Up till now I always hated the realignment talk. However, the pic someone posted of the "curtain" to divide the games puts me on the side that the Sun Belt and CUSA need to realign together. Make CUSA (an eastern conference) and Sun Belt (a western conference).
The dividing line should be the Mississippi-Alabama border. The Western schools of both conferences get all Texas, LA, Ark and Mississippi schools = 12 teams. Eastern gets all VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, WVA & KY schools = 14 teams.
Our conference would have (alphabetically)
App State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
FIU
FAU
Ga Southern
Ga state
Marshall
MTSU
ODU
South Alabama
Troy
UAB
West KY
While not perfect the divisional football lineup could be:
ODU
Charlotte
Marshall
APP State
Coastal Carolina
GA State
GA So
(We lose a rivalry with WKY, but at these when you look at a map these schools all group well together)
UAB
USA
Troy
MTSU
WKY
FIU
FAU
LOTS of geographic rivals for nearly all schools in both new conferences.
Basketball:
Not sure you do divisions. But if so: Round Robin in your division and one game against all the schools in the other division = 19 games. Only one less OOC game than now.
Our conference would have a couple of great geographic locations with ample air hubs or local attractions to serve as tournament locations. Atlanta. Charlotte. Nashville. Charleston. Myrtle Beach (Golf)
Alternatively if we call our conference the Sun Belt that would be fine. That way CUSA keeps the idiot commissioner and administration that came up with this stupid dual court idea.
I would LOVE for this to happen. It would slightly improve the basketball conference, but football would be greatly improved. Travel expenses across the board for all teams would decrease. Rivalries could actually exist.
However, the downside is that this is far too logical to actually happen IRL.
(03-09-2018 09:37 AM)ODU True Blue Wrote: Up till now I always hated the realignment talk. However, the pic someone posted of the "curtain" to divide the games puts me on the side that the Sun Belt and CUSA need to realign together. Make CUSA (an eastern conference) and Sun Belt (a western conference).
The dividing line should be the Mississippi-Alabama border. The Western schools of both conferences get all Texas, LA, Ark and Mississippi schools = 12 teams. Eastern gets all VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, WVA & KY schools = 14 teams.
Our conference would have (alphabetically)
App State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
FIU
FAU
Ga Southern
Ga state
Marshall
MTSU
ODU
South Alabama
Troy
UAB
West KY
While not perfect the divisional football lineup could be:
ODU
Charlotte
Marshall
APP State
Coastal Carolina
GA State
GA So
(We lose a rivalry with WKY, but at these when you look at a map these schools all group well together)
UAB
USA
Troy
MTSU
WKY
FIU
FAU
LOTS of geographic rivals for nearly all schools in both new conferences.
Basketball:
Not sure you do divisions. But if so: Round Robin in your division and one game against all the schools in the other division = 19 games. Only one less OOC game than now.
Our conference would have a couple of great geographic locations with ample air hubs or local attractions to serve as tournament locations. Atlanta. Charlotte. Nashville. Charleston. Myrtle Beach (Golf)
I would keep Southern Miss over South Alabama. They are about the same distance. My conference would be:
ODU
Charlotte
Marshall
App State
MTSU
WKU
Coastal Carolina
Southern Miss
FAU
FIU
UAB
Ga Southern
Ga State
Troy
(03-09-2018 09:37 AM)ODU True Blue Wrote: Up till now I always hated the realignment talk. However, the pic someone posted of the "curtain" to divide the games puts me on the side that the Sun Belt and CUSA need to realign together. Make CUSA (an eastern conference) and Sun Belt (a western conference).
The dividing line should be the Mississippi-Alabama border. The Western schools of both conferences get all Texas, LA, Ark and Mississippi schools = 12 teams. Eastern gets all VA, NC, SC, GA, FL, AL, TN, WVA & KY schools = 14 teams.
Our conference would have (alphabetically)
App State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
FIU
FAU
Ga Southern
Ga state
Marshall
MTSU
ODU
South Alabama
Troy
UAB
West KY
While not perfect the divisional football lineup could be:
ODU
Charlotte
Marshall
APP State
Coastal Carolina
GA State
GA So
(We lose a rivalry with WKY, but at these when you look at a map these schools all group well together)
UAB
USA
Troy
MTSU
WKY
FIU
FAU
LOTS of geographic rivals for nearly all schools in both new conferences.
Basketball:
Not sure you do divisions. But if so: Round Robin in your division and one game against all the schools in the other division = 19 games. Only one less OOC game than now.
Our conference would have a couple of great geographic locations with ample air hubs or local attractions to serve as tournament locations. Atlanta. Charlotte. Nashville. Charleston. Myrtle Beach (Golf)
I would keep Southern Miss over South Alabama. They are about the same distance. My conference would be:
ODU
Charlotte
Marshall
App State
MTSU
WKU
Coastal Carolina
Southern Miss
FAU
FIU
UAB
Ga Southern
Ga State
Troy
Geographically, the SO Miss and South Alabama switch doesn't make sense. South AL would not approve that since they'd be isolated from the rest of their conference.
Not sure that will make a hill-a-beans difference.
ODU - 1.5 hours from Richmond
JMU - 1.5 hours from Richmond
Liberty - 2 hours from Richmond
Delaware - 3 hours from Richmond
WKU - 1 hour from Nashville
MTSU - 40 minutes from Nashville
Marshall - 5 Hours from Nashville, 5.5 hours from Richmond
Charlotte - 4.5 hours from Richmond, 6 hours from Nashville
App State - 5.5 hours from Nashville, 5 hours from Richmond
UAB - 2.5 hours from Nashville
Alternate the tournament between Richmond and Nashville. Every other year over half the conference will be close enough for a day trip. 4 schools within 3 hours of Richmond, 3 schools within 3 hours of Nashville. Charlotte, Marshall, and App State aren't super close to either, but close enough to easily drive to both. Unfortunately, there aren't enough schools in our region to have a true regional conference, but we can do it with 2 true regions. Stick Charlotte in the East and Marshall and App State in the West.
