RE: Where would you rather be?
I voted for A10 basketball and Independent football.
I love basketball and the regional flavor of the A10. It would be like taking the best of the CAA glory days and putting it on steroids. Nothing beats those heated-rivalry conference games in February and the tournament. VCU, GMU, Richmond from the old days, plus Davidson and GW regionally and Dayton & Rhody every year would be awesome. I would be a very happy camper.
I think FB independence could work, especially if Liberty and UMASS stay independent. That would be 2 games per year on our schedule. Eventually, we could complete the slate with some combination of AAC schools (UVA, VT, UNC, NCST, Wake, Duke, Pitt), Big 10 (Maryland, Rutgers), AAC (Temple, ECU, Navy), CUSA (Charlotte, Marshall), Sun Belt (GSU, gSU) and IAA schools. It would take a long time to complete, since schedules are set so far in advance, but it would work. Besides, look how fast 10 years has gone by since we first started football.
The process in FB would be messy, but possible. Our recruiting area is our advantage. I think the advantage of scheduling name opponents at home, especially regional ones, would out-weigh the loss of bowl games. Besides, our CUSA bowl affiliations aren't anything to get excited about anyway.
I didn't vote for the AAC, because I believe the only reason they would expand is if they lost a number of key programs to the Big 12. Without Cincy, Memphis, Houston and maybe UCONN (Big East), would it really be that much different than our current CUSA?
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