Realignment talk not going away

[bullet 1,596]

There's also some stuff out of Nashville implying that WKU and MTSU are talking to the MAC.  So we're getting some conference realignment MACtion.

They haven't added anyone since UMass in 2012 and Temple in 2007.  UMass left in 2016 and Temple in 2012.  And every current MAC member has been in the conference since at least 1998.  They're the most stable conference.

[Laxtonto 11,934]

1 hour ago, bullet said:

There's also some stuff out of Nashville implying that WKU and MTSU are talking to the MAC.  So we're getting some conference realignment MACtion.

They haven't added anyone since UMass in 2012 and Temple in 2007.  UMass left in 2016 and Temple in 2012.  And every current MAC member has been in the conference since at least 1998.  They're the most stable conference.

MAC takes 2, SunBelt Takes 3, AAC took 6. That means 11/14 are gone and CUSA would dissolve vs paying exit fees

[WhatTheBuck 28,720]

2 hours ago, bullet said:

There's also some stuff out of Nashville implying that WKU and MTSU are talking to the MAC.  So we're getting some conference realignment MACtion.

They haven't added anyone since UMass in 2012 and Temple in 2007.  UMass left in 2016 and Temple in 2012.  And every current MAC member has been in the conference since at least 1998.  They're the most stable conference.

I would define stability by teams not leaving, not by teams not joining. 

[camel at sea 589]

1 hour ago, Laxtonto said:

MAC takes 2, SunBelt Takes 3, AAC took 6. That means 11/14 are gone and CUSA would dissolve vs paying exit fees

MAC - Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky
Sun Belt - Southern Miss, Marshall, LaTech (?)
AAC - UNT, UTSA, Rice, Charlotte, FAU, UAB

 

UTEP is screwed unless the MWC changes its opinion of them.  Liberty should probably make the cut for the Sun Belt over schools like FIU and Old Dominion but we'll see how that goes.  I suspect that the politics for LaTech getting an invite might be bad but I think they're the best fit.  

[Laxtonto 11,934]

5 hours ago, camel at sea said:

MAC - Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky
Sun Belt - Southern Miss, Marshall, LaTech (?)
AAC - UNT, UTSA, Rice, Charlotte, FAU, UAB

 

UTEP is screwed unless the MWC changes its opinion of them.  Liberty should probably make the cut for the Sun Belt over schools like FIU and Old Dominion but we'll see how that goes.  I suspect that the politics for LaTech getting an invite might be bad but I think they're the best fit.  

I think Marshall is lobbying hard for ODU and the comments of the LT administration (and their fans) when they left for the CUSA will have some of the SB schools less than willing to consider them.

I would think the ones in the left out grouping is LT, FIU, and UTEP.

 

This is all now “waiting” on OU and UT to finish negotiations with the B12

[bullet 1,596]

7 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

I would define stability by teams not leaving, not by teams not joining. 

Well the only teams who have left the MAC were short-timers-Marshall, UCF, Temple, UMass.  And UMass was asked to either join fully or get out.  Marshall was the only one who left who was a full member.

ACC has only lost Maryland since 1969, but they've got 7 new members in the last 15 years of their 15 members.  That's not stable.

[bullet 1,596]

Seems like all the conferences did their expansion homework except for CUSA and Pac 12.  They got caught flat footed.  Bowlsby at least knew who he would add.  It was a quick process.  Pac 12 seemed to be starting from scratch.  CUSA was asking people to trade teams with them.

[bullet 1,596]

The Big East tried to get the ACC to do some kind of a trade or sharing arrangement.  So the ACC took who they wanted from the Big East!

[Laxtonto 11,934]

Better question is did ESPN order a hit on CUSA and the conferences are following orders or ESPN just realized once the balls were in motion that they could capitalize on their market position by incentivizing their other leagues under contract to keep expansion going knowing it would kill the CUSA.

Probably the 2nd, but we all know that the scenario 1 was already under consideration and talk through and they just let the media consultants facilitate as a middle man.

