As a Mountain West fan, this I suppose is the best I could have hoped for once the power schools (Utah, BYU, TCU) started leaving. If it's big enough the new conference might still eventually get a BCS spot.

Still, it's going to be next to impossible to get excited about my CSU Rams girding up for a game against....Alabama-Birmingham.

Or how about that natural rivalry that is Hawaii v. Eastern Carolina

JSam21: Or how about that natural rivalry that is Hawaii v. Eastern Carolina

*hits JSam21 with rolled up newspaper*

EAST Carolina! EAST-farking-Carolina! THERE IS NO EASTERN CAROLINA! You're thinking there must be some counterpart to that pile of meth and despair in Cullowhee.

I swear to B's BBQ, I will start pistol-whipping people.


Anyhow, I came into the thread to say "This conference will still be less farked up than the Big Least.

/Marinatto can take a hot rusty pitchfork up the ass

SlothB77: so every couple years all the conferences are going to realign based on the ephemeral perceived strengths/ weaknesses of inconsistent schools in one or two sports? That is fantastic.

Unless you exclude the B1G and SEC that only add schools that have shown long-term success and provide new media markets. Oh, and the PAC took Utah as the only school that I am aware of not having significant long-term sports history - and once in the PAC the program should see itself sustaining success. I don't think the ACC over-reached either on their additions - really, neither did the Big12.

So... are you a fan of another conference?

UNC_Samurai: JSam21: Or how about that natural rivalry that is Hawaii v. Eastern Carolina

*hits JSam21 with rolled up newspaper*

EAST Carolina! EAST-farking-Carolina! THERE IS NO EASTERN CAROLINA! You're thinking there must be some counterpart to that pile of meth and despair in Cullowhee.

I swear to B's BBQ, I will start pistol-whipping people.


Anyhow, I came into the thread to say "This conference will still be less farked up than the Big Least.

/Marinatto can take a hot rusty pitchfork up the ass

I'm sorry... Can I haz bbq?

JSam21: UNC_Samurai: JSam21: Or how about that natural rivalry that is Hawaii v. Eastern Carolina

*hits JSam21 with rolled up newspaper*

EAST Carolina! EAST-farking-Carolina! THERE IS NO EASTERN CAROLINA! You're thinking there must be some counterpart to that pile of meth and despair in Cullowhee.

I swear to B's BBQ, I will start pistol-whipping people.


Anyhow, I came into the thread to say "This conference will still be less farked up than the Big Least.

/Marinatto can take a hot rusty pitchfork up the ass

I'm sorry... Can I haz bbq?

Sorry, it's too late in the day. If you don't get to B's by about 11:15 AM, there's an hour line to get in, and they usually start running out of food about half past noon. Come back tomorrow.

The MWC lost Boise State and San Diego State to the Big East...

Well, that makes sense, seeing as both Boise and San Diego are quite a bit further east than, say, Japan.

StRalphTheLiar: UNC_Samurai:
Anyhow, I came into the thread to say "This conference will still be less farked up than the Big Least.


I'll buy that when ECU stops submitting unsolicited applications.

I don't blame Terry Holland for trying. ECU has one of the biggest fanbases on the east coast, and a football tradition that puts San Diego St. and Central Florida to absolute shame. And Memphis is an utter joke of a program. And there is/was a burgeoning rivalry with West Virginia. If the Big East had split off the basketball schools and added ECU, Marshall, and Navy, then the conference looks like a good football conference with good regional matchups. But Greenville isn't a TV market, and that's the thing that's driving this mess with no consideration for long-term stability.

This is the headline? There were like 8 yesterday, some of which were better. Jesus, mods, good think we held onto this an extra day for all that humor.

They should form the Conference of Universities of the Mountains, South West And Pacific.

p the boiler: Utah as the only school that I am aware of not having significant long-term sports history

Their basketball team though sucking ass this year has a good history for a non-power league team. 27 tournaments, 4 final fours, a national championship. Majerus had them in the national championship game in 1998 and they made the sweet sixteen in 2005.

And I still love my Lobos and going to home games. I don't care they're 3-33 the past three seasons, or they are probably no-hopers(but improving) next season. New Mexico will never contend on the same stage as the power teams, in power conferences, and that's OK. UNM couldn't have got into a conference, or done something to get into Nat'l Title contention any way. So I'm ok with all this. I'll enjoy the games either way, enjoy the win(s) each season and laugh at the losses. Sooner or later we'll contend in the conference (whatever it's called) and maybe win the title. And that will be enough. That should be enough for anyone who fans up a low tier college team that is not going to win it all on the Natl stage. Save all the shysty, obvious, cash and prominence grab moves for the big tier teams that can afford to pay for the coaches and players they'll need to compete every year in 'amateur athletics'.

