This HAS to be UConn's new league - for now

[ConnHuskBask]

UConn is essentially screwed either way, but in order to make the best of just about the worst situation possible, the following HAS to happen.

East: Connecticut, Cincinnati, South Florida, Temple, Central Florida, Memphis
West: Boise State, San Diego State, Nevada, New Mexico, Houston, Southern Methodist

12 team all sports conference of every last remaining viable school that plays football. This ensures we will receive the non-AQ Bowl most seasons. In a given year it's a 5 bid league to the NCAA's for tourney credits as well.

It also goes to 12 to have a conference title game, but not past 12 to avoid dilution of what will most likely be an awful TV media deal. Going anything past 12 simply doesn't make sense.

The main concern - travel. To reduce travel concerns - all olympic sports play division members twice with only occasional cross-over games.

I think we can still schedule a decent hoop schedule and this at least keeps football in the 'best of the rest'.

I think we have a couple year window to right the ship and possibly earn an invite to another league, this puts us in the best spot for that. If no invite comes, we're screwed anyways.

 

[Stinger92860]

ECU?

 

[Dann]

split ecu and tulane (e/w)and then i agree

 

[specialisthusky]

could we even attract a nevada or new mexico? I agree this league would be ok to bid time with. It is essential to create clear east and west divisions to limit the ridiculous travel this conference will endure.

 

[tzznandrew]

I think so. I think this is probably the best we can do for the time being, and hope we mercifully get out soon.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

could we even attract a nevada or new mexico? I agree this league would be ok to bid time with. It is essential to create clear east and west divisions to limit the ridiculous travel this conference will endure.

I think Boise State is going to be able to dictate the terms of this new league.

If I'm the commissioner I say, Boise State you have 5-6 slots to chose from to make a Western division - have at it.

 

[specialisthusky]

I think Boise State is going to be able to dictate the terms of this new league.

If I'm the commissioner I say, Boise State you have 5-6 slots to chose from to make a Western division - have at it.

great point. that could work. I can't say i know much about midmajor western football but i'd imagine all programs out there aspire to be Boise as well

 

[tzznandrew]

I think Boise State is going to be able to dictate the terms of this new league.

If I'm the commissioner I say, Boise State you have 5-6 slots to chose from to make a Western division - have at it.

I think, if we're hoping to have any success, that we go for flagship universities first. There are two worth looking at out west: Nevada and New Mexico. That would at least be palatable for SDSU and Boise for travel purposes. We could also consider UNLV.

 

[Marty Jackson]

I think we need to add Tulsa...

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think we need to add Tulsa...

Finally someone else agrees with me! Tulsa solid in hoops and football and even academics. Better than our new conference mates.

 

[UConnDan97]

I think we need to add Tulsa...

I'm guessing it will be Fresno if we can't get BYU or (which I don't think we can). Tulsa is playing good football now, too, but I'm guessing that Fresno's market and the fact that they are true "west coast" would put them in the highest position for inclusion into the final spot for football...

 

[VAHuskyFan]

The east/west split discussion is little more than a thought exercise at this point. How many versions has the conference cycled through already? It will all change next month when the next member leaves. Let's just hope that's us.

 

[UConnDan97]

The east/west split discussion is little more than a thought exercise at this point. How many versions has the conference cycled through already? It will all change next month when the next member leaves. Let's just hope that's us.

I understand your point, but remember this; any semblance of money to come out of the new tv contract absolutely hinges on whether or not Boise stays. It doesn't get much simpler than that from a football perspective. If yet another California team (and a decent quality one at that) helps to keep them and SDSU in the equation, then so be it.

The difference between Fresno and Tulsa from a product standpoint is NOT worth the difference in product of Big East with Boise and Big East without Boise...

 

[UCFBfan]

I think the real question needs to be if they stick with this FB-Only garbage. The bball schools just left, stick to an all-sports conference now. Get Boise and SDSU to go all in and add western schools. I think it's a horrible idea but it's the best of what's left. Tell Navy to either go all in or sorry (to be honest they aren't coming anyway now). So what's left?

UConn
Cincy
Temple
Memphis
ECU
UCF
USF
SMU
Houston
??
??
??

I know Boise and SDSU would be great for football but I just feel that this whole thing needs to be blown up and re-formed. Unfortunately, outside UConn and Cincy, there aren't many desirable schools East of the Mississippi that add something in both sports....

