(03-02-2012 04:57 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:42 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  You sound a little frustrated at the perceptions, but every one of us have had to deal with that.

I am not frustrated at our perception by others, what annoys me is the use of FIU's name as the worst case scenario in a non existent conference. If FIU is so bad, why do you want to keep them?????

If you want the griddy truth from my opinion. I don't personally care if FIU stayed or not as long as we were not downplayed after you left.

But people probably view it like this. FIU has been one of the worst football and basketball teams in the conference for the last eight years. In 2010 your school finally won a conference title and you guys did have fans start talking about leaving us behind, joining the Big East/Conference USA, and so on.

When FIU was in ESPN bottom 10 the Sun Belt didn't rush to get rid of FIU did it? Now that FIU is finally in a good two years so far a lot of your fans seem to be in a rush to get out the Sun Belt instead of improving it. And just look how this sounds if you had a beautiful girlfriend who no one wanted and she suddenly got fat and ugly and you still stuck with her. So she losses weight all the sudden then dumps you for a guy who makes 10,000 more a year.

If UNT goes to the alliance, it will be because it's what's in the best interest of our school. Rice, Tulsa, S. Miss, Marshall, UTEP, and Tulane will draw bigger crowds to Apogee, than they ever did at SMU. If we have to stay in the Sun Belt, I will not be happy. Not because I don't Like the Sun Belt. I have enjoyed playing in the Sun Belt, and I respect the current membership. I just have no confidence in Benson's leadership, and right now I have absolutely no interest in playing in a conference with either Texas State or UTSA. If that was our goal we could have just stayed in the Southland 20 years ago.

(03-02-2012 05:13 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:57 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:42 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  You sound a little frustrated at the perceptions, but every one of us have had to deal with that.

I am not frustrated at our perception by others, what annoys me is the use of FIU's name as the worst case scenario in a non existent conference. If FIU is so bad, why do you want to keep them?????

If you want the griddy truth from my opinion. I don't personally care if FIU stayed or not as long as we were not downplayed after you left.

But people probably view it like this. FIU has been one of the worst football and basketball teams in the conference for the last eight years. In 2010 your school finally won a conference title and you guys did have fans start talking about leaving us behind, joining the Big East/Conference USA, and so on.

When FIU was in ESPN bottom 10 the Sun Belt didn't rush to get rid of FIU did it? Now that FIU is finally in a good two years so far a lot of your fans seem to be in a rush to get out the Sun Belt instead of improving it. And just look how this sounds if you had a beautiful girlfriend who no one wanted and she suddenly got fat and ugly and you still stuck with her. So she losses weight all the sudden then dumps you for a guy who makes 10,000 more a year.

1)The 'belt couldn't throw out FIU then because it would be suicidal, remember we moved up earlier than we wanted because the 'belt requested it. Got into a lot of trouble because of that early move, lost schollys etc.

2)Now the 'belt has enough teams that if it wished it could throw team out.

3)I don't see you hating on FAU fan that also talk about CUSA/Alliance/Big East. MTSU or WKU fans that talk about getting into the alliance. ULL fans that present themselves as better option for the alliance than Latech. All teams have fans that will talk about their team deserves to be in some other league, it is the nature of the beast.

So why this special hate for FIU?

(03-02-2012 05:28 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  If UNT goes to the alliance, it will be because it's what's in the best interest of our school. Rice, Tulsa, S. Miss, Marshall, UTEP, and Tulane will draw bigger crowds to Apogee, than they ever did at SMU. If we have to stay in the Sun Belt, I will not be happy. Not because I don't Like the Sun Belt. I have enjoyed playing in the Sun Belt, and I respect the current membership. I just have no confidence in Benson's leadership, and right now I have absolutely no interest in playing in a conference with either Texas State or UTSA. If that was our goal we could have just stayed in the Southland 20 years ago.

I'm sure there are intra-state issues going on there. But there is a lot of judging of FCS programs for being FCS programs and not their potential as FBS programs.

The truth is that many of us were once looked down on the same exact way coming out of the Southland or some other FCS conference. And to some extent still are.

