A consequence of creating an independent football-only conference in place of the two original conferences is that the original conferences no longer sponsor football.
If you main conference sponsors a sport, your team can't be in another conference for that sport (a rule that has been brought up in the past when fans here suggested that Villanova cut their teeth in the MAC or C-USA before being allowed to have football in the Big East). But now the MWC and C-USA don't sponsor football, so there's nothing keeping those schools' football teams from joining another conference while keeping their other sports in their main conference.
Um, yeah...but do you think for a second that if a school leaves the Mount USA its other conference will allow the other sports to hang around?
(10-14-2011 06:48 PM)uakronkid Wrote: [ -> ]A consequence of creating an independent football-only conference in place of the two original conferences is that the original conferences no longer sponsor football.
If you main conference sponsors a sport, your team can't be in another conference for that sport (a rule that has been brought up in the past when fans here suggested that Villanova cut their teeth in the MAC or C-USA before being allowed to have football in the Big East). But now the MWC and C-USA don't sponsor football, so there's nothing keeping those schools' football teams from joining another conference while keeping their other sports in their main conference.
Right.
You already have Hawaii in C-MWC and Big West for other sports.
UTEP could leave CUSA in all-sports and join the WAC while keeping football in C-MWC. Marshall could find a home in the Southern Conference while keeping in C-MWC.
(10-14-2011 06:53 PM)blazr Wrote: [ -> ]Um, yeah...but do you think for a second that if a school leaves the Mount USA its other conference will allow the other sports to hang around?
Who's going to punish them? Football and the other conferences are seperate entities. If you tried to kick out a school because they switched conferences in a sport you don't even sponsor, you'd have a massive lawsuit on your hands.
(10-14-2011 06:53 PM)blazr Wrote: [ -> ]Um, yeah...but do you think for a second that if a school leaves the Mount USA its other conference will allow the other sports to hang around?
First instinct is no based on the Mountain West already saying no to BYU keeping the rest of its sports in the conference (since it was going independent that was an option for them). If a team brings enough value, it's more of a possibility now though. Given they'll need a full round robin in division, expanding all sports in either conference is now difficult, which might make them more open to the idea of teams that don't play football.
All it would take to keep this from happening is contractual arrangements between the 3 conference entities and the member schools. The lawyers can fix it.
Craig Thompson just stated during the press conference that if Boise and AFA leave they have to find a new home for their other sports.
I don't know what that means other than a tv deal. If the were smart they would have involved the WAC, Sunbelt and MAC and formed a post season tournament. 8 or 16 teams. That would have gotten a BIG espn contract.
What will inevitably happen is that whoever is in charge of the football side will want to have more autonomy and control over his side of things. Front office communications between Mount USA and the two conferences grow more distant over time. They start making decisions on theri own, inviting other teams. Then the individual schools start looking out for their own interests.
Hawaii may dislike this move. If they leave to go independent, who's going to stop them? They're in the Big West. And things destabilize from there. The Football conference can't invite new members unless C-USA or the MWC also invites them (and they will not want to take on a school that hurts them but benefits football) because any other team that they invite is already in a conference that sponsors football. So they can't bring new teams in, but others want out.
MWC commish said they won't let their school keep other sports in MWC if they don't play fb in the new conf.
(10-14-2011 07:13 PM)Fresno St. Alum Wrote: [ -> ]MWC commish said they won't let their school keep other sports in MWC if they don't play fb in the new conf.
I hope they have that in a binding contract.
But what happens if the football conference wants to bring in a school that would benefit the football conference, but would drag down the MWC or C-USA as an all-sports member?
There's tons of room for expansion-related infighting. Eventually things wil go south between the leaders. What if the MWC doesn't like a move Football made, a schol wants out and gets into another conference as a football-only school. Would the MWC kick them out even if it benefited themselves as a non-football conference?