WKU fits geographically, not academically. Would be shocked at a solo move here. Felt like the MAC was a life preserver so now that CUSA brought in that King's Gold haul of world beaters, the MAC can quickly go on about the business, a.k.a. continue to do what the MAC does, ie. maction.

(11-10-2021 02:57 PM)boozeNammo Wrote:  continue to do what the MAC does, ie. maction.

Pillow Fight of the Week of the Month of the Year of the Century! #espnbottom10

this probably creates a solid tie at the bottom of the G5

all of this points to SBC needing to schedule strong OOC and win - hoping that most games are with the good AAC teams, strong Indy's and even a MWC opponent at times

This all felt like the MAC just trying to be nice. I can respect that they were trying to help out WKU/MTSU, but there was almost nothing to gain by the endeavor from the MAC perspective. It's not like adding either of those moved the needle on recruiting or significant changes to TV viewership. I think the 25 year ask of GOR was basically saying, we don't really want to do this, but if you are willing to surrender to our demands we can make it work.

People can crap on the MAC all they want, but they had a team in the Orange Bowl a decade ago and their top teams in men's basketball have been very good the last couple years. Go look at how the MAC performed overall last night on opening night, it included wins over Washington, Belmont, and Georgia Tech while losing to Missouri by 10, Ohio State by 1, and Indiana by 6.

(11-10-2021 10:36 AM)CarRamrod Wrote:  

Tag this one, it won't age well. Middle Tennessee & Western Kentucky will bank the exit fees and look at realignment the next wave. I suspect they will have better options and teetering on an exit will build a rift with the other CUSA schools.

(11-10-2021 12:47 PM)JMad03 Wrote:  ESPN article:

University president Sidney McPhee said in a statement that Conference USA's recent additions of Jacksonville State, Liberty, New Mexico State and Sam Houston State will help stabilize the league. Conference USA has lost eight current members in the latest round of realignment. Six schools -- Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA -- are set to join the American Athletic Conference, while Marshall and Southern Miss are headed to the Sun Belt.

See anyone missing???? Oops. LOL

Guess they didn't count it as a loss.

Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

Article on UMass pitch deck to CUSA

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.underdo...d-football

Quote:As conference realignment turns and rages on, there is a clear pecking order in the Group of Five. At the bottom, is UMass.

(11-13-2021 10:51 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

No brainer imo. Louisville has a much better athletics program than UConn

(11-13-2021 11:33 PM)James Madison Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 10:51 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

No brainer imo. Louisville has a much better athletics program than UConn

I don't know the details of U of L's athletics programs, but it sounds like the decision was purely based on football (shocker).

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foo...story.html

UConn is the greatest program in the history of women's college basketball and has had a very successful men's team. Plus, Louisville is a miserable school academically, and its footprint isn't remotely "Atlantic Coast." They probably got in as much for proximity to Notre Dame as anything else. I mean, for years, one of the reasons they gave for turning up their noses at VT was academics, and Tech is a great school. As snobby as the ACC is about academics, Louisville is an outlier.

(11-14-2021 07:48 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:33 PM)James Madison Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 10:51 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

No brainer imo. Louisville has a much better athletics program than UConn

I don't know the details of U of L's athletics programs, but it sounds like the decision was purely based on football (shocker).

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foo...story.html

UConn is the greatest program in the history of women's college basketball and has had a very successful men's team. Plus, Louisville is a miserable school academically, and its footprint isn't remotely "Atlantic Coast." They probably got in as much for proximity to Notre Dame as anything else. I mean, for years, one of the reasons they gave for turning up their noses at VT was academics, and Tech is a great school. As snobby as the ACC is about academics, Louisville is an outlier.

The ACC decision to add Louisville was strictly a football decision. The ACC needed to make FSU and Clemson happy by strengthening the football brand. Louisville isn’t great in that regard, but were the best option at the time. UConn moves the needle in regards to men’s and women’s basketball, but that’s it. There would be no excitement amongst ACC fans to play them in football. In reality, there’s very little excitement amongst most long time ACC fans to play any of the former Big East teams except for the Hokies and to a limited extent, Pitt.

(11-14-2021 07:48 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:33 PM)James Madison Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 10:51 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

No brainer imo. Louisville has a much better athletics program than UConn

I don't know the details of U of L's athletics programs, but it sounds like the decision was purely based on football (shocker).

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foo...story.html

UConn is the greatest program in the history of women's college basketball and has had a very successful men's team. Plus, Louisville is a miserable school academically, and its footprint isn't remotely "Atlantic Coast." They probably got in as much for proximity to Notre Dame as anything else. I mean, for years, one of the reasons they gave for turning up their noses at VT was academics, and Tech is a great school. As snobby as the ACC is about academics, Louisville is an outlier.

