Note regarding the original tweet that if all 99% sure tweets come to pass, UVA would be on its way to the Big Ten, courtesy of several WV bloggers who liked spreading rumors of the ACC breaking up.
The question is, JMU and who else would make a pair that would justify CUSA going to 16? If real, we'll likely learn within another month and a half, because JMU would have good reason to want to announce before their May 15 FB season ticket sales deadline.
(04-02-2014 11:24 AM)EA3 Wrote: I don't believe so. From what I've read, UMASS and the MAC made the initial agreement to allow UMASS to enter FBS. That agreement contained a clause which would force UMASS to join the MAC in all sports after year 4, or break off from the MAC. That decision had to be made after year two of UMASS being in FBS because of schedule planning.
As I had understood it, the clause was about what happened in the event that one of the pair of Temple/UMass left ... there was an exit fee on the one that left ($2.5m with two year's notice, which was bumped up to $6.5m for Temple to be able to leave without the advance notice), and for the other one, two years later the MAC had the right to terminate the FB-only deal two further years in the future.
Then the school losing its FB-only affiliation could either exercise an option to join the MAC all-sports, leave immediately with $500,000 exit fee, leave after one year with a $250,000 exit fee, or leave when the FB-affiliation expired with no exit fee.
Because Temple left the same season that UMass joined, the timing after Temple leaving and the timing after UMass joining turned out to be identical.