Like a good crime family, nothing will be directly provable with the media consultant  buffer, but all the other leagues will know don’t fuck with the mouse or you are getting whacked…

 

[956 Worldwide 34,494]

19 hours ago, 'stache said:

They should have looked to Army, UConn, and UMass as football only adds. Strengthen the NE part of the league. I know UConn and UMass football as stunk lately, but Temple was shitty for a long time and found some success. Those programs if they tried could at least be passable, or comparable to Rice football, which has been mostly terrible for most of the last several decades.

UMass is terrible on a different level. They’ve never won more than four games since moving to FBS. Temple or Rice is a whole different thing than UMass, those schools are in a big city in a state that loves football.  New England is almost a dead zone for football, a lot of even decent size high schools don’t event field a team. 

[Laxtonto 11,934]

AAC moves are official

 

https://theamerican.org/news/2021/10/21/general-american-athletic-conference-announces-the-addition-of-six-universities.aspx

[Longboard Horn 40,172]

[Zeus 5,951]

18 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

Bob Bowlsby's feelings are still hurt.

 

https://www.hookem.com/story/sports/football/2021/10/20/big-12-commissioner-bob-bowlsby-says-current-trust-factor-texas-ou-low/6105454001/

 

 

 

  Hide contents

So why does Bowlsby believe the two schools are leaving?

“Haven’t the vaguest idea,” he said, sitting in the bowels of T-Mobile Center. “To this day, they’ve given us no answers to that question. Either one.” 

Why not?

“You’ll have to ask them that,” Bowlsby said. “I’ve asked repeatedly, and they never made us aware of any concerns in advance. When we’ve asked the question since then, we’ve gotten no response.”

Does Texas and OU know the competition will be much harder in the SEC? It’s widely believed it would be much easier to reach the College Football Playoff in the Big 12 than the SEC, where Alabama reigns supreme and everyone else struggles.

“That’s not my responsibility to explain that to them,” Bowlsby said. “They’ve got 50 years of experience. They ought to be able to figure that out for themselves.”

Texas’ top officials, like Hartzell and UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife, still have never gone in depth about why they wanted to leave the Big 12. Their only public comments have been carefully-crafted statements about UT’s long-term future. 

“They’re thinking they’re going to recruit better and they’re going to get more money,” Bowlsby said. “Anybody that thinks Texas’ football problems have been a result of league affiliation are completely delusional.”

Texas fans have long complained about the home schedule. For example, few fans are excited about Kansas coming to Royal-Memorial Stadium on Nov. 13.

“Well, here comes Vanderbilt,” Bowlsby said. “Every league is structured similarly to what ours is. There’s three or four bell cows and there’s the rest.”

Ever since the news broke In July that Texas and OU were leaving, Bowlsby has been on the defensive. He was hurt by UT and OU’s feeling of deception, a close friend of his told the Statesman. 

High-ranking UT sources told the Statesman this summer that the decision was driven in part by TV negotiations. The networks did not want to extend their current TV deals, something Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. 

But the Big 12 asked its members to sign a five-year extension of the grant of television rights, according to UT sources at the time. Bowlsby said flatly on Wednesday “that’s absurd.” 

“We never asked them to extend the TV contracts. There was never an ask for an extension of the grant of rights,” Bowlsby said. “There was never any negotiations with ESPN. There was never a request to extend the contract. It was a routine look-in, and I wasn’t at all surprised or disappointed that they said four years was too early to begin negotiations.”

Hartzell was part of a three-president committee to study the league’s TV contracts. Did his knowledge of the TV situation prompt Texas’ decision?

“Well, we have two presidents that are very new in their chairs,” Bowlsby said, referring to Hartzell and Harroz. “So, you’ll have to ask them what they felt like they knew and what they didn’t know.”

Hartzell appeared before a panel of Texas state senators on Aug. 2 and said the move became clear “into the summer” about leaving the Big 12. Bowlsby told that same panel the Big 12’s television contracts would be cut in half with Texas and OU leaving.

“I want to set the record straight: we have and will continue to honor all agreements,” Hartzell told the panel of state lawmakers. “We have not violated any Big 12 bylaws.”

Bowlsby said Wednesday the Big 12 has not initiated any legal proceedings against Texas and OU.