(03-02-2012 04:15 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 03:23 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Be forewarned. Anyone getting in the Alliance who doesn't get a big attendance bump playing Marshall will see the rare event of me taunting and laughing. I play nice but you guys are dreaming about the demand for Marshall tickets in DFW and Miami. UCF drew more for Memphis this year. SMU-Marshall drew an announced 17,513 in 2010 and SMU was in contention for the CUSA title game.

I can understand reasons for wanting to shift but don't try blow smoke up my rear or worse actually believe garbage fantasies about the high demand in Dallas and Miami for games against Marshall. It's BS and you should know that.

I take anything Miami with a grain of salt because that is one of the toughest nuts to crack in all of sports. Miami Hurricanes were closing the top deck of the Orange Bowl when they were a top 5 team because of the empty seats. The Heat, Panthers, and Marlins swing madly between good crowds when winning to safe places for grenade training when they aren't. The Dolphins have struggled to sell of late. No one has ever found a formula to consistently fill seats there.

If you truly believe that Troy is a better draw in Miami than Marshall then nothing I say would ever convince you otherwise. I never said it would be a sellout, but it would certainly be more than a Troy/FIU crowd.

Now, let me at this point apologize to our fellow conference mates for our location in a place with lots to do. I apologize that Saturday college football is not the only thing to do on Saturday or that late spring baseball is the not the only option for tanning naturally. But as we have shown over the last few years, if we keep competing and winning on the field then the fan base will grow (please remember we are only 10 total years of football). Why would we be different from a UM? Because we can try to get our 100k alums to connect with the program vs the large walmart type UM fans with no connection to the school and too young to remember the heady days of their championship runs.

As I said arkstfan, and I am sticking to what I wrote, you either believe in the good things about your conference or you don't (in which case you need to tear down other conferences to bring them down to your level).

Why can't we talk about the strength in the geography of the conference? Why do we need the inflammatory "presidents and AD must be crazy" or apocalyptic pronouncements for any school's whose name is mentioned in connection to any of this? Are the 'belts accomplishments and potential not good enough arguments? If the FL schools suck so much, shouldn't you want to get rid of them?

You misquote me.

I never said Troy was a better draw in Miami than Marshall. I laughed at the idea that FIU will sell any more tickets for Marshall than Troy. They aren't enough people in any Sun Belt city who give a flying crap about Marshall for them to be any sort of draw. At the end of the day this game is about creating your own fans and selling them tickets without regard to who the opponent is.

UAB would be a great draw for Troy but that doesn't make Troy fundamentally a better program. Memphis is a great draw for ASU. That does not make us fundamentally better. We are going to draw what we draw for FIU and joining the Alliance isn't going to cause us to draw any more for FIU or UNT than we draw now and it won't make UAB draw any better for us than MTSU.

The patch on the uniform doesn't sell tickets.

Look no further than Lafayette, Louisiana to see what can be done. Fans see the school doing the right things, they buy in. Same uniform patch, same logo at the 30's.

A good friend of mine is an executive in MLS. We've talked expansion a number of times and one thing I find fascinating as MLS has righted the ship and is starting to outdraw NHL and NBA games is that their highest priority in the last three teams added has been how well do they draw for minor league soccer. They'd rather have teams that sell 20,000 tickets than teams that are easy travel or teams in large TV markets. If a city is close to a couple of potential rivals they won't give them a team just because they can draw when they play the rivals or when NY or LA come to town. They want teams that can draw regardless of opponent. Unsuprisingly the new teams draw well and they have expanded their TV deal increasing both money and exposure.

(03-02-2012 05:34 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 05:13 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:57 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:42 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  You sound a little frustrated at the perceptions, but every one of us have had to deal with that.

I am not frustrated at our perception by others, what annoys me is the use of FIU's name as the worst case scenario in a non existent conference. If FIU is so bad, why do you want to keep them?????

If you want the griddy truth from my opinion. I don't personally care if FIU stayed or not as long as we were not downplayed after you left.

