(07-19-2016 09:42 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote: (07-19-2016 08:30 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote: (07-19-2016 05:52 PM)lumberpack4 Wrote: I suspect they would be looking at adding schools in anticipation of losing one of all of Texas, OU, and Kansas. A good defensive move is to block a bridge to the ACC or B10. To hurt the ACC the most, you would take Houston and Tulane off the board.
Get out of here with that Green Wave stuff. This isn't 1934.
I'm pretty sure he was kidding, Mark.
Nope, not kidding.
Maybe I should have elaborated more and noted I was speaking on a 18 to 20 school environment.
If B12 moves are to compensate for the loss of Texas, OU, and Kansas as I stated, then it makes sense for B12 to attempt to anticipate the future and to attempt to block the ACC from having the capacity to add schools that make a link from the current ACC footprint to the State of Texas. Tulane and Vandy are the only two "ACC type" schools that fit the bill in that part of the country.
While I don't think we will see 18 or 20 school conferences, if we were to see such a beast and if the ACC became a beast like that and it included Texas, does it make sense to have Texas on an island the way West Virginia is now in the B12, and to a lesser degree Mizzou in the SEC?
If the ACC is growing to just 16 and Texas is 16, maybe Texas is an island. Even if Texas brings a partner to get to 18, that partner will not bridge the gap between Tallahassee and Austin/Houston/Dallas.
If you accept that at 20 schools for the ACC or B10 that 5 to 6 have to come from out of the B12 and AAC, what you notice right away is that the ACC has more flexibility regarding what fits.
If Texas wants in, and 20 is the number you can create a Gulf Coast pod of 5 from FSU, Tulane, Houston, TCU, and Texas.
The ACC will never accept Baylor and does not want TT, Oklahoma State, or Kansas State. Iowa State while culturally and academically acceptable is of less appeal in greater Chicago-land than ND. West Virginia has academic blackballs and its media footprint is overlapped by a combination of Pitt, Louisville, UVa, and VT owing to the small size of the State and the geography of the media markets.
Tulane is of no future value to the SEC, P12, or B10, it can only be of value in the future to the ACC. That's my point.
But even that point is moot if ACC expansion is over.
However, it's not out of the realm of possibility that some element of collusion exists that would see Kansas, OU, and Texas split three ways into the B10, SEC, and ACC.
Most of the Big 8 belonged in the expanded B10 anyway and the natural home for Kansas is now the B10. OU's academics are a basket case by B10 standards, but fully acceptable to the SEC and their zeal to win at nearly all cost is also an SEC fit. If Texas is demanding a special deal, it's easier for the ACC to swing it given the distance.
Then with what's left of the B12, the next natural fit is West Virginia to the SEC and that puts the SEC near to DC and Pittsburgh.
Given what is then left of the B12, the ACC has a better natural fit with a number of AAC schools than what's left of the B12, those schools being Navy, Tulane, Houston and this assumes that the rump B12 has already invited Cincy along with BYU and perhaps Colorado State and a 4th school.
With 7 or so moving parts that have some degree of control over their destiny (ACC, B10, SEC, P12, Texas, Kansas, OU) it's difficult predict a final outcome.
Truth be told, the path of least resistance and most lucrative for the B10 if they can't get Texas, is for them is to add Kansas at a B12 collapse/contraction and to be the one to cajole their AAU partner Toronto to join. Other than Mexico City, that's the big untapped prize in North America. The Blues could suck for years and the B10 would still make money.
The real conundrum in the B12 is that not every school has enough value, relative to its geogrpahy and with some, the future is not on their side. Can you really say there is more upside to Iowa State or Kansas State over the next 50 years than Houston or even Navy or Tulane.
Now here is a joke:
The ACC must take Navy and Tulane together, that way as the Mississippi Delta continues to shrink and New Orleans eventually succumbs to rising sea levels, we can use the Navy to move Tulane up to Baton Rouge.
Of course, we might have to do the same with Miami.
