Check it..
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3968082

The first step towards 1-A for my beloved fightin' blue hens? There won't be any problems building a new stadium now.

Like to see you match that, Owls of Temple!

Delaware would be a factor if they tried to have a good basketball team. I still think the CAA should split and invite UMass, Temple, and Charlotte. With a couple non-football's like George Mason and UNC Wilmington, they wouldn't lose their auto-bid. This would allow an FBS conference to come into existence.

(03-27-2009 10:52 AM)esayem Wrote:  Delaware would be a factor if they tried to have a good basketball team. I still think the CAA should split and invite UMass, Temple, and Charlotte. With a couple non-football's like George Mason and UNC Wilmington, they wouldn't lose their auto-bid. This would allow an FBS conference to come into existence.

Went over this in detail before... The problem is finding enough schools to function at the FBS level

UMASS, Temple, Delaware, James Madison, Old Dominion, and Georgia State all look pretty solid at FBS. UNC-Charlotte is a few years away from that plateau. So where do you go from there? I think Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are solid bets.

Maybe hope you can get either SUNY-Buffalo, Eastern Carolina, Central Florida or Marshall to jump to your conference. If Memphis leaves for the Big East, C-DOA suddenly looks a lot less appealing.

YouDee already has a solid baseball team; I think a few years of FBS football would attract attention and lead to solid basketball. Kinda like what happened at Ohio State, Tennessee and Louisville recently. At Rutgers, they have been recruiting alot better since the football team started winning.

None of the current expansion canidates, even Temple would consistently place higher than 5th in a New Big East. Not a knock on Temple basketball, I just think that Pitt, Syracuse, UCONN, Louisville, Cincinatti, Memphis and possibly West Virginia will still do better on a year in-year out basis. I still think in five years we can include Rutgers in that group too...

Point is, that too many good teams and the Big East will start beating itself up like the ACC did in football the last few years. There is a reason we only got 7 in this year.

Besides, who says another easy conference win is a bad thing for Big East basketball? How many 11-seeds do we need in the the tournament anyhow?

I think if Temple was aligned in a "new Big East" they would be competing for the top spots. They have done better with less in the past.

The problem with the CAA split idea is you can't rely on Charlotte. They believe they should be in the Big East, or C-USA at least. They are the major deal breaker. Otherwise the league could try and get the academies involved for full membership.

A better idea would be some sort of new look Metro Conference that looked like:
Tulane - S. Miss
Memphis - UAB
Georgia State - UCF
ECU - Charlotte
Temple - UMass

Delaware, Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky, and Buffalo could all be targets too.

One problem is Tulane, who seems to be at home with Rice. This league has better basketball potential by adding those A10 schools. Maybe even Rhode Island for non-football too.

(03-27-2009 01:55 PM)esayem Wrote:  I think if Temple was aligned in a "new Big East" they would be competing for the top spots. They have done better with less in the past.

The problem with the CAA split idea is you can't rely on Charlotte. They believe they should be in the Big East, or C-USA at least. They are the major deal breaker. Otherwise the league could try and get the academies involved for full membership.

A better idea would be some sort of new look Metro Conference that looked like:
Tulane - S. Miss
Memphis - UAB
Georgia State - UCF
ECU - Charlotte
Temple - UMass

Delaware, Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky, and Buffalo could all be targets too.

One problem is Tulane, who seems to be at home with Rice. This league has better basketball potential by adding those A10 schools. Maybe even Rhode Island for non-football too.

Your idea is a little to far ranging to work, EsayEm. One of the biggest assets our new conference will provide for ECU, UCF and Marshall is that they don't have to travel to Texas every year. Personally, this would be my first choice:

Delaware
James Madison
Old Dominion
Temple
Marshall
Eastern Carolina
Central Florida
Georgia State
Massachusetts

Everyone has a place. I'd probably add Boston University, George Mason and William & Mary for non-football. This would give the league a very good academic profile.

I don't agree with you on Temple. UCONN, Pitt, Syracuse, Cincinatti, Louisville and Memphis are usually Top 25 programs. Rutgers and West Virginia could very well be on the way there. Temple, while they have been solid in the A-10, have hardly been world-beaters. It is doubtful they would've be NCAA bound the last two years if they hadn't won the A-10 tournament.

