This is how I see it is playing out:

1. ODU, WKU, and Marshall have all one way or another expressed their displeasure with CUSA through their local media.
2. These schools have reached out to UNCC and MTSU who probably have expressed their dissatisfaction as well.

As a result informal conversations have probably went on with other CUSA and Sun Belt schools about realignment that would cost each institution the least amount of money.

The problem is trying to get 26 institutions to agree, then along comes COVID-19. Now, schools are forced to look at ways to save money and the NCAA may just offer a life preserver for realignment.

I could see these schools wanting to be together unless a miracle happens and the AAC offers an invite:

1. Marshall
2. ODU
3. UNCC
4. Appy
5. Coastal
6. GA Southern
7. WKU
8. MTSU

After that it could be anybody's guess as most of these schools probably don't agree on the 9th,10th, 11th, or even 12th. Marshall will want one of the F_U's, ODU may want James Madison, WKU/MTSU may want UAB etc.,

(04-07-2020 01:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:  FIU and FAU would be giving up 7 annual CUSA football games (only 7 because they'd still play each other). They would replace those 7 games with (probably) UMass, UConn, and Liberty almost every year, BYU and NMSU in some years, sometimes Army if they can get onto Army's schedule, plus a few more.

I'm not seeing the upgrade here. Why give up the roulette wheel chance at the Tourney for this change in schedule? In 2021, they have their slate of four home and four away CUSA games, play at Texas Tech and CMU, host Texas State, and have an open spot to host an FCS school if they want six home games or to play a buy game if they want the money.

They can easily land 1-1 Go5 deals because of teams happy to come to their part of the country on the FIU home leg, they can play a buy game to host an FCS side ... they never have to dig a deficit a whole hell of a lot deeper, like UConn did, in order to build a schedule with enough home FBS games.

I'm not seeing what is compelling about going independent just because if they were forced into independence they would have a shot at scraping by.

They wouldn't be giving up the NCAA basketball tournament shot. The scenario is football independence plus membership in a conference like the A-Sun.

(04-07-2020 01:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 01:06 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Could FIU and Florida Atlantic make a go of football independence while sticking the rest of their sports in the Florida-heavy Atlantic Sun?

It's getting close to the point where there are enough FBS indy teams to make it much more workable.

FIU and FAU would be giving up 7 annual CUSA football games (only 7 because they'd still play each other). They would replace those 7 games with (probably) UMass, UConn, and Liberty almost every year, BYU and NMSU in some years, sometimes Army if they can get onto Army's schedule, plus a few more. Being in south Florida, it should be easier for them to line up home games than it is for, say, NMSU. And if they need an extra road game or two, there are always SEC teams willing to write big checks.

It has pretty much become UCF scheduling policy to rotate H&H with FAU/FIU, so they'd fill up a slot every 2 years that way.

That said, I don't really see the upside for them. UCF was in CUSA with no nearby schools (UAB the closest) and made it work. Even finding themselves in a mostly Texas-based conference wouldn't be the end of the road for them. But they also have deeper pockets thanks to the student population than many of the other schools involved in this discussion.

Even split map.



West Conference
West Division
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
North Texas
Rice
Arkansas State

East Division
Louisiana Tech
ULM
ULL
Southern Miss
UAB
South Alabama

East Conference
North Division
Marshall
ODU
WKU
MTSU
ASU
Charlotte

South Division
Coastal Carolina
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Troy
FAU
FIU

(04-07-2020 01:33 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 01:06 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  Could FIU and Florida Atlantic make a go of football independence while sticking the rest of their sports in the Florida-heavy Atlantic Sun?

It's getting close to the point where there are enough FBS indy teams to make it much more workable.

FIU and FAU would be giving up 7 annual CUSA football games (only 7 because they'd still play each other). They would replace those 7 games with (probably) UMass, UConn, and Liberty almost every year, BYU and NMSU in some years, sometimes Army if they can get onto Army's schedule, plus a few more. Being in south Florida, it should be easier for them to line up home games than it is for, say, NMSU. And if they need an extra road game or two, there are always SEC teams willing to write big checks.

