Terry Holland has been pushing the 18 team conference since 2007 and it finally seems like the commish has got it.

MWC needs the merger/Alliance because they are tapped out of potential expansion targets.

Right now the only schools truly in their footprint are: Idaho, New Mexcio State, San Jose State, Utah State and UTEP. If they stretch back over to Texas / Oklahoma (which was a special case to get TCU) then North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, and Tulsa. Note two of those are C-USA and unlikely to consider MWC and the Texas schools would all go C-USA over MWC.

C-USA on the other hand has a very large pool to work with: Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Miami (OH), Middle Tennessee State, New Mexico State, North Texas, Ohio, Temple, Texas-SA, Tex St, Troy, and Western Kentucky.

MWC doesn't have any schools seriously making a look at FBS football in their footprint. C-USA has Charlotte, Georgia State, Appalachian State, Old Dominion, James Madison, Jacksonville State, and Georgia Southern all in the footprint.

MWC needs someone to latch on to yet, from what I read, you would think it is MWC doing C-USA a favor.

(11-23-2011 07:58 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  Ballard has showed he isn't very bright. Yes the merger is a good idea, losing the auto bid will be horrid for CUSA/MWC though. Never ever will they get into any major bowl again, other than maybe the Liberty. As much as we in the non bcs have complained, The big 6 conf had every bowl game worth having tied up with no way for the rest of us to even earn a bid.

From where all indications point that ECU sits right now, that being not invited to the BE and the merged conference(s) not recieving an automatic bid, how is ECU any worse off with automatic bids going away vs ECU being in a non-aq league?

At least if there are no more AQ conferences we, in theory, are on a level playing field. By most things I can read the BCS is not going anywhere so any team from any conference who goes undefeated or can attain a high enough ranking is likely to be in line for a BCS game. The fact that no conference is entitled to a BCS birth may well open up spots for current non-aq schools to get in over conference champions from current AQ conferences. For example I can see how a 11-1 or possibly 10-2 current non-aq school who is ranked in the top 15 or so may get an invite over a 8-4 conference champ from a current AQ conference who may not travel well or be as highly ranked. Do you think the Feista Bowl would have thought seriously about taking a BYU or Houston had they been 10-2 or 11-1 and who is closer and may well travel just as well or better over a 8-4 UConn?

If ECU were to be admitted to the BE or another current AQ league, it would be imho, Ballards and Hollands position that AQ is a good thing and should be kept in some form.

(11-22-2011 07:04 PM)attackfrog Wrote:  

(11-22-2011 06:11 PM)ECU-DMB Fanatic Wrote:  

(11-22-2011 04:28 PM)panama Wrote:  

(11-22-2011 03:58 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(11-22-2011 03:54 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  What I think is weird is that on one hand they are predicting the end of AQ designations and then in the next breath they are lobbying for inclusion into the AQ club. Which is it, guys?

I wish things were simple for us. We are between a rock and a hard place right now. We have a disgruntled fan base who see's all our hard work appearing to be meaningless. I wouldn't want to have either of their jobs right now. They have to try to put lipstick on this pig and spin that whatever we are going to end up in is the best situation for ECU sports, when most know that's far from the truth.

...and this is where I believe these comments are coming from rather than any actual knowledge of what is about to happen

Holland and Ballard are 2 of the key players in this CUSA and MWC conference merger/alliance....I would take most of what they say as pretty spot on at this point in time. The thing that is making it difficult to finalize is the Big East's inability to get their own plans finalized. The MWC and CUSA need to know who is going and who is staying before they can get into the final details of the merger as the TV networks and most of the schools are still awaiting word on the their final fate. Many of the teams involved in this deal still have hopes of joining the Big East group as they will still probably get much more money in their TV deals than the CUSA/MWC alliance. All of the teams involved would jump ship to the Big East in a minute. Right now many schools are playing both sides of the fence here, obviously if not included in the Big East they would want the AQ status to go away. I would imagine if included with the Big East they would want it to stay....But I think their words clearly indicate there is little to no chance of ECU being involved in the Big East even though they would clearly prefer that option.

Just throwing this out there. If BYU joins the Big East and Air Force does not---that would leave one slot still open. If ECU was given a football only invite and told they had to play in the Western Division, do you think they would? I ask, because I could see that as a realistic Big East option.

BYU is out, I doubt any of the service academies are in, right now it is pretty much Boise, the three CUSA schools that can come if Boise comes and who ever else Boise can talk the east into taking out west. Of course Boise still has not found a home for all other sports, I just see this slowly receding down the toilet.

I think what they are saying is that Plan A (going to the BE) most likely isn't happening, so we're going with Plan B (Alliance). Plan A hasn't been officially ruled out, so it can't be completely written off, but it's just not likely to happen - the BE clearly doesn't want ECU unless it's the only viable option on the table at some point.

(11-23-2011 07:58 AM)goodknightfl Wrote:  Ballard has showed he isn't very bright. Yes the merger is a good idea, losing the auto bid will be horrid for CUSA/MWC though. Never ever will they get into any major bowl again, other than maybe the Liberty. As much as we in the non bcs have complained, The big 6 conf had every bowl game worth having tied up with no way for the rest of us to even earn a bid.

You say that as if the Liberty bowl is a major bowl.