 

[ConnHuskBask]

San Diego State was in 'others receiving votes' for football and is currently ranked in basketball. At this point I think they would be a fine addition. Boise State is actually building up their hoops program it appears too. I saw they beat a ranked (Creighton?) team and lost to Michigan State only by 4.

I mean, if a school in the middle of nowhere Idaho can field one of the best football teams in America, you would think they could do the same for hoops, no?

 

[tzznandrew]

I think the real question needs to be if they stick with this FB-Only garbage. The bball schools just left, stick to an all-sports conference now. Get Boise and SDSU to go all in and add western schools. I think it's a horrible idea but it's the best of what's left. Tell Navy to either go all in or sorry (to be honest they aren't coming anyway now). So what's left?

UConn
Cincy
Temple
Memphis
ECU
UCF
USF
SMU
Houston
??
??
??

I know Boise and SDSU would be great for football but I just feel that this whole thing needs to be blown up and re-formed. Unfortunately, outside UConn and Cincy, there aren't many desirable schools East of the Mississippi that add something in both sports....

We need to be clearly in the sixth conference. Boise is clearly better than anyone in our conference except Cincy. With that in mind, we need to find them an all-sports space, and build something that accommodates them.

 

[UConnDan97]

I think the real question needs to be if they stick with this FB-Only garbage. The bball schools just left, stick to an all-sports conference now. Get Boise and SDSU to go all in and add western schools. I think it's a horrible idea but it's the best of what's left. Tell Navy to either go all in or sorry (to be honest they aren't coming anyway now). So what's left?

UConn
Cincy
Temple
Memphis
ECU
UCF
USF
SMU
Houston
??
??
??

I know Boise and SDSU would be great for football but I just feel that this whole thing needs to be blown up and re-formed. Unfortunately, outside UConn and Cincy, there aren't many desirable schools East of the Mississippi that add something in both sports....

It doesn't work. It CERTAINLY won't work with a 4 to 5 million dollar per team tv contract! There is no way in the world that Boise is going to gobble up all its revenue from the football team to fly their friggin' volleyball team to Storrs, CT and then the next week to Tampa, FL. At that point, they're going back to the MW. Keep in mind that as it stands right now, we will only likely beat out the MW contract by about 1 million dollars. They would rather have their olympic squads parked in the Big West and only fly to the east coast three times for football than to do the crazy business of joining an eastern league for all sports.

On the bright side, I think having "football only's" is a better situation for a conference than to have "all sports except football" members...

 

[UCFBfan]

On the bright side, I think having "football only's" is a better situation for a conference than to have "all sports except football" members...

This doesn't work either. You'll have an odd number of members if they are FB only. So now you are going to add who to even it out? I agree with you that the travel for Olympic sports makes the West coast thing a no go but to only have FB only members is ridiculous. Who are the other members then? Would you have 12 All-Sport schools and two FB only schools in Boise and SDSU? So a 14 team league? Or 10 All-Sports and 2 FB only? It is just a cluster.

Unfortunately, Boise is the key to all of this and they are needed to get any sort of contract for a TV station.

 

[HuskyHawk]

We need to be clearly in the sixth conference. Boise is clearly better than anyone in our conference except Cincy. With that in mind, we need to find them an all-sports space, and build something that accommodates them.

That's the real issue now. There aren't enough teams with 3 FB only schools. But I don't think you can run an all sports conference cross-country.

So we either move on without the western schools, or we must go to a six and six east west division format.

EAST
UConn
Cinci
Temple
SFU
CFU
Memphis

WEST
BSU
SDSU
SMU
UH
Tulane
? UNLV? Fresno? New Mexico? Nevada?

If we went to 14, slide Tulane east and add two or add ECU all sports


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[UCFBfan]

I don't get why ECU is the UConn lite in terms of conference re-alignment. They have such a passionate fanbase. I know their tv market isn't amazing but right now, who cares? Why wouldn't we add them for all sports. They have a fan base that travels very well and they support their team probably better than any future BE team outside Boise St. I just don't get why they wouldn't be a gimmie to come in.

Here's my question. Can we say goodbye to Tulane? Honestly, who voted them in? I've heard that UConn and UC abstained from voting and according to today's articles, the bball schools used Tulanes addition as a reason for leaving the conference. So if they didn't vote them in, who did? Let's just erase that mistake and replace them with ECU.

