(07-11-2017 04:46 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(07-11-2017 01:44 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(07-11-2017 12:55 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(07-11-2017 12:30 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(07-11-2017 11:27 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  I think that might be the same one. The "deep dive" into Arky, Pitt, and AFA was done a bit before TCU and WVU amidst the panic. That "wish list" was something to keep Texas and Oklahoma happy enough. It didn't seem to matter: Texas still flirted with the PAC and OU and OSU went to the PAC for membership anyway, and once rejected, had to come to terms/compromise with a different set of schools.

I mean, maybe the conference went to AFA twice in that time to inquire and re-inquire, but that would have been, what...a year or less in-between? Within this relative episode of the B12 series?

I mean, it could be. AFAIK, Arkansas is to the Big XII as Army and Navy are/were to the Big East...kind of a right of first refusal arrangement. Maybe AFA was like that, too, but, if AFA was supposedly among the candidate pool of the last charade, they seem more like New Mexico in this thing: once desired, now, not so.

Before the events of 2010-2 occurred the service academies had decided not to pursue P conferences for a variety of reasons the chief of which was the health of their student athletes who give up an average of 80lbs per man against most P5 schools. A schedule with a couple of big games was seen as doable, but a week in and week out pounding only multiplied injuries many of which could be military career ending. Therefore the pursuit of a conference in which 75% of the games would be against such schools, the risk it imposed, and the objectives of the academies were found to be incompatible.

When the BCS expanded into the CFP the annual schedule of the academies would have also been interrupted by the extension of the season and even though they knew their schools were likely to never be a part of it they also knew that it would just continue to swell into an even bigger problem for them. So they are happy to remain in the G5 and evaluate whether even that is what is best for them.

So Air Force, Army, and Navy aren't going to make a public issue out of this, but they are quietly going to do what is best for their students, and to take the course that is best for the fulfillment of their mission.

So Air Force didn't dismiss the Big 12, they just didn't consider it. Nor would Navy likely consider the ACC. In most ways these schools probably should be in the Ivy League for athletic competition.

This year they quit giving waivers for draftees of professional sports teams. That decision alone has cemented their lower tier involvement in athletics and reaffirmed their goal of turning out the best military officers possible.

I believe Army and Navy to the Ivy League is a strong possibility if there is a separation of the power schools creating 3 tiers within Division I football. They fit geographically, academically, historically, and it'd be pretty cool to have Army-Harvard, Navy-Yale, etc.

They aren't academic fits. Times have changed since Holy Cross, RU, etc. invites. It won't happen.

Maybe....maybe not. Just 5 years ago I could see Army and Navy being no brainers for the Ivy. It's still a possibility. Not saying either party is interested, but if Army and Navy wanted to join the Ivy, the Ivy would consider it.

IIRC, there's bad blood between the Ivy and the academies dating back to the Vietnam War. Liberal and conservative politics.