Having lost the Big 12’s two bell cows, Bowlsby became motivated to keep the league afloat, his friend said. Texas and OU were somewhat banking on the Big 12’s possible implosion, so they could leave immediately without paying any stiff penalty — possibly as much as $80 million each.

The Big 12 recently extended invitations to Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU. Those schools gladly accepted and will join the league for the 2023 football season. Basketball-wise, the Big 12 becomes a fantastic league. But football drives all financial decisions. Cincinnati is currently No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 football poll. 

“They’re good football programs, they’re good basketball programs. They’re good broad-based programs. And they’re really fine universities,” Bowlsby said.

A high-ranking Texas source told the Statesman in September that UT and OU were allowed to vote on whether the Big 12 could expand. “They both abstained,” Bowlsby said.

There’s a growing belief that Texas and OU will find ways to join the SEC in 2023. But asked if he expects to have a 14-team Big 12 in 2023, Bowlsby said, “Yeah. They’ve told us they’re staying until June 30, 2025. I take them at their word until they demonstrate something contrary to that.”

Can you take Texas and OU officials at their word? “Well, between what they’ve told us their intentions are and what our written agreements state, that’s what I rely on,” Bowlsby said.

Bowlsby, who turns 70 in January, thought he was on a glidepath to retirement. Now, he’ll stay on as long as the remaining conference members would like. “I’m not going to leave our members hanging,” he said.

Just don’t expect to see him in Austin anytime soon.

“Probably not.”

 

wait so bowelsby thinks we are going to dick around playing fucking houston and baylor for 3 more years?

[YouLoveMyPenises 79]

22 minutes ago, Longboard Horn said:

Not having the Charlotte logo in front of UNTs was a massive miss.

['stache 21,778]

So the remaining cusa and sunbelt teams can probably now do the east-west realignment that was proposed earlier. I don’t think there is much difference in the leagues now.

[TKthunder2 4,981]

22 minutes ago, Zeus said:

wait so bowelsby thinks we are going to dick around playing fucking houston and baylor for 3 more years?

He has a contract that says we won’t.  It’s iron clad no way out.  The other school just want to get rid of us ASAP but they can’t because of this damn contract.

[TKthunder2 4,981]

4 minutes ago, 'stache said:

So the remaining cusa and sunbelt teams can probably now do the east-west realignment that was proposed earlier. I don’t think there is much difference in the leagues now.

lol no, the Sun Belt is the far better conference.  The rumor is that Southern Miss is joining and Marshall is likely their #12.  The Sun Belt will be on par with the AAC and the MWC when this is done.

That leaves UTEP, LA Tech, MTSU, WKU, FIU, and ODU

CUSA is trying to convince Marshall to stay by offering App St/Coastal hoping they’ll join and allow them to backfill with Liberty/James Madison but it’s a long shot at best.

Also its rumored that the MAC is talking with WKU and MTSU.

[bullet 1,596]

53 minutes ago, Laxtonto said:

AAC moves are official

 

https://theamerican.org/news/2021/10/21/general-american-athletic-conference-announces-the-addition-of-six-universities.aspx

Interesting to read what they emphasize on each of the 6 schools.

[bullet 1,596]

1 hour ago, Laxtonto said:

Better question is did ESPN order a hit on CUSA and the conferences are following orders or ESPN just realized once the balls were in motion that they could capitalize on their market position by incentivizing their other leagues under contract to keep expansion going knowing it would kill the CUSA.

Probably the 2nd, but we all know that the scenario 1 was already under consideration and talk through and they just let the media consultants facilitate as a middle man.

Like a good crime family, nothing will be directly provable with the media consultant  buffer, but all the other leagues will know don’t fuck with the mouse or you are getting whacked…

 

Sure sounds like it.  CUSA is just better than Sun Belt other than football strength the last 3 years.  The CUSAR8 have better attendance in football and basketball, much better basketball, much better non-rev sports, they are bigger schools and better funded in better markets.  CUSA raiding Sun Belt just makes more sense.

[bullet 1,596]

This is all moving so fast, its going to be hard to take this version of CR talk not going away to 1000 pages!  At least not for a few years.  Maybe we've got the Huggins comments and breakaway to talk about.

Interesting that Bowlsby talked about a 48 team loose affiliation, meaning 21 P5 schools get relegated.

