(10-09-2020 11:29 AM)AZcats