(06-16-2019 09:12 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(06-16-2019 08:14 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  

(06-16-2019 02:44 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Here's a scenario: the ACC only musters enough votes for Miami leading into the 2004 season. BC, VT, and Cuse don't have enough support.

The Big East gets back into Florida with USF and there is no split plan.

C-USA stays intact with the exception of Army dropping out. UCF joins, creating a 10/14 hybrid.

The WAC keeps Rice, Tulsa, UTEP, and SMU. The MAC keeps Marshall and picks up Temple as an affiliate. NMSU stays a full SBC member but they drop Idaho and Utah St as affiliates once Troy, FAU, and FIU start play.

Fast forward to 2010-2013. VT has had some excellent years in the Big East (actually BC, WVU, and Rutgers were all pretty competitive too) making themselves a prime expansion target, potentially joining the SEC to balance the TAMU but with the ACC having some very weak seasons between 2004-2010 some of the ACC schools might be prime for a move too, potentially changing everything.

CUSA will likely grab another couple schools to reach 12 FB members and have a CCG, even if the ACC doesn't.

Plausible but that puts them at 12/16. Your options are:

UTEP: distant
Tulsa: tiny market, tiny school
SMU: market duplication
Rice: Market duplication
Marshall: tiny market

Louisville is still in this league so they are going to be picky about basketball. They might be able to come to a consensus on a pair of them but my money is not.

There's an outside chance that the Big East goes to 10 in football with Louisville and Cincy too but I think they stick with the minimum. It's too bad because Louisvilee came of age when they got the call up.

TCU goes to the MWC, so that's an opening for SMU. They took Rice in real life despite the market duplication, so I'd guess they're in. It's a tossup for FB #12. Maybe Tulsa?

East: Central Florida, Cincinnati, East Carolina, Louisville, Memphis, UAB
West: Houston, Rice, SMU, Southern Miss, Tulane, Tulsa
Non-FB: Charlotte, DePaul, Marquette, St. Louis