(01-23-2020 12:57 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 12:35 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 12:16 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 11:54 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 11:24 AM)Wedge Wrote:  It does sound like what they are planning, but I wouldn't expect the NCAA to green-light it unless the end result is that the number of autobids stays the same.

Even if the idea is to dissolve CUSA or the Sun Belt and effectively take their autobid -- IIRC, both of those conferences turned Liberty down when Liberty wanted in, even when Liberty offered to write an enormous check to get in. So if the theory is that schools who voted against Liberty are now going to pay their current conference an exit fee in order to join Liberty in a different conference, that might not be a solid theory. Maybe they have a list of Sun Belt and CUSA schools who didn't oppose Liberty and those are the schools they are targeting.

Yes, it would seem to be easier to agree to a swap of teams than to do this. With a swap, nobody pays exit fees. And if they are going to take almost all of them all from one conference (creating a mass that can dissolve the conference and eliminate exit fees), then all you do is basically kick out the western wing of CUSA or Sun Belt.

Don’t have the votes. My guess is that the western schools aren’t as keen on the idea. It was apparently discussed at the CUSA conference meetings last year though. There is definitely official interest in the idea.

Maybe the votes are not there today, but a swap is still far easier than a mass exodus, if an east-west reorganization is the goal.

If the A-Sun/Liberty idea is to force CUSA or the Sun Belt to collapse and lose its conference status, that only works if there are not enough FBS programs left between the two of them to have two FBS conferences.

If there are still a total of 16 FBS teams left among the two combined, they have enough to keep both conferences going. CUSA has 14 and the Sun Belt has 10. Either could add NMSU as a full member if needed to meet the minimum. That means, if the idea is to collapse one of the two or force the two to merge, you'd have to convince at least 10 FBS programs to leave CUSA and/or the Sun Belt, in order to force the two conferences to merge and free up one of their basketball autobids. That's too difficult to pull off.

It'd be easier than negotiating an east/west swap. I'm pretty sure 75% approval is needed to approve membership changes in both conferences. So 8 SB and 10 CUSA teams? (not sure of UAT and UALR voting rights but that would require even more) 18 schools at minimum is NOT going to happen when east/west reorginization is not the goal of a lot of those teams. We just need 3 SB team to jump ship to force them to add and 7 from CUSA. They could add NMSU and some FCS teams to keep them alive but would they?

The Sun Belt has 10 football teams. Doubtful that 3 of them would pay the SBC an exit fee to join a new group of 11 or more. It would have to be a huge improvement over their current situation, whereas this would be at most a small improvement.

And in addition to the issue with the basketball autobid, for football there's the snag that only the existing G5 conferences get money from the CFP and the opportunity to compete for the "access bowl" spot. A new conference doesn't automatically take that from a dissolved CUSA or SBC.

It's too much of a leap into the unknown. Almost impossible to convince 10 schools with risk-averse presidents and ADs to make that leap just to save a couple hundred thousand bucks on travel costs.