Interesting to think that in 1988, the Cardinals came oh so close to moving to Baltimore instead of Phoenix. How that might have messed up all of the future expansion and realignment is interesting. If the Baltimore Cardinals were in the NFC East in 1988, then I imagine the new expansion teams would have been Carolina and Phoenix. The Rams and Raiders still maybe move, but where do the Browns go if there is no sweetheart deal from Baltimore. Nashville? Does that mean Houston stays put in a new stadium? Does LA actually get the expansion team.. When the NFL finally realigns, does the NFC East consist of NY, PHI, BAL and WAS? With DAL finally heading west? All sorts of interesting changes if Bidwill goes to BAL as the NFL wanted, leaving ARIZ open for expansion..

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The Colts played in Memorial Stadium which had a very small seating capacity. Baltimore is doing very well these days.
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Capacity was 60,000

(01-16-2015 01:25 PM)ken d Wrote:  

(01-16-2015 01:15 PM)jrj84105 Wrote:  Don't you really have to go back to the early 70's to see when the SWC dropped the ball? If the SWC expands westward in the early 70's, prior to ASU/UA joining the PAC, it limits the PAC to the coast, and sets itself up to draw in schools from both the Big8 and the emerging WAC.

That would have been a smart move alright. But I believe that people in Texas are similar to those in New York City when it comes to having a distorted view of how important they are in the grand scheme of things. To them, Texas was like an independent nation, while Arizona a mere Territory. I think their collective egos bit them in the butt.

If they had expanded to Arizona, why not Florida or Ohio? Arizona is nowhere near any former SWC school. Even UTEP is not close to any former SWC school and its in the same state as 8 of them (in the Houston area, I'm 12 hours away from El Paso driving).

(01-16-2015 02:07 PM)brista21 Wrote:  That's actually true although if I have read my history correctly that number also included Baylor. Oklahoma, the then Oklahoma A&M (now State), Baylor, A&M, Rice, UT and Arkansas were all charter members. Southwestern was also a charter member but only lasted one year.

I agree though had LSU, Tulane and Ole Miss joined up in 1915 the conference would probably still be around. The fact that it would have encompassed 5 states rather than the 2 that made it up for most of its existence would have likely meant it would have been more open to expansion beyond Texas. Perhaps the Oklahoma schools never leave early on either.

Phillips as well, in Enid, Oklahoma.

(01-20-2015 02:39 PM)bostonspider Wrote:  Interesting to think that in 1988, the Cardinals came oh so close to moving to Baltimore instead of Phoenix. How that might have messed up all of the future expansion and realignment is interesting. If the Baltimore Cardinals were in the NFC East in 1988, then I imagine the new expansion teams would have been Carolina and Phoenix. The Rams and Raiders still maybe move, but where do the Browns go if there is no sweetheart deal from Baltimore. Nashville? Does that mean Houston stays put in a new stadium? Does LA actually get the expansion team.. When the NFL finally realigns, does the NFC East consist of NY, PHI, BAL and WAS? With DAL finally heading west? All sorts of interesting changes if Bidwill goes to BAL as the NFL wanted, leaving ARIZ open for expansion..

The Oilers would have moved. The late Bud Adams was trying to court other cities like a person in a shaky relationship trying to flirt with someone else to grab the one they cared for attention and make them jealous. And then that person was so pissed off at the gesture, they told the other to piss off and that is essentially what happened, as the city was tired of the whining for stadium upgrades and told ol' Bud to get lost, leaving him with the girl he didn't really want (Tennessee).

(01-20-2015 07:43 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  If they had expanded to Arizona, why not Florida or Ohio? Arizona is nowhere near any former SWC school. Even UTEP is not close to any former SWC school and its in the same state as 8 of them (in the Houston area, I'm 12 hours away from El Paso driving).

I don't live in Texas or anything, but I think sometimes people in th eeast underestimate how big the west is. I point out a lot, something I discovered while flying to Vegas and I had a stop over in Denver: Denver is nearly the same distance from Louisville as it is to San Diego, and closer than it is to San Francisco. Yet Colorado is considered just "west."

On that note, to your point, Phoenix is about 2 hours further from Dallas than Cincinnati is, and the same distance as Tampa.

(01-22-2015 02:05 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  

(01-20-2015 07:43 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  If they had expanded to Arizona, why not Florida or Ohio? Arizona is nowhere near any former SWC school. Even UTEP is not close to any former SWC school and its in the same state as 8 of them (in the Houston area, I'm 12 hours away from El Paso driving).

I don't live in Texas or anything, but I think sometimes people in th eeast underestimate how big the west is. I point out a lot, something I discovered while flying to Vegas and I had a stop over in Denver: Denver is nearly the same distance from Louisville as it is to San Diego, and closer than it is to San Francisco. Yet Colorado is considered just "west."

On that note, to your point, Phoenix is about 2 hours further from Dallas than Cincinnati is, and the same distance as Tampa.

This. And, many people have a misconception of Texas being in the west. San Antonio is in central Texas, but it's hundreds of miles closer to the Atlantic (at Jacksonville) than the Pacific (at Santa Monica).