(02-13-2012 06:30 PM)exCincy Kid Wrote: ..sounds like they'll almost have to play bowl games against each other..not enough other conferences to hook up with if they go to 24 teams. What a mess.....schools that have little in common (other than a hope to get more TV revenue), no rivalries, no history, no nothing really. It'l break up (in small pieces) almost as quickly as it's put together.
Exactly there is nothing but mass holding this mess together.
Every confernece has one, maybe two schools that don't fit the general profile or culture of the conferneces bulk but in most cases there is another reason.
ACC - East Coach High Acheiving Academic Schools
BIG10 - Mid West AAU Members
SEC - Large Southern State Schools
PAC12 - Large State schools on the west coast
MAC - Medium to large midwest public schools in a small footprint
SBC - Medium to large south east public schools in a small footprint
Beyond sports these are institutions that might work with each other in research, common educational goals, standards. Like I said there is usually an outlier in every conference (Vandy in the SEC, UB in the MAC, Penn State (geography) in the B1G)... But even then those school are *close enough* that membership makes sense.
The Big East grew into a mess partially because the small Catholic Schools and the Large State schools had no common vision.
This mess will end the same way, politics will tear it apart because there is *nothing* other than a million dollars a year or so, holding these schools together.
Ill echo what an OU poster (might have been Ozoner) said..
I would rather See UB drop down to FCS and try to get a CAA / A10 membership than join this disaster in waiting.