https://www.blackandgoldbanneret.com/fea...sa-in-1995

Really interesting article for you realignment enthusiasts. Nothing in this article is too far fetched either.

Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

(05-18-2020 12:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

I get what you mean but in the article it was saying that the B10 raided Kansas and Missouri, instead of Maryland and Rutgers. It’s UCF biased obviously but nothing too crazy, all of that COULD have happened.

(05-18-2020 12:52 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

I get what you mean but in the article it was saying that the B10 raided Kansas and Missouri, instead of Maryland and Rutgers. It’s UCF biased obviously but nothing too crazy, all of that COULD have happened.

COULD is the key word, but that’s not the route they went. If you’re doing a retrospective you should change other events unless the trigger for them can be traced back to the original change.

(05-18-2020 01:05 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:52 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

I get what you mean but in the article it was saying that the B10 raided Kansas and Missouri, instead of Maryland and Rutgers. It’s UCF biased obviously but nothing too crazy, all of that COULD have happened.

COULD is the key word, but that’s not the route they went. If you’re doing a retrospective you should change other events unless the trigger for them can be traced back to the original change.

Obviously, the article isn’t talking about what ACTUALLY happened, it’s a fun alternate history article about what COULD have happened.

I mean it’s UCF fanfic and a lot of the moves it proposes would never have happened because it ignores the money, but hey it’s Ultimate Off Season

I’d just like to think that CUSA FB-only (we would have stayed in the A-Sun) would have gotten us BE FB-only in 03.

It was a fun read! I think UCF/USF as a package deal is a good deal as a long-term investment.

It would mean that they would have had 8 years in the BE before getting stuck at their present station.

The problem is, not only was UCF committed to Independence, but nowhere in the article is there expressed interest from the C-USA side.

(05-18-2020 12:52 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

I get what you mean but in the article it was saying that the B10 raided Kansas and Missouri, instead of Maryland and Rutgers. It’s UCF biased obviously but nothing too crazy, all of that COULD have happened.

In this story:
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and West Virginia all reject invitations from the Big Ten and/or SEC.
UCF has only one sub-.500 football season in the team's first 25 years in FBS.
Notre Dame joins the Big Ten, AND the Big Ten tells Notre Dame they love them so much that it's OK if their football team remains independent.
All of that could have happened?

(05-18-2020 01:36 PM)whittx Wrote:  It would mean that they would have had 8 years in the BE before getting stuck at their present station.

In this scenario UCF would join the Big East the same time as usf preventing the instability and uncertainty caused by usf continuously blocking the vote to add UCF leading to turning down the tv deal from ESPN and members jumping ship. So there would have been some minor realignment in 2013 but not the massive realignment we saw. And Big East football would still be here with a power conference designation.

(05-18-2020 01:39 PM)esayem Wrote:  The problem is, not only was UCF committed to Independence, but nowhere in the article is there expressed interest from the C-USA side.

It linked an article from the Orlando sentinel in ‘94 with UCF’s AD at the time rejecting interest in the conference merging of the metro and great Midwest conference in what would be CUSA.

Quote:"We are more inclined to be an independent for about five years," Sloan said, "and then see if we are attractive to the SEC or ACC."

I’m sure there was interest and probably talks but with UCF’s AD showing no interest and even saying so publicly why extend an invite just to be rejected? It was a dumb move by Sloan that set UCF back significantly. Glad we overcame it but we could have saved 15-20 years.

(05-18-2020 02:06 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:52 PM)BraveKnight Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 12:47 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Not a bad revisionist history but the problem with that scenario is that they have the UCF butterfly changing things that they never could have changed, like expansion moves my the Big Ten and SEC.

Also, if UCF is a founding member of C-USA they’d be the 13th member, which would be highly irregular. They’d need to either bump someone out or there should be a 14th. My thoughts are that TCU is that school in 1996 and that ECU doesn’t become a full fledged C-USA member until 2005.

I get what you mean but in the article it was saying that the B10 raided Kansas and Missouri, instead of Maryland and Rutgers. It’s UCF biased obviously but nothing too crazy, all of that COULD have happened.

In this story:
Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and West Virginia all reject invitations from the Big Ten and/or SEC.
UCF has only one sub-.500 football season in the team's first 25 years in FBS.
Notre Dame joins the Big Ten, AND the Big Ten tells Notre Dame they love them so much that it's OK if their football team remains independent.
All of that could have happened?

