Boise State shakiness rumors persist

[TrujilloBull2013]

the ACC is the least stable of the "power 5." once the Big East is picked clean they will come after the ACC... and that will happen sooner rather than later because at this point all the original football teams are gone (WVU, SU, Pitt, RU) and so is one of our former C-USA buddies (UL). after that Cinci, UConn and MAYBE USF have a shot at getting out. none of the new additions stand a chance. fact is the ACC's move to shred the Big East has largely been a preemptive move anticipating exactly that: future poaching by the Big XII, SEC and B1G (as we already saw with Maryland).

the ultimate goal is clearly 4 x 16 team conferences for an even 64 team field. whether that takes a year or 5 years it's going to happen, and i'd bet SOONER rather than later.

who is in the Big East, or even ACC, is all but irrelevant at this point. the only benefit to being in the Big East over C-USA or MWC or MAC or WAC is that it was ONCE an AQ/BCS conference and programs who are in it or were in it WHEN IT WAS A BCS CONFERENCE will have a slightly better perception than mid-majors who never were.

the same will be said of the ACC, as it is becoming a stepping stone for programs to position themselves for a move into one of the "Big 4" conferences. the Big 12 can't stay at 10 forever, they will ultimately have to expand if they plan on staying viable. that will likely lead to dominoes falling amongst the other conferences...

USF and the Big East don't need Boise State for anything, and BSU doesn't really need the Big East. the Big East will not be AQ with or without Boise, and Boise's stature/prestige will not grow by joining a weakened Big East.

at this point USF needs to win the games it has on its schedule, AQ conference or not, to improve its national image and give itself every advantage possible while Woolard and Genshaft need to be on the horn lobbying hard for USF to somehow find its way into the "privileged 64" teams when the dust settles. it's not going to happen overnight folks, but USF has a lot going for it... the market is here, the facilities are here, the state of Florida is one of the top 3 states for recruiting. the only thing they can work on is winning. even if it's Tulane and UCF instead of Louisville and Pitt, winning can do nothing but help.

[Triple B]

I didn't ask you if there was a chance of it happening or not. I asked what they'd(any Power 5 team) do if they were told to drop 2 or 3 spots, just like us, in their conference prominence levels. My guess is that any team with respect for themselves would rather go independent and stack their schedule with big name teams or pack it in before they'd join some sh^t conference.

What you're not grasping is we're not a Power 5 team, so why a comparison, and we're not dropping back 2 or 3 spots in conference prominence levels ..... we're barely dropping back 1 at this point, so just stop the Chicken Little routine .... especially the part about self respecting teams going Independent or dropping football .... You sound ridiculous. No "self respecting" program would ever do that. Worse case scenario is we're back in CUSA

[Ghost]

I just dont see the purpose of 16 team conferences. I just dont. I feel like it oversaturates the market, so to speak. Say what you want about the Big East, but it had the best formula. 8-10 teams, no conference championship, everyone plays round robin, and the team with the best record after all of that is the winner. That is how it should be. Instead of the way it is in the other conferences where an 8-5 Wisconsin can beat a ranked Nebraska team with a better conference record and get into the Rose Bowl, or a 7-0 VTech team that has to play a 5-2 FSU team it already beat earlier in the season just to make it's case for the BCS. Or how a 6-6 UCLA can have a shot(a small one but still) at beating an undefeated Oregon team or this year against a Stanford team it already played a week earlier.

The only conference that this formula works in is the SEC where you have an undefeated/1 loss Florida or Georgia against an undefeated/1 loss LSU or Bama. The rest of the conferences cant seem to get the right teams in the championship games and risk an upset and sending a 6-6 team to the BCS. I know Connecticut went in 2010 after going 8-4 but that doesnt happen that often. I would much rather have 8 8-team conferences, among other things.

[LifeIsBully]

All these schools realize that if nobody panicked and bailed the Big East would be fine right? We might have even had a stronger conference than the ACC. Idiots...

[TrujilloBull2013]

I just dont see the purpose of 16 team conferences. I just dont. I feel like it oversaturates the market, so to speak. Say what you want about the Big East, but it had the best formula. 8-10 teams, no conference championship, everyone plays round robin, and the team with the best record after all of that is the winner. That is how it should be. Instead of the way it is in the other conferences where an 8-5 Wisconsin can beat a ranked Nebraska team with a better conference record and get into the Rose Bowl, or a 7-0 VTech team that has to play a 5-2 FSU team it already beat earlier in the season just to make it's case for the BCS. Or how a 6-6 UCLA can have a shot(a small one but still) at beating an undefeated Oregon team or this year against a Stanford team it already played a week earlier.