It would probably be in the best interest of FIU and FAU to get a league going at least football only that includes UMass and UConn to improve brand awareness in a region likely to send students to them and potentially raise their ratings via higher selectivity.

Could FAU and FIU make more money as independents though?

Skillet: could the western conference coax the local AAC teams into the conference?

(04-07-2020 01:44 PM)Herd6993 Wrote:  This is how I see it is playing out:

1. ODU, WKU, and Marshall have all one way or another expressed their displeasure with CUSA through their local media.
2. These schools have reached out to UNCC and MTSU who probably have expressed their dissatisfaction as well.

As a result informal conversations have probably went on with other CUSA and Sun Belt schools about realignment that would cost each institution the least amount of money.

The problem is trying to get 26 institutions to agree, then along comes COVID-19. Now, schools are forced to look at ways to save money and the NCAA may just offer a life preserver for realignment.

I could see these schools wanting to be together unless a miracle happens and the AAC offers an invite:

1. Marshall
2. ODU
3. UNCC
4. Appy
5. Coastal
6. GA Southern
7. WKU
8. MTSU

After that it could be anybody's guess as most of these schools probably don't agree on the 9th,10th, 11th, or even 12th. Marshall will want one of the F_U's, ODU may want James Madison, WKU/MTSU may want UAB etc.,

Nix Coastal from that list. They are the low budget new kid on the block. Swap GA St on because they are big market and have one of the bigger budgets. That’s your core of 8.

You’re right about JMU—ODU want them bad. Pencil them in as #9.

UAB seems like the reasonable #10 that keeps the footprint tight and they have one of the higher athletic budgets of the candidates.

FAU/FIU are still there if you want to go to 12 or you play them OOC.

(04-06-2020 05:45 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  It is better that North Texas plays a Butch Davis coached FIU or Willie Tagart coached FAU, than play a Texas State team that has not won more than 3 games in any of the past 5 seasons. It's that simple.

Taggart and Davis won't be at FAU/FIU forever (and really, who cares if they are?), and Texas State is growing by leaps and bounds. They are a budding colossus.

If I were North Texas, I'd want to get on their good side.

(04-07-2020 05:07 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(04-06-2020 05:45 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  It is better that North Texas plays a Butch Davis coached FIU or Willie Tagart coached FAU, than play a Texas State team that has not won more than 3 games in any of the past 5 seasons. It's that simple.

Taggart and Davis won't be at FAU/FIU forever (and really, who cares if they are?), and Texas State is growing by leaps and bounds. They are a budding colossus.

If I were North Texas, I'd want to get on their good side.

I'll go ahead and bold the most important part of this post. I guess you didn't read the whole thing.

I'd much rather North Texas travel to Florida every year and play teams that go bowling. We want to conference with the best competition we can. Geography is secondary to quality.

By the way North Texas is a larger university. We are the 5th largest university in Texas with an enrollment of 39,454. Texas State is close, but currently not larger. They have an enrollment of 38,848. Plus, North Texas is a Carnegie Tier 1 research university. Texas State is not.

(04-07-2020 01:44 PM)Herd6993 Wrote:  This is how I see it is playing out:

1. ODU, WKU, and Marshall have all one way or another expressed their displeasure with CUSA through their local media.
2. These schools have reached out to UNCC and MTSU who probably have expressed their dissatisfaction as well.

As a result informal conversations have probably went on with other CUSA and Sun Belt schools about realignment that would cost each institution the least amount of money.

The problem is trying to get 26 institutions to agree, then along comes COVID-19. Now, schools are forced to look at ways to save money and the NCAA may just offer a life preserver for realignment.