['stache 21,778]

2 minutes ago, bullet said:

Sure sounds like it.  CUSA is just better than Sun Belt other than football strength the last 3 years.  The CUSAR8 have better attendance in football and basketball, much better basketball, much better non-rev sports, they are bigger schools and better funded in better markets.  CUSA raiding Sun Belt just makes more sense.

This. CUSA is more established. Sunbelt has been primarily promoting FCS teams. As I've said before, there are too many FBS teams already. And any league that takes Liberty is dead to me.

[petscii 1,189]

38 minutes ago, bullet said:

This is all moving so fast, its going to be hard to take this version of CR talk not going away to 1000 pages!  At least not for a few years.  Maybe we've got the Huggins comments and breakaway to talk about.

Interesting that Bowlsby talked about a 48 team loose affiliation, meaning 21 P5 schools get relegated.

What's absurd is the amount of pages when nothing is happening...   

[TKthunder2 4,981]

CUSA was better, now they are not.  Football rules the roost.  The Sun Belt made good picks in App St, Coastal, and the Georgia schools and over the last few years ULL, ULM, Troy and Arkansas St have had good seasons and statement wins.

With Rice gone they are all public and after this is over the Sun Belt will take over beach volleyball and CUSA will stop sponsoring men’s soccer and swimming so the Sun Belt will sponsor more sports, have a better TV deal, and more name brands.

After the AAC defections:

Avg Enrollment:

CUSA: 23,617

SBC: 23,094

Avg Endowment (million):

CUSA: 169.93

SBC:  151.86

App State, Coastal, Georgia Southern moving to CUSA would all lower these numbers.  Only Georgia State would increase the average endowment/enrollment of CUSA.

Take out Georgia State and FIU (both with 50K+ enrollment) from the calculations and the Sun Belt has a higher enrollment avg, though CUSA still has a higher endowment avg.

The point is that the conferences are extremely similar and the Sun Belt has better football and TV money/exposure so the Sun Belt is in a far better position.

['stache 21,778]

A lot of recency bias here. Yeah, Sunbelt teams have had more football success in recent years. The remaining CUSA schools are still more established in FBS. These facts kind of counter each other. They're all basically the same. Just merge already.

[bullet 1,596]

5 hours ago, 'stache said:

This. CUSA is more established. Sunbelt has been primarily promoting FCS teams. As I've said before, there are too many FBS teams already. And any league that takes Liberty is dead to me.

Agreed.  Only 107 of the 130 FBS teams were around in 1995.  Only 116 in 2005.  And 13 of the 14 adds have been in the south and 19 of the last 23 adds.

[bullet 1,596]

4 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

CUSA was better, now they are not.  Football rules the roost.  The Sun Belt made good picks in App St, Coastal, and the Georgia schools and over the last few years ULL, ULM, Troy and Arkansas St have had good seasons and statement wins.

With Rice gone they are all public and after this is over the Sun Belt will take over beach volleyball and CUSA will stop sponsoring men’s soccer and swimming so the Sun Belt will sponsor more sports, have a better TV deal, and more name brands.

After the AAC defections:

Avg Enrollment:

CUSA: 23,617

SBC: 23,094

Avg Endowment (million):

CUSA: 169.93

SBC:  151.86

App State, Coastal, Georgia Southern moving to CUSA would all lower these numbers.  Only Georgia State would increase the average endowment/enrollment of CUSA.

Take out Georgia State and FIU (both with 50K+ enrollment) from the calculations and the Sun Belt has a higher enrollment avg, though CUSA still has a higher endowment avg.

The point is that the conferences are extremely similar and the Sun Belt has better football and TV money/exposure so the Sun Belt is in a far better position.

Sun Belt schools are pretty small except for Georgia State, Texas State and UTA.  Those significantly drive up the average.

[bullet 1,596]

3 hours ago, 'stache said:

A lot of recency bias here. Yeah, Sunbelt teams have had more football success in recent years. The remaining CUSA schools are still more established in FBS. These facts kind of counter each other. They're all basically the same. Just merge already.

Agreed.  If you look at out of conference win %, the Sun Belt has had 4 good years (including the last 3).  They have been dead last 12 times and next to last 5 times.

