Nerdlinger
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RE: What was the Southland thinking?!
(01-22-2018 10:46 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote: (01-22-2018 10:22 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (01-22-2018 09:27 PM)chargeradio Wrote: (01-22-2018 08:46 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: (01-22-2018 08:35 PM)chargeradio Wrote: What really did the WAC in was the requirement for 12 teams to have a championship game. Had the Mountain West held at 10, this looks like a very different group to rebuild from:
Utah State
Idaho
San Jose State
New Mexico State
That’s to say nothing of Texas State and UTSA staying put in the WAC thanks to C-USA adding UTSA and WKU.
Great point. If the "Big 12" rule been in place my guess is that C-USA would have about 10 members which means probably 4 schools currently in C-USA or SBC would not be in either league. Coastal Carolina is a given. It also probably means App St and Georgia Southern stay in FCS too.
If the American had the option to play a conference title with 10 schools Tulsa and either ECU or Tulane also find them back in C-USA.
UTSA probably still ends up moving out of the WAC but maybe they hang onto Texas St and non-FB UTA.
If you go by the last moves announced:
American: -Tulsa, -East Carolina (originally announced as football only to the hen-Big East)
CUSA: +Tulsa, +East Carolina, -WKU, -MTSU, -FAU, -Charlotte, -ODU, -UTSA
SBC: +WKU, +MTSU, +FAU, -CCU, -Georgia Southern, -App State
MWC: -SJSU, -USU
WAC: +NMSU, +Idaho, +SJSU, +USU, +UTSA
Interesting that Texas State was added by the Sun Belt before Georgia Southern and App State, but that move probably doesn’t happen with FAU, WKU, and MTSU in the Belt (not to mention incoming Georgia State). In the worst case the WAC forms an Eastern Division with Charlotte, Old Dominion, and two of Georgia Southern/App State/Texas State.
Here's my take on an earlier CCG deregulation, slightly modified from another thread:
Suppose that a more forward-thinking Big 12 had been able to convince the NCAA to drop the 12-school minimum for a conference championship in late 2011, by which point the conference had settled on 10 schools. I imagine that one major consequence of this is that the non-power conferences wouldn't have been so keen on reaching 12. While the P5 would likely have proceeded with expansion as in our timeline, I would guess that 8 or 10 football schools would probably be the target for rest of the conferences. This means that the WAC could possibly have survived as a football conference, although only barely. A potential G6 alignment by 2018:
American: Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Navy (FB only), SMU, Temple, Tulane, UCF, UConn, USF
C-USA: Charlotte, ECU, FIU, Marshall, North Texas, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulsa, UAB, UTEP
MWC: Air Force, Boise, CSU, Fresno, Hawaii (FB only), Nevada, New Mexico, SDSU, UNLV, Wyoming
Sun Belt: Arkansas State, FAU, MTSU, South Alabama, Troy, ULL, ULM, WKU (+ non-FB UALR)
WAC: Idaho, La Tech, NMSU, SJSU, Texas State, Utah State, UTSA, [another FB school] (+ non-FB Denver, Seattle, UTA)
The MAC is the same as in our timeline.
Basically, the old Big East/American declines to invite ECU and Tulsa. So those two stick with C-USA, who in turn isn't as inclined to overexpand and so only takes FIU and North Texas from the Sun Belt and Charlotte from the A-10. The Sun Belt restocks to the 8-school football minimum when USA adds the sport. The MWC doesn't pick off SJSU or USU from the WAC. This leaves the WAC with just 7 football schools after adding Texas State and UTSA, so perhaps they'd add another FCS team to make eight. The MAC's 12 full members had all been in the conference since before the turn of the century. UMass had already been set as of April 2011 to join as a football affiliate, but they part ways with the MAC in just a few years as in our timeline. ODU, App State, GA Southern, GSU, and CCU remain in the FCS without an FBS conference invite.
American: Cincinnati, Houston, Memphis, Navy (FB only), SMU, Temple, Tulane, UCF, UConn, USF
C-USA: Charlotte, ECU, FIU, FAU, Marshall, Rice, Southern Miss, Tulsa, UAB, UNT
MWC: Air Force, Boise, CSU, Fresno, UTEP, Nevada, New Mexico, SDSU, UNLV, Wyoming
Sun Belt: Arkansas State, App State, Ga So, ODU, MTSU, South Alabama, Troy, ULL, ULM, WKU (+ non-FB UALR)
WAC: Hawaii, Idaho, La Tech, NMSU, SJSU, Texas State, Utah State, UTSA (+ non-FB Denver, Seattle, UTA).
Hawaii doesn’t have to leave the WAC and can still put its Olympic sports in the Big West if it wants. When UAB drops football CUSA adds ODU to remain at 10 football teams. Sun Belt adds Ga State or Coastal to replace ODU. If UAB revives football and is allowed to stay in CUSA, CUSA takes UMass all sports and goes to 12. If UAB is booted from CUSA for dropping football initially they join Sun Belt and when they revive football whichever of Ga State or Coastal that didn’t initially get in is added and they go to 12.
Wouldn't Hawaii want to leave the WAC anyway? And the MWC must have preferred them as a FB affiliate over having UTEP as a full member.
I doubt ODU would have made the jump to FBS without a CUSA invite.
And CUSA didn't dump UAB for dropping football in reality, so why would they do so here?
In any case, CUSA isn't taking UMass as a full member. Even as FB affiliate, it seems more trouble than it's worth.
And finally, Georgia State received a SBC invite well before either Georgia Southern or App State did.
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