(03-29-2014 10:43 AM)msu_bears Wrote:  UMASS should just start making calls and create a new all-sports(FBS) conference. They could pick off a few MAC, and SB schools, and get their former A10 buds Charlotte and Dayton/Wichita St hoops and go after a couple FCS schools with better hoops programs to move up(MO State, JMU, or potentially Illinois St/NDSU/UNI) and bam, they end up in a great basketball conference(potentially better than the A10) and have a FBS home.

here is my rough draft proposal.

The idea you're talking about would definitely be a cut above the MAC or CUSA in FB/BB.

I know Ohio has talked to the A10 in the past about membership as they have a history playing some of those schools and like the historical performance of that group in basketball. I just feel the school would be more comfortable making a move with some rivals like Akron and Marshall.

(03-28-2014 03:38 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(03-28-2014 11:24 AM)IceJus10 Wrote:  I love how people just expect schools to leave conferences... if its NOT for a major conference and MORE MONEY, it is stupid for schools to leave conferences with high amounts of NCAA unit credits. Those units are worth more money than the small conferences and any new conferences would actually ever get in MEDIA money. The bottom line is still important beyond wild realignment.

If it weren't for the A10 distribution, then the media money the MAC hopes to get from its next contract would be substantially more than the per school units in the A10 ...

... but given a 25:75 split, UMass is looking to get over $300,000 over the next six years from its two tournament appearances this year, and rising to over $400,000 before that period is out. That's a big slice of the difference, and its a bird in the hand, which is worth two in the bush.

You're being specific to UMass - I was talking in general of these wild realignment creating new football conference dreams.

However, in regards to UMass downgrading their basketball program to a terrible basketball league like the MAC would kill their cash cow program. Costing them far more than the difference in units/media deal. Plus, anyone who thinks the MAC is getting a huge expansion of their media contract hasn't been paying attention to recent contracts of NON-P5 conferences.

(03-29-2014 10:07 AM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  The A10 schools that play football are UMass, URI and Duquesne. I would add Delaware, Towson, Albany, Stony Brook, Albany, Buffalo, and Ohio to make it 10.

Richmond, Fordham, Dayton and Davidson are also A10 members that play (FCS) football, but even disregarding the low likelihood of any of them ever upgrading their programs, you cannot form a new FBS conference by upgrading FCS teams. First you need 8 full FBS members, then you can form a FBS Conference under NCAA rules, and then you can upgrade FCS teams to FBS teams under new rules in effect since 2011. Since the 2011 rules change, a FCS team cannot become a FBS team without an invitation from an official FBS conference. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem for FCS teams that dream of forming a new FBS conference together without first having to join different FBS conferences. You can form a conference without being FBS, and you can't be FBS without a conference.

I hope the tongue-and-cheek nature of my original post was apparent. Nevertheless, I figured there have been worse ideas posted to this board. A separate basketball tournament for FBS conference members is still one potential outcome of NCAA governance changes, though not the most likely. But the A10 would wish it had a football conference should that ever come to pass, though I don't seriously expect them to expand to 21 members to get that done, or even 19 after the Big East raids the A10 again.

(03-29-2014 04:19 PM)LastMinuteman Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 10:07 AM)NJ2MDTerp Wrote:  The A10 schools that play football are UMass, URI and Duquesne. I would add Delaware, Towson, Albany, Stony Brook, Albany, Buffalo, and Ohio to make it 10.

Richmond, Fordham, Dayton and Davidson are also A10 members that play (FCS) football, but even disregarding the low likelihood of any of them ever upgrading their programs, you cannot form a new FBS conference by upgrading FCS teams. First you need 8 full FBS members, then you can form a FBS Conference under NCAA rules, and then you can upgrade FCS teams to FBS teams under new rules in effect since 2011. Since the 2011 rules change, a FCS team cannot become a FBS team without an invitation from an official FBS conference. It's a bit of a chicken and egg problem for FCS teams that dream of forming a new FBS conference together without first having to join different FBS conferences. You can form a conference without being FBS, and you can't be FBS without a conference.

