http://krod.com/rumors-flying-that-utep-...witter_top

(04-25-2016 03:50 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  http://krod.com/rumors-flying-that-utep-...witter_top

I think it's too late for them to get in on the MWC's Friday night lineup.

would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

They will add App State

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

(04-25-2016 04:23 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

you put Old Dominion in the West

(04-25-2016 04:24 PM)EvilVodka Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:23 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

you put Old Dominion in the West

Hmmm ... ODU is the furthest east school in the conference ... buuuuut if you start from a point slightly west of there and keep going west, ODU becomes the westernmost school. Sold.

(04-25-2016 04:23 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

no worse than Birmingham to Las Cruces.
Atlanta-San Antonio 989 miles
Birmingham-Las Cruces 1318 miles

plus in basketball- makes great travel partners....
North Texas/UTSA
Rice/La Tech
So Miss/UAB
Ga State/Charlotte
FIU/FAU
Mid Tenn/W Kentucky
Old Dominion/Marshall

(04-25-2016 04:33 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:23 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

no worse than Birmingham to Las Cruces.
Atlanta-San Antonio 989 miles
Birmingham-Las Cruces 1318 miles

plus in basketball- makes great travel partners....
North Texas/UTSA
Rice/La Tech
So Miss/UAB
Ga State/Charlotte
FIU/FAU
Mid Tenn/W Kentucky
Old Dominion/Marshall

Yeah, but New Mexico State and Texas State can slip right into UTEP's spot, easy peasy. Here, Marshall's travel partner goes from Western Kentucky (four-ish hours) to ODU (seven and a half hours).

Which isn't to say that Georgia State shouldn't be considered or even that it's not CUSA's best option, just that it would introduce logistics concerns and would probably get a lot of resistance from the western schools (just as NMSU or Texas State would get eastern schools throwing red flags)

(04-25-2016 04:46 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:33 PM)stever20 Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:23 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

Except who do you shift to the West? UAB's already ticketed for the West when they return to football in 2017, and the two schools that make the most sense — Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee — will probably fight tooth and nail against being split. Everyone else is too far east. I guess you could put Georgia State in the West, but even with a massive airport hub, they'd make that division pretty unwieldily (San Antonio to Atlanta).

no worse than Birmingham to Las Cruces.
Atlanta-San Antonio 989 miles
Birmingham-Las Cruces 1318 miles

plus in basketball- makes great travel partners....
North Texas/UTSA
Rice/La Tech
So Miss/UAB
Ga State/Charlotte
FIU/FAU
Mid Tenn/W Kentucky
Old Dominion/Marshall

Yeah, but New Mexico State and Texas State can slip right into UTEP's spot, easy peasy. Here, Marshall's travel partner goes from Western Kentucky (four-ish hours) to ODU (seven and a half hours).

Which isn't to say that Georgia State shouldn't be considered or even that it's not CUSA's best option, just that it would introduce logistics concerns and would probably get a lot of resistance from the western schools (just as NMSU or Texas State would get eastern schools throwing red flags)

ULL could fit in easily as well. And would probably be the best athletic addition overall.

(04-25-2016 04:17 PM)stever20 Wrote:  would be interesting with UTEP.

Hawaii goes indy
UTEP goes MWC
? goes CUSA.... I think if UTEP is gone, you see CUSA not going with New Mexico St. I could see them going with a Georgia St.

No reason to do anything until we understand what happens with the Big 12 and AAC. If the AAC is backfilling a one program loss to the Big 12 with Southern Mississippi, then C-USA would be back to 12.

(04-25-2016 04:33 PM)stever20 Wrote:  plus in basketball- makes great travel partners....
North Texas/UTSA
Rice/La Tech
So Miss/UAB
Ga State/Charlotte
FIU/FAU
Mid Tenn/W Kentucky
Old Dominion/Marshall

Louisiana Tech is the outlier. It makes more sense to me to pair Rice and UTSA, one reasonable bus trip down I-10, and North Texas and Louisiana Tech, another reasonable bus ride down I-20.

Everyone wants out of CUSA now

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(04-25-2016 07:09 PM)Stay Cool Wrote:  Everyone wants out of CUSA now

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Everyone wants to be in the best place they can be and get there however they can get there. I'd be more concerned if everyone in CUSA was convinced that they could never do any better. Conferences with that mindset often survive but rarely thrive.

I don't see this as anything real serious, but just internet wishful thinking. The MW already discussed adding UTEP and Rice and decided it is not worth expanding.

(04-25-2016 07:29 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(04-25-2016 07:09 PM)Stay Cool Wrote:  Everyone wants out of CUSA now

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Everyone wants to be in the best place they can be and get there however they can get there. I'd be more concerned if everyone in CUSA was convinced that they could never do any better. Conferences with that mindset often survive but rarely thrive.

*glares at MAC*

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(04-25-2016 07:57 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  I don't see this as anything real serious, but just internet wishful thinking. The MW already discussed adding UTEP and Rice and decided it is not worth expanding.

I could see them adding UTEP, but not Rice. UTEP is in MWC footprints, Rice is not.

I think this is just more offseason realignment nonsense.

A single anonymous poster on a UTEP message board claims to have information that the Miners are entertaining a proposal to join another conference. His post concludes with "I can't say where, but it is where we need to be." The post gets picked up on the MWC board and generates 16 pages (and counting) of speculation about UTEP joining the MWC and who they may be replacing.

That's all the smoke needed for a sports radio talk show host in El Paso to write a column for ESPN saying "the rumor has been gaining ground on many of the popular fan blog sites."

Meanwhile Craig Thompson was quoted less than three weeks ago saying that neither membership changes nor expansion was even brought up in the December and March meetings of the MWC Board of Governors and is not expected to come up in the May meeting either.

http://www.coloradoan.com/story/sports/c.../82630706/

It's going to be a long, long summer.

P.S. There's also no indication whatsoever that Hawaii is even considering independence. The expanded Hawaii exemption supposedly approved by the NCAA hasn't been reported by the Honolulu sports media, which normally would be all over such a story. It makes me wonder whether there's another required step in the process, e.g. a vote in favor by the full Division I FBS membership, before the expanded exemption takes effect.

If MWC does go with UTEP? They either move Boise State to the west, and add another school like Wichita State? Than that could work. Or they leave Boise State where they are at and add UTEP to the east and add either Portland State, Eastern Washington, Sacramento State, Cal-Davis or Cal Poly for all sports. Portland State and Sacramento State could work for tv markets.

While this may be mere internet fodder, UTEP to the MWC is not too far fetched. UTEP desires MWC to get out of USA, and MWC desires a foothold in Texas, while other Texas options may be too far east.

However, I do not see Hawaii leaving anytime soon. Perhaps Big 12 expands from MWC after all and UTEP is a backfill? Otherwise, I'm not sure what options MWC or reason MWC would have to go to 14, unless their TV contract grows with 14/entry into Texas.

On the flip side if UTEP did leave, the best option for CUSA is to expand with no one. Unless their TV contract requires 14 teams, there is no need for them to backfill. MAC has shown that while 13 isn't great, it can work, and why split money 14 ways when you can split it 13 ways?