Teams going to some new "brand of football" you are mentioning would die. If you want a playoff go to D1AA. I think NIU would lose a good 50-75% of their fans if this happened. I know I would be done.

WD,
you are beginning to make some sense and scaring me.

Iowa state is not going to the big 10 for god's sake.. come on now. The Big 10 would prefer having 15 teams over taking Iowa State.

(09-19-2011 04:16 PM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  Iowa state is not going to the big 10 for god's sake.. come on now. The Big 10 would prefer having 15 teams over taking Iowa State.

+1 Everybody is getting a bit out of hand.

(09-19-2011 03:48 PM)RedShark27 Wrote:  Teams going to some new "brand of football" you are mentioning would die. If you want a playoff go to D1AA. I think NIU would lose a good 50-75% of their fans if this happened. I know I would be done.

Yea, there wouldn't be enough schools left in FBS, very few or none with any drawing power, pretty sure it wouldn't be sustainable. You'd lose half your fanbase. Which might be inevitable.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/stor...eport-says

BE B12 possible merger in the works.

Big East looks to be dead. Talks have commenced to merge the remaining football programs from B12 and Big East should Texas, Texas Tech, Okalahoma and OK State head to the Pac12. Catholic basketball schools in Big East looking to split off as well.

New Big 12 would include Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati, and TCU.

Wow. This is ridiculous. It's like a bunch of lions at a carcass. All that tradition, history. Gone. I wonder if any more FCS schools will look to move to FBS with all this going on.

Interesting article from the NYT that actually tries to quantify fanbases and what that means for realignment:
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09...ent-chaos/

It's not perfect, but it probably provides some insight into what type of numbers conferences are using to make decisions and what they see in terms of TV sets, dollars, etc.

Wait till the dreaded 'gummint gets involved. Some senator who's university is getting the $ shaft will attempt to stop all this non-sense. ....Anti-trust & tax exemption issues, just for starters. This has only just begun to get interesting....

(09-19-2011 05:28 PM)UIHuskie Wrote:  Interesting article from the NYT that actually tries to quantify fanbases and what that means for realignment:
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09...ent-chaos/

It's not perfect, but it probably provides some insight into what type of numbers conferences are using to make decisions and what they see in terms of TV sets, dollars, etc.

Great find!!!

NIU ahead of Wake Forest, and would fit in well in Conference USA it seems.

(09-19-2011 05:28 PM)UIHuskie Wrote:  Interesting article from the NYT that actually tries to quantify fanbases and what that means for realignment:
http://thequad.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09...ent-chaos/

It's not perfect, but it probably provides some insight into what type of numbers conferences are using to make decisions and what they see in terms of TV sets, dollars, etc.

Good link....interesting. Shows no one just south of DeKalb follows college football, almost no one in Rockford does. Whole state is pretty lame, even just S. of Champaign.

And does anyone wonder what NIU is up against for market share?

Nebraska is hillarious! No other sports on TV. Alabama has 2 major teams, no pro sports explaining why it is so high.Domerville sticks out too. Surprised parts of Ohio and Michigan are not darker.

Southeat is solid too.

Latest rumors

Conf USA and Mountain West talking merger...

Texas Am and WVU joining SEC

Okla, Texas, TT and Ok St to PAC 27.

MAC and Sunbelt merger!

(09-19-2011 04:48 PM)niu79 Wrote:  Big East looks to be dead. Talks have commenced to merge the remaining football programs from B12 and Big East should Texas, Texas Tech, Okalahoma and OK State head to the Pac12. Catholic basketball schools in Big East looking to split off as well.

New Big 12 would include Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati, and TCU.

Sounds familiar! ;-D

(09-19-2011 09:17 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(09-19-2011 04:48 PM)niu79 Wrote:  Big East looks to be dead. Talks have commenced to merge the remaining football programs from B12 and Big East should Texas, Texas Tech, Okalahoma and OK State head to the Pac12. Catholic basketball schools in Big East looking to split off as well.

New Big 12 would include Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati, and TCU.

Sounds familiar! ;-D

John, great minds think alike, or at the very least, read the same articles online lol.

(09-19-2011 10:02 PM)niu79 Wrote:  

(09-19-2011 09:17 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(09-19-2011 04:48 PM)niu79 Wrote:  Big East looks to be dead. Talks have commenced to merge the remaining football programs from B12 and Big East should Texas, Texas Tech, Okalahoma and OK State head to the Pac12. Catholic basketball schools in Big East looking to split off as well.

New Big 12 would include Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Missouri, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati, and TCU.

Sounds familiar! ;-D

John, great minds think alike, or at the very least, read the same articles online lol.

So if the SEC, B1G, P12 & ACC all go to 16 and the BE/12 remainders merge then adds several top non-AQ teams to have 12-16 ALSO the MWC/CUSA merge to get a better shot at a BCS AQ bid, does that still leave us out of this cluster **** greed fest?

I would say it would leave us out, but CUSA & MWC could push some of the god awful teams possibly? Like New Mexico, Colorado State, Rice, & UAB, but I doubt it.

I would think that if Northern were to make a move out of conference, the Big 12 shake up would be the best opportunity. (Though I am neither for or against this.)

Northern geographically makes sense in a watered down Big 12, though TCU in the Big East and Louisiana Tech in the WAC throw that argument out.

Part of me gets excited about NIU making a move (no... not that part). I think it would be a big benefit not only for NIU football but also basketball, soccer, softball, etc. The other part of me sides with the fact the MAC is a stable conference, that continues to offer a competition of play that is on track with NIU's skill level, especially given our lack of MAC Championship wins.

I'll raise this question, with the improvement of facilities recently and the improvement in the quality of NIU football, does a move at this time make sense for NIU? If it does, where to? a watered down Big 12? a merged C-USA/Big 12? the MW? Sun Belt (ugh).