Quote:CAA
NORTH
Albany
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Stony Brook

Granted we are in a dangerous place going independent next year, but there is no way in he|| that we'd dropped down to the CAA. Our fate should be known by February since so much is dependent on how we do this season. If we do great then can see donations to roll in, the expansion of McGuirk and potential AAC invite. Without that we'll need to make some hard decisions. We already said no to an all sports invite to the MAC. We courted the Sun Belt for a football-only and there was a group of teams that opposed it. That would leave C-USA. From comments seen on this board, C-USA contract will not be completed until after the football season. So to this guy, remaining independent or C-USA seem like the only realistic options if we fail to impress the AAC.

Not worth a separate post but this is the latest from ajerseyguy at the Gridiron Golf match.
Jerseyguy at Gridiron fund raiser golf outing

(08-06-2015 11:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(08-06-2015 09:49 PM)Sultan of Euphonistan Wrote:  

(08-06-2015 09:05 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Welp.....You probably have too few in D1A. At 78, that division needs another 12 or so to fill in the holes. However, if D1A only needs 78 to operate, why on earth does D1B have 104 including many schools that have zero reason to be moving up a division. I could see 5 or 10 top FCS schools moving up---but there is zero need for these all those extra conferences.

Furthermore, if the G5 schools are content to go quietly into the night in this way (which they wouldn't be, my guess is there would be a huge law suit winding its way through the courts), then the key for their survival would be compact conferences with nearby rivals and low travel budgets. No reason to have the AAC, CUSA, MW, and Big Sky spread all over hells half acre and overlapping each other. Why on earth would all the schools in Texas want to be sprinkled over 3 or 4 different conferences traveling to the NE or west coast? How is that in any way helpful? Also, there would be no reason to bring up whole FCS conferences when only the top few teams would be competitive and the rest would be garbage with high school facilities and less than high school attendance.

Im sure I wont be very happy with any apocalyptic G5-P5 Division One split scenario where my team gets stuck in the kiddie pool---but this vision doesn't look like what I think might happen in such a college landscape. I think it will be all about cutting expenses because once the G5 fall out of the top level of football into some completely irrelevant pee-wee division, ticket sales will decline, fan interest will plummet, media money will largely vanish, and donations will fall off the edge of the table. That's largely what we see at the FCS level. Public interest is basically zero. The average college football fan has no idea who won the FCS championship last year---furthermore---they don't care that they don't know. That's what the G5 will be facing. Revenue will slow to a trickle. Since there will be no way to create new revenue streams, cutting expenses will be the only way to balance he budget.

Thus, I look for small, compact conferences with lots of drivable games. No reason to have 12 team conferences if it makes the footprint too big. TV dollars wont be a factor--so big footprints would be undesirable. Small footprints with small travel budgets will be the norm. Think bus leagues. If there are just 9 nearby schools---then that's your ideal conference size. Nearby fan bases will travel and help fill opponent stadiums. The left behinds will need all the help they can get.

I agree with the idea of that level needing as compact conferences as possible but the MWC is not going to get much more compact. Western conferences tend to have trouble making themselves compact just by the sheer nature of large states with low populations that schools out west tend to have outside of the literal west coast.

The Big East might not survive the way they are structure with 10 schools. Iowa is the fartest west, and they were thinking of adding Gonzaga and St. Mary's.

The Southland conference is the most compact there is. They could still add from the Texas schools that wanted to move up, Central Oklahoma, East Central, SW Oklahoma State, Arkansas Tech, Henderson State and Delta State. Missouri Southern and Washburn could also fit in the Southland.

Having 10 members may cause problems in football, but not basketball. It allows you to have a round-robin format, greatly helps increase the level of rivalries with conference members and ensures that you have home-and-home games with each opponent.

The Big East hasn't had any expansion talks in quite some time. They are extremely happy with the 10 schools, and plan to further develop rivalries among the schools and continue to grow the Big East brand as a top basketball conference. As of today, there is no school that is a geographic, institutional and basketball fit.

What happened to Notre Dame?

(08-08-2015 09:26 AM)Steve1981 Wrote:  

Quote:CAA
NORTH
Albany
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Stony Brook

Granted we are in a dangerous place going independent next year, but there is no way in he|| that we'd dropped down to the CAA. Our fate should be known by February since so much is dependent on how we do this season. If we do great then can see donations to roll in, the expansion of McGuirk and potential AAC invite. Without that we'll need to make some hard decisions. We already said no to an all sports invite to the MAC. We courted the Sun Belt for a football-only and there was a group of teams that opposed it. That would leave C-USA. From comments seen on this board, C-USA contract will not be completed until after the football season. So to this guy, remaining independent or C-USA seem like the only realistic options if we fail to impress the AAC.

CUSA has a large entrance and exit fee.

If UMass could somehow twist CUSA's arm for a football only, the end result will be more expensive than FB only in the MAC.