The only conference that this formula works in is the SEC where you have an undefeated/1 loss Florida or Georgia against an undefeated/1 loss LSU or Bama. The rest of the conferences cant seem to get the right teams in the championship games and risk an upset and sending a 6-6 team to the BCS. I know Connecticut went in 2010 after going 8-4 but that doesnt happen that often. I would much rather have 8 8-team conferences, among other things.

we'd all like to believe in Santa Claus, but unfortunately he isn't real... and neither is the possibility of any fair or sensible D1A football conference alignment, playoff system or bowl system. it is what it is, and that's where it's going. the ACC is now a basketball conference with a few decent football programs (VTech is usually decent, FSU and Clemson are occasionally decent, Louisville is good), and those football schools will probably end up bolting for a more "stable" conference like the SEC or Big 12. is this a good thing? hell no. but it is what it is.

[TrujilloBull2013]

All these schools realize that if nobody panicked and bailed the Big East would be fine right? We might have even had a stronger conference than the ACC. Idiots...

it comes down to potential profit vs. proven profit. all of these schools bailed for $$$ in hand over the POTENTIAL money that could have been with an expanded Big East.

[mikeybull]

I'm at the point I say let's blow up the Big East, Conference USA and Sunbelt and be the leader to drive the bus towards a new conference that makes sense GEOGRAPHICALLY, like a Southeastern Conference "Light".

It would have more of a draw for local players than a conference like we have now and we throw in Army/Navy for a little spice.

It could look something like this:

Division A

USF

UCF

FIU

FAU

ECU

Army

Division B

Memphis

UAB

USA (South Alabama) (watching them locally here, they remind me of USF back in a day. They're growing support quickly in this football crazy area)

Troy

Western Kentucky

Navy

I'm open to suggestions as to the exact teams obviously to fill it out, but you see the theory behind it. There's a lot of rivlaries inherent in alot of those pairings already both with the FL teams and AL teams. If you needed more schools you could expand a little to Louisiana and get Tulane, ULL or ULM, Houston, SMU etc.

Ugh this would be awful. Why don't we just move to NAIA?

[Hem]

I didn't ask you if there was a chance of it happening or not. I asked what they'd(any Power 5 team) do if they were told to drop 2 or 3 spots, just like us, in their conference prominence levels. My guess is that any team with respect for themselves would rather go independent and stack their schedule with big name teams or pack it in before they'd join some sh^t conference.

What you're not grasping is we're not a Power 5 team, so why a comparison, and we're not dropping back 2 or 3 spots in conference prominence levels ..... we're barely dropping back 1 at this point, so just stop the Chicken Little routine .... especially the part about self respecting teams going Independent or dropping football .... You sound ridiculous. No "self respecting" program would ever do that. Worse case scenario is we're back in CUSA

The comparison is quite simple. We have now dropped from the Big East to CUSA2.0 (1 drop already) and your new, ridiculous, proposed conference would be drop number 2. Which would be, without a doubt, a USF Athletics death sentence. Edited December 12, 2012 by Hem

[charsibb]

The best thing for the fans would be 9-team conferences made up of hotly contested regional rivalries (4 home, 4 away, 4 OOC, and ALL of them drivable for fans)

Unfortunately, the fan - as a fan - is not really being considered. The prime consideration is for the non-fan - as a Cable TV subscriber.

The conference that can collect the most cable subscriber money - regardless of whether they watch the friggin games or not - is the winner.

I am thiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssss close to packing it in and switching my allegiance to some random Division 3 team (not really -- I'll always love my Bulls!) But I really have stopped caring about ANY other D1 games other than the ones we're in.

I won't even watch ANY of the bowl games this year. Can't be bothered. D1 football is now all about the $$ and it's just become a semi-pro league. I gave up on the NFL years ago, for much the same reason.

[Skingraft]

Losing Boise AND the B'ball schools is a double whammy.

Even so, I'm at the point where the fuccks I give amount to nearly zero.

Let's just get us some good road trips (Memphis and NOLA qualify easily!), play some ball, and have some fun!

+1

**** right! +2

Ahhhhhh yup.... Don't care anymore..... Never planned to fly to Boise anyhow