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More BCS realignment

143K views 1K replies 144 participants last post by  Medford 
#1 ·
It's being reported all over that the Big Ten is in the process of inviting Rutgers and the University of Maryland into the conference.

The invites could take place as early as Monday.

Speculation from there includes the idea that the ACC would invite UConn to take the place of UM.

Needless to say, that may be all she wrote for the Big East.
 
#1,251 ·
George Mason makes no sense at all........I am getting the feeling however that Creighton and St. Louis may be on the outs. At this point.......I'm guessing that Xavier and Butler are shoe-ins and Dayton right behind them........after that, it's gonna be a dogfight if they are going to 12. One thing to remember with football not being involved............travel expenses for other sports DO become an issue. If George Mason is anywhere in the realm of being considered, then VCU is most certainly in as well.
 
#1,255 ·
I grew up in Fairfax County (unfortunately no longer the richest) and Mason doesn't even carry the 1.1 million citizens of this county, let alone the DC area. Northern Virginia is represented by so many universities because of everyone is working in DC. Georgetown, Maryland, UVA and Tech have the most fans in the area. After that it's a hogwash. Mason won't "carry" any market, and they can't even fill their arena.
 
#1,254 ·
Does George Mason have a bigger following in Northern Virginia or deliver the DC metro market? A quick look at their attendance numbers would say otherwise. They certainly don't deliver the DC market more than Georgetown does.

I don't disagree that Mason is marginally better academically than VCU, but both are still large public schools with prevailing commuter school reputations.

If academics are the reason schools are being added, than it's safe to say neither VCU or Mason are in the conversation. There are several much better schools in that conversation.
 
#1,256 ·
This is going to be about whether or not the C& want to expand all they way to St. Louis and Omaha. If they do......it's game over for VCU and GMU. But again.........we're not talking BCS football revenue here for everyone to fall back on. Travel expenses definitely need to be and I believe will be taken into account.
 
#1,257 ·
I honestly think it's game over for VCU from the get-go and I'm pretty sure the same is true for George Mason.

We are nowhere close institutionally to any of the other schools, George Mason is in the same boat. We have all the demographics of a school that should be pursuing FBS football and I think the presidents will take that into account, whether that assumption is warranted or not.

There are large groups at both schools that are big proponents of adding football and even if they join the Catholics for now, it won't stop that segment for pushing for football in the future. Both schools are flight-risks even if that is an imagined scenario right now. The Catholics will go for schools that offer just as much or more basketball-wise and are safer bets to remain in their conference.

However unlikely, if either Mason or VCU were to start football, FBS would be a foregone conclusion most likely. No way 30,000+ state schools don't pursue that once they start up. There are enough people that are saying it's a matter of 'when' not 'if' for me to believe that it will not be an issue going forward, even if there is no immediate plan to start-up. It will probably be decades for either Mason or VCU, but both would start if they could make it feasible. Probability dictates that over time these schools will have that opportunity, and there is enough of a push from alumni that they will take a very serious look at it and most likely take it when they get it.
 
#1,259 ·
I doubt the MWC would want two football onlies in UConn and Cinci, and it most likely wouldn't be economically feasible to get all sports in for them.


They're either stuck in the ever degrading Big East (which might also lose SMU/Houston if the MWC wants anymore) or finding a new conference (or two...).



UConn & Cinci to the A10 to replace Xavier & Butler and then football to the MAC.

What, that won't happen? Oh well.
 
#1,265 · (Edited)
With the BE continuing to fall apart, I still think Bernie needs to be talking to UConn, and Cincy about the A10 sponsoring football. It's a long shot, but the ability to keep playing in NYC each March has to be worth something to those schools. Who cares if it's short term. It would be a massive punch back at the C7.

UConn
UC
USF
Memphis
UCF
UMass
E Carolina
Temple
plus

URI
Duquesne
St. Joe's
LaSalle
Fordham
Bona
GW
VCU
UR

That can't be worse than what UConn is looking at, including playing the conference tourney in the middle of nowhere.
 
