(04-17-2020 04:54 PM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  I can tell you now, when it comes to Olympic Sports, this league is going to be all about bus trips. And,, if that means playing your rival more often than right now, so be it.

We're going to see a very unbalanced basketball schedule with no one getting on a plane if at all possible.

If we played the Bus Trip game... we're probably looking at very few cross division games overall. Coastal might not play a single game against a West Division team until the Conference Tournament. Ditto for Texas State and the East.

My wild guess is that you end up with a compromised schedule where teams probably make one trip for games against teams in another division. I would also hazard a bet that it would happen early in the league calendar, over Christmas perhaps, and likely involve 3 games. over a week.

The other possibility would be looking at "Desingamed Conference Games" Some old fogies in the Sun Belt will remember we famously did this in football in the early years of the league. Rather than going to say Charlotte for a game...UNT would instead play UTA in a conference game for both. Rather than travel to Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern, Arkansas State might play Middle Tennessee and UAB in league games

If the idea if a straight merge doesn't work, designated league games could be a doable alternative. When it comes to olympic Sports, the NCAA doesn't really care how your conference formats a regular season and seeds the league tournament, just that you have one.

(04-17-2020 10:00 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(04-17-2020 04:54 PM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  I can tell you now, when it comes to Olympic Sports, this league is going to be all about bus trips. And,, if that means playing your rival more often than right now, so be it.

We're going to see a very unbalanced basketball schedule with no one getting on a plane if at all possible.

If we played the Bus Trip game... we're probably looking at very few cross division games overall. Coastal might not play a single game against a West Division team until the Conference Tournament. Ditto for Texas State and the East.

My wild guess is that you end up with a compromised schedule where teams probably make one trip for games against teams in another division. I would also hazard a bet that it would happen early in the league calendar, over Christmas perhaps, and likely involve 3 games. over a week.

The other possibility would be looking at "Desingamed Conference Games" Some old fogies in the Sun Belt will remember we famously did this in football in the early years of the league. Rather than going to say Charlotte for a game...UNT would instead play UTA in a conference game for both. Rather than travel to Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern, Arkansas State might play Middle Tennessee and UAB in league games

If the idea if a straight merge doesn't work, designated league games could be a doable alternative. When it comes to olympic Sports, the NCAA doesn't really care how your conference formats a regular season and seeds the league tournament, just that you have one.

A lot of that, as you stated, depends on the geography of the teams involved. Louisiana is in good shape in that their only basketball flights are to the Carolinas and Georgia. You might see Louisiana play the Arkansas, Texas and Alabama schools twice each (that's 12) and ULM four times (that's 16). That proposal, from what I've heard, has been floated around. Texas, Louisiana and Alabama are ok with multiple games against rivals (not sure about the Carolinas and Georgia). Arkansas is opposed to the idea.

Just did a market search...if an east/west realignment actually happened both conferences would still have markets. Even better, markets that care about you and your opponents.

The east would have 7 top 100 markets - #10 Atlanta, #16 Miami, #21 Charlotte (with UNCC and App both having strong footholds there), #42 Norfolk, #75 Charleston-Huntington, #89 Savannah, #97 Myrtle Beach.

The west would have 6 top 100 markets - #8 Houston, #31 San Antonio, #44 Birmingham (assuming UAB went west) #58 Mobile, #62 Little Rock, #93 El Paso.

**Mobile and Birmingham depend on which direction they choose to go.

\/ Fixed it skulkymaroo

(04-24-2020 12:08 PM)APPdiesel Wrote:  Just did a market search...if an east/west realignment actually happened both conferences would still have markets. Even better, markets that care about you and your opponents.

The east would have 7 top 100 markets - #10 Atlanta, #16 Miami, #21 Charlotte (with UNCC and App both having strong footholds there), #42 Norfolk, #75 Charleston-Huntington, #89 Savannah, #97 Myrtle Beach.

The west would have 6 top 100 markets - #8 Houston, #31 San Antonio, #44 Birmingham (assuming UAB went west) #58 Tulsa, #62 Little Rock, #93 El Paso.

You have Birmingham in the west. Is that where you have #57 Mobile as well?

(04-24-2020 12:44 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(04-24-2020 12:08 PM)APPdiesel Wrote:  Just did a market search...if an east/west realignment actually happened both conferences would still have markets. Even better, markets that care about you and your opponents.

The east would have 7 top 100 markets - #10 Atlanta, #16 Miami, #21 Charlotte (with UNCC and App both having strong footholds there), #42 Norfolk, #75 Charleston-Huntington, #89 Savannah, #97 Myrtle Beach.

The west would have 6 top 100 markets - #8 Houston, #31 San Antonio, #44 Birmingham (assuming UAB went west) #58 Tulsa, #62 Little Rock, #93 El Paso.

You have Birmingham in the west. Is that where you have #57 Mobile as well?

Fixed it above, I accidentally put Tulsa instead of Mobile