(01-28-2016 12:54 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(01-28-2016 12:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-28-2016 12:25 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(01-28-2016 12:05 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-28-2016 10:19 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Moving parts are easier than you think.
Let's say CUSA East wants to get it done. They agree they will join Sun Belt (who rebrands) if Sun Belt waives entry fee and agrees to waive exit for x months. CUSA West now has to react being at 7 (six if UAB goes with the east). They invite ____, _____, _____, etc from Sun Belt, the Sun Belt invitees state they will agree if: CUSA waives departure for the other schools that left and waive entry fee for them. CUSA can either go trolling for FCS schools or give in.

Can't do this unilaterally.

It's hard to keep all the comings and goings straight, but it looks like SBC, if you count Coastal and don't count Idaho and NMSU, has 12 full members and 10 of them play football.

So inviting 8 CUSA schools, without any guarantee that CUSA will take a handful of SBC schools back, would give SBC 20 full members including 18 football teams.

There would be nothing to stop those other 6 CUSA schools from (for example) inviting only Texas State and NMSU to join them, and telling the departing schools, "Good luck, please make sure we receive your exit fee checks on time." Then the SBC (assuming Idaho gets the boot) would end up with 19 full members including 17 football teams. Or the CUSA schools invite one more SBC school, and the SBC still has 18 full members and 16 football teams. Any way that plays out, the SBC ends up with way more schools than a G5 conference wants to have, and even if there are other schools the SBC majority wants to "get rid of", for geography or other reasons, they can't make CUSA invite them.

I tend to think you're right that it cant be unilateral. The two leagues would have to work together. The first step would be to eliminate the total outliers. So, the SBC would have to cut Idaho and NMSt loose. Second, the media deal for the Sunbelt would need to rise to CUSA are at least get close.

From there, the idea would be to get down to 2 conferences with tight geography and feature 12 schools or less. Everyone agrees to suspend exit entry fees and that nobody gets left out. My guess is something could be worked out because the reality is---any school in either conference would probably save 1-2 million dollars a year in travel costs by being in a much more regional conference. By moving to 12 schools (instead of 14, CUSA teams see an additional increase in income and Sunbelt teams see no decrease in income).

When your talking about 20-25 million dollar athletic budgets, cutting 1-2 million in travel expenses is a bigger deal than getting an extra $500K on your media deal. Not to mention, a more regional conference might also help a bit at the ticket booth.

Travel savings are probably only half that much. And, as you said, it would probably have to be a unanimous agreement to get exit/entry fees suspended and to make sure no one is left out. The need for unanimity means that egos and petty rivalries will make things difficult, and any savings of expenses won't be high enough to overcome those feelings/grudges. The most obvious one is that La Tech would block any shuffling that put them in the same league as UL-Monroe, but no doubt there are at least several others, considering there would be 24 different schools involved.

I thought that too until I read the Pilot article that discussed the reduction in the CUSA contract. They indicated that the ODU travel expenses were up well over a million dollars in CUSA. In the west, if you grouped the Texas teams, LA schools, and Arky St---that's a pretty tight conference in terms of travel. That a lot more busses and much less air travel. You could even keep the 2 basketball only SB members to further reduce costs. My guess is the east could see a very similar reduction by cutting out every trip west of the Mississippi and replacing them with a ton of bus trips along the east coast.

I agree with the ego thing--but you could probably work around that. Let La Tech stay in the eastern group. If they want to pay a million extra a year to be with eastern schools that don't draw in Ruston---that would be their choice. I suspect that playing the nearby Texas teams (and recruiting those areas) would be more important than not playing LaMonroe. In the end, my guess is logic and finances would win the day. LaTech would have to make due with whipping LaMonroe every year to soothe their ego.

OK. My guess is still that the "I like this school but not that school" stuff is stronger, especially when unanimous or near-unanimous agreement is needed.

I don't think travel savings by a realigned SBC/CUSA would be that significant because of the generally large distances between schools.

Take FAU/FIU as an example, move the pair into the SBC and its still 12 hours to the nearest school. Its a flight no matter what SBC/CUSA grouping they align with. The same with UTEP or ODU and others that wouldn't get much benefit.