IMO the two biggest reasons for realigning conferences are to make them more geographically compact and to put rivals in the same conference. So I created this thread to list teams that currently are not in the same conference that (I think) should be in the same conference. Feel free to add/dispute.

Teams that don't play on a regular basis in football:

Penn State/Pittsburgh (I have a personal stake in the game)
Texas/Texas A&M

(Huge drop)
Kansas/Missouri
Nebraska/Oklahoma (I'd probably prefer it not to be the Big 10).

Teams that do play every year in football:

Florida/Florida State
Kentucky/Louisville

(Don't feel as strongly about)
Georgia/Georgia Tech
South Carolina/Clemson
Utah/BYU

Non Football:

Villanova/Temple (Maybe St. Joe's as well or Temple/St. Joe's like the old A-10 days). Right now the top three Philly schools are in three different conferences and it sucks. Of course these days Villanova is so much better than the others it probably doesn't matter much.
Cincinnati/Xavier
Villanova/Syracuse/Georgetown/Connecticut (Old Big East. Not sure I care too much about St. John's, Seton Hall, or Providence)

BB:
Temple plays a "city series" round robin tournament every year with the 4 other teams in the Big Five (Villanova, St. Joes, LaSalle & Penn).

It's one of the best sets of rivalries in college basketball, perhaps the best, and certainly one of the longest-running.

in FB:

Temple vs. Penn State
Temple vs. Pitt
Temple vs. Rutgers

Quote:Of course these days Villanova is so much better than the others it probably doesn't matter much.

And yet, UPenn won the Big Five in 2018-19.

It was pretty awesome when Temple, La Salle, and St. Joe’s were all in the A10 at the same time, because you got some good return games. I’m not a Drexel fan, but if they were in the A10, I would think it would help them build up their image in Philly.

Delaware’s another one of those schools who should be a fixture on all the Philly schools’ schedules. They get Drexel in the CAA and Villanova in CAAF, but I wish they were considered more around this area.

(06-04-2020 05:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  IMO the two biggest reasons for realigning conferences are to make them more geographically compact and to put rivals in the same conference. So I created this thread to list teams that currently are not in the same conference that (I think) should be in the same conference. Feel free to add/dispute.

Teams that don't play on a regular basis in football:

Penn State/Pittsburgh (I have a personal stake in the game)
Texas/Texas A&M

(Huge drop)
Kansas/Missouri
Nebraska/Oklahoma (I'd probably prefer it not to be the Big 10).

Teams that do play every year in football:

Florida/Florida State
Kentucky/Louisville

(Don't feel as strongly about)
Georgia/Georgia Tech
South Carolina/Clemson
Utah/BYU

And you missed Pitt/WVU. The end of the Backyard Brawl is a travesty.

(06-04-2020 05:20 AM)schmolik Wrote:  Non Football:

Villanova/Temple (Maybe St. Joe's as well or Temple/St. Joe's like the old A-10 days). Right now the top three Philly schools are in three different conferences and it sucks. Of course these days Villanova is so much better than the others it probably doesn't matter much.
Cincinnati/Xavier
Villanova/Syracuse/Georgetown/Connecticut (Old Big East. Not sure I care too much about St. John's, Seton Hall, or Providence)

For my money, Cincinnati vs. Louisville was our longstanding and best rivalry in basketball and football. Fortunately, a basketball series resumes this season between the two schools.

Many Cincinnati fans don't consider Xavier our biggest rival and unless X wants to bring football back the two schools will never reside in the same conference.

App State/ECU
Charlotte/App State or Charlotte/Georgia State
Texas State/UT San Antonio
Louisiana Lafayette/Louisiana Tech or Louisiana Lafayette/Southern Miss
Troy/UAB
Middle Tennessee/Memphis or Arkansas State/Memphis
Marshall/Cincinnati or Marshall/Ohio

Football that don't play regularly

Texas/Texas A&M
Oklahoma/Nebraska

I'm not from that region but miss those games.

Marshall and Ohio.
WVU and Pitt.

LA-Tech, ULL, ULM

Two of the three are in the same conference but all should be.

