USF/Big East Realignment Discussion Thread

[Gismo]

If OU and OK St stay that would leave them with 9. We have 6. I can see the Big 12 allowing regional netowrks for each school similar to the LHN with the guarantee that the Big 12 programming be aired as well. This MAY entice Notre Dame to be the 16th team. They will have stability in a conference AND still be allowed to have their own network. All revenues from each network can be pooled and split evenly or not, I dont care. Imageine OU, TX, TT, OKST, WVU, USF, Cincy, Mizzou, and ND as the conference flag bearers. All of us are capable of wining against other elite conferences. Baylor is getting better, as is Loiusville. Uconn, Rutgers, iowa St, Kansas and Kansas St are nothing to slouch at, well maybe Iowa St. That is one hell of a conference. If we loose Uconn and Rutgers then we take ECU and UCF/Houston..... I like this scenario ALOT!!!!!

I think you are forgetting TCU as the Big Easts 7th team.

[gomiami1972]

I just think that, at some point soon, we need to plant our flag.  We have bounced from Sun Belt, Metro, C-USA, Big East...It is time that South Florida makes a firm statement and take the lead on this, "We are here, now who is with us?"  Change the bylaws and make the conference a $500 million exit fee with 20 years notice.  Whichever schools, Cincy, Louisville, West Virginia, TCU, etc. want to be part of a permanent solution, then let's get it on and have them plant their flag right next to ours.  

There are institutions out there that have sworn a permanent alliance...Auburn and Alabama will always be in the same conference no matter what realignment occurs...additional examples are legion.  Let's find the schools that are tired of the instability and bind together...forever.

WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE!

Amen.

[bullwark]

What is forgotten in all this conference realignment scuttlebutt is that the Big East was one of the early drivers for ESPN's success, providing much needed content back in the 1980's when the network was struggling to find their legs.  Strange how things sometimes come full circle, now its the Big East struggling to find their legs amid the conference chaos.

[USFresh]

What is forgotten in all this conference realignment scuttlebutt is that the Big East was one of the early drivers for ESPN's success, providing much needed content back in the 1980's when the network was struggling to find their legs.  Strange how things sometimes come full circle, now its the Big East struggling to find their legs amid the conference chaos.

I'm gonna give you (2) +1's.  One for that comment and the other for your profile pic.  Well played, sir.

[Cow Pie]

If OU and OK St stay that would leave them with 9. We have 6. I can see the Big 12 allowing regional netowrks for each school similar to the LHN with the guarantee that the Big 12 programming be aired as well. This MAY entice Notre Dame to be the 16th team. They will have stability in a conference AND still be allowed to have their own network. All revenues from each network can be pooled and split evenly or not, I dont care. Imageine OU, TX, TT, OKST, WVU, USF, Cincy, Mizzou, and ND as the conference flag bearers. All of us are capable of wining against other elite conferences. Baylor is getting better, as is Loiusville. Uconn, Rutgers, iowa St, Kansas and Kansas St are nothing to slouch at, well maybe Iowa St. That is one hell of a conference. If we loose Uconn and Rutgers then we take ECU and UCF/Houston..... I like this scenario ALOT!!!!!

No way the new BigXII goes to 16 teams when all of the other conferences remain at 14 or 12. Heck I doubt that the BigXII adds more then 1 team, all they need is 1 school to replace Texas A&M after all. If OU/UT stays put then there will be no merger and the Big Easy will most likely just add UCF, Memphis, and a number of other mediocre CUSA teams to remain functional until the BCS can kick us all out in a few years.

Only way a merger occurs will be if OU and UT both leave or at least one leaves... if both choose to stay then we are screwed

[mikeybull]

If OU and OK St stay that would leave them with 9. We have 6. I can see the Big 12 allowing regional netowrks for each school similar to the LHN with the guarantee that the Big 12 programming be aired as well. This MAY entice Notre Dame to be the 16th team. They will have stability in a conference AND still be allowed to have their own network. All revenues from each network can be pooled and split evenly or not, I dont care. Imageine OU, TX, TT, OKST, WVU, USF, Cincy, Mizzou, and ND as the conference flag bearers. All of us are capable of wining against other elite conferences. Baylor is getting better, as is Loiusville. Uconn, Rutgers, iowa St, Kansas and Kansas St are nothing to slouch at, well maybe Iowa St. That is one hell of a conference. If we loose Uconn and Rutgers then we take ECU and UCF/Houston..... I like this scenario ALOT!!!!!

No way the new BigXII goes to 16 teams when all of the other conferences remain at 14 or 12. Heck I doubt that the BigXII adds more then 1 team, all they need is 1 school to replace Texas A&M after all. If OU/UT stays put then there will be no merger and the Big Easy will most likely just add UCF, Memphis, and a number of other mediocre CUSA teams to remain functional until the BCS can kick us all out in a few years.

