Two Hypotheticals

[jdrinboston]

Long time lurker and season ticket holder, but first time poster.

There are two hypotheticals in this whole conference allingment situation that have be concerned/intrigued.

1. What if the Pac-10/12 doesn't have the votes to take in Texas or Oklahoma and the Big XII doesn't split apart. At this point, do any of the conferences make a move? Does ACC go to 16 just because? Does the SEC still add WVU? What if nothing comes out of the whole Syracuse/Pitt defection? Is this a "doomsday" scenario for UConn and the remaining Big East schools?

If this does happen - I think its imperative that the Big East hold Syracuse and Pitt to the 27-month exit. As the saying goes "Possession is 9/10s of the law." During this period, maybe its conceivable that an agreement can be reached among the football schools that might cause Pitt and Syracuse to reconsider.

Which brings me to a possible proactive move for UConn/WVU. Obviously Texas isn't happy with the current Big XII, but perhaps there is an opportunity to take the strongest schools from the football side of the BE and broker an agreement with the current crop of Big XII schools. Texas would obviously be the crown jewel, and some concessions would need to be made to make it worth their while. But, one could argue the same arguments leading the ACC to consider UConn might make this option attractive to the Texas/midwest schools aka access to NYC/affluent eastern markets.

Such a conference could include

South/West
Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Kansas
Kansas St.
Baylor

North/East
UConn
Rutgers
West Virginia
Louisville
Cinncinatti
Missouri
South Florida

Depending on what kind of deal could be brokered, perhaps OK and OK state stay in the fold. If not, perhaps you bring in Air Force/Boise State to even off the divisions?

This may be completely off the wall and I don't mean to sound ignorant. But I wonder if an out of the box/agressive move by the remaining Big East football schools might be the answer to our problem.

 

[gioff23]

Long time lurker and season ticket holder, but first time poster.

There are two hypotheticals in this whole conference allingment situation that have be concerned/intrigued.

1. What if the Pac-10/12 doesn't have the votes to take in Texas or Oklahoma and the Big XII doesn't split apart. At this point, do any of the conferences make a move? Does ACC go to 16 just because? Does the SEC still add WVU? What if nothing comes out of the whole Syracuse/Pitt defection? Is this a "doomsday" scenario for UConn and the remaining Big East schools?

If this does happen - I think its imperative that the Big East hold Syracuse and Pitt to the 27-month exit. As the saying goes "Possession is 9/10s of the law." During this period, maybe its conceivable that an agreement can be reached among the football schools that might cause Pitt and Syracuse to reconsider.

Which brings me to a possible proactive move for UConn/WVU. Obviously Texas isn't happy with the current Big XII, but perhaps there is an opportunity to take the strongest schools from the football side of the BE and broker an agreement with the current crop of Big XII schools. Texas would obviously be the crown jewel, and some concessions would need to be made to make it worth their while. But, one could argue the same arguments leading the ACC to consider UConn might make this option attractive to the Texas/midwest schools aka access to NYC/affluent eastern markets.

Such a conference could include

South/West
Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Kansas
Kansas St.
Baylor

North/East
UConn
Rutgers
West Virginia
Louisville
Cinncinatti
Missouri
South Florida

Depending on what kind of deal could be brokered, perhaps OK and OK state stay in the fold. If not, perhaps you bring in Air Force/Boise State to even off the divisions?

This may be completely off the wall and I don't mean to sound ignorant. But I wonder if an out of the box/agressive move by the remaining Big East football schools might be the answer to our problem.

Why not just add Boise and UCF (or ECU so you could host the conference championshiops in the heart of ACC country), declare yourself to be a power conference of 16 and move on? Not sure this idea makes any sense at all; of course, I'm still trying to figure which BE schools were left out since you only wanted the strongest BE fb programs.

 

[jpm25]

Long time lurker and season ticket holder, but first time poster.

There are two hypotheticals in this whole conference allingment situation that have be concerned/intrigued.

1. What if the Pac-10/12 doesn't have the votes to take in Texas or Oklahoma and the Big XII doesn't split apart. At this point, do any of the conferences make a move? Does ACC go to 16 just because? Does the SEC still add WVU? What if nothing comes out of the whole Syracuse/Pitt defection? Is this a "doomsday" scenario for UConn and the remaining Big East schools?

If this does happen - I think its imperative that the Big East hold Syracuse and Pitt to the 27-month exit. As the saying goes "Possession is 9/10s of the law." During this period, maybe its conceivable that an agreement can be reached among the football schools that might cause Pitt and Syracuse to reconsider.

Which brings me to a possible proactive move for UConn/WVU. Obviously Texas isn't happy with the current Big XII, but perhaps there is an opportunity to take the strongest schools from the football side of the BE and broker an agreement with the current crop of Big XII schools. Texas would obviously be the crown jewel, and some concessions would need to be made to make it worth their while. But, one could argue the same arguments leading the ACC to consider UConn might make this option attractive to the Texas/midwest schools aka access to NYC/affluent eastern markets.

Such a conference could include

South/West
Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Kansas
Kansas St.
Baylor

North/East
UConn
Rutgers
West Virginia
Louisville
Cinncinatti
Missouri
South Florida

Depending on what kind of deal could be brokered, perhaps OK and OK state stay in the fold. If not, perhaps you bring in Air Force/Boise State to even off the divisions?