Yeah, that cluster of Memphis, Louisville, Southern Miss, and Cincy come to mind. We get Memphis and Cincy, but those others seem so far removed now.

NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

(06-04-2020 07:49 AM)RobtheAggie Wrote:  NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

Agreed. These 3 ought to be the eastern cluster of a western conference or the western cluster of a Texas based conference.

(06-04-2020 07:49 AM)RobtheAggie Wrote:  NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

I believe New Mexico and New Mexico State have actually never been in the same conference with each other

(06-04-2020 07:46 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  Yeah, that cluster of Memphis, Louisville, Southern Miss, and Cincy come to mind. We get Memphis and Cincy, but those others seem so far removed now.

Louisville and to lesser extent Memphis, but UC fans do not care one bit about Southern Miss (although Southern Miss has their rivalry with Memphis). UC fans would rather play regional opponents like Louisville, WVU and Pitt.

Xavier and Dayton should be in a conference with one another.

(06-04-2020 08:16 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(06-04-2020 07:49 AM)RobtheAggie Wrote:  NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

I believe New Mexico and New Mexico State have actually never been in the same conference with each other

Border Conference, 1931-1962

Arizona, 1931-1961
Arizona St, 1931-1961
Northern Arizona, 1931-1952
New Mexico, 1931-1951
New Mexico St, 1931-1961
Texas Tech, 1932-1956
UTEP, 1935-1961
Hardin-Simmons, 1941-1961
West Texas A&M, 1941-1961

(06-04-2020 08:30 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(06-04-2020 08:16 AM)TDenverFan Wrote:  

(06-04-2020 07:49 AM)RobtheAggie Wrote:  NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

I believe New Mexico and New Mexico State have actually never been in the same conference with each other

Border Conference, 1931-1962

Arizona, 1931-1961
Arizona St, 1931-1961
Northern Arizona, 1931-1952
New Mexico, 1931-1951
New Mexico St, 1931-1961
Texas Tech, 1932-1956
UTEP, 1935-1961
Hardin-Simmons, 1941-1961
West Texas A&M, 1941-1961

I believed wrong, then. Though they haven't shared a conference since then, as far as I can tell, which is still sorta surprising.

(06-04-2020 08:04 AM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(06-04-2020 07:49 AM)RobtheAggie Wrote:  NMSU-UTEP-UNM - Why these three are not in the same conference boggles my mind. With the huge travel costs needed, these three are within 4.5 hours from ABQ to ELP.

As mentioned above, Delaware is often shut out of the Philadelphia scene, I would love to see them more involved.

Agreed. These 3 ought to be the eastern cluster of a western conference or the western cluster of a Texas based conference.

I'm not the first person to say this, but throw all the CUSA/SB schools in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas plus NMSt into one group and you have a pretty decent conference.

(06-04-2020 06:33 AM)whittx Wrote:  

(06-04-2020 05:17 AM)schmolik Wrote:  IMO the two biggest reasons for realigning conferences are to make them more geographically compact and to put rivals in the same conference. So I created this thread to list teams that currently are not in the same conference that (I think) should be in the same conference. Feel free to add/dispute.

Teams that don't play on a regular basis in football:

Penn State/Pittsburgh (I have a personal stake in the game)
Texas/Texas A&M

(Huge drop)
Kansas/Missouri
Nebraska/Oklahoma (I'd probably prefer it not to be the Big 10).

Teams that do play every year in football:

Florida/Florida State
Kentucky/Louisville

(Don't feel as strongly about)
Georgia/Georgia Tech
South Carolina/Clemson
Utah/BYU

And you missed Pitt/WVU. The end of the Backyard Brawl is a travesty.

The most disappointing losses are the below as the fan bases hate each other. Hell, Missouri's folkhero Quantril sacked Lawrence and burned it to the ground for the fun of it during the Civil War.

WVU/Pitt
KU/Mizzou
Texas/Texas A&M

These rivalries have softened with time apart but are still missed.


OU/Nebraska
CU/Nebraska
Penn State/Pitt (This one seems more one sided)

App State / UNCC / ECU / ODU
Georgia Southern / Georgia State / UAB / Troy