Seems like they should just have separate conferences for football, basketball, and the freak sports.

12349876: p the boiler: Utah as the only school that I am aware of not having significant long-term sports history

Their basketball team though sucking ass this year has a good history for a non-power league team. 27 tournaments, 4 final fours, a national championship. Majerus had them in the national championship game in 1998 and they made the sweet sixteen in 2005.

true (even better than I thought) - I guess I should have said football since in the end this is what it is all about - Utah football has been rising, but I don't believe it has the history - to be fair, my school (Purdue) has a suckass football history highlighted by brief periods of success.

the Mountain West and the WAC should have done it seven years ago.

Boise, Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada, LA Tech, BYU, Utah, TCU, Air Force, and SDSU would have made that conference at least better than the Big East ACC.

UNC_Samurai: StRalphTheLiar: UNC_Samurai:
Anyhow, I came into the thread to say "This conference will still be less farked up than the Big Least.

I'll buy that when ECU stops submitting unsolicited applications.

I don't blame Terry Holland for trying. ECU has one of the biggest fanbases on the east coast, and a football tradition that puts San Diego St. and Central Florida to absolute shame. And Memphis is an utter joke of a program. And there is/was a burgeoning rivalry with West Virginia. If the Big East had split off the basketball schools and added ECU, Marshall, and Navy, then the conference looks like a good football conference with good regional matchups. But Greenville isn't a TV market, and that's the thing that's driving this mess with no consideration for long-term stability.

In the latest round of expansion, the Big East and ACC both made it abundantly clear that they care about basketball and TV markets far more than football. It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when the other conferences expand again.

Chupacabra Sandwich: the Mountain West and the WAC should have done it seven years ago.

Boise, Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada, LA Tech, BYU, Utah, TCU, Air Force, and SDSU would have made that conference at least better than the Big East ACC.

The Mountain West was formed when the 16 team WAC split back in 1999 primarily because it was so geographically large, and schools didn't have much in common. You can be sure that the same will happen again in the future with these monstrosities.

It is at this point that I propose we do away with any conference names that reference numbers or geography. Instead, we will give every conference a two-word name where the first word is 'Big' and the second word is a randomly-assigned type of marsupial.

We'll see how the Big Gilbert's Potoroo likes that.

Lou Brown: In the latest round of expansion, the Big East and ACC both made it abundantly clear that they care about basketball and TV markets far more than football. It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when the other conferences expand again.

Well the ACC also cares about academics. Thus UCONN and WVU were not invited. I know WVU has a pretty good athlete GPA, but overall they don't add much in terms of being a research university or major partners with international schools.

tnpir: Still, it's going to be next to impossible to get excited about my CSU Rams girding up for a game against....Alabama-Birmingham.

Ummmmm didnt UAB give bama a tougher time than LSU did in the NCG? I would say it would be hard for you to get excited about getting beat as well, UAB only gets the big fast guy who are too dumb to get into alabama/auburn/lsu so think about that and then enjoy your loss.

Lou Brown: In the latest round of expansion, the Big East and ACC both made it abundantly clear that they care about basketball and TV markets far more than football. It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when the other conferences expand again.

Two conferences who suck at football but are good at basketball choose basketball over football? The hell you say!

Also the sec/big 12/big 10 are three of the largest conferences and I would have to do research to find a school in a top 10-15 TV market from those conferences, maybe LSU? Arkansas? Columbus? Wisconsin? Thats about all I can think of near huge TV markets yet every week they are some of the highest rated match ups.

Ok it wasnt UAB but I could have sworn they played them and came close a year or two ago against one of the top teams.

UNC_Samurai: And Memphis is an utter joke of a program.

Their 8 fans reacted with a righteous fury when Holly wrote that article making fun of them last week, it was hilarious

steamingpile: Also the sec/big 12/big 10 are three of the largest conferences and I would have to do research to find a school in a top 10-15 TV market from those conferences, maybe LSU? Arkansas? Columbus? Wisconsin? Thats about all I can think of near huge TV markets yet every week they are some of the highest rated match ups.

Chicago? Houston? Dallas?

merkey88: Lou Brown: In the latest round of expansion, the Big East and ACC both made it abundantly clear that they care about basketball and TV markets far more than football. It'll be interesting to see what happens if/when the other conferences expand again.

Well the ACC also cares about academics. Thus UCONN and WVU were not invited. I know WVU has a pretty good athlete GPA, but overall they don't add much in terms of being a research university or major partners with international schools.

