upper echelon. The Broncos -- once shunned and ridiculed by the establishment -- truly represent the Big East's best hope for relevance.)

But what if the Big East wasn't a BCS AQ conference? At that point, would it be any more desirable a football home than the Mount USA, or the Conference West, or the Five Time Zone Conference or whatever they're calling the newly formed monstrosity? No, it wouldn't.


Keep in mind that the consultant who helped mastermind this deal is Chuck Neinas. Yes, the same Chuck Neinas who just became the interim commissioner of the Big 12. Thompson and Banowsky have said their business with Neinas is now concluded -- he's been tough to get on the phone lately, they joked -- but his role in the merger will get the tinfoil hat crowd excited. Especially the conspiracy theorists who happen to work in the Big East office. What was the first thing the Big 12 did after Neinas took over? It grabbed TCU, which was set to join the Big East.

Now, the Big 12 is waiting to find out whether Missouri will depart for the SEC. Neinas said earlier this week that the Tigers would be in the Big 12 in 2012, but a source with knowledge of the SEC's deliberations said this week that if the SEC did elect to add Missouri -- presidents have not decided that yet -- that the league would work to add the Tigers for 2012. Should that happen, and we'll know if it did in the next few weeks, the Big 12 will face the choice of adding either one or three more schools. From which league will one (or two) of those schools come? The Big East. And if those schools are Louisville and West Virginia, that would leave the Big East with the following football members: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Rutgers, South Florida. That isn't any better than the pu-pu platter Banowsky and Thompson assembled Friday. Why would Boise State want to join that bunch over the other one?

Plus, Banowsky may be correct in that there may not be an automatic qualifying arrangement in the next BCS contract. Forget a playoff. Forget even a seeded plus-one, which seems more realistic every day. Maybe the BCS bowls beneath the title game will simply select from a pool of teams. What if the bowls could take any of the teams in the top 16 places in the BCS standings with no limit on how many teams came from each conference? The Mount USA would vote for that. So would the Sun Belt and MAC, because it is their only chance to get a team in a BCS bowl. But guess who else would potentially profit enough from that arrangement to vote for it? The SEC. And the Big Ten. Given their druthers, every bowl game and every TV network would match an SEC team with a Big Ten team. If the BCS bowls could take three of each, they'd be ecstatic. They don't like shoehorning in an average ACC or Big East champ any more than you like watching a shoehorned-in ACC or Big East champ.

No one has a clue how the landscape will look when the next wave of major bowl deals is signed. So why not merge two leagues? It's as good an idea as anything else.

Do not try to bend two conferences into one BCS AQ conference. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.

What truth?

That there may not be a BCS.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...#ixzz1arf1ceOx

[Redacted01]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

MWC, Conference USA plan football alliance

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7102822/mountain-west-conference-usa-announce-football-only-alliance

Texas AD to Texas A&M: Schedule full until '18


http://espn.go.com/college-football/...dule-full-2018

A bit late to the party

[TDenverFan]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

I'm honestly surprised the Big East ignored the MAC, Western and Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Temple and Miami (OH) would all be solid squads to join, weak at first but they could compete. Not to mention it would give them a little bit more coverage into Big Ten territory. I don't know why they are only looking south.

None of those schools are really BCS worthy. Poor attendance and fan base. NIU was ranked last year, and WMU beat UCONN, I know, but they don't have the fan base to be BCS.

Last Years Reported Attendance Per Game:
WMU- 14,000
CM- 20,000
NIU- 17,000
Temple-20,000
Miami OH- 15,000

Lowest BCS conference attendance is around 40k.

[Watson]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

a few notes


This new conference is to be called "Mt. America"

How do 22-team conferences work? Trick question, they don't. But it will be entertaining as ****

[Redacted01]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

Big Ten will only add schools if it increases revenue per team. NO ONE in the MAC would do that.

[Perfect Zero]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

a few notes


This new conference is to be called "Mt. America"

How do 22-team conferences work? Trick question, they don't. But it will be entertaining as ****

Excuse me for not being able to detect your tone over the internet, but are you being a smart aleck or do you actually believe that the conferences are merging?

[TDenverFan]

Re: Conference Re-Alignment Thread Part Who Knows

a few notes


This new conference is to be called "Mt. America"

How do 22-team conferences work? Trick question, they don't. But it will be entertaining as ****

Will it really be called that? If so, awesome name