(02-11-2020 07:41 PM)First Mate Wrote:  

(02-11-2020 07:23 PM)geef Wrote:  In 1990, the Metro Conference (likely in a fight for survival), proposed the following Super Conference:

North Division - BC, Cincinnati, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, VA Tech, WVU
South - ECU, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane

What could have been.......

Dave Hart the ECU AD at the time talked about this setup. From what he says it was very close to happening back in the day.

For some reason they couldn’t get all parties to agree. Would’ve been awesome and a power conference now for sure.

Louisville and Florida St were too good for it, at least in their diluted eyes

FSU and South Carolina were gone the next year (1991), joining the ACC and SEC.

There were just so many hurdles to make that super conference work. Due to snobbery, the northeastern schools (BC, Syracuse, Pitt) would never want to join up with the southern schools with the exception of Tulane. Heck, even the Big East did not want Miami, Virginia Tech and WVU at first (WVU and VT were admitted for FB only at initially).

(02-13-2020 10:45 AM)tigerjeb Wrote:  

(02-12-2020 07:16 PM)PATiger Wrote:  The Great Midwest was a dumb idea from day one. For the football schools, it relegated it to a minor league sport.

If administrators had any foresight, they would've made the old Metro Conference an all-sports conference.

Memphis
Louisville
Cincinnati
Tulane
South Carolina
Florida State
Virginia Tech
Southern Miss

If they had hung together, that would be a P5 conference today.

the GMC was a direct response by Memphis and Cincinnati fed up after years of Louisville refusing to play football as a conference sport. they figured they might as well build a stronger basketball version of the metro and go full speed on football independence with scheduling agreements between Memphis, Cincinnati and non members ECU, Southern Miss and Tulane, forming the Liberty Bowl Alliance to provide a bowl tie in.

Memphis should've invested in football back then and maybe we would be in a P5 conference today instead of being in our third mid-major conference since 1991.

(02-13-2020 12:54 PM)gotigers1 Wrote:  

(02-11-2020 07:41 PM)First Mate Wrote:  

(02-11-2020 07:23 PM)geef Wrote:  In 1990, the Metro Conference (likely in a fight for survival), proposed the following Super Conference:

North Division - BC, Cincinnati, Pitt, Rutgers, Syracuse, Temple, VA Tech, WVU
South - ECU, Florida State, Louisville, Memphis, Miami, South Carolina, Southern Miss, Tulane

What could have been.......

Dave Hart the ECU AD at the time talked about this setup. From what he says it was very close to happening back in the day.

For some reason they couldn’t get all parties to agree. Would’ve been awesome and a power conference now for sure.

Louisville and Florida St were too good for it, at least in their diluted eyes

bobby bowden said he would agree to metro conference football and revenue sharing IF louisville would agree to the same with basketball revenue. they declined, fsu excused themselves and wrangled an invitation to the acc.

.
The SEC was trying to recruit FSU until the ACC stepped in to negotiate.

The Best Conference That Never Was