This may be completely off the wall and I don't mean to sound ignorant. But I wonder if an out of the box/agressive move by the remaining Big East football schools might be the answer to our problem.

Texas and OU had the votes last summer - no reason to believe they won't again. If anything this is analogous to the FSU/UConn argument - adding UT and OU makes the USCs of the conference feel better about the football product. If anything, it may give the Arizona schools and Colorado angst about being "left out" of the LA/California pod.

 

[huskyrob1]

Long time lurker and season ticket holder, but first time poster.

There are two hypotheticals in this whole conference allingment situation that have be concerned/intrigued.

1. What if the Pac-10/12 doesn't have the votes to take in Texas or Oklahoma and the Big XII doesn't split apart. At this point, do any of the conferences make a move? Does ACC go to 16 just because? Does the SEC still add WVU? What if nothing comes out of the whole Syracuse/Pitt defection? Is this a "doomsday" scenario for UConn and the remaining Big East schools?

If this does happen - I think its imperative that the Big East hold Syracuse and Pitt to the 27-month exit. As the saying goes "Possession is 9/10s of the law." During this period, maybe its conceivable that an agreement can be reached among the football schools that might cause Pitt and Syracuse to reconsider.

Which brings me to a possible proactive move for UConn/WVU. Obviously Texas isn't happy with the current Big XII, but perhaps there is an opportunity to take the strongest schools from the football side of the BE and broker an agreement with the current crop of Big XII schools. Texas would obviously be the crown jewel, and some concessions would need to be made to make it worth their while. But, one could argue the same arguments leading the ACC to consider UConn might make this option attractive to the Texas/midwest schools aka access to NYC/affluent eastern markets.

Such a conference could include

South/West
Texas
Texas Tech
TCU
Baylor
Kansas
Kansas St.
Baylor

North/East
UConn
Rutgers
West Virginia
Louisville
Cinncinatti
Missouri
South Florida

Depending on what kind of deal could be brokered, perhaps OK and OK state stay in the fold. If not, perhaps you bring in Air Force/Boise State to even off the divisions?

This may be completely off the wall and I don't mean to sound ignorant. But I wonder if an out of the box/agressive move by the remaining Big East football schools might be the answer to our problem.

I don't like it, looks like another timebomb waiting to go off in UCONN's face. There would be very little loyalty in that conference once the bomb goes off, not that there's much now in the Big East. Plus I hate the geographical picture of it all.

 

[Silk City]

I only see one hypothetical..

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I remain skeptical that Texahoma will stick around. I think that if really pushed, Oklahoma would go to the SEC and get an invitation. I think Texahoma ends up in the Pac 12.

It does bring up an interesting "what now" situation. There are 7 Big East schools and 4 Big 12 schools. Better than 50/50 that the hoops schools have had enough and we thank them for the memories. Does that league add 1 or 5? I would go big, adding Boise, BYU, Houston, Temple and UMass. UMass sucks, i get it, but having a large northeastern state school will help for TV and it has bigger upside than any other option. Also, UMass and Temple reduce the travel pain on UConn.

Northeast: UConn, Rutgers, UMass, Temple
Southeast: USF, WVU, Louisville, Cincinnati
Midwest: Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor
West: TCU, BYU, Boise, Houston

That league has 5 teams ranked, and Houston is right on the edge. UConn, Kansas and Louisville are three of the top 10 basketball programs, and WVU, Cincinnati, KState, Temple, Baylor and BYU are very strong. There would be several major metros represented, and it would have the four largest state schools between Philadelphia and Boston. With the pod system, travel would be manageable.

I want BYU, Boise and Houston, but then we need two more. UCF or Memphis are not good enough at football, and would put a lot of stress on the UConn from a travel perspective. Football won't matter, but basketball can not survive the long, midweek trips.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I could be mistaken but I'm pretty sure that Scott (P12 commissioner) has been given authority to expand as he sees fit from the members of the conference. I don't believe that a vote would be needed to add any members there, merely Scott's ok.

 

[uconnfan68]

I remain skeptical that Texahoma will stick around. I think that if really pushed, Oklahoma would go to the SEC and get an invitation. I think Texahoma ends up in the Pac 12.

It does bring up an interesting "what now" situation. There are 7 Big East schools and 4 Big 12 schools. Better than 50/50 that the hoops schools have had enough and we thank them for the memories. Does that league add 1 or 5? I would go big, adding Boise, BYU, Houston, Temple and UMass. UMass sucks, i get it, but having a large northeastern state school will help for TV and it has bigger upside than any other option. Also, UMass and Temple reduce the travel pain on UConn.

Northeast: UConn, Rutgers, UMass, Temple
Southeast: USF, WVU, Louisville, Cincinnati
Midwest: Iowa State, Kansas State, Kansas, Baylor
West: TCU, BYU, Boise, Houston

That league has 5 teams ranked, and Houston is right on the edge. UConn, Kansas and Louisville are three of the top 10 basketball programs, and WVU, Cincinnati, KState, Temple, Baylor and BYU are very strong. There would be several major metros represented, and it would have the four largest state schools between Philadelphia and Boston. With the pod system, travel would be manageable.

I want BYU, Boise and Houston, but then we need two more. UCF or Memphis are not good enough at football, and would put a lot of stress on the UConn from a travel perspective. Football won't matter, but basketball can not survive the long, midweek trips.

I'd like the frequent flyer miles from that setup.