Conference realignment "Rumors" "tweets" "etc"

[charsibb]

3 hours ago, TallyBull said:

Looks like Bianchi agrees with us:

 

 

Thinking about a draft is interesting. If each conference was able to "reserve" say, 4 teams, and the rest were draftable, what would the landscape look like now?

 

[Mama_Bull]

8 hours ago, beastiebull said:

 I don't see a link to the MB article and I don't want to click it anyway.  Can someone post it?

Commentary: 

UCF, USF have more upside for SEC than Ole Miss, Mississippi State

Video: UCF coach Scott Frost talks about Memphis victory

Mike BianchiContact ReporterOrlando Sentinel

 

Funny, but the snide emails and snarky tweets from the Ole Miss and Mississippi State fans have stopped.

Haven’t received one in months ridiculing me for a column I wrote a few years ago in which I stated that the SEC should dump the Mississippi schools and add UCF and USF instead.

Over the years, I have received hundreds of venomous dispatches from angry Mississippians in which they have called me every name imaginable — idiot, moron, boogerface, butthead, etc.

But now it’s time for them to apologize and start referring to me by a new nickname:

The Truth.

I hate to say I told you so … but I TOLD YOU SO!!!

USF is unbeaten and ranked 18th in the country.

UCF is unbeaten and ranked 25th in the country.

 

Meanwhile, Mississippi State has been beaten by a combined score of 80-13 by Georgia and Auburn in the last two weeks

And Ole Miss, predictably, is back to being Ole Miserable. The Rebels are at the bottom of the SEC standings, just got smashed 66-3 by Alabama and will get hammered even worse when NCAA nails them for rampant cheating. Then, of course, there’s the embarrassing little issue of forcing coach Hugh Freeze to resign a couple of months ago for allegedly soliciting an escort service.

I don’t elicit any joy from Mississippi’s misery, but it does prove the point I’ve been writing about for years when it comes to the ridiculous inequity in college football. The only reason the Mississippi schools are in the SEC is because they were in the right place at the right time 100 years ago when the major conferences were formed.

In today’s world, they don’t really bring much to the table. They don’t bring TV markets. They don’t bring national interest. They don’t bring much upside and potential.

There’s a reason the last SEC champion to come out of Mississippi was in 1963 when Ole Miss won the title four years before the league even integrated. The fact is, schools such as Ole Miss and Mississippi State are simply taking up a spot that would be better suited for thriving universities in major markets like UCF and USF.

Orlando Sentinel Sports Columnist, Mike Bianchi reads some hate mail in reponse to his saying Ole Miss and Mississippi State should be replaced in the SEC by UCF and USF

As former UCF coach George O’Leary used to say about the Power Five conferences: “Most of them have two or three good programs; the rest are just members.”

The only reason I use the Mississippi schools as an example is because the SEC is the king of college football. In reality, though, every Power Five conference has perennial deadwood (see Wake Forest, Purdue and Iowa State).

It’s always been my contention that if you put UCF and USF in a Power Five league and give them the money, TV exposure and the built-in mega-games against the big-time opponents that would fill their stadiums, then they’d be more successful than half the teams in the big-boy leagues.

The only thing that separates UCF and USF from many of these programs is that big, fat TV check. Example: Ole Miss’ athletic revenue was $110 million last year, compared to $59 million for UCF. That’s a difference of about $50 million, which is nearly what each SEC team made from TV and bowl revenue last season.

New USF coach Charlie Strong, who’s coached in the SEC and Big 12, couldn’t agree more. Put USF and UCF in a league with its own TV network, big-time bowl tie-ins and legitimate access to the College Football Playoff and watch them explode.

“Without a doubt,” Strong told me Wednesday on our “Open Mike” radio show. “With the job we’re doing here at USF and the job they’re doing at UCF, we can go beat those people [Power Five teams] right now. Just think if we had their resources. … The only thing they have that’s different from us is that they are Power Five. There’s nothing else. That’s it. We have as many good players [as some of these programs]. They just have Power Five status.”

And the only reason USF and UCF aren’t in Power Five leagues is because they are relatively new universities that didn’t have a football team a century ago when the leagues were formed. If the major conferences were starting from scratch today and holding a draft; UCF and USF would be in and Ole Miss and Mississippi State would be out.

Go ahead, Mississippians, and call me boogerface if you want.

But, deep down, you know my real name is The Truth.

And, sometimes, The Truth hurts.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9 a.m. on FM 96.9 and AM 740.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/open-mike/os-sp-ucf-usf-sec-mike-bianchi-0105-story.html

[beastiebull]

Wow great article just wish someone who mattered felt the same.

[NewEnglandBull]

None of our crack reporters in Tampa would EVER write such an article. 

[Rocky Style]

15 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

None of our crack reporters in Tampa would EVER write such an article. 

Actual attendance is good cheap pops.

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, NewEnglandBull said:

None of our crack reporters in Tampa would EVER write such an article. 

Small town, sports wise, media of O versus TB .... and Bianchi's not a reporter, he's a columnist.

[BDYZR]

2 hours ago, NewEnglandBull said:

None of our crack reporters in Tampa would EVER write such an article. 

 

42 minutes ago, Triple B said:

Small town, sports wise, media of O versus TB .... and Bianchi's not a reporter, he's a columnist.

Columnist = Reporter = Tampa Bay Times = CRACK

[NewEnglandBull]

7 minutes ago, BDYZR said:

 

Columnist = Reporter = Tampa Bay Times = CRACK

I can rephrase: NONE of the crack TAMPA columnist would EVER write such an article. 

[Triple B]

55 minutes ago, NewEnglandBull said:

I can rephrase: NONE of the crack TAMPA columnist would EVER write such an article. 

That's because the TB columnists aren't starved for big time sports to cover on a local basis ... don't have to try and get USF to that next level.

[George_Bullnard_Shaw]

14 minutes ago, Triple B said:

That's because the TB columnists aren't starved for big time sports to cover on a local basis ... don't have to try and get USF to that next level.

Truth. Put this USF team wherever LA Tech is and they'll be legends in the community.