But people probably view it like this. FIU has been one of the worst football and basketball teams in the conference for the last eight years. In 2010 your school finally won a conference title and you guys did have fans start talking about leaving us behind, joining the Big East/Conference USA, and so on.

When FIU was in ESPN bottom 10 the Sun Belt didn't rush to get rid of FIU did it? Now that FIU is finally in a good two years so far a lot of your fans seem to be in a rush to get out the Sun Belt instead of improving it. And just look how this sounds if you had a beautiful girlfriend who no one wanted and she suddenly got fat and ugly and you still stuck with her. So she losses weight all the sudden then dumps you for a guy who makes 10,000 more a year.

1)The 'belt couldn't throw out FIU then because it would be suicidal, remember we moved up earlier than we wanted because the 'belt requested it. Got into a lot of trouble because of that early move, lost schollys etc.

2)Now the 'belt has enough teams that if it wished it could throw team out.

3)I don't see you hating on FAU fan that also talk about CUSA/Alliance/Big East. MTSU or WKU fans that talk about getting into the alliance. ULL fans that present themselves as better option for the alliance than Latech. All teams have fans that will talk about their team deserves to be in some other league, it is the nature of the beast.

So why this special hate for FIU?

UNT and Louisiana have paid a lot of dues in the Sun Belt, and before that. If either one of those leave then I won't think any less of them even if I think the decision is short-sighted.

If WKU, FIU, or FAU go it is a bit of a different story since they would be leaving before they even really established themselves firmly as mature SBC programs.

In the SBC you pretty much earn it by doing it....not just because of the size of the tv market you don't dominate. FIU is getting there and it will be interesting to see if they bail before doing it.

(03-02-2012 04:28 PM)CAJUNNATION Wrote:  The 3 Conference Solution


MWC

Fresno State
San Jose State
Nevada
UNLV
Utah State
Wyoming
Colorado State
Air Force
New Mexico
New Mexico State



SWC

UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
Rice
North Texas
Tulsa
Arkansas State
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana
Tulane



SBC

Southern Miss
South Alabama
Troy
UAB
Middle Tenessee
Western Kentucky
Marshall
East Carolina
Florida Atlantic
FIU

This is hilarious. Another Cajun fan SO wishing ULM to be gone.

I really think some of the UNT and FIU Alliance hopefuls miss the point.

When it comes to UNT and the Alliance, I get wanting to be with Tulsa and Rice. Those names hold some value, selling a change in connection with a new coach and a new stadium makes sense.

With FIU, the Alliance offers no high value names that are going to send fans flocking in. What does provide is an opportunity to differentiate the program from FAU.

But none of that means the Alliance will be more stable. I think there are many reasons to believe the Alliance will be collapse prone. It is a complete mess, an idea hatched first to get a BCS AQ, that ship has sailed. Then it was about a mega TV deal that would make it a viable alternative to the Big East, with the departures of Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis, that ship has sunk. Now the whole TV thing is still being touted but it is simply ridiculous to believe that a 16-24 team mess will produce the sort of per team dollars that CUSA and MWC produced when Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis were members. That won't happen.

Now its a goofy mess that really has one true reason to exist. The schools in the Mountain, Pacific and Hawaiian time zones have run out of new member material. Counting UTEP there are only 13 FBS schools not in the Pac-12, Big East or committed to independence. The western schools need the Alliance to avoid being forced to call upon Idaho or New Mexico State to survive or heading into the Central time zone. CUSA since its inception in 1995 has lost 12 members (8 football playing, 11 basketball). Their brand is shot to hell outside Sun Belt and eastern WAC cities where there is still interest in participation. This deal is about creating a new brand and new start.

The Alliance won't last. Eventually it will collapse and when that happens the Sun Belt will be gone as well as new eastern and western leagues emerge to occupy the space once occupied by the MWC/WAC and Sun Belt/CUSA.

(03-02-2012 05:47 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 04:15 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 03:23 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Be forewarned. Anyone getting in the Alliance who doesn't get a big attendance bump playing Marshall will see the rare event of me taunting and laughing. I play nice but you guys are dreaming about the demand for Marshall tickets in DFW and Miami. UCF drew more for Memphis this year. SMU-Marshall drew an announced 17,513 in 2010 and SMU was in contention for the CUSA title game.