By contrast, CUSA has been last 3 times (including fluky 2020) and next to last 4 times in that same 21 year period.

[bullet 1,596]

Feels like ESPN pulling strings here, not the schools.

[bullet 1,596]

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/college-football-conference-realignment-scenarios-sun-belt-conference-usa

McMurphy chiming in.  "The wild, wacky, wonderful world of conference realignment that started with Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC has come down to this: a tug of war, Battle Royale loser-leaves-town deathmatch between the Sun Belt and Conference USA over Marshall, Old Dominion and James Madison...."

McMurphy rates the Sun Belt the likely winner.

[YouLoveMyPenises 79]

While I give less than zero shits about Conference Sun Ball USA, I do wonder now that there about a million moving parts, somebody's gonna say something to their wife who will tell their friend, who'll blurt out on Twitter when the fuck we're out of this busted ass conference.

[956 Worldwide 34,494]

So beyond the endlessly intriguing question of who will join either the mighty SBC or CUSA— my real question is why and how long the Big XII gets to remain in the Power 5 club once Texas and OU leave. You’ve got kind of a “ship of Theseus” problem going on there.
 

6/10 members were not part of the Big XII that was designated P5– BYU, Cincy, TCU, WVU, UCF, Cougar High. Of those, WVU moved from a formerly top level conference so we can be generous and say 5/10 are long term P5 level schools. At what point do the other members point out that the Big XII has conspicuously not “added by addition” like the rest of them and argue that it was the programs that made the conference, not the other way around. 

[bullet 1,596]

59 minutes ago, YouLoveMyPenises said:

While I give less than zero shits about Conference Sun Ball USA, I do wonder now that there about a million moving parts, somebody's gonna say something to their wife who will tell their friend, who'll blurt out on Twitter when the fuck we're out of this busted ass conference.

Not yet!!!  Bowlsby is still claiming 2025.  AAC members dates are "to be determined."  Still don't know if UH, Cincy and UCF move in 2023 or 2024.

[bullet 1,596]

Signs are really pointing to 2023 right now.

[Horn Draoi 254]

8 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

He has a contract that says we won’t.  It’s iron clad no way out.  The other school just want to get rid of us ASAP but they can’t because of this damn contract.

Bowlsby is a fool. Contracts were made to be broken. The B12 would be better off to send us on our way immediately.  Also, some of my attorney family members (bleh!) say that the GOR isn’t actually an enforceable contract anyway, more like one of those “gentlemen’s agreements”………..

[General Specific 3,235]

What's absurd is the amount of pages when nothing is happening...   

[Treefidy 1,463]

On 10/20/2021 at 3:16 PM, Francisco 2.0 said:

Bob Bowlsby's feelings are still hurt.

 

https://www.hookem.com/story/sports/football/2021/10/20/big-12-commissioner-bob-bowlsby-says-current-trust-factor-texas-ou-low/6105454001/

 

 

 

  Hide contents

So why does Bowlsby believe the two schools are leaving?

“Haven’t the vaguest idea,” he said, sitting in the bowels of T-Mobile Center. “To this day, they’ve given us no answers to that question. Either one.” 

Why not?

“You’ll have to ask them that,” Bowlsby said. “I’ve asked repeatedly, and they never made us aware of any concerns in advance. When we’ve asked the question since then, we’ve gotten no response.”

Does Texas and OU know the competition will be much harder in the SEC? It’s widely believed it would be much easier to reach the College Football Playoff in the Big 12 than the SEC, where Alabama reigns supreme and everyone else struggles.

“That’s not my responsibility to explain that to them,” Bowlsby said. “They’ve got 50 years of experience. They ought to be able to figure that out for themselves.”

Texas’ top officials, like Hartzell and UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife, still have never gone in depth about why they wanted to leave the Big 12. Their only public comments have been carefully-crafted statements about UT’s long-term future. 

“They’re thinking they’re going to recruit better and they’re going to get more money,” Bowlsby said. “Anybody that thinks Texas’ football problems have been a result of league affiliation are completely delusional.”

Texas fans have long complained about the home schedule. For example, few fans are excited about Kansas coming to Royal-Memorial Stadium on Nov. 13.

