I am the Nostra-scalitoing-damus of conference realignment. I made the above post at the end of the the thread that peptool linked, in April 2014. That whole thread is genius actually, and one of the more intelligent discussions this board had on football independence back then. Don't let the fact that peptool has no idea what is happening in the thread dissuade anyone from checking it out.
Ha. So, you're wrong in that post about:
1) independent football scheduling, which is impacted by your next wrong
2) conference game count. 3 out of 5 at 9. The other 2 consider it, essentially, on an ongoing basis. Not even a hint of dropping from anyone
Never mind a buy-in costs twice as much for us, even in the AAC, as an FCS game. That may cut some of the P5 out (mostly the teams we have a chance against too).
Also never mind that we have a "peer" of sorts to match against during this time frame, which disproves everything you wrote, too (UMass), but carry on...
ALSO never mind probably the most pressing issue we have as a football independent - the collusion in the P5 to dictate OOC schedule strength. If I'm the AD, I'm trying like mad to figure out how we stay on the "P5" list that we're on now for the Indiana and Illinois games, and getting the same distinction for other conferences. Without that, we essentially become a REALLY expensive FCS opponent. Combine that with any movements to 9 games, our impending blackball with the AAC teams, AND the fact we have 2 of our most appropriate OOC matchups already under contract (UMass and BC), and the scheduling piece is next to impossible, without help.
*IF* we can work out a scheduling alliance via FOX, or via some creative work with basketball (which has had only very limited success prior), we may have a chance, but the inventory for desirable OOC games is already small, and trending downward.