I could see these schools wanting to be together unless a miracle happens and the AAC offers an invite:

1. Marshall
2. ODU
3. UNCC
4. Appy
5. Coastal
6. GA Southern
7. WKU
8. MTSU

After that it could be anybody's guess as most of these schools probably don't agree on the 9th,10th, 11th, or even 12th. Marshall will want one of the F_U's, ODU may want James Madison, WKU/MTSU may want UAB etc.,

This line of thinking is probably the closest i have seen to the real world decision makers thoughts. you will never find a happy 12 member group by just using geography, after about 7 or 8 members, there will be lots of fighting over the remaining members of a east breakaway scenario. to that end, you will never get a clean 26 member split west and east. messy and unpredictable is more than likely.

I've said it before, the best football solution is 6 divisions of 4. Non-division games need not be on a rotation, just assign them 2+ years out. La Tech never wants to play La Monroe? Easy. ODU wants no more than 1 game west of the Mississippi? Done. Every team can have a near ideal schedule.

You can probably keep the same 20 CFP shares and stage two or three games the first weekend in December.

Basketball is harder...

because 14 games MUST be in your conference. A good option would be to use the "pod" system both conferences tried out but instead of creating pods based on preformance, create pods based on geography. You could still have a top 4-team pod with the best 2 CUSA and best 2 Sun Belt teams. But base most of the pods on geography (Southwest, Bayou, Deep South, Appalachian, Southeast, or something like that). Finishing the season against nearby schools (even if from a different conference), is great for building rivalries and exciting the fan base.

(04-07-2020 02:21 PM)WesternSkillet Wrote:  Even split map.



West Conference
West Division
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
North Texas
Rice
Arkansas State

East Division
Louisiana Tech
ULM
ULL
Southern Miss
UAB
South Alabama

East Conference
North Division
Marshall
ODU
WKU
MTSU
ASU
Charlotte

South Division
Coastal Carolina
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Troy
FAU
FIU

even though this alignment has been discussed before in other threads it's the most agreeable and geographically friendly set up...

west conference = cusa revised
east conference = sun belt conference

i would add again that cusa revised market itself as a rebooted southwest conference...also there have been alignments similar to this configuration that includes nmsu in the mix...

what do you do with uta and ualr???...stay in the sbc...go to cusa revised???...the wac perhaps???

I'd be interested to know what the swing teams think in Alabama. I think the pure geographic alignment with a UAB-Troy split might be the best set up.

(04-07-2020 04:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Nix Coastal from that list. They are the low budget new kid on the block.

... who holds the only National Championship in a major sport won by either conference.

(04-07-2020 01:44 PM)Herd6993 Wrote:  1. Marshall
2. ODU
3. UNCC
4. Appy
5. Coastal
6. GA Southern
7. WKU
8. MTSU

It's pretty easy to find your final two to bolt on. Choose your own adventure:
FAU and FIU (travel partner bonus savings)
UAB and Troy (travel partner bonus savings)
UAB and FAU (if access to both AL and FL is more important than the travel partner)
JMU and UAB (both of these could travel partner with existing membership ... App State and Georgia State respectively)

South Eastern Atlantic (SEA)

Charlotte
ODU
Liberty
Appalachian
Coastal
Georgia St.
Georgia Southern
FAU
FIU
Marshall
VCU - basketball
Charleston - basketball

(04-08-2020 08:28 AM)Rabonchild Wrote:  South Eastern Atlantic (SEA)

Charlotte
ODU
Liberty
Appalachian
Coastal
Georgia St.
Georgia Southern
FAU
FIU
Marshall
VCU - basketball
Charleston - basketball

I can get on board with this, although to be honest non AAC conference affiliation isn't as important to me. Sunbelt has been just fine to us.

However, if we were going to do something like this, it is my strongest preference that we take out Liberty and insert JMU. The quad of App-JMU-UNCC-ODU stand to make a bunch of extra $$$ each year from playing each other.

(04-08-2020 08:15 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 04:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Nix Coastal from that list. They are the low budget new kid on the block.

... who holds the only National Championship in a major sport won by either conference.

Basketball doesn't count? Is that because you are in Georgia? UTEP (who also has a load of track championships)?

And of course Rice also has a baseball title.