the_dawg

or N.J.I.T. but lets be honest...Delaware plays UMBC in EVERYTHING already that isn't Basketball every year, it would make sense.

UNH_Alum_In_CT

1. Lacrosse will never be the primary factor for conference affiliation.
2. Many FCS Football conferences are primarily populated by their all sports members -- Ivy, Patriot, MEAC, Southern, Big South, SWAC, Ohio Valley, Southland, and the Big Sky.
3. UMass and URI have shown absolutely no evidence of wanting to align with America East. And despite the terrible economics of the past couple of years, there appears to be no sign of economics driving them toward AE. Ice Hockey out draws basketball at UMass, but there is no indication that they want to grow rivalries by joining Hockey East members Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine in AE. Neither UMass or URI have given any indication that football will become as big a factor for their conference affiliation as basketball.
4. Football has unique issues and impacts on an athletic department which to me should align them. IMHO, having to deal with the Title IX issues with full scholarship FCS Football makes a private and public become very like minded.

I do agree though that if the mega conference expansion occurs that the fallout trickle down impact will be severe and will hit the Big East, A-10 and CAA hard.

UNH_Alum_In_CT

Except that beyond a shadow of a doubt the number one sport at Delaware is football. Delaware's primary mission for their athletic department is to be in an all sports league that includes football.

mainejeff

My thoughts from Vegas.......

As I've stated before, despite what seems like no current interest from them for varying reasons, I think that the following alignment of schools satisfies football, lacrosse, rivalry, and geographical interests:

Maine
UNH
Vermont
UMass
URI
Hartford

Albany
Stony Brook
Binghamton
Delaware
Towson
UMBC

Add in Villanova for affiliate football member #9 if possible.

This makes pretty much a perfect conference if you ignore the prima dona issues that a few of the schools currently have.

Redwyn

I would expect Northeastern and Hofstra to join this arrangement as well - Northeastern up North, Hofstra down south. Neither have the pull power to get into a better conference, and I won't lie, the competitive balance makes this quite attractive to programs of their standing. If we were to push this to 16, I see BU and Drexel joining as well. This gives a 16 team basketball league, 8 (9 w Villanova, who will almost certainly follow Delaware wherever they go for their rivalry in football) for football, and a good competitive balance between North and South. Funny thing is, it's almost an America East reunion on a lot of levels.

UNH_Alum_In_CT

Yes Jeff, that alignment does satisfy football, lacrosse, rivalry, and geographical interests. And it probably would save UMass and URI a good deal of money on transporting their Olympic Sports teams. But I still give it a less than 25% chance of happening. I just don't see any change in the sport that drives the conference alignment bus in Amherst and Kingston. It's still basketball. Even if the implosion to the A-10 is severe, I truly believe that their track records show they will again align for the highest level of basketball and find the best possible home for their football program.

At least UMass cares about football, but I don't think they make it an important alignment factor unless it is teaming up with Temple for membership somewhere. And I doubt URI would have a problem dropping football or downgrading to reduced scholarship NEC football if it helped them protect their basketball program. Jeff, you've been holding on to UMass and URI joining the AE schools for as long as I've read these forums (approaching a decade now?), but unless Dane96 tells me the MA State Legislature is stepping in to force them to do so, I don't ever see it happening. They just don't want to be aligned with our schools.

If the implosion guts the CAA as well as the A-10, I think there is a very good possibility that a basketball centric league forms with a core of BU, NU, Hofstra and Drexel that might also include UMass and URI. Might they also entice some from the A-10 "fallout" like George Washington, Temple, St. Joe's, St. Bonnies, Fordham, LaSalle or Richmond? That to me is significantly more likely.

The $64K question is who will administer a FCS full scholarship football league???? CAA-FBS and CAA-FCS????? If no one provides that, will an all sports league with FCS Football have to evolve? Will the Patriot allow football scholarships? Will the MEAC implode over the Heritage Bowl instead of the FCS Playoffs? Stay tuned!!

