(02-26-2014 04:19 PM)Bull Wrote:  The coast to coast conference was already tried once... it crashed and burned, it was the subject of much ridicule. People complained the entire time. I doubt seriously if it will ever be attempted again. Let there be both western and eastern conferences at the same relative 'level'. Heck, many already grouse about the AACs footprint. I think going Texas eastward is just fine.

The old BE, with a much bigger carrot to dangle, could not get BYU or AFA to seriously consider joining.

It was never tried. Nobody complained. Nobody ever has ever played a single game in a national conference. The only reason the conference took shots because it was called the Big EAST, but had west coast teams. How is a west coast team in the American Athletic Conference out of place?

The truth is, we don't know how it would work. My guess is that a national conference featuring large markets and most of the better known G5 names would quickly become the most recognized, most followed, most popular, and most watched G5 conference. Such a cross-country conference would likely be very attractive to major sports networks since they broadcast games NATIONAlLY. It's a perfect fit. Through its size and ability to have a school in most significant regions of the country, it might be the only G5 model that can generate a significant increase in G5 pay. The national G5 best of the rest conference might be the way to create a "tweener" conference that might eventually be able to earn its members half of what P5 schools make.

The thing is, there is very little real risk in trying it. The worst thing that would happens is that it would fail to make enough to overcome travel costs. Big deal. The schools involved would just disband and regroup into regional conferences. No long term damage. No big deal.