#1,262 ·
Yeah it would.

7 teams in BE Lacrosse right now:

ND & Syracuse going ACC

Rutgers going B10

Georgetown, Providence, St. Johns, & Nova in the C7


4 teams wouldn't be a viable conference (no autobid) for Lacrosse, but they'd still be able to get At-Large selections like the ACC has been doing all these years.
 
#1,267 ·
It would be interesting* if Butler, Xavier and St. Louis/Dayton left and the A10 somehow adds Temple, UConn and UC from the dying BE. The A10 would actually come out just as strong if not stronger than it is now.

*this won't actually happen
 
#1,276 ·
I think for a branding standpoint, you wont' see any affiliate members.

The C7, ACC and Big Ten can all have 5 members and compete as a conference, selling their TV rights. The automatic bid is not a necessary component, just a luxury...since the ACC had only 4 members until Syracuse and Notre Dame came (a short lived 6 team conference until Maryland announced they were leaving).
 
#1,280 · (Edited)
The fact that Nero is leading this gives me no comfort. He was formerly the commissioner of the America East Conference, and if I am not mistaken was at the helm when it lost its best teams - Northeastern, Drezel, Delaware, and Hofstra. He replaced them with SUNY's and the America East has never been anywhere as good as it once was.

I also don't like the fact that his name is Nero as his namesake is best known for fiddling while Rome burned. Let's hope history does not repeat itself.
 
#1,285 ·
GW is probably the best choice to head this. We can't just put Xavier in charge of everything like we usually do, for obvious reasons. At the other end of the spectrum, we don't want Fordham leading this. GW is a founding member, not a candidate to move to another conference, and a private university but not a small university nor a Catholic university. So we can assume they have a strong investment in the future of the league, and we can hope they're somewhat neutral in the public-private-Catholic spectrum. If their AD has learned the hard way not to trust the CAA, all the better.
 
#1,290 ·
Dash, do you see the BCS realignment directly affecting us? I think the thing related to our world was the Big East breakup. We saw it coming years ago and it finally happened.

I think the C7 robs the A10, the A10 finds some new schools and then things are pretty stable in our world for a while. Do you agree?

With that said, I really don't care too much that the BCS conferences plunder one another.
 
#1,292 ·
I think UMass leaving the A-10, presumably for the Big East, is more a matter of when not if. It's just very difficilt to predict accurately when the next round of conference shuffling will occur. The other potential risk for the A-10, and the C7 for that matter, is the possibility that the power football conferences break away in some manner from the rest of the NCAA. I'm not sure how they might pull it off while avoiding political interference, but if they can figure out how to make it happen, they'll do it.
 
#1,293 ·
I think it affects the A-10 on multiple fronts.

1) has already happened, the C7 wasn't going to split until it became clear they could make as much money on their own as they could tied to UConn, Cincy and other football playing partners. Once the ACC swallowed up Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville & ND, the TV money went from 2-3 mil per non football playing school (and 15 mil+ for the football side in the deal they turned down) to something less than 1 mil per non football playing school, while they found they could get that 2-3 mil out on their own.

2) the more these conference consolidate, the better chances of getting some of these teams into an A-10 gym become. Maryland isn't doing OOC games vs the B10 anymore, there's not much left that attractive to them in the Big East, there's likely some resentment in certain ACC reaches, they can only schedule so many SEC schools OCC. Might be they turn to an A-10 school for a home & home to fill out their schedule.

3) The more these conference consolidate, I'd say the higher the odds that they pack up their ball and leave the NCAA all together. Unless they plan to take a handful of BBall only conferences with them, that is bad news for just about everyone in the current makeup of the A10. As much as we'd like to think the cream of the A-10 in any given season can make a run w/ the best of the B10, SEC, ACC, etc.. in the NCAA tournament as well as OOC, we'd lose that chance to prove it on the court and quickly become an afterthought. How many spend time thinking about D2 schools? That is what the non football playing schools would become under such a scenerio.
 
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