I think that's one of those things that sounds good when you're talking to television reporters but in reality is way down the list. Kind of like how the Big10 said having their schools be AAU members was critically important when they knew Nebraska was about to lose that status. Also...

"I think college football has just taken control of everything that is going on in the country. All these moves are about football and money and greed, and I am embarrassed about the whole thing. Not just because it has affected the Big East. It just seems that things such as integrity and loyalty and congeniality are gone.

"You can talk about being good fits and academic agendas and none of that has anything to do with anything. The presidents can say that, but I have sat in the room and I know what it is. It's about football and it's about money and in certain instances it's about greed."

- Mike Tranghese, former BE commissioner

and...

"We always keep our television partners close to us,'' he said. "You don't get extra money for basketball. It's 85 percent football money. TV - ESPN - is the one who told us what to do."

- Gene DeFilippo, Boston College AD

Also the sec/big 12/big 10 are three of the largest conferences and I would have to do research to find a school in a top 10-15 TV market from those conferences, maybe LSU? Arkansas? Columbus? Wisconsin? Thats about all I can think of near huge TV markets yet every week they are some of the highest rated match ups.

The Big Ten has three in the top 15. Two of the schools are ones that don't move the needle much (Northwestern and Minnesota). The third is Michigan, which is in the Detroit market for TV purposes.

FreakinB: 12349876: p the boiler: Utah as the only school that I am aware of not having significant long-term sports history

Their basketball team though sucking ass this year has a good history for a non-power league team. 27 tournaments, 4 final fours, a national championship. Majerus had them in the national championship game in 1998 and they made the sweet sixteen in 2005.

They're also the only school ever to produce the #1 picks in both the NBA and NFL Draft in the same year.

/Andrew Bogut and Alex Smith


Their women's gymnastics team has won 10 national titles in the last 30 years.

/just sayin

BigJake: Chicago? Houston? Dallas?

Name the colleges, I dont know of any colleges based in those cities in major athletic conferences, the biggest city would probably be austin, columbus, and then maybe lexington or nashville. Almost all of the colleges are not based in large market cities and those that are will not draw the TV ratings anyway but will on a national scale, fark the largest basketball game would be UNC/Duke and they are far from large market areas.

*edit* the markets are in line with what I thought, all are under 1 million in population, with most being under 200K
SEC
Big 10
Big 12

There are no schools in chicago/houston/dallas who are even remotely ready to join a major conference, U of houston is a joke and proved it by getting the asses kicked by an average team in their own conference.

UAB brings a lot to the table.... bwahahaha

UNC_Samurai: EAST Carolina! EAST-farking-Carolina! THERE IS NO EASTERN CAROLINA! You're thinking there must be some counterpart to that pile of meth and despair in Cullowhee.

Love me some Eastern Carolina v. Miami of Ohio rivalry

GQueue: The Big Ten has three in the top 15. Two of the schools are ones that don't move the needle much (Northwestern and Minnesota). The third is Michigan, which is in the Detroit market for TV purposes.

Its 45 mins away, thats like saying I live in downtown atlanta and I am only 30 mins outside of atlanta.

Hell athens is only an hour 15 out of atlanta but nobody would say they have the atlanta TV market, they have to state TV market, focusing on tv populations mean shiat, if you put out a quality team they will watch.

steamingpile: Name the colleges, I dont know of any colleges based in those cities in major athletic conferences

Doesn't matter if the colleges are based there, that's where their alums live.

beaten

FreakinB: I think his point is alum networks. There are lots of Illinois alums in Chicago (and Northwestern's right there), lots of Texas alums in Dallas and Houston, etc.

Yet SEC games regularly get rated higher than acc games except from traditional football schools which is the key not where alums live. Put a good product out there for years and people will come watch, keep putting crap out there and people still wont give a shiat. The acc could invite rutgers but that still doesnt mean they will suddenly get ratings in the ny/nj area since the teams are such shiat.

Getting back to the actual topic at hand, they're talking about this MWC-CUSA unified conference eventually getting to 18-24 members, separated into geographic divisions. Now, the practicality of a 24-team college league aside, exactly where are they going to get these schools from? The Big West? The rest of the WAC? The MAC?

steamingpile: *edit* the markets are in line with what I thought, all are under 1 million in population, with most being under 200K
SEC
Big 10
Big 12

There are no schools in chicago/houston/dallas who are even remotely ready to join a major conference, U of houston is a joke and proved it by getting the asses kicked by an average team in their own conference.

