(12-11-2015 03:43 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  

(12-11-2015 03:18 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  You're right that perception is the biggest gap, but I think it is only between the AAC and the other G5's. I think the MWC as a whole and CUSA are lumped together, and then the Sun Belt after that.

Actually don't agree with this.

The AAC is getting a lot of press this year - deservedly so - for the year they've had in football. In recent years, however, the MWC and AAC have been considered peer bridge conferences between CUSA/MAC/Sun Belt and the P5. Don't forget that Boise/Hawaii have each been recent BCS (or equivalent) bowl teams.

Exactly...perception of conferences is pretty fluid. Hell, last year C-USA was 4-1 in bowl games and we were all crowing about how we were a better football conference than the AAC. How soon we forget that the Mountain West had FOUR 10+ win teams last year (Boise, CSU, Utah St and AFA) and were the clear top dogs in the G5, while this year they have clearly been lackluster. For all we know, next year the MAC could have a slew of teams around the top 25 and the AAC could be downright pathetic. Just have to strike on realignment when your stock's high.

(12-11-2015 05:16 PM)MerseyOwl Wrote:  Let's hope someone is on the phone and not watching the phone. I'm not all in, but I'd like to listen to anyone who wants to talk.

My other first thought here was that JK's team probably is discretely working the phones.

Lots of factors being thrown around here, but shouldn't it really just come down to the money?

(12-11-2015 05:46 PM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(12-11-2015 05:16 PM)MerseyOwl Wrote:  Let's hope someone is on the phone and not watching the phone. I'm not all in, but I'd like to listen to anyone who wants to talk.

My other first thought here was that JK's team probably is discretely working the phones.

If you recall, we've recently beefed up on scheduling MWC schools in basketball (New Mexico) and football (future series with Boise State). My guess is that these conversations have been going on for awhile.

Mark Berman ‏@MarkBermanFox26 · now3 minutes ago  Houston, TX

Sources confirm @RiceUniversity officials have had conversations with Mountain West Conference about potential expansion. Nothing imminent.

https://twitter.com/MarkBermanFox26

(12-11-2015 06:07 PM)S.A. Owl Wrote:  Lots of factors being thrown around here, but shouldn't it really just come down to the money?

One would expect so, but it sounds like there might be more at play, which is refreshing.

Just gonna leave this here:

Rice -> UTEP: 748 Miles

WVU -> ISU: 858 Miles

The TV money probably offsets the increased travel cost, but still.

(12-11-2015 06:49 PM)T-Moar Wrote:  Just gonna leave this here:

Rice -> UTEP: 748 Miles

WVU -> ISU: 858 Miles

The TV money probably offsets the increased travel cost, but still.

Outside of UTSA and UNT, I'm not sure who else we drive to in conference. Maybe La Tech or USM? La Tech (300 miles) and USM (440 miles) are closer than 500 miles, but probably not driving distance.

And we are already flying pretty far for a number of eastern conference games.

FA/IU is ~1,200 miles
WKU is 850 miles
MTSU is 810

Geographically, UTEP makes way more sense than Rice, but when traveling by plane, I'm not sure the 1,800 miles to SJSU is that much worse than the 1,200 miles to south Florida.

(12-11-2015 06:57 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(12-11-2015 06:49 PM)T-Moar Wrote:  Just gonna leave this here:

Rice -> UTEP: 748 Miles

WVU -> ISU: 858 Miles

The TV money probably offsets the increased travel cost, but still.

Outside of UTSA and UNT, I'm not sure who else we drive to in conference. Maybe La Tech or USM? La Tech (300 miles) and USM (440 miles) are closer than 500 miles, but probably not driving distance.

And we are already flying pretty far for a number of eastern conference games.

FA/IU is ~1,200 miles
WKU is 850 miles
MTSU is 810

Geographically, UTEP makes way more sense than Rice, but when traveling by plane, I'm not sure the 1,800 miles to SJSU is that much worse than the 1,200 miles to south Florida.

Also, our teams would not go to the west coast as often as they would to places like Albequerque, Fort Collins, Laramie, Colorado Springs, El Paso, and Boise (Well that one is pretty far).

Travel would be harder.

For the fans, games that start at 9 pm or 10 pm central are a lot harder to follow live. That would happen rarely for football, but pretty regularly for basketball and baseball.

(12-11-2015 05:05 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  I don't know if moving to MWC would be so great. I like the MWC, but what are their bowl affiliations other than New Mexico and Tucson? Are any located within driving distance of Houston? Aren't CUSA's bowls better? What about the student-athletes? Is Rice going to be willing and able to send students all over the west coast? Is that fair to them? Does anyone even care about that? Are we ready to sever every tie with our regional rivals here in Texas, other than UTEP? In the end, it looks like a push. It's not an easy decision and the answer is far from obvious. I could stomach it better if BYU were still a member, or if they decided to include a couple more Texas schools in the package besides Rice and UTEP.

We already lost our regional rivals (UH, SMU,Tulane). I wouldn't count the Texas schools in CUSA as rivals. I don't think I know a single person that went to UNT or UTSA.

The only thing that bothers me is the distance but I guess travel time isn't really that bad because we would be flying instead of flying THEN driving to all the hard to get CUSA destinations.