I can understand reasons for wanting to shift but don't try blow smoke up my rear or worse actually believe garbage fantasies about the high demand in Dallas and Miami for games against Marshall. It's BS and you should know that.

I take anything Miami with a grain of salt because that is one of the toughest nuts to crack in all of sports. Miami Hurricanes were closing the top deck of the Orange Bowl when they were a top 5 team because of the empty seats. The Heat, Panthers, and Marlins swing madly between good crowds when winning to safe places for grenade training when they aren't. The Dolphins have struggled to sell of late. No one has ever found a formula to consistently fill seats there.

If you truly believe that Troy is a better draw in Miami than Marshall then nothing I say would ever convince you otherwise. I never said it would be a sellout, but it would certainly be more than a Troy/FIU crowd.

Now, let me at this point apologize to our fellow conference mates for our location in a place with lots to do. I apologize that Saturday college football is not the only thing to do on Saturday or that late spring baseball is the not the only option for tanning naturally. But as we have shown over the last few years, if we keep competing and winning on the field then the fan base will grow (please remember we are only 10 total years of football). Why would we be different from a UM? Because we can try to get our 100k alums to connect with the program vs the large walmart type UM fans with no connection to the school and too young to remember the heady days of their championship runs.

As I said arkstfan, and I am sticking to what I wrote, you either believe in the good things about your conference or you don't (in which case you need to tear down other conferences to bring them down to your level).

Why can't we talk about the strength in the geography of the conference? Why do we need the inflammatory "presidents and AD must be crazy" or apocalyptic pronouncements for any school's whose name is mentioned in connection to any of this? Are the 'belts accomplishments and potential not good enough arguments? If the FL schools suck so much, shouldn't you want to get rid of them?

You misquote me.

I never said Troy was a better draw in Miami than Marshall. I laughed at the idea that FIU will sell any more tickets for Marshall than Troy. They aren't enough people in any Sun Belt city who give a flying crap about Marshall for them to be any sort of draw. At the end of the day this game is about creating your own fans and selling them tickets without regard to who the opponent is.

UAB would be a great draw for Troy but that doesn't make Troy fundamentally a better program. Memphis is a great draw for ASU. That does not make us fundamentally better. We are going to draw what we draw for FIU and joining the Alliance isn't going to cause us to draw any more for FIU or UNT than we draw now and it won't make UAB draw any better for us than MTSU.

The patch on the uniform doesn't sell tickets.

Look no further than Lafayette, Louisiana to see what can be done. Fans see the school doing the right things, they buy in. Same uniform patch, same logo at the 30's.

A good friend of mine is an executive in MLS. We've talked expansion a number of times and one thing I find fascinating as MLS has righted the ship and is starting to outdraw NHL and NBA games is that their highest priority in the last three teams added has been how well do they draw for minor league soccer. They'd rather have teams that sell 20,000 tickets than teams that are easy travel or teams in large TV markets. If a city is close to a couple of potential rivals they won't give them a team just because they can draw when they play the rivals or when NY or LA come to town. They want teams that can draw regardless of opponent. Unsuprisingly the new teams draw well and they have expanded their TV deal increasing both money and exposure.

There is a lot of magical thinking going on in this conference realignment drama.

No matter where you go....there you are.

(03-02-2012 06:03 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I really think some of the UNT and FIU Alliance hopefuls miss the point.

When it comes to UNT and the Alliance, I get wanting to be with Tulsa and Rice. Those names hold some value, selling a change in connection with a new coach and a new stadium makes sense.

With FIU, the Alliance offers no high value names that are going to send fans flocking in. What does provide is an opportunity to differentiate the program from FAU.

