(02-20-2018 04:28 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: (02-20-2018 03:04 PM)MemTigers1998 Wrote: wonder what the Metro could've been if the schools had stuck together & played conference football
Memphis
Louisville
Cincy
So Miss
Tulane
VT
Fla St
S Carolina
- added WV like the article mentions
- added Miami & ECU football back in the 80s/ early 90s
- added Houston once the SWC broke up
would most likely have gotten a ton of tv exposure and might be a power conference today. Might have been some other drop off's and add's along the way (Temple, UAB, Tulsa???)
At least in conference realignment, I'm a big believer of the "Course Correction Theory" of time travel (most notably seen in LOST). That is, "Whatever happened, happened", so even if you went back in time and changed things, the universe would course correct itself and you'd end up with the exact same present. (This is in contrast to the "Butterfly Effect Theory" of time travel that was most notably seen in Back to the Future, where even the slightest change to the past could completely alter the future.)
Ultimately, I don't think it would have mattered if Penn State had joined the Big East for football or some other Eastern football league. At a certain point, the Big Ten would have ended up wanting Penn State to join and the school had long wanted to improve its standing on the academic front and would have very likely taken the invitation regardless of any football interests.
I'm even more sure that Miami was *always* going to take an invite from the ACC (as that was its aspirational conference as an overall institution). As a result, the Big East would get poached by other leagues in the exact same way that it actually happened.
Similarly, to the OP's point, West Virginia would have taken a Big East invite regardless of any Metro Conference membership, so WVU would have ended up in the Big East, anyway (and with the same course of the Big East getting poached as described above, WVU would have still ended up in the Big 12).
Basically, the combination of academic, athletic and revenue interests would have still ultimately forced the same consolidation of power conferences as you see today regardless of hypotheticals that we all love to discuss here (e.g. what would have happened if Penn State had joined the Big East, etc.). Whatever happened, happened.
I'm inclined to agree, in general. Penn State would have left that 8-team conference. Miami might have, but remember that they only wanted the ACC after Florida State joined.
The real question to me is South Carolina.
However: if this Eastern Seaboard Conference had formed, Syracuse and Boston College would have been awfully tempted to join as numbers 9 and 10. I think that would have kept Penn State on board - I think you underestimate how much Penn State fans resented moving to a Midwestern based conference in the 1990s.
Also, the addition of two top private schools would have kept Miami on board.
With those two still in, I think the conference stays together. Here's why:
In 1986, that conference would have finished ranked #1, #2, #19, and #20 in the country
In 1987, #1, #2, #4, and #15
In 1988, #2, #3, #5, and #13.
In 1989, #1, #3, #15, and #21
In 1990, #3, #4, and #11
In 1991, #1, #3, #4, and #11
In 1992, #2, #3, #6, and #21
In 1993, #1, #7, #8, #13, #15
That's 5 national titles and 18 top-5 teams in 8 years. No way that conference breaks up.
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West Virginia was interested in joining the Metro in 1985