Ummmm.... Northwestern is in Evanston, which is for all practical purposes less a Chicago suburb and more a Chicago neighborhood.
Also, the B1G headquarters are in Chciago - UofI, the state school is about an hour south

p the boiler: steamingpile: *edit* the markets are in line with what I thought, all are under 1 million in population, with most being under 200K
SEC
Big 10
Big 12

There are no schools in chicago/houston/dallas who are even remotely ready to join a major conference, U of houston is a joke and proved it by getting the asses kicked by an average team in their own conference.

Ummmm.... Northwestern is in Evanston, which is for all practical purposes less a Chicago suburb and more a Chicago neighborhood.
Also, the B1G headquarters are in Chciago - UofI, the state school is about an hour south

also, over half the conference is situated near top 20 markets. Purdue/IU - Indianapolis : UofM/MSU - Detroit : OSU in Columbus: NU and UofI : Chicago

Crewmannumber6: Voltron? Really?
[i47.photobucket.com image 200x200]

Wrong one Crew, subs got it right he was referencing the suck that is this!

steamingpile:
Also the sec/big 12/big 10 are three of the largest conferences and I would have to do research to find a school in a top 10-15 TV market from those conferences, maybe LSU? Arkansas? Columbus? Wisconsin? Thats about all I can think of near huge TV markets yet every week they are some of the highest rated match ups.

New Orleanse and Little Rock are in the 50s, Maddison is in the 80s.

Link (new window)

I may have missed one or two but this is a decent list. I didn't put St. Louis anywhere since I think it could go to all three. Probably a lot of old Big XII fans there, it's close to BIG schools, and Mizzou grads are going to start seeing SEC.

Top 50 markets for BiG XII (6, 2 top 10)
5 Dallas/Ft. Worth
10 Houston
31 Kansas City
36 San Antonio
44 Oklahoma City
47 Austin

Top 50 markets for BIG (7-8, 1 or 2 top 5)
3 Chicago
4 Philly (Penn State?)
11 Detroit
14 Minneapolis
18 Cleveland
23 Pittsburg (Penn State?)
26 Indiana Polis
32 Columbus, OH

Top 50 markets for SEC (9-11, 2 top 10)

9 Atlanta
10 Houston (Mostly Big 12, but a Big A&M city)
14 Tampa
16 Miami (ACC?)
19 Orlando
25 Charlotte (ACC?)
29 Nashville
37 Greenville
39 Birmingham
49 Memphis
50 Jacksonville

Go Lobos!

tnpir: Getting back to the actual topic at hand, they're talking about this MWC-CUSA unified conference eventually getting to 18-24 members, separated into geographic divisions. Now, the practicality of a 24-team college league aside, exactly where are they going to get these schools from? The Big West? The rest of the WAC? The MAC?

MWC
01 Colorado State
02 New Mexico
03 UNLV
04 Wyoming

CUSA
05 E Carolina
06 Marshall
07 Rice
08 SMU
09 Tulane
10 Tulsa
11 UAB
12 UCF
13 UTEP

WAC
14 Hawaii


Possible targets
15 Fresno State
16 Idaho
17 Louisiana Tech
18 Nevada
19 New Mexico State
20 San Jose State
21 Utah State
22 Louisiana-Lafayette
23 Florida Atlantic
24 UTSA (Joining Sun Belt in 2013 or 2014, playing in the Alamodome)

steamingpile: Ok it wasnt UAB but I could have sworn they played them and came close a year or two ago against one of the top teams.

Alabama doesn't play in-state schools (other than Auburn) in anything that counts. Ever.

FreakinB: I'm not arguing that. But once those reputations are established and you're talking about pulling teams from other conferences, it absolutely does matter that Texas brings Dallas and Houston, Syracuse basketball can bring some of the NYC area, and UAB can bring...not a whole hell of a lot.

/don't mean to disrespect UAB, just an easy example

Yeah I get that but then bama/auburn shouldnt pull in any viewers either though but since they have football crazy alums it pulls in those markets, I know a lot of auburn fans end up in atlanta, most cusa/mwc wont bring in many viewers even if they are alums since there was not that football crazy atmosphere or tradition there at the time. But UAB does have more alums than you give them credit for and they have a football tradition, just not a very good one.

p the boiler: Ummmm.... Northwestern is in Evanston, which is for all practical purposes less a Chicago suburb and more a Chicago neighborhood.
Also, the B1G headquarters are in Chciago - UofI, the state school is about an hour south

also, over half the conference is situated near top 20 markets. Purdue/IU - Indianapolis : UofM/MSU - Detroit : OSU in Columbus: NU and UofI : Chicago

Yes I get it but the point is the city where they are is not important, its the atmosphere that is built, the top acc draws are still fsu miami bc and to a lesser extent clemson, why do they have large draws? Because they had large followings for a long time and the rest of the acc schools seem to have shoved football to the back of the priority list.