But none of that means the Alliance will be more stable. I think there are many reasons to believe the Alliance will be collapse prone. It is a complete mess, an idea hatched first to get a BCS AQ, that ship has sailed. Then it was about a mega TV deal that would make it a viable alternative to the Big East, with the departures of Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis, that ship has sunk. Now the whole TV thing is still being touted but it is simply ridiculous to believe that a 16-24 team mess will produce the sort of per team dollars that CUSA and MWC produced when Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis were members. That won't happen.

Now its a goofy mess that really has one true reason to exist. The schools in the Mountain, Pacific and Hawaiian time zones have run out of new member material. Counting UTEP there are only 13 FBS schools not in the Pac-12, Big East or committed to independence. The western schools need the Alliance to avoid being forced to call upon Idaho or New Mexico State to survive or heading into the Central time zone. CUSA since its inception in 1995 has lost 12 members (8 football playing, 11 basketball). Their brand is shot to hell outside Sun Belt and eastern WAC cities where there is still interest in participation. This deal is about creating a new brand and new start.

The Alliance won't last. Eventually it will collapse and when that happens the Sun Belt will be gone as well as new eastern and western leagues emerge to occupy the space once occupied by the MWC/WAC and Sun Belt/CUSA.

Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

Ark St and La Tech would both be fine additions to the Alliance. Both schools have plenty of CUSA schools in their region.

(03-02-2012 06:24 PM)NoQuarter08 Wrote:  Ark St and La Tech would both be fine additions to the Alliance. Both schools have plenty of CUSA schools in their region.

You could say that about any SBC schools except the Florida schools.

(03-02-2012 06:17 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

Back when the Sun Belt started football, it was widely assumed the WAC would collapse, many people, myself included, thought that placed La.Tech in a good position because they and I believed the collapse would start in the west and those still standing in the east had the chance to make basically a new league.

What happens if Big XII takes two Big East schools and the Big East basketball schools say "enough is enough" we aren't taking any more football schools that water down our product or extend us out of our natural Northeast and Midwest footprint?

The remaining Big East football schools form a new conference along the eastern seaboard. Very easy to imagine Temple, UMass, UConn, Rutgers, whoever is left of Cincy/USF, forming a new league with ECU, Marshall, FIU, FAU, and maybe ODU and Charlotte or UAB and USM or turning west into Ohio and Indiana, or picking up Buffalo and now the remaining eastern Alliance is hit hard and at the mercy of the votes of the western teams to pick up the pieces or cut loose by the western Alliance to form something on their own.

(03-04-2012 02:21 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:17 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

Back when the Sun Belt started football, it was widely assumed the WAC would collapse, many people, myself included, thought that placed La.Tech in a good position because they and I believed the collapse would start in the west and those still standing in the east had the chance to make basically a new league.

What happens if Big XII takes two Big East schools and the Big East basketball schools say "enough is enough" we aren't taking any more football schools that water down our product or extend us out of our natural Northeast and Midwest footprint?

The remaining Big East football schools form a new conference along the eastern seaboard. Very easy to imagine Temple, UMass, UConn, Rutgers, whoever is left of Cincy/USF, forming a new league with ECU, Marshall, FIU, FAU, and maybe ODU and Charlotte or UAB and USM or turning west into Ohio and Indiana, or picking up Buffalo and now the remaining eastern Alliance is hit hard and at the mercy of the votes of the western teams to pick up the pieces or cut loose by the western Alliance to form something on their own.

I don't think the Big East basketball schools will agrue too much, as long as the checks keep cashing. Even if the football schools did break away, they would still be looking at T.V. money when it came to who they invited into the new conference, and I don't think some of the programs you listed would make the cut.

(03-02-2012 06:17 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:03 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I really think some of the UNT and FIU Alliance hopefuls miss the point.

When it comes to UNT and the Alliance, I get wanting to be with Tulsa and Rice. Those names hold some value, selling a change in connection with a new coach and a new stadium makes sense.

With FIU, the Alliance offers no high value names that are going to send fans flocking in. What does provide is an opportunity to differentiate the program from FAU.

