All trolling aside, I am all for the alliance.

Think about it. You're merging two organizations with pretty respectable products and combining them into one that will offer TV networks the best of both worlds. Sure, each conference will have the bottom-feeders, but what's not to say the increase in TV revenue won't positively impact the development of their programs?

In addition, you also have some pretty formidable basketball. If Southern Miss and L.E. keep it up, they have a chance to be the Memphis of the new league. You'll also have UNLV, UNM, and such, but Southern Miss can match up well with any of them on any given day.

I'm actually kind of excited for the remaining programs (non-BE). We don't know yet how each conference (both new alliance and BE) will develop, but the schools that were "left behind" might actually end up being in a better product than our current C-USA situation.

Credit the commissioners and brass at the C-USA and MWC schools for thinking in a proactive rather than reactive manner.