East
ODU
JMU
Liberty
Delaware
Charlotte
West
MTSU
WKU
UAB
Marshall
App State
Basketball everyone plays twice so no split needed. West would obviously dominate football in the short term, but I would think the East would eventually rise to that level. Really doesn't matter in football anyway as a 6-6 season can get a better bowl than a 9-3 season if they stick you in the Bahamas on a weekday to play Eastern Michigan.
(03-09-2018 11:03 AM)EverRespect Wrote: Not sure that will make a hill-a-beans difference.
ODU - 1.5 hours from Richmond
JMU - 1.5 hours from Richmond
Liberty - 2 hours from Richmond
Delaware - 3 hours from Richmond
WKU - 1 hour from Nashville
MTSU - 40 minutes from Nashville
Marshall - 5 Hours from Nashville, 5.5 hours from Richmond
Charlotte - 4.5 hours from Richmond, 6 hours from Nashville
App State - 5.5 hours from Nashville, 5 hours from Richmond
UAB - 2.5 hours from Nashville
Alternate the tournament between Richmond and Nashville. Every other year over half the conference will be close enough for a day trip. 4 schools within 3 hours of Richmond, 3 schools within 3 hours of Nashville. Charlotte, Marshall, and App State aren't super close to either, but close enough to easily drive to both. Unfortunately, there aren't enough schools in our region to have a true regional conference, but we can do it with 2 true regions. Stick Charlotte in the East and Marshall and App State in the West.
East
ODU
JMU
Liberty
Delaware
Charlotte
West
MTSU
WKU
UAB
Marshall
App State
Basketball everyone plays twice so no split needed. West would obviously dominate football in the short term, but I would think the East would eventually rise to that level. Really doesn't matter in football anyway as a 6-6 season can get a better bowl than a 9-3 season if they stick you in the Bahamas on a weekday to play Eastern Michigan.
I think the West teams might have a problem with the way that aligns for football.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
Easy just to sit there and complain about everything and never come up with any solution of your own. I would take that conference over what we have now.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
I don't see where it is any worse than what we are in.
CUSA has 4, maybe 5 better teams than the 2nd best Sunbelt team. And it pretty much drops off from there. 8 of the 12 teams are >200 or worse.
So are you arging for keeping UTSA (#5 in C-USA)? No one is in favor of keeping any texas teams. We are trying to come up with a new geographically aligned conference with the best teams. Its not going to be perfect. Come up with something better that what I did and ill listen to you. But dont just sit there and find flaws with everything that other people do.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
I don't see where it is any worse than what we are in.
CUSA has 4, maybe 5 better teams than the 2nd best Sunbelt team. And it pretty much drops off from there. 8 of the 12 teams are >200 or worse.
So are you arging for keeping UTSA (#5 in C-USA)? No one is in favor of keeping any texas teams. We are trying to come up with a new geographically aligned conference with the best teams. Its not going to be perfect. Come up with something better that what I did and ill listen to you. But dont just sit there and find flaws with everything that other people do.
I have no idea what the best solution was. My reply was only to the poster that said it would improve basketball.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
I don't see where it is any worse than what we are in.
CUSA has 4, maybe 5 better teams than the 2nd best Sunbelt team. And it pretty much drops off from there. 8 of the 12 teams are >200 or worse.
I don't understand what you are saying. You are correct about CUSA, but all the good teams are included in this scenario. Then we add lesser teams that are just as good as the ones they replace, and sprinkle a little better geography in there.
You could make an argument that this proposal is not great for football, though.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
I don't see where it is any worse than what we are in.
CUSA has 4, maybe 5 better teams than the 2nd best Sunbelt team. And it pretty much drops off from there. 8 of the 12 teams are >200 or worse.
So are you arging for keeping UTSA (#5 in C-USA)? No one is in favor of keeping any texas teams. We are trying to come up with a new geographically aligned conference with the best teams. Its not going to be perfect. Come up with something better that what I did and ill listen to you. But dont just sit there and find flaws with everything that other people do.
In an ideal world, we either join the AAC or start an independent alliance with some of the eastern schools and join A10 for olympic sports. Obviously, that would require acceptable landing spots for Marshall, WKU and MT; perhaps the OVC.
Southern Miss
FAU (11th C-USA)
FIU (8th C-USA)
UAB (6th C-USA)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
I would say adding those teams would help basketball and football. We are getting 2 of the top 3 bball teams from the sunbelt
That conference is awful though.
I don't see where it is any worse than what we are in.
CUSA has 4, maybe 5 better teams than the 2nd best Sunbelt team. And it pretty much drops off from there. 8 of the 12 teams are >200 or worse.
I don't understand what you are saying. You are correct about CUSA, but all the good teams are included in this scenario. Then we add lesser teams that are just as good as the ones they replace, and sprinkle a little better geography in there.
You could make an argument that this proposal is not great for football, though.
I don't know the best solution. Haven't really even thought about it because it's probably a huge waste of time. I guess its the addition of these schools while eliminating the Texas/LA schools? It appears that your adding some geographical upgrades while eliminating a couple schools that really do care about football/basketball and have good support/turnout. Is that the best solution? Maybe. None of these schools really strike me as long term good basketball conference mates, which was my point.
App State (7th Sunbelt)
Coastal Carolina (8th Sunbelt)
Ga Southern (3rd Sunbelt)
Ga State (2nd Sunbelt)
Troy (6th Sunbelt)
Personally, my plan A would be to get rid of the Florida schools.