(11-28-2017 03:09 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote: (11-28-2017 02:47 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote: (11-28-2017 12:43 AM)NeptunianEmp Wrote: Both NMSU and Idaho were not extended invitations to continue in the SBC. The claim was travel distance which was especially strenuous for games at Idaho. The SBC also decided not to keep us when the NCAA ruled that a conference needs only 10 football teams to have a conference championship.
Depending on how this current season finishes out, and with our future schedules, we may be re invited to the SBC. There are some universities that wanted us to stay and we very well could move over there for full membership if the WAC continues to implode.
Basically, the Belt said no to NMSU for the following reasons
1) The Eastern schools F***ed you guys. They want to pivot the league to the East
2) Idaho was getting tossed. No hate, just geography. An 11 team league for football is hard to manage. If JMU were interested in joining, they and NMSU would be 11 and 12. The Belt wanted to a 12th team to go along with NMSU, and that member needed to be a team that was supported by the Eastern teams. JMU is really the only team that could get that done. And their administration absolutely has zero interest in the Sun Belt Conference (their fans are interested though).
3) The Belt felt no obligation to NMSU, as a result of NMSU's departure from the Belt to join the WAC years ago. I don't think that anyone is particularly mad at NMSU over it, but still...members could credibly say "NMSU hasn't acted like they owe us anything, so no need to put ourselves out to help them"
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Just so everyone knows, NMSU needed nine votes to stay in the league. The basketball only schools in the league get votes too (I think they both voted for you guys).
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Its a shame, I'd personally like to have you guys. But not if USA is in the East, or if we add Liberty to balance you guys. See if your president can get on the horn with the JMU President and tell him to apply with you guys. I think that would get you in.
Our President is in his final months, leaves in the summer of 2018. He and our AD did everything they could with trying to get into the SBC. How much time and money does NMSU need to waste on a conference that doesn't want us?
That's not the way to look at it, unless you have better options. You guys do have support in the Belt, just know that there were four or five schools that didn't want you as an 11th member for football and a 13th for basketball. I think you guys got a majority, just not a two thirds majority
And I don't think the schools that voted against you guys are implacably opposed. Especially if you could give the schools that largely opposed you guys solely on geographic concerns, a reason to mitigate those concerns. You guys have teams that want you in the league, and several will continue to propose you guys. It sucks that the Belt requires 9 votes, but that's the way things ended up then. Might be different in the future.
I was just noting that if somehow JMU could be convinced to apply with you guys, everyone in the Belt would get what they wanted.
1) Eastern schools would get JMU
2) Western schools would get NMSU
3) USA could stay in the West, Troy can move to the East
4) Basketball would be helped
5) The "school that shall not be named" wouldn't be on the table
6) NMSU gets a stable home for basketball and FBS football, and one that is close to one of our bowl tie ins.
Win, win, win, win.
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That being said, JMU doesn't appear to be interested. So I suppose NMSU's best options now are to either figure out how to bolster the WAC, or convince the Summit, Big Sky, Southland, or Big West to add you guys as a non-football member. I wish y'all luck, and hopefully you'll sort it all out.
