(03-09-2012 01:44 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(03-08-2012 08:26 PM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  Why would South possibly get pushed to the West, and lose any semblance of rivals we have in WKU, Troy, and to a lesser extent MTSU? That wouldn't make any sense. Assuming we keep everybody currently, it would make the most sense to go after two western schools already in that footprint to keep the divisions even and avoid any re-alignment. We'll go to 12 and play before we ever consider touching 14.

LaTech and UTSA are my votes. Then depending on who we lose, if anybody, in order after those guys I'd go Texas St, App St, Georgia Southern, Ga State.

I'd rank the potential invitees the exact same way.
When it comes to drawing up divisions, someone is always going to be unhappy. However, you not only have to think about protecting existing rivalries, but growing new ones. USA football will obviously have an immediate one with Troy and it's easy to envision another one growing with WKU because of the basketball rivalry that already exists. MTSU and South haven't become consistent rivals to this point, but I'd bet football will change that. Would the Raiders really have their strong feelings about Troy if they played in every sport but football?

We don't have that strong of feelings about Troy, football is the only sport that moves the meter against Troy, but that's exactly the point. South is going to have a rivalry with Troy regardless, if the two schools end up in separate divisions, it's a given that you'll be each other's protected rival in football, but if you can create a rivalry in football with MT or WKU, why not with Louisiana? I could actually really see a Jags/Cajuns rivalry being one of the better results of USA ending up in the west.