Womens basketball doesn’t move any needles for realignment. UConn does have the best womens bball program ever but louisville also has a very strong womens program that consistently wins the ACC. They also beat uconn like two years ago. Other programs that are good are baseball, basketball (who was ranked #1 two years ago), and football has been decent in the past but below average recently. They’d still blow out uconn though. ACC made the right call there

(11-14-2021 09:32 AM)CvilleDukes Wrote:  

(11-14-2021 07:48 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 11:33 PM)James Madison Wrote:  

(11-13-2021 10:51 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Interesting article on ESPN.com about UConn's woes. If any school belongs in the ACC, it's UConn. But instead, the ACC took Louisville and its 50 percent graduation rate.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/st...l-collapse

No brainer imo. Louisville has a much better athletics program than UConn

I don't know the details of U of L's athletics programs, but it sounds like the decision was purely based on football (shocker).

https://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-foo...story.html

UConn is the greatest program in the history of women's college basketball and has had a very successful men's team. Plus, Louisville is a miserable school academically, and its footprint isn't remotely "Atlantic Coast." They probably got in as much for proximity to Notre Dame as anything else. I mean, for years, one of the reasons they gave for turning up their noses at VT was academics, and Tech is a great school. As snobby as the ACC is about academics, Louisville is an outlier.

The ACC decision to add Louisville was strictly a football decision. The ACC needed to make FSU and Clemson happy by strengthening the football brand. Louisville isn’t great in that regard, but were the best option at the time. UConn moves the needle in regards to men’s and women’s basketball, but that’s it. There would be no excitement amongst ACC fans to play them in football. In reality, there’s very little excitement amongst most long time ACC fans to play any of the former Big East teams except for the Hokies and to a limited extent, Pitt.

UConn missed out by not transitioning at the start of the Big East Football conference, or earlier. It would have been nice at the beginning to have another member on the FB side of the BE's political divide.

Instead they monitored the situation too long, and finally joined just before the big implosion. Unfortunately for UConn, Louisville looked like a sports juggernaut in 2012 (and proved it by immediately winning the Sugar Bowl, the final four, and BB national championship).

There's some old threads on the ACC boards, but in addition to some of the above reasons stated above, BC had serious bad blood with UConn. They didn't want to share the New England region and they hadn't forgotten about the lawsuit served against the ACC when they left the Big East was spearheaded by UConn.

(11-15-2021 04:14 PM)H.U.S.T.L.E. Wrote:  There's some old threads on the ACC boards, but in addition to some of the above reasons stated above, BC had serious bad blood with UConn. They didn't want to share the New England region and they hadn't forgotten about the lawsuit served against the ACC when they left the Big East was spearheaded by UConn.

Jim Calhoun was SUPER salty over the Big East members who joined the ACC. I think he said at the time they'd never play BC again. I recall him being fairly neutral towards Va. Tech. I think he said, "We hardly knew you."

More conference realignment.

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It hasn't been mentioned on here yet, but the WAC has continued to go after Southland teams - pulling in Incarnate Word to replace Sam Houston last week. There is a lot of instability in I-AA football that I don't think will be settled until at least one conference is gone entirely. Going into next year's football season (as of now):

MEAC
SC State
NC Central
Norfolk State
Delaware State
Howard
Morgan State

Big South
Monmouth
Hampton
NC A&T
Charlestown Southern
Campbell
Robert Morris
Gardner Webb

ASUN
Kennesaw State (leaving Big South)
North Alabama (leaving Big South)
EKU
Central Arkansas
Austin Peay (leaving OVC)

OVC
Tenn-Martin
Tenn Tech
Tenn State
Murray State
EIU
SEMO

Southland
SELA
Nicholls
McNeese
NW State
Houston Baptist
Texas A&M - Commerce (moving up from DII)

WAC
Abilene Christian
Stephen F Austin
Tarleton State
Lamar
Dixie State (which is being renamed Utah Tech)
Incarnate Word (leaving Southland)
Southern Utah (leaving Big Sky)
Texas-RGV (eventually)

With Loyola-Chicago leaving the MVC, who do they try to get to replace them? If it is a football school, does that make that conference too big? The CAA, Big Sky, and MVC look especially bloated right now compared to all of the 6-8 team conferences - even with JMU and SUU leaving those conferences.

It is understood that the WAC has an easy path to re-declare itself as a I-A conference. With CUSA kneecapping that plan by poaching Sam Houston, does the WAC try to build a strong northern division by trying to snag the Montanas and Dakotas from the Big Sky and MVC with the promise of moving up ASAP?

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(11-16-2021 10:00 PM)hburg Wrote:  

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UTA will probably go MVC, but my understanding is Little Rock prefers the Atlantic Sun since they'd have a ready made rival in UCA, which is located 25 miles away. Would not be shocked to see the ASun go after McNeese to basically kill off the Southland.

McNeese flirted with CUSA before deciding to stay in the Southland. I don't think McNeese will go ASun, especially since the WAC contains more of their former Southland partners and rivals.