But none of that means the Alliance will be more stable. I think there are many reasons to believe the Alliance will be collapse prone. It is a complete mess, an idea hatched first to get a BCS AQ, that ship has sailed. Then it was about a mega TV deal that would make it a viable alternative to the Big East, with the departures of Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis, that ship has sunk. Now the whole TV thing is still being touted but it is simply ridiculous to believe that a 16-24 team mess will produce the sort of per team dollars that CUSA and MWC produced when Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis were members. That won't happen.

Now its a goofy mess that really has one true reason to exist. The schools in the Mountain, Pacific and Hawaiian time zones have run out of new member material. Counting UTEP there are only 13 FBS schools not in the Pac-12, Big East or committed to independence. The western schools need the Alliance to avoid being forced to call upon Idaho or New Mexico State to survive or heading into the Central time zone. CUSA since its inception in 1995 has lost 12 members (8 football playing, 11 basketball). Their brand is shot to hell outside Sun Belt and eastern WAC cities where there is still interest in participation. This deal is about creating a new brand and new start.

The Alliance won't last. Eventually it will collapse and when that happens the Sun Belt will be gone as well as new eastern and western leagues emerge to occupy the space once occupied by the MWC/WAC and Sun Belt/CUSA.

Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

UNT yes. Any Sun Belt program no. If the alliance fails this is what will happen. And I will factor in a possibility of Louisville and Cincy in the Big 12.

MWC. (pretty solid regional conference)
1.Rice
2.UTEP.
3.UNT
4.Tulsa
5.New Mexico
6.Wyoming
7.Hawaii
8.USM
9.Tulane
10.Fresno
11.Air Force/San Jose
12.Nevada
13.UNLV/Utah St
14. Colorado St

Conference USA would be
1.Marshall
2.UAB
3. FIU
4. La Tech/ECU (If ECU doesn't get a Big East invite which will have votes of former members)
5. ???
6.???
7.???
8.???
9.???
10.???
11.???
12.???
13. ESPN lawsuit renewed

That version of the MWC would be pretty solid in most sports and if the MAC is still at 13 I could see them inviting Marshall back. There would be a 14 team MAC, 14 team MWC, and the Sun Belt would probably get La Tech, UAB, and FIU. Unless you think the western teams won't eventually turn off and Marshall would turn down a Mac invite to try and add like six Sun Belt teams to conference USA which would have lost it's auto bids, bowls, and TV deal.

(03-04-2012 03:47 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:17 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:03 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I really think some of the UNT and FIU Alliance hopefuls miss the point.

When it comes to UNT and the Alliance, I get wanting to be with Tulsa and Rice. Those names hold some value, selling a change in connection with a new coach and a new stadium makes sense.

With FIU, the Alliance offers no high value names that are going to send fans flocking in. What does provide is an opportunity to differentiate the program from FAU.

But none of that means the Alliance will be more stable. I think there are many reasons to believe the Alliance will be collapse prone. It is a complete mess, an idea hatched first to get a BCS AQ, that ship has sailed. Then it was about a mega TV deal that would make it a viable alternative to the Big East, with the departures of Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis, that ship has sunk. Now the whole TV thing is still being touted but it is simply ridiculous to believe that a 16-24 team mess will produce the sort of per team dollars that CUSA and MWC produced when Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis were members. That won't happen.

Now its a goofy mess that really has one true reason to exist. The schools in the Mountain, Pacific and Hawaiian time zones have run out of new member material. Counting UTEP there are only 13 FBS schools not in the Pac-12, Big East or committed to independence. The western schools need the Alliance to avoid being forced to call upon Idaho or New Mexico State to survive or heading into the Central time zone. CUSA since its inception in 1995 has lost 12 members (8 football playing, 11 basketball). Their brand is shot to hell outside Sun Belt and eastern WAC cities where there is still interest in participation. This deal is about creating a new brand and new start.

The Alliance won't last. Eventually it will collapse and when that happens the Sun Belt will be gone as well as new eastern and western leagues emerge to occupy the space once occupied by the MWC/WAC and Sun Belt/CUSA.

Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

UNT yes. Any Sun Belt program no. If the alliance fails this is what will happen. And I will factor in a possibility of Louisville and Cincy in the Big 12.