 

[tzznandrew]

That's the real issue now. There aren't enough teams with 3 FB only schools. But I don't think you can run an all sports conference cross-country.

So we either move on without the western schools, or we must go to a six and six east west division format.

EAST
UConn
Cinci
Temple
SFU
CFU
Memphis

WEST
BSU
SDSU
SMU
UH
Tulane
? UNLV? Fresno? New Mexico? Nevada?

If we went to 14, slide Tulane east and add two or add ECU all sports


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

No more partial members. Bring ECU all in. Go to 16. Take all potentially good programs that will join. To alleviate travel, have the teams play round robin within their divisions...minimize crossovers.

 

[UConnDan97]

This doesn't work either. You'll have an odd number of members if they are FB only. So now you are going to add who to even it out? I agree with you that the travel for Olympic sports makes the West coast thing a no go but to only have FB only members is ridiculous. Who are the other members then? Would you have 12 All-Sport schools and two FB only schools in Boise and SDSU? So a 14 team league? Or 10 All-Sports and 2 FB only? It is just a cluster.

Unfortunately, Boise is the key to all of this and they are needed to get any sort of contract for a TV station.

Right now, we'll have 13 football members in 2015 when Navy arrives (assuming that everyone is still here to talk about it). That means we need one more football playing member. Out of the 13 members, four are already "football only" (Boise, SDSU, ECU, Navy). It's already been speculated that the BE is looking at Fresno to be the 14th member.

If we look at what that means for olympic sports (assuming Cincy and UConn are with the football members for olympics), we have 9 full members. If the league wants to ask ECU to become an "all-sports" member, it will happen in a New York minute, but let's hold off on that for now. That means that in basketball, every member would have a home-and-home for a 16 game schedule. If ECU is brought in fully, it will be a home-and-home for an 18 game schedule, the same amount of games that we currently have in our BE schedule.

I agree with you; the key to the tv contract is Boise. I think Fresno does many things for us:

1) It adds a good football team
2) It adds a good market
3) It adds a western member to ease travel for Boise and SDSU
4) It takes away one of the top teams from the Mountain West; the major threat to re-take Boise.

Let me put it this way....I'll be shocked if Fresno isn't being contacted by the Big East office in the next two weeks, based on everything that we need to happen from here on out...

 

[UConnDan97]

Imagine this: If we were to add Fresno to football, then next year, the Mountain West would have only one team left that finished above 0.500 from the previous year.

http://espn.go.com/ncf/conferences/standings?confId=17&year=2012

 

[HuskyHawk]

I don't get why ECU is the UConn lite in terms of conference re-alignment. They have such a passionate fanbase. I know their tv market isn't amazing but right now, who cares? Why wouldn't we add them for all sports. They have a fan base that travels very well and they support their team probably better than any future BE team outside Boise St. I just don't get why they wouldn't be a gimmie to come in.

Here's my question. Can we say goodbye to Tulane? Honestly, who voted them in? I've heard that UConn and UC abstained from voting and according to today's articles, the bball schools used Tulanes addition as a reason for leaving the conference. So if they didn't vote them in, who did? Let's just erase that mistake and replace them with ECU.

Their sports apart from football are really unworthy. Like worse than Yankee conference bad.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

 

[gars44]

San Diego State was in 'others receiving votes' for football and is currently ranked in basketball. At this point I think they would be a fine addition. Boise State is actually building up their hoops program it appears too. I saw they beat a ranked (Creighton?) team and lost to Michigan State only by 4.

I mean, if a school in the middle of nowhere Idaho can field one of the best football teams in America, you would think they could do the same for hoops, no?

Yes, and it helps if we loosen admissions requirements for football players for the time being. Heck, we're not a BCS league anymore, so let's do it on a temporary fix basis. Most programs are admitting kids that probably don't get into Fordham or Villanova. Let's stop pretending. You have to have a separate curriculum for the football team. You think USC doesn't do that? Alabama? North Carolina? Louisville? Florida State? And who gets rewarded? USC? Alabama? North Carolina? Lousiville? Florida State? Look, football is a private business run by otherwise stately universities. Contract players hired to play football. And go to classes in a totally separate part of the building. Except for a precious few places, like ND and Stanford. And the Ivy League. And FCS. You want to go big time, stop playing games. Be like Oregon.