I hope the tongue-and-cheek nature of my original post was apparent. Nevertheless, I figured there have been worse ideas posted to this board. A separate basketball tournament for FBS conference members is still one potential outcome of NCAA governance changes, though not the most likely. But the A10 would wish it had a football conference should that ever come to pass, though I don't seriously expect them to expand to 21 members to get that done, or even 19 after the Big East raids the A10 again.

The Big East as a non-basketball entity helps the A-10 out in that regard. My guess is that the A-10 gets pulled into the 'football' tournament in such a scenario

If memory serves me correctly, I think you have to have 8 FBS eligible schools ready to play when the conference is slated to begin sponsoring football. The only way I could ever see it being possible is with the combination of schools below:

UMASS
Buffalo
Akron or Toledo
Ohio
Marshall'
WKU
ODU
Charlotte

The ideal number for a football conference is 9. You wouldn't need that 9th member right away so other options would be possible down the road...(Missouri State, JMU, Delaware, Army) Maybe dip south for an FAU or promote a team from within the conference at some point.

Basketball divisions could be split North/South or you could just play a round robin conference slate. That would require playing 20 conference games.

North:

UMASS
Rhode Island
St Bonaventure
Buffalo
Fordham
Duquesne
Akron/Toledo
St Josephs
La Salle
George Washington



South

WKU
Marshall
Ohio
Charlotte
ODU
VCU
Richmond
Davidson
Dayton
St. Louis
George Mason

The major obstacle in doing something like this is getting all these schools to agree in principle. There would have to be a strong urge to come together to pull something like this off. For that reason, I just don't see it being possible.

That being said, I have no idea what UMass is going to do now with the Mac in their rear view mirror. The only other realistic option I can see that makes sense is the American conference.

(03-30-2014 08:17 AM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  If memory serves me correctly, I think you have to have 8 FBS eligible schools ready to play when the conference is slated to begin sponsoring football. The only way I could ever see it being possible is with the combination of schools below:

UMASS
Buffalo
Akron or Toledo
Ohio
Marshall'
WKU
ODU
Charlotte

The ideal number for a football conference is 9. You wouldn't need that 9th member right away so other options would be possible down the road...(Missouri State, JMU, Delaware, Army) Maybe dip south for an FAU or promote a team from within the conference at some point.

Basketball divisions could be split North/South or you could just play a round robin conference slate. That would require playing 20 conference games.

Forgot about Western Kentucky. They would definitely have to be considered in this scenario and a logical bridge to either St. Louis or Dayton if they were still around.

I remember going through this exercise on a hypothetical East Coast league 5 years ago. The schools were largely the same but the only problem is the majority of them were FCS. Flash forward to today and there is enough FBS schools in that space to try and make a run at putting together a league.

(03-30-2014 08:36 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(03-30-2014 08:17 AM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  If memory serves me correctly, I think you have to have 8 FBS eligible schools ready to play when the conference is slated to begin sponsoring football. The only way I could ever see it being possible is with the combination of schools below:

UMASS
Buffalo
Akron or Toledo
Ohio
Marshall'
WKU
ODU
Charlotte

The ideal number for a football conference is 9. You wouldn't need that 9th member right away so other options would be possible down the road...(Missouri State, JMU, Delaware, Army) Maybe dip south for an FAU or promote a team from within the conference at some point.

Basketball divisions could be split North/South or you could just play a round robin conference slate. That would require playing 20 conference games.

Forgot about Western Kentucky. They would definitely have to be considered in this scenario and a logical bridge to either St. Louis or Dayton if they were still around.

I remember going through this exercise on a hypothetical East Coast league 5 years ago. The schools were largely the same but the only problem is the majority of them were FCS. Flash forward to today and there is enough FBS schools in that space to try and make a run at putting together a league.

To justify a new BCS football conference some new realignment would need to take place. If the AAC was raided by the B12 taking Cincy, and the two Florida schools and the ACC and B10 would not accept UNCONN then the table would be set for an East Coast Conference with UNCONN being the anchor school: This would include all the major cities on the east coast between Buffalo and Atlanta and enough BCS teams from day one for a football conference.

UCONN (The first six years the bb tournament would be played in Conn. as close to ESPN as possible)
Buffalo
UMASS
Temple
stoney brook

Dayton
George Washington
St. Louise
Wichita St
VCU
Fordham

Marshall
ODU
Charlotte
Georgia St
Towson U.