Only way a merger occurs will be if OU and UT both leave or at least one leaves... if both choose to stay then we are screwed

If that ends up panning out guarantee USF is out of the BE in 2 years

[charsibb]

BC Slick, that gets away from the original intentions of what a CONFERENCE is supposed to be which is competing schools are from a themed geographic area so as to take advantage of shared natural rivalries, resources etc.  if you carve out AL, GA, FL and MS, it basically would be what the SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE should be.

Just pull a map out, grab all the D1 schools and start dividing up until you get to 16.  You'll see it makes a ton of sense economically and will create a ton of PRIDE and the level of play will be better across the board.

If we're going to blow this thing up, blow it up right and draw it up the way it should be as we won't have another shot in our life times.

On my map, Tenn and S. Carolina are in the South East geographically and much more importantly, culturally.  Tennessee is a much better school than FAU, living in GA just reinforces that, and S. Carolina is on its way up.

Slick, you can't start leaving D1 schools in the footprint totally out like an FAU or it defeats the entire premise behind it.  Plus, if you want it to work, you can't cherry pick from border states in lieu of ones in the heart of your area.  I may have been reaching too much with Texas even and they should've been replaced by someone I may have missed like Tulane as they would probably be best to be a part of a Mid South Conference including teams from ARK, TEX, etc.

You guys got me thinking about regional rivalries, and so I combined that with my belief that 9-member conferences are the best size, and then I added the concept of relegation, where the worst upper division team drops to the lower division and the best lower division team jumps up to the upper division every year (like English Premier League soccer).

So here's my idea for 8 "Ladders" (conferences) with 9 teams in each of the upper divisions and 5-7 teams in the lower division.

This would keep Congress out, since every team now has a path to the upper division, and from there to the national championship, which could be a real 8-team playoff (with the various bowl games still available for the other 112 teams).

I've somewhat arbitrarily assigned them into the upper and lower divisions for the first year, after that they move up or down based on performance.

9-teams means 4 home and 4 away conference games and 4 OOC games every year- this size really does make the most sense.

Since every team plays every other team, there is a true conference champ, and this arrangement would really make for some great rivalries. And it also makes it easy for 1-AA teams to move up to FBS. Just join the lower division of your geography and work your way up.

TX gets split in half E/W and Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio get split N/S, but the rest is based on the state borders, and it all works out numerically. Which kinda surprised me, actually.

Of course, this is far too rational and logical to ever happen, but I can dream, can't I?!?! LOL

Northwest Ladder

Washington

Washington State

Oregon

Oregon State

California

Stanford

BYU

Utah

Boise State

Idaho

Nevada

San Jose State

UNLV

Utah State

Wyoming

Southwest Ladder

Arizona

Arizona State

UCLA

USC

Oklahoma

Oklahoma State

Texas

Texas Tech

Fresno State

Hawaii

New Mexico

New Mexico State

San Diego State

Tulsa

UTEP

Central Ladder

Colorado

Kansas

Kansas State

Missouri

Illinois

Indiana

Purdue

Ohio State

Cincinnati

Air Force

Akron

Ball State

Colorado State

Kent State

Miami (OH)

Ohio

Midwest Ladder

Michigan

Michigan State

Iowa

Iowa State

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Nebraska

Northwestern

Notre Dame

Bowling Green

Central Michigan

Eastern Michigan

Northern Illinois

Toledo

Western Michigan

Gulf Ladder

Arkansas

LSU

Texas A&M

Baylor

TCU

Southern Methodist

Rice

Houston

North Texas

Arkansas State

Tulane

Louisiana Tech

Louisiana-Lafayette

Louisiana-Monroe

Texas State (San Marcos)

UTSA

Southeast Ladder

Alabama

Auburn

Georgia

Georgia Tech

Florida

Florida State

USF

Miami (FL)

Mississippi State

Mississippi

Southern Miss

FAU

FIU

UAB

UCF

Troy

Northeast Ladder

Boston College

Connecticut

Maryland

Penn State

Pittsburgh

Syracuse

Virginia

Virginia Tech

West Virginia

Army

Buffalo

Marshall

Navy

Rutgers

Temple

Eastern Ladder

North Carolina

NC State

Duke

Clemson

South Carolina

Tennessee

Vanderbilt

Kentucky

Louisville

ECU

Memphis

Middle Tennessee

Wake

Western Kentucky

[charsibb]

This is a test. I think my previous post got garbled.

[mikeybull]

This is a test. I think my previous post got garbled.

it did

[Gismo]

i can't see anything on this page