“Well, here comes Vanderbilt,” Bowlsby said. “Every league is structured similarly to what ours is. There’s three or four bell cows and there’s the rest.”

Ever since the news broke In July that Texas and OU were leaving, Bowlsby has been on the defensive. He was hurt by UT and OU’s feeling of deception, a close friend of his told the Statesman. 

High-ranking UT sources told the Statesman this summer that the decision was driven in part by TV negotiations. The networks did not want to extend their current TV deals, something Texas Tech President Lawrence Schovanec told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. 

But the Big 12 asked its members to sign a five-year extension of the grant of television rights, according to UT sources at the time. Bowlsby said flatly on Wednesday “that’s absurd.” 

“We never asked them to extend the TV contracts. There was never an ask for an extension of the grant of rights,” Bowlsby said. “There was never any negotiations with ESPN. There was never a request to extend the contract. It was a routine look-in, and I wasn’t at all surprised or disappointed that they said four years was too early to begin negotiations.”

Hartzell was part of a three-president committee to study the league’s TV contracts. Did his knowledge of the TV situation prompt Texas’ decision?

“Well, we have two presidents that are very new in their chairs,” Bowlsby said, referring to Hartzell and Harroz. “So, you’ll have to ask them what they felt like they knew and what they didn’t know.”

Hartzell appeared before a panel of Texas state senators on Aug. 2 and said the move became clear “into the summer” about leaving the Big 12. Bowlsby told that same panel the Big 12’s television contracts would be cut in half with Texas and OU leaving.

“I want to set the record straight: we have and will continue to honor all agreements,” Hartzell told the panel of state lawmakers. “We have not violated any Big 12 bylaws.”

Bowlsby said Wednesday the Big 12 has not initiated any legal proceedings against Texas and OU.

Having lost the Big 12’s two bell cows, Bowlsby became motivated to keep the league afloat, his friend said. Texas and OU were somewhat banking on the Big 12’s possible implosion, so they could leave immediately without paying any stiff penalty — possibly as much as $80 million each.

The Big 12 recently extended invitations to Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU. Those schools gladly accepted and will join the league for the 2023 football season. Basketball-wise, the Big 12 becomes a fantastic league. But football drives all financial decisions. Cincinnati is currently No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25 football poll. 

“They’re good football programs, they’re good basketball programs. They’re good broad-based programs. And they’re really fine universities,” Bowlsby said.

A high-ranking Texas source told the Statesman in September that UT and OU were allowed to vote on whether the Big 12 could expand. “They both abstained,” Bowlsby said.

There’s a growing belief that Texas and OU will find ways to join the SEC in 2023. But asked if he expects to have a 14-team Big 12 in 2023, Bowlsby said, “Yeah. They’ve told us they’re staying until June 30, 2025. I take them at their word until they demonstrate something contrary to that.”

Can you take Texas and OU officials at their word? “Well, between what they’ve told us their intentions are and what our written agreements state, that’s what I rely on,” Bowlsby said.

Bowlsby, who turns 70 in January, thought he was on a glidepath to retirement. Now, he’ll stay on as long as the remaining conference members would like. “I’m not going to leave our members hanging,” he said.

Just don’t expect to see him in Austin anytime soon.

“Probably not.”

 

Bowlsby is such a dipshit.  Repeatedly shows his ass by being such a butthurt little cuck.  “Good luck with Vanderbilt”, “every conference has 3-4 bellcows”.  Well, your conferences TWO bellcows are leaving, you’re part of the problem, and good luck with those “fine educational institutions” you are adding.
 

UT/OU claiming you asked for a GOR extension in the face of networks declining to extend the current contracts is absurd and patently false, except it’s was Techs president who said it.   I’m sure the tortilla throwers thought it would be a good idea to make up shit to cause a rift between the conference and its 2 bellcows to help force them to leave, just so Tech can get half the money and be more competitive as a G5.   Or maybe their STD ladled brains misunderstood when Bowlsby said “ UT and OU are leaving but we are going to bring in a bunch of cougars in their place  

 And the whole thing about his glide path to retirement, but now he will stay on board as long as the conference affiliates need him?   Well Bob, that was part of the problem.  
 

what a dumbfuck.  Whatever he gets paid is too much. 