I’m pretty sure he meant the ACC reaching out to Pitt, West Virginia, and Syracuse, and the Big 10 and SEC to other schools. And it’s not that far fetched to say ND does the same thing with the Big 10 that they’re currently doing with the ACC. The UCF football success is obviously optimistic and UCF biased, but Boise State has had similar success as UCF in the article (Minus the playoff berths).

(05-18-2020 02:21 PM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 01:39 PM)esayem Wrote:  The problem is, not only was UCF committed to Independence, but nowhere in the article is there expressed interest from the C-USA side.

It linked an article from the Orlando sentinel in ‘94 with UCF’s AD at the time rejecting interest in the conference merging of the metro and great Midwest conference in what would be CUSA.

Quote:"We are more inclined to be an independent for about five years," Sloan said, "and then see if we are attractive to the SEC or ACC."

I’m sure there was interest and probably talks but with UCF’s AD showing no interest and even saying so publicly why extend an invite just to be rejected? It was a dumb move by Sloan that set UCF back significantly. Glad we overcame it but we could have saved 15-20 years.

My understanding is that CUSA was interested in UCF, mostly for FB-only.

Sloan really thought he was just a few 10 win seasons on the gridiron from getting into a major conference despite the complete lack of infrastructure for all the other sports and the shoestring football budget. What a moron. At least he later focused on Big East FB-only...if we had been able to get that with Miami rolling into town as an "equal," that would have been huge for program development. Alas.

(05-18-2020 02:55 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 02:21 PM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  

(05-18-2020 01:39 PM)esayem Wrote:  The problem is, not only was UCF committed to Independence, but nowhere in the article is there expressed interest from the C-USA side.

It linked an article from the Orlando sentinel in ‘94 with UCF’s AD at the time rejecting interest in the conference merging of the metro and great Midwest conference in what would be CUSA.

Quote:"We are more inclined to be an independent for about five years," Sloan said, "and then see if we are attractive to the SEC or ACC."

I’m sure there was interest and probably talks but with UCF’s AD showing no interest and even saying so publicly why extend an invite just to be rejected? It was a dumb move by Sloan that set UCF back significantly. Glad we overcame it but we could have saved 15-20 years.

My understanding is that CUSA was interested in UCF, mostly for FB-only.

Sloan really thought he was just a few 10 win seasons on the gridiron from getting into a major conference despite the complete lack of infrastructure for all the other sports and the shoestring football budget. What a moron. At least he later focused on Big East FB-only...if we had been able to get that with Miami rolling into town as an "equal," that would have been huge for program development. Alas.

Right, I have a hard time believing the merger of two basketball-centric conferences would look to include UCF's basketball program at the time. ECU didn't get in for hoops initially, I imagine UCF would have been looked at the same.

When the Big East restocked in 2005 they were not going any larger than 8 football schools. They were setting themselves up for a future split in 5 years. Any more football schools would have divided the BCS money among more schools.

UCF’s only hope would have been to unseat one of the 3 football schools that they did add for all sports: USF, Cincinnati, or Louisville.

Maybe, and this is a huge maybe, they beg their way into a football only deal in the Big East in 2005 at a significantly reduced revenue share. The logic behind this move is that every single Big East football school would get an annual Florida trip, not just every other year.

UCF would be foolish to pass an offer like that up because it would position them well to become a member of a split off football sponsoring all sports conference in 2010. Of course, we all know they didn’t end up splitting that year—they stayed together until the other P conferences took the football side to the woodshed.

(05-18-2020 05:07 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  When the Big East restocked in 2005 they were not going any larger than 8 football schools. They were setting themselves up for a future split in 5 years. Any more football schools would have divided the BCS money among more schools.

UCF’s only hope would have been to unseat one of the 3 football schools that they did add for all sports: USF, Cincinnati, or Louisville.

Maybe, and this is a huge maybe, they beg their way into a football only deal in the Big East in 2005 at a significantly reduced revenue share. The logic behind this move is that every single Big East football school would get an annual Florida trip, not just every other year.

UCF would be foolish to pass an offer like that up because it would position them well to become a member of a split off football sponsoring all sports conference in 2010. Of course, we all know they didn’t end up splitting that year—they stayed together until the other P conferences took the football side to the woodshed.

I’m pretty sure we more or less offered to do that in 2003. I don’t think anyone thought we were getting a BE all-sports bid, though I know we did try to sell them on playing conference basketball games at the Magic’s arena.

I do think had we been coming from CUSA and not the MAC, the FB-only option would have been better received by the Big East.

A small detail that didn’t make sense was Houston to the Big East while the Big XII took SMU and TCU. I would think Houston would get the Big 12 call instead of SMU due to public school politics and preferring to have only one private school in the Metroplex along with a presence in Houston.