(05-27-2014 02:38 PM)arkstfan Wrote: (05-27-2014 02:22 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote: All of you new conference dreamers really ought to go read the NCAA Division I manual. It's true that any 7 Division I schools can form a new Division I conference, and that any 8 Division I FBS schools can form a new Division I FBS conference. However, to be certified by the NCAA and eligible to participate in NCAA postseason competition, the new conference must first establish "continuity". That means it must have sponsored minimum numbers of men's and women's sports, including men's and women's basketball, for at least 8 YEARS.
Realistically, no group of Division I schools is going to give up NCAA tournament eligibility in all sports for 8 years. The continuity rule was put in place in 2011 for the specific purposes of preventing new Division I conferences from being formed and making the existing conferences too valuable to die. This is why conferences like the WAC and Summit may struggle to meet the minimum membership requirement from time to time but are unlikely to ever dissolve.
If you want to dream of new conference alignments, have at it, but know that any proposal you devise needs to start with the membership of an existing conference.
That's why it makes more sense work within an existing framework. If someone wants to form a SWC either invite enough western Sun Belt teams to CUSA to get it going with eastern CUSA joining Sun Belt and renaming it, or get the western CUSA schools to join the Sun Belt and rename it the SWC and let CUSA backfill with eastern SBC members.
Anything else is pain in the rear by comparison.
I like your suggestion. Just for discussion purposes, since any conference NOT in the P5 will simply be G5 conferences and all at the same level, divide the CUSA, AAC and SBC into regional conferences, like the MWC and MAC. Rename the SBC the SWC for the Western conference, the AAC is the Eastern conference, and keep the CUSA name for the Southern conference.
If Houston, SMU, Tulane and Tulsa elect to remain in the AAC, Marshall, UAB, MTSU and WKU remain in CUSA.
SWC - Western based conference
Arkansas State, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTSA, Rice, Louisiana, USM, UTEP, NMSU, (Houston, Tulane, SMU, Tulsa)
AAC - Eastern based conference
UCONN, Cincy, Temple, ECU, Memphis, Navy, USF, UCF, (Marshall, UAB, Middle Tenn., WKU)
CUSA - Southern based conference
ODU, Charlotte, FIU, FAU, Troy, USA, ULM, App State, GA State, GA Southern