MWC. (pretty solid regional conference)
1.Rice
2.UTEP.
3.UNT
4.Tulsa
5.New Mexico
6.Wyoming
7.Hawaii
8.USM
9.Tulane
10.Fresno
11.Air Force/San Jose
12.Nevada
13.UNLV/Utah St
14. Colorado St

Conference USA would be
1.Marshall
2.UAB
3. FIU
4. La Tech/ECU (If ECU doesn't get a Big East invite which will have votes of former members)
5. ???
6.???
7.???
8.???
9.???
10.???
11.???
12.???
13. ESPN lawsuit renewed

Nobody knows what will happen. You are just speculating, and I don't believe your vision of realignment is very likely.

I don't believe the alliance is likely and I didn't believe SDSU would be in the Big East.

Everything is speculation, even the supposed alliance even happening.

(03-04-2012 04:23 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Nobody knows what will happen. You are just speculating, and I don't believe your vision of realignment is very likely.

You are right, everything is speculation. But I don't think anything is more unlikely than anything else. If you listed each school and the possibilities where each could be in two or three years it shows a whole lot of potentially moving parts....like a blender.

(03-04-2012 04:23 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(03-04-2012 03:47 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:17 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(03-02-2012 06:03 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I really think some of the UNT and FIU Alliance hopefuls miss the point.

When it comes to UNT and the Alliance, I get wanting to be with Tulsa and Rice. Those names hold some value, selling a change in connection with a new coach and a new stadium makes sense.

With FIU, the Alliance offers no high value names that are going to send fans flocking in. What does provide is an opportunity to differentiate the program from FAU.

But none of that means the Alliance will be more stable. I think there are many reasons to believe the Alliance will be collapse prone. It is a complete mess, an idea hatched first to get a BCS AQ, that ship has sailed. Then it was about a mega TV deal that would make it a viable alternative to the Big East, with the departures of Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis, that ship has sunk. Now the whole TV thing is still being touted but it is simply ridiculous to believe that a 16-24 team mess will produce the sort of per team dollars that CUSA and MWC produced when Houston, SMU, Boise, San Diego, UCF, and Memphis were members. That won't happen.

Now its a goofy mess that really has one true reason to exist. The schools in the Mountain, Pacific and Hawaiian time zones have run out of new member material. Counting UTEP there are only 13 FBS schools not in the Pac-12, Big East or committed to independence. The western schools need the Alliance to avoid being forced to call upon Idaho or New Mexico State to survive or heading into the Central time zone. CUSA since its inception in 1995 has lost 12 members (8 football playing, 11 basketball). Their brand is shot to hell outside Sun Belt and eastern WAC cities where there is still interest in participation. This deal is about creating a new brand and new start.

The Alliance won't last. Eventually it will collapse and when that happens the Sun Belt will be gone as well as new eastern and western leagues emerge to occupy the space once occupied by the MWC/WAC and Sun Belt/CUSA.

Any Sun Belt program invited into the alliance would still be in a good situtation, even if the new conference failed. The Eastern division would just reform as a regional conference. I don't see fear of the new conference collapsing, as a selling point for staying in the Sun Belt.

UNT yes. Any Sun Belt program no. If the alliance fails this is what will happen. And I will factor in a possibility of Louisville and Cincy in the Big 12.

MWC. (pretty solid regional conference)
1.Rice
2.UTEP.
3.UNT
4.Tulsa
5.New Mexico
6.Wyoming
7.Hawaii
8.USM
9.Tulane
10.Fresno
11.Air Force/San Jose
12.Nevada
13.UNLV/Utah St
14. Colorado St

Conference USA would be
1.Marshall
2.UAB
3. FIU
4. La Tech/ECU (If ECU doesn't get a Big East invite which will have votes of former members)
5. ???
6.???
7.???
8.???
9.???
10.???
11.???
12.???
13. ESPN lawsuit renewed

Nobody knows what will happen. You are just speculating, and I don't believe your vision of realignment is very likely.

Your right, no one knows that will happen, but every expert on the planet is admitting its on very shaky ground. Does UNT really want to take that risk?