(08-31-2025 05:55 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 04:06 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As a Memphis fan, I want no part of any G league playoff, banding together, hoops tournament, etc. That would almost certainly be a disaster for Tiger sports.

Now, as a Middle Tennessee State fan (who is still baffled by our losing so badly to Austin Peay yesterday), I can see some benefit of such a move to Blue Raider athletics.

And that's the thing: There are some Group conference members (Oregon State, Washington State, Temple, Memphis, UConn, Tulane, San Diego State, USF, etc.) that 1. previously were members of high-profile conferences and/or 2. offer the resources and solid level of national notoriety to participate in one of the two M2 leagues (or some future variation thereof). The schools I list will keep trying to shed the G stigma. Being more like (fill in the blank) a Sun Belt, MAC or C-USA member and less like a Big 12 or ACC member is simply not appealing to such schools.

In contrast, a school like Middle Tennessee State is simply happy to be a member of one of the 10 all-sports FBS leagues.

Right. The CFA TV alliance was 63-66 schools. When you add the Big 10/Pac 10 TV alliance of the 80s, that gives you 83-86 schools. So that includes 14-17 schools not current P4 or previous P5 (OSU/WSU + 68 P4 less UCF=69). The MAC and Big West were not part of the CFA.

You've made multiple posts regarding this topic (and the history of college athletics programs competing at the highest level for about 60 years or longer, specifically) that I strongly agree with, bullet. Some helpful info and context.

Good work.

Bill

(08-31-2025 06:43 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 05:55 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 04:06 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As a Memphis fan, I want no part of any G league playoff, banding together, hoops tournament, etc. That would almost certainly be a disaster for Tiger sports.

Now, as a Middle Tennessee State fan (who is still baffled by our losing so badly to Austin Peay yesterday), I can see some benefit of such a move to Blue Raider athletics.

And that's the thing: There are some Group conference members (Oregon State, Washington State, Temple, Memphis, UConn, Tulane, San Diego State, USF, etc.) that 1. previously were members of high-profile conferences and/or 2. offer the resources and solid level of national notoriety to participate in one of the two M2 leagues (or some future variation thereof). The schools I list will keep trying to shed the G stigma. Being more like (fill in the blank) a Sun Belt, MAC or C-USA member and less like a Big 12 or ACC member is simply not appealing to such schools.

In contrast, a school like Middle Tennessee State is simply happy to be a member of one of the 10 all-sports FBS leagues.

Right. The CFA TV alliance was 63-66 schools. When you add the Big 10/Pac 10 TV alliance of the 80s, that gives you 83-86 schools. So that includes 14-17 schools not current P4 or previous P5 (OSU/WSU + 68 P4 less UCF=69). The MAC and Big West were not part of the CFA.

You've made multiple posts regarding this topic (and the history of college athletics programs competing at the highest level for about 60 years or longer, specifically) that I strongly agree with, bullet. Some helpful info and context.

Good work.

Bill

I think several on this board have said its extremely difficult to find who was in the CFA. From several things I've read the membership varied from 63 to 66. In 1984 I've seen two numbers, 64 members of which 19 were independents. But to get to 64, you needed 20 independents (10 SEC, 9 SWC, 8 Big 8, 9 WAC, 8 ACC=44).

In 1984, there were 105 schools (4 of which have since dropped football) in I-A. 20 were in the Big Ten/Pac 10 TV alliance, 63 or 64 were in the CFA TV alliance, 10 in the MAC and 8 in the Big West and 3 or 4 independents were excluded.

I've identified 19 independents who were in the CFA.
Now ACC-7 (BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami, Virginia Tech, FSU and Louisville)
Now Big Ten-2 (Rutgers, Penn St.)
Now Big 12-2 (West Virginia, Cincinnati)
Now SEC-1 (South Carolina)
Now American-5 (Army, Navy, Memphis, Temple, Tulane)
Now Ind-1 (Notre Dame)
Now Sun Belt-1 (Southern Miss)

The other 4 were Louisiana Lafayette and Wichita St. who were not members, Tulsa, who became a member later in the 80s and East Carolina, who may or may not have been a member.

So the CFA schools were considered enough of a peer to be included in the TV contract. Rice and 7 of the WAC members are now "G" schools (UTEP, NM, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado St., SDSU, Hawaii).

(08-28-2025 04:24 PM)The Beaver Wrote:  

(08-28-2025 04:19 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  

(08-28-2025 04:17 PM)The Beaver Wrote:  

(08-28-2025 04:14 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  

That last sentence might as well be him putting on a clown hat and yelling out "look at me, I'm a joke!"