Take out a couple of real good years under John Cheney and you've got a good, but not great, Big East program. I'd say they finish around 4th-7th every year and make the NCAA tournament about four times a decade. Usually resulting in a first-round loss.

I bet they end up in at least 5 NIT's though.

I think the new big east would *average* around 5 bids/year. Better off than the old one considering they only have to split the money nine ways.

Leave the door open for Army. They were once willing to join CUSA, and this group is much more in their regional and academic profile.

(03-27-2009 10:30 AM)TheLurker Wrote:  Check it..
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3968082

The first step towards 1-A for my beloved fightin' blue hens? There won't be any problems building a new stadium now.

Like to see you match that, Owls of Temple!

Stay in your current conference for all other sports but football and join the MAC football only. You'd have Temple close by plus Buffalo in the east. Kent is only 35 Mi from PA and Akron 50. The league is established and has the Tu&We nite game contract with ESPN. Perhaps UMass will want to join as well and the league can drop one or 2 of it's poorer performing programs in MI or OH.

(03-27-2009 02:18 PM)TheLurker Wrote:  

(03-27-2009 01:55 PM)esayem Wrote:  I think if Temple was aligned in a "new Big East" they would be competing for the top spots. They have done better with less in the past.

The problem with the CAA split idea is you can't rely on Charlotte. They believe they should be in the Big East, or C-USA at least. They are the major deal breaker. Otherwise the league could try and get the academies involved for full membership.

A better idea would be some sort of new look Metro Conference that looked like:
Tulane - S. Miss
Memphis - UAB
Georgia State - UCF
ECU - Charlotte
Temple - UMass

Delaware, Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky, and Buffalo could all be targets too.

One problem is Tulane, who seems to be at home with Rice. This league has better basketball potential by adding those A10 schools. Maybe even Rhode Island for non-football too.

Your idea is a little to far ranging to work, EsayEm. One of the biggest assets our new conference will provide for ECU, UCF and Marshall is that they don't have to travel to Texas every year. Personally, this would be my first choice:

Delaware
James Madison
Old Dominion
Temple
Marshall
Eastern Carolina
Central Florida
Georgia State
Massachusetts

Everyone has a place. I'd probably add Boston University, George Mason and William & Mary for non-football. This would give the league a very good academic profile.

I don't agree with you on Temple. UCONN, Pitt, Syracuse, Cincinatti, Louisville and Memphis are usually Top 25 programs. Rutgers and West Virginia could very well be on the way there. Temple, while they have been solid in the A-10, have hardly been world-beaters. It is doubtful they would've be NCAA bound the last two years if they hadn't won the A-10 tournament.

Take out a couple of real good years under John Cheney and you've got a good, but not great, Big East program. I'd say they finish around 4th-7th every year and make the NCAA tournament about four times a decade. Usually resulting in a first-round loss.

I bet they end up in at least 5 NIT's though.

I think the new big east would *average* around 5 bids/year. Better off than the old one considering they only have to split the money nine ways.

May I ask who Eastern Carolina is? Anyway that would not be a good conference for football at all. It does ECU, UCF, and Marshall no good to play in a league with no championship game and a bunch of teams who have never played FBS before. I'm not trying to criticize any of those schools but at least there is a little bit of viewership in CUSA.

Add Delaware + UMass to Buffalo and Temple(already members) and the MAC has a nice footprint in the Northeast.

(03-27-2009 12:56 PM)TheLurker Wrote:  I think a few years of FBS football would attract attention and lead to solid basketball. Kinda like what happened at Ohio State, Tennessee and Louisville recently. At Rutgers, they have been recruiting alot better since the football team started winning.

?????????????????????

Louisville has always been a basketball school first and foremost. Football had nothing to do with the basketball success at UofL.

The Louisville Cardinals men's basketball team is the 18th winningest college basketball team in NCAA Division I history and has the 10th best winning percentage in college basketball history. They are 5th all time in NCAA appearances (35). The Cardinals have won 18 or more games 37 of the past 40 years, including 15 years with 24 or more wins. The Cardinals have 2 championships, 8 final fours, 11 elite eights. Nearly all of those accomplishments took place well before any respectable level of football arrived on the scene.