Just another realignment rumor...

Consider the source: From Big East Coast Bias:
Air Force is clearing its out of conference schedule. Possible move to Big East?http://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2012/8/5/3207579/new-super-big-east

It sure does look extremely speculative, and let's hope the article is wrong about UTSA even being considered as an option....EVER! However, this is one of the things that I just couldn't fathom for the life of me; why would the AF not join up with the Big East?? It's not like the MW wouldn't take them back if we ever failed as a league, and it seems clear to me that the tv contract for the Big East will be significantly bigger than anything that the MW will be able to secure for them.

BYU is a different animal, based on their home-grown tv station, but AF should truly be a "no-brainer"...

I also found it interesting that the article was written by a Clemson fan (I believe). However, it does seem like the Air Force OOC schedule has been cleared:

http://www.fbschedules.com/2012/07/report-air-force-cincinnati-to-cancel-future-football-series/

The article I linked seems to indicate that Cincinnati, the final future OOC team left, was the team to initiate the clearing of that home-and-home. I wonder if it has anything to do with the impending strength of schedule component for the new playoff system. In any event, AF is going to have a rough time with their future schedules without the Big East, and it is likely in both parties' best interests to join forces....pun intended.

It would be great to get Army as well as Air Force, have all the services. Army would be worth more than UNLV. Pods would still work but Louisville-Cincy would be separated, Louisville going south.

split now. create a big confrence alliance for fball ship game and cross games. big east and west.

we need west teams and many of them. utsa has the potential to be a monster down the road but not right now.

uconn/temple/ruty/cincy/navy/ecu/usf/ucf/lville/memphis
uh/smu/sdsu/bsu/af/byu/fresno/unlv/unr/tulsa

20 all sports. its bg so who ever leaves next isn't a big deal to the strenght in teams. it kills off all the other leagues below us. play your division for 9 games a year and 1 rival. then play 2 ooc games. 1 bcs and the other your choice. it really s with the other 5 confs aw well schedule wise which sends the message were here to stay and play. in bball and other sports the league is split up by division. you can have up to 6 bball schools added to each division.

east-sju/gt/nova/dep/marq/xav
prov/shu get fisted to the a10

west-zaga/stmary/lbst/usf/port/sc or something like that.

If we have to stay, I could live with adding AF, BYU, and UNLV. Hold the FB Championship game in Vegas every year, or as it will become known, MSG West. Works well because its an inexpensive flight from most everywhere and Vegas is cheap in early Dec.

EAST
uconn/temple/ru/navy
usf/ucf/houston/smu

WEST
cincy/uofl/memphis/tulsa
sdsu/afu/boise/byu

if BYU and AF don't want to come, add UNLV and Fresno and be done.

the 12th game should match the #1 seeds from each pod. Then the BE Championship should be the winner of those games. Use the regular season to add a playoff game and strengthen the SOS for the conference champ.
The other teams could do the same thing... #2's play, #3's and so on.

I think we need to have the conference championship at a neutral maybe rotating site. Giants stadium , Yankee stadium. Or st Louis.

I like this lineup of teams (perhaps with the exception of Tulsa, where I think I would prefer ECU). It is now just a question of whether or not BYU feels they will be unable to find quality OOC games, now that most of the major conferences are moving to 9 game conference schedules. If they feel like they will start to have difficulty, they may blink first in this game of chicken, and I think that adding AF and BYU would be a strong addition of teams to the league.

I would still prefer that you switched the Texas teams with the Ville for a format that looks like this:

EAST: UConn / Temple / Rutgers / Navy / USF / UCF / ECU / Cincy

WEST: Houston / SMU / Memphis / SDSU / Boise / Ville / AF / BYU

As long as Vegas is in the rotation. Let's see... New Year's Day Game.... Las Vegas or East Rutherford?... Las Vegas or Bronx?...

Doesn't NBC have rights to som ufc? Maybe put a title fight thee night before the conference championship game. 330 game and then a premiere conference basketball game that night?

all of the above!!

I think that is exclusive to Fox, but I had the same thoughts watching the UFC fights on Fox last night.

The UFC contract is exclusively with Fox and it's cable affiliates (FX and Fuel).

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I like having 'pods' of regional rivalries. I think this really helps to build rivalries.
From what I know I think Tulsa is more balanced between bb and FB. I know nothing of their academics. I also like the geographic balance of that pod and don't like splitting ville and cincy.

that's actually a really interesting idea. even if we don't go to 16 teams and just stay where we are i like the idea of a floating game at the end of the year. even at 14 teams there's a lot of teams that will rarely play each other in the other half of the conference and this would provide another opportunity to play a team from over there. plus it would help our top team's SOS which will be very important going forward.

How would a floating 12th game work season-ticketwise? It would seem to be a logistical nightmare.You'd have to agree ahead of time that pods A & C would have homegames in odd numbered years & pods B & D in even numbered ones. (I guess that I just answered my own question..nm)

You can't have a floating 12th game, logistically it doesn't work to plan a game on 1-2 weeks notice and it would cause teams to play the same opponent twice in a season, or miss an opponent.

16 teams in 4 pods almost demands a 9-game schedule, 3 games in your pod (complete round robin) and 2 games in each of the other pods, so you cover the other pods in 2 years (your pod annually).

You need to try to balance the pods for difficulty so that records are comparable. Can't have 4 really good teams in one pod. Also USF/UCF/Houston/SMU pod doesn't work because other teams need to play in the fertile recruiting areas.

Help me out on the math. 3+2+2=7. If you played 3games from the other pods, that would be 9.

Four pods of four. 3 games in your pod + 2 + 2 + 2 = 9.