Are you calling Ross Dellinger a joke for reporting what he was told? Am I misunderstanding what you wrote?

I meant the Pac 12 part specifically. Why even raise the idea of them as an "A league"? They clearly don't have the programs to do it. They might have 2 or 3 that can operate like a smaller A program (BSU, SDSU and OSU, and in that order) but the rest aren't able and if your best is below average for an actual A league then that isn't what you are going to be. He's throwing out false hope to people.

It’s Ross’ job to report on what he learns from his sources. If he stated what you proposed that would be opinion. There’s a difference. You may be right but it’s not Ross’ job to make that call. Dellenger needs to just call balls and strikes then let his reader decide for themselves.

I've long thought 24 for each of the B1G and SEC is perfect because it lets you get every big brand still out there and then you call it a day.

But I also don't think it's impossible that we could see an alternate academics-based realignment that strives to strengthen relationships amongst the AAU & AAU prospectives.

In this scenario, you may see Chancellors and Presidents wanting to shift the narrative of what the B1G and SEC are. Right now, they're athletics conferences.

Those leaders may want the narrative to change so they're academic alliances that also play sports.

They could basically leave it up to the individual universities to show whether they can sustain "natural" revenue at the levels required to participate (i.e. you can't have 10k in the stands but toss in a $100 million donation to make it look like the school is revenue competitive).

In this scenario, perhaps it ends up with schools like Pitt and USF surprising to make the cut to say 56 while schools like Louisville, Syracuse, and Iowa St are naturally selected out.

(08-31-2025 09:16 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 06:43 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 05:55 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(08-31-2025 04:06 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  As a Memphis fan, I want no part of any G league playoff, banding together, hoops tournament, etc. That would almost certainly be a disaster for Tiger sports.

Now, as a Middle Tennessee State fan (who is still baffled by our losing so badly to Austin Peay yesterday), I can see some benefit of such a move to Blue Raider athletics.

And that's the thing: There are some Group conference members (Oregon State, Washington State, Temple, Memphis, UConn, Tulane, San Diego State, USF, etc.) that 1. previously were members of high-profile conferences and/or 2. offer the resources and solid level of national notoriety to participate in one of the two M2 leagues (or some future variation thereof). The schools I list will keep trying to shed the G stigma. Being more like (fill in the blank) a Sun Belt, MAC or C-USA member and less like a Big 12 or ACC member is simply not appealing to such schools.

In contrast, a school like Middle Tennessee State is simply happy to be a member of one of the 10 all-sports FBS leagues.

Right. The CFA TV alliance was 63-66 schools. When you add the Big 10/Pac 10 TV alliance of the 80s, that gives you 83-86 schools. So that includes 14-17 schools not current P4 or previous P5 (OSU/WSU + 68 P4 less UCF=69). The MAC and Big West were not part of the CFA.

You've made multiple posts regarding this topic (and the history of college athletics programs competing at the highest level for about 60 years or longer, specifically) that I strongly agree with, bullet. Some helpful info and context.

Good work.

Bill

I think several on this board have said its extremely difficult to find who was in the CFA. From several things I've read the membership varied from 63 to 66. In 1984 I've seen two numbers, 64 members of which 19 were independents. But to get to 64, you needed 20 independents (10 SEC, 9 SWC, 8 Big 8, 9 WAC, 8 ACC=44).

In 1984, there were 105 schools (4 of which have since dropped football) in I-A. 20 were in the Big Ten/Pac 10 TV alliance, 63 or 64 were in the CFA TV alliance, 10 in the MAC and 8 in the Big West and 3 or 4 independents were excluded.

I've identified 19 independents who were in the CFA.
Now ACC-7 (BC, Syracuse, Pitt, Miami, Virginia Tech, FSU and Louisville)
Now Big Ten-2 (Rutgers, Penn St.)
Now Big 12-2 (West Virginia, Cincinnati)
Now SEC-1 (South Carolina)
Now American-5 (Army, Navy, Memphis, Temple, Tulane)
Now Ind-1 (Notre Dame)
Now Sun Belt-1 (Southern Miss)

The other 4 were Louisiana Lafayette and Wichita St. who were not members, Tulsa, who became a member later in the 80s and East Carolina, who may or may not have been a member.

So the CFA schools were considered enough of a peer to be included in the TV contract. Rice and 7 of the WAC members are now "G" schools (UTEP, NM, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado St., SDSU, Hawaii).

I remember the 1980s and how football programs were essentially classified. It was very different back then. A program was not "penalized" by its league affiilation as is the case today with "Group" membership.

Thanks for all the info.