(12-07-2014 09:20 AM)GSU Eagles Wrote:  With UAB leaving, CUSA is really turning into two separate conferences geographically especially if a school from Louisiana, Arkansas or Texas are added. Given the south/southwest and eastern split the best move could be to go to 18. Each division would only play the teams in their division with a championship game determining the champion.

If Hawaii were to also drop football, or go independent, it may be time to reorganize the G5 into the G6 by splitting Conference USA:

Mountain West - San Diego State, San Jose State, Fresno State, Nevada, UNLV, Boise State, Utah State, Wyoming, Air Force, Colorado State
Southwest - New Mexico, UTEP, Rice, UTSA, North Texas, La Tech, So Miss, NMSU, Tulsa, Tulane
Sun Belt - Idaho, Texas State, Arkansas State, Louisiana, ULM, USA, Troy, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, App State
Conference USA - FAU, FIU, Charlotte, Marshall, Old Dominion, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Ohio, East Carolina, Navy
American - USF, UCF, UConn, Temple, Buffalo, UMass, SMU, Houston, Cincinnati, Memphis
Mid-American - Northern Illinois, Ball State, WMU, CMU, EMU, Miami-OH, Toledo, Bowling Green, Kent, Akron

The G6 could make up for the lack of a conference championship game by getting an exception passed that allows a 10-team or 11-team conference to play a 13th game against the champion of another 10-team or 11-team conference. The highest ranked of the three G6 champions gets the access bowl berth.

The Hawaii AD walked back his one comment that gave life to that whole discussion.

(12-05-2014 12:50 PM)_sturt_ Wrote:  I have to walk back my comment that the two commissioners have a good relationship... arkstfan might be correct, because I'd taken that they did based on a December 2012 article that mentions that the two had been advocating a Go5 playoff... but I read over top of the fact that they'd each "separately" worked up their own plans... I'd taken it that they'd collaborated, and that was inaccurate.

Having said that, in the midst of re-reading that, I also came upon this quote from Banowsky which came up about the time MTSU and FAU were added in early 2013...

Quote:..."Our deal is to be the conference that really represents the next generation of great programs," Banowsky said. "We target large markets, generally. We target growth markets. We find universities that have their best ahead of them in terms of potential, that have invested in facilities, that are gearing up and getting ready to go, and then we give them a stage and a platform to participate."

..."That's our strategy," Banowsky said. "I wouldn't be looking for opportunities that didn't fit into that general bandwidth."...

...According to a press release, C-USA home markets next year will include "a little more than 14.5 million TV households," a 43-percent increase on the former market of 10.1 million homes. Banowsky said that television contracts with Fox Sports Networks, CBS Sports Network and ESPN are set to expire June 30, 2016, but added that C-USA will "probably be talking to them well in advance of that."

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...e-done-yet

One conversation here is what CUSA "should" be thinking... what they "should" do.

Another conversation is what CUSA is likely to do.

The two are not necessarily the same.

And in terms of what they are likely to do, one only has to look at recent history.