Kingfish019

It's looking like the Pac-10's going to be the first to expand, setting off this domino effect. Big Ten would probably follow next. I think if this does happen, we're going to see four "superconferences", but if not, what are the odds that the teams left over from the raided Big 12 and Big East come together to form a conference? A conference with the likes of Kansas, Kansas State, Louisville and Cincinnati could be pretty good.

ball_of_rubber

Here in Vegas, they're talking about if this happens, the MWC would probably be the most likely choice to receive the new BCS auto-bid that will be up for grabs, especially if they lure Boise St. into the league.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

http://retrieverbasketballrallymonkey.com/

mainejeff

Boise State to the Mountain West is now off the table thanks to Texas and the Texas Legislature trying to strong arm Baylor into the PAC-10 mix. The MWC is now waiting to see if Colorado gets jilted.......I doubt it. No way the uber liberal PAC-10 gets forced by the Texas Legislature to take a conservative Baptist school from Texas. I don't even think that they really want Texas Tech, but I think that UT forced that one on the PAC-10 as it is.

If the PAC-16 plan does fall apart.......I think that Colorado and Utah will definitely still jump to create a PAC-12 at minimum.

I'm going to re-do my predicted conference shifts below. First shoe to fall looks like Missouri and Nebraska to the Big Ten then all hell breaks loose:

Big Ten:

Rutgers
Syracuse*
Penn State
Pitt

Ohio State
Michigan
Michigan State
Indiana

Purdue
Northwestern
Illinois
Wisconsin

Minnesota
Iowa
Missouri
Nebraska

* Notre Dame replaces Syracuse if they decide to join the Big Ten.

PAC-10:

16 member scenario:

Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Colorado
Arizona
Arizona State

USC
UCLA
Stanford
Cal
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State

12 member scenario:

Colorado
Utah
Arizona
Arizona State
UCLA
USC

Stanford
Cal
Oregon
Oregon State
Washington
Washington State

Big 12:

Missouri and Nebraska to Big Ten and Colorado to PAC-10 scenario:

Houston
Rice
Texas
Texas A&M
Baylor
TCU


Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State

Missouri and Nebraska to Big Ten and 6 schools to PAC-10:

Big 12 ceases to exist.

SEC:

Kentucky
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
South Carolina
Clemson
Georgia
Florida
Miami


Georgia Tech
Florida State
Alabama
Auburn
Ole Miss
Mississippi State
LSU
Arkansas

ACC:

Boston College
UConn
Syracuse**
Temple***
Maryland
West Virginia
Virginia Tech

Virginia
Wake Forest
North Carolina State
North Carolina
Duke
Louisville

**If they don't get a Big Ten invite
***If Syracuse gets an Big Ten invite

There's a good possibility that the ACC goes to 16 members.......but I'm having a hard time grasping that idea at this point. If they do, I'm guessing that some combination of Cincinnati, Memphis, Central Florida, South Florida, ODU and Charlotte come into play.

Big East Football:

If Big Ten takes 2 or more members.

Big East Football ceases to exist.

mainejeff

Looks like Nebraska may become a member of the Big Ten on Friday according to the Omaha World-Herald.......

http://omaha.com/article/20100608/NE...arly-as-friday

This should start the chain of dominoes that will play out over the coming days, weeks and months.

ball_of_rubber

Just saw on ESPN that Nebraska just made the move.

__________________
Stop calling us the Terriers.

http://retrieverbasketballrallymonkey.com/

mainejeff

No move yet.....looks like Friday still.

Interesting comment that Missouri may no longer get a seat at the Big Ten table. Could mean that the Big Ten was jilted by Notre Dame and is only after 1 new member (Nebraska) now. If that happened, the only other moves that we may see is Colorado and Utah to the PAC-10, 2 replacements in the Big 12 (Arkansas and Houston/Rice/Memphis) for Nebraska and Colorado, 1 new SEC member to replace Arkansas (Florida State?), 1 new ACC member to replace FSU (Syracuse?)and Boise State to the Mountain West to replace Utah.

mainejeff

The next shoe is falling......looks like we are moving toward the 16 member Super Conference scenario:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5270048

So with the Big 12 (6) going to the new PAC-16.......that forces the hand of the Big Ten. Could they still be waiting on Notre Dame??? Looks like they will be forced to extend an invitation to Mizzou if Notre Dame is out of the picture.......then 3 Big East members come into play. The Kansas "situation" is a quandary for sure......hard to believe that they could be left in the dust.

You have to think that the SEC wheels are turning now.....maybe a jilted Mizzou, or even Kansas and K-State enter the SEC picture along with FSU, Miami, Clemson, and GA Tech.

Aceinthehole

This is going to get ugly

Kingfish019

Evidently, six teams from the Big 12 have now been officially extended invites to Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Colorado. I don't know about you, but that scream Pacific coast to me