[Js1 85,149]

 

[Francisco 2.0 32,347]

11 hours ago, YouLoveMyPenises said:

Not having the Charlotte logo in front of UNTs was a massive miss.

 

 

 

[DeadArmadillo 907]

Not having the Charlotte logo in front of UNTs was a massive miss.

I see UNT is still getting a bunch of sophomoric crap from Surly

[Pancho 44,535]

McMurphy saying UT-Arlington will be kicked out of the SBC due to no football along with UA-LR

[TKthunder2 4,981]

2 hours ago, Pancho said:

McMurphy saying UT-Arlington will be kicked out of the SBC due to no football along with UA-LR

They’ve been talking with the Missouri Valley Conference and I’m sure they could fall back to the WAC. They’ve known this was coming.

[Saint Austin 745]

Texas State seems to be a loser in this round of realignment as well. Them and UTEP need to find themselves in the same conference at the very least. Maybe New Mexico State, too.

[Laxtonto 11,934]

37 minutes ago, Saint Austin said:

Texas State seems to be a loser in this round of realignment as well. Them and UTEP need to find themselves in the same conference at the very least. Maybe New Mexico State, too.

Maybe UTEP should leave and take Texas State with them and go back to the WAC and replace CUSA in the G5 setup.

[TKthunder2 4,981]

37 minutes ago, Saint Austin said:

Texas State seems to be a loser in this round of realignment as well. Them and UTEP need to find themselves in the same conference at the very least. Maybe New Mexico State, too.

Texas State is closer to the Louisiana Sun Belt schools than they are to UTEP.  It would have been nice to get another Texas school in the Sun Belt for them like UNT but I don’t see how you can call them a loser.

['stache 21,778]

I’m surprised it was UNT and not Texas State. They already had DFW with SMU, UTSA gets SA, I consider San Marcos more of an Austin exurb, so it’s be consistent with AACs focus on metro areas.

[TKthunder2 4,981]

6 minutes ago, Laxtonto said:

Maybe UTEP should leave and take Texas State with them and go back to the WAC and replace CUSA in the G5 setup.

The WAC was waiting on Tarleton State to finish transitioning to DI and for UTRGV to get their fb program started.

But if NMSU, UTEP, TX State and LA Tech were all committed to a SWC style conference, then SHSU, SFA, ACU, and Lamar could all announce their intentions to upgrade to FBS tomorrow and they’d have 8 members with Tarleton/UTRGV coming in a few years, plus other like Incarnate Word wanting to join.  They could also grab UTA and Arkansas-Little Rock for all sports and split from the far western WAC schools.

Still Texas State would lose TV money by making this move.  Even if it saves money on travel costs they’d still be worse off financially.

[TKthunder2 4,981]

4 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I’m surprised it was UNT and not Texas State. They already had DFW with SMU, UTSA gets SA, I consider San Marcos more of an Austin exurb, so it’s be consistent with AACs focus on metro areas.

Texas State in the Sun Belt was already an ESPN property and their ratings have been increasing steadily for the last 5 years.  UNT tier 1 was CBS.  I’m sure that has something to do with it.

[redswingline 1,057]

Sun Belt, MAC, CUSA, AAC. recent realignment news notwithstanding, I could not tell you 3 schools in each conference

[SimonBolivar 10,949]

TX State isn't a loser. The Belt is improved and looks in a good place especially when Southern Miss and Marshall are added. The real losers are UTEP, LaTech, and FIU as it sits right now. 

[SimonBolivar 10,949]

49 minutes ago, 'stache said:

I’m surprised it was UNT and not Texas State. They already had DFW with SMU, UTSA gets SA, I consider San Marcos more of an Austin exurb, so it’s be consistent with AACs focus on metro areas.

UNT is slightly bigger, but they're on the upswing with the medical school and law school opening as well as the branch in Dallas. Texas State seems happy with the school staying a floating party school which is perfect for them, but UNT has more potential. As far as being #2 in DFW instead of expanding to Austin that isn't an issue with SMU hardly being DFW's top team and the population of 8M in the CSA is plenty compared to Austin's 2M.