(02-27-2018 09:24 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(02-27-2018 08:56 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-27-2018 06:31 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(02-27-2018 05:01 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(02-27-2018 12:42 PM)Wedge Wrote:  The current NCAA rules strongly discourage forming new D-I conferences. No one is going to start up a new conference that won't have NCAA autobids for 8 years. And no one (not even UConn) is going to leave an FBS conference for a conference that doesn't sponsor FBS football.

Even if you just look at conferences that don't have FBS football, there isn't enough there to justify any new "collection" that makes sense -- best you can do is something like 4 or 5 from the A-10, 2 or 3 from the MVC, plus, I don't know, Murray State, Belmont, Northern Kentucky. It doesn't pencil out when you have to go without autobids for 8 years and each of those schools has to pay an exit fee to its current conference. It also doesn't help that much to add a couple of good programs to an existing conference unless you also jettison a few of that conference's teams that are never competitive in hoops.

No need for a new conference. My feeling is the AAC (in the east) and MW (in the west) would be the place for non-FBS playing high profile basketball programs (outside of the P5) to gravitate toward. Talking maybe 2-4 adds here in the AAC at most. Maybe the same number in the west. Adds that play football are possible---cant say UMass, W Kentucky, or MTSU might not be worth considering. Two of those 3 offer good basketball along with quite competent football programs. NMSU in the west might be worth a look by the MW. This is a very limited strategy at the top level of non-power basketball.

For the rest of the G5, it would be part of any reorganization that might occur if the G5 conferences decided TV money had completely dried up and regional low travel cost conferences were more viable. Such conferences would be primarily based on location---but building solid basketball would probably be a major driver in how they coalesce. These moves would likely not be true "new" conferences---but rather reorganizations of the schools within the existing shells of the SB and CUSA (and perhaps even the AAC).

I think everyone's in a holding pattern until the power conferences decide what they want to do, which seems like it won't be until 2023-24 due to contracts. What's the point in all these schools gravitating together if the BIG12 implodes and then turns around and sucks the best teams from it? There's a very good chance that the schools VCU would want to join would be the ones leaving and they'd find themselves as the red-headed stepchild (basketball only) in a FBS football league that spans the country so they could play ECU, Tulane, Tulsa and Temple. I think they'd be very hesitant at this time. They can still get an at large from the A10 and get to keep a lot of the share of money when they do. I don't see the urgency for them. If it looked like the league you suggested could be viable long term then maybe so.

Agreed. I dont see any major realignment moves as being very likley between now and 2023/2024-ish.. The only exception might be a voluntary and cooperative reorganization of the SB and CUSA on strictly regional basis. Such a move would happen at no cost (enty/exit fees suspended) and with nobody being left out. It would just be moving around to make travel cheaper and save everyone money. Nobody would see it as a long term solution---just a temporary band-aid to cut costs until a more permanent solution comes along in the mid-2020's. I give something along those lines maybe a 10% chance of happening at best.

I give it a 0% chance because of the bold type above. There will be no voluntary reorganization. Why would those of us that are growing and having success in the current configuration of C-USA West (LA Tech, North Texas, UTSA) willing vote to change the lineups, and add some programs that we don't want or need? Plus the majority of of the programs being pushed on us are struggling. Although Rice and UTEP are down, I highly doubt they feel a reorganization with ULM, ULL, and Texas State will help their situation.

Of the 4 Sun Belt programs west of the Mississippi, only Arkansas State finished with a winning record last season.

Truth is, I do not see the Texas programs or LA Tech budging, so until we see movement within the P5 conferences, everything will remain as it currently stands. In the 2020's things could change, but even then I think programs will be left out.

IF it happened it would be because your administration would come to the conclusion that the bottom of CUSA East is no different than the bottom of Sunbelt West. Essentially, CUSA West would largely be unchanged. Your crossover games would change. You can fly 1000 Miles to play Charlotte or a few hundred mikes to play UL-M. There may come a time when that makes sense to the NTSU administration, that said, I said it had a 10% chance of happening at best. So, we basically agree that the chances are pretty good it doesn’t happen.