To answer Afflicted's question about bowls:

Las Vegas Bowl vs. Pac-12 or Hawaii Bowl vs. AAC
Poinsettia Bowl vs. MAC
New Mexico Bowl vs. C-USA
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. MAC
Arizona Bowl vs. C-USA
Armed Forces Bowl vs. B1G

Secondary:

Cactus Bowl vs. Big 12 or PAC

Not a huge difference, but their opponents might be a bit better. C-USA might have better destinations though.

(12-11-2015 07:21 PM)temchugh Wrote:  Travel would be harder.

For the fans, games that start at 9 pm or 10 pm central are a lot harder to follow live. That would happen rarely for football, but pretty regularly for basketball and baseball.

The converse is that perhaps this would put pressure on Rice's home games to start later, to accommodate viewers on the west coast.

Boise State is in favor of this move? They seem to be the school that drives things in that conference.

I'm not sure I'm in favor of it either. I almost would prefer holding out for an AAC bid instead. But if it happens, Rice/UTEP would be preferable as some have said over UTSA/UTEP.

I would absolutely love to jump to the MWC. Just the thought of getting to play in Las Vegas again for the Conference Basketball tournament has me excited. I used to love going to that back when we were in the WAC. I also see more fans showing up to HRS when we play schools like Air Force, Boise State, etc. in football. Don't really care as much about baseball implications.

Living in Utah I can unequivocally state that the MWC is much more respected nationally than CUSA. Boise, Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State, even Fresno State have all been ranked top 25 in football since we left. San Diego State, New Mezico , UNLV always ranked in basketball. We could dominate in baseball but would have to improve in football and basketball to think conference leaders. Their TV contracts are better. Bowl tie-ins much better. No games against Sunbelt and bowls are in warm places at Xmas time. Recruiting plus, Denton vs San Diego, Hawaii, Las Vegas or Ruston vs Colorado, Utah, or New Mexico. Even Reno and Northern California vs San Antonio.Get us in.
Going 9 and 3 with a MWC schedule will get you ranked. Cusa not so much.

(12-11-2015 07:31 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  To answer Afflicted's question about bowls:

Las Vegas Bowl vs. Pac-12 or Hawaii Bowl vs. AAC
Poinsettia Bowl vs. MAC
New Mexico Bowl vs. C-USA
Famous Idaho Potato Bowl vs. MAC
Arizona Bowl vs. C-USA
Armed Forces Bowl vs. B1G

Secondary:

Cactus Bowl vs. Big 12 or PAC

Not a huge difference, but their opponents might be a bit better. C-USA might have better destinations though.

I don't like it. The Armed Forces Bowl looks appealing, but the next two closest bowls are the New Mexico and Tucson against CUSA.

Anyway, if preliminary votes are taking place, discussions have happened between the two entities. There's mutual interest. I can say that I'd prefer the MWC over the AAC. There are more state schools and there's more stability.

(12-11-2015 08:14 PM)utahowl Wrote:  Living in Utah I can unequivocally state that the MWC is much more respected nationally than CUSA. Boise, Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State, even Fresno State have all been ranked top 25 in football since we left. San Diego State, New Mezico , UNLV always ranked in basketball. We could dominate in baseball but would have to improve in football and basketball to think conference leaders. Their TV contracts are better. Bowl tie-ins much better. No games against Sunbelt and bowls are in warm places at Xmas time. Recruiting plus, Denton vs San Diego, Hawaii, Las Vegas or Ruston vs Colorado, Utah, or New Mexico. Even Reno and Northern California vs San Antonio.Get us in.
Going 9 and 3 with a MWC schedule will get you ranked. Cusa not so much.

Agree with all of the above, but I don't think going 9-3 gets you ranked in any G5, unless you lost three games to top echelon P5 opponents. Even then probably not.

I hope this works out for you, Owls. It seems like a clear step up.

(12-11-2015 08:41 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(12-11-2015 08:14 PM)utahowl Wrote:  Living in Utah I can unequivocally state that the MWC is much more respected nationally than CUSA. Boise, Utah State, Air Force, Colorado State, even Fresno State have all been ranked top 25 in football since we left. San Diego State, New Mezico , UNLV always ranked in basketball. We could dominate in baseball but would have to improve in football and basketball to think conference leaders. Their TV contracts are better. Bowl tie-ins much better. No games against Sunbelt and bowls are in warm places at Xmas time. Recruiting plus, Denton vs San Diego, Hawaii, Las Vegas or Ruston vs Colorado, Utah, or New Mexico. Even Reno and Northern California vs San Antonio.Get us in.
Going 9 and 3 with a MWC schedule will get you ranked. Cusa not so much.

Agree with all of the above, but I don't think going 9-3 gets you ranked in any G5, unless you lost three games to top echelon P5 opponents. Even then probably not.

10-3 with (relatively close?) losses at Ole Miss, at UCLA, and home to Houston, and a 2OT win over BYU in the bowl game, got Memphis #25 in the end-of-year poll in 2014.

For Rice in the MWC, that'd be something like (making up an OOC) losses at USC and Baylor, and home against Boise, and a close win in a bowl game against someone like Navy. I'd be down for that.