USF/Big East Realignment Discussion Thread

[Buller64]

TAMPA --

Reports that Pittsburgh and Syrcause have applied to join the Atlantic Coast Conference and leave the Big East certainly grabbed the attention of USF president Judy Genshaft and athletic director Doug Woolard, who issued a joint statement prior to Saturday night's game against Florida A&M regarding the changes taking place with possible conference realignment.

"Obviously, we are aware of the information reported by the media regarding some members of the Big East Conference, as well as other national news related to conference alignment. This is certainly a time of tremendous change in intercollegiate athletics and, clearly, that change may continue," the statement read.

"We have been monitoring the landscape and have been actively engaged in dialogue at the conference and national levels over the last 18 months. That will continue in earnest as we move forward."

[gomiami1972]

I think we will end up somewhere in an AQ conference.  If the Big Four conferences all expand to 16, we should be one of the 64 chosen.  If they don't, there would almost have to be 5 AQ conferences until the ultimate super-leagues finalize...and we would be in that 5th league whether it is the Big East or the Big 12.

[79 Bull]

NAME THE NEW Hybrid Conference...

EAST WEST 16

BAC - Big America Conference

[gomiami1972]

I think the Big 12 is our best bet. SEC will never invite, ACC is running out of spots. Would be a good way to get into the FL market. Add TCU, Louisville and Cincinnati.

I'll buy that.  Living in Kansas City, I would not mind having KU, K-State, Iowa State and Missouri in the same conference as the Bulls.  I'd actually get to see more than one game each year (the bowl game.)

[Doc]

A BigEast/BigXII merger could look like:

FBall East: USF/UC/UL/RU/UCONN/NOVA

FBall West: MU/KU/KSU/ISU/BU/TCU

BBall: PC/SHU/SJU/DPU/MARQ/GTOWN (ND gone)

If BBall splits (keeping BE name), forget Nova.  Adding (dare I say) UCF would give all teams a tidy travel partner for low-revenue sports: USF/UCF, UL/UC, RU/UCONN, MU/ISU, KU/KSU, BU/TCU.  Alternatively, the sixth eastern team could be Navy or Temple.  Not feeling anywhere near as good about this as I did 24 hours ago. . .

[Triple B]

Just as an FYI, I did request earlier today that we set up a sub-board for all the conference re-alignment talk that's going one but haven't really gotten a response yet ... but I actually do agree that until then we should have a thread on here pertaining to "USF/Big East Realignment Talk", so this one will be renamed and all of that type conversation should be on this thread to avoid multiple threads on the same subject ... which means the other thread already started about this will be merged here .. and to those whining about merged threads, when people stop starting threads about stuff already being discussed, the merging will stop.

Other conference realignment threads started on here not directly involving USF or the Big East should/will be moved to the Tampa Bay/General Sports forum until we can, hopefully, get the conference realignment sub-forum up.

[gomiami1972]

A BigEast/BigXII merger could look like:

FBall East: USF/UC/UL/RU/UCONN/NOVA

FBall West: MU/KU/KSU/ISU/BU/TCU

BBall: PC/SHU/SJU/DPU/MARQ/GTOWN (ND gone)

If BBall splits (keeping BE name), forget Nova.  Adding (dare I say) UCF would give all teams a tidy travel partner for low-revenue sports: USF/UCF, UL/UC, RU/UCONN, MU/ISU, KU/KSU, BU/TCU.  Alternatively, the sixth eastern team could be Navy or Temple.  Not feeling anywhere near as good about this as I did 24 hours ago. . .

I can't see how Rutgers is not grabbed up by the Big 10 or the ACC since they are a direct access to the New York City market.  Granted, NY could care less about college football but it is a ton of TV sets.  And not to get picky but MU/ISU is not the tidiest low-budget travel couple.  KU would be the closest school to MU by quite a few miles if you take the interstates.

[BullsFanCrystal]

RE: Brand Name....  I live in Louisiana and I hear people often yell to me "USF!" or "South Florida!" when they see me with my bulls shirts on.  Most of my shirts just have the Bull logo, so people are recognizing the logo/USF/South Florida brand, even here in Louisiana where the Tigers rule the land.  I believe we do have a brand name.  

[Reliable Source]

Just as an FYI, I did request earlier today that we set up a sub-board for all the conference re-alignment talk that's going one but haven't really gotten a response yet ... but I actually do agree that until then we should have a thread on here pertaining to "USF/Big East Realignment Talk", so this one will be renamed and all of that type conversation should be on this thread to avoid multiple threads on the same subject ... which means the other thread already started about this will be merged here .. and to those whining about merged threads, when people stop starting threads about stuff already being discussed, the merging will stop.

Other conference realignment threads started on here not directly involving USF or the Big East should/will be moved to the Tampa Bay/General Sports forum until we can, hopefully, get the conference realignment sub-forum up.

I feel like Charlie Brown . Thread......wah..wah...wah. Thread....whaaa..wha. whaaaa..whaaa. Big East...whaaa. whaaa. whaa.. whhaaaa

[Gismo]

RE: Brand Name....  I live in Louisiana and I hear people often yell to me "USF!" or "South Florida!" when they see me with my bulls shirts on.  Most of my shirts just have the Bull logo, so people are recognizing the logo/USF/South Florida brand, even here in Louisiana where the Tigers rule the land.  I believe we do have a brand name.  

After reading this post I just thought I would also chime in...

I was in Austin TX last weekend at a 7 year old's soccer game wearing a bulls "our shirt" (The one with the fight song inside the uhorns on the back, I think from 2009) and a parent of one of the players congratulated me on USF's win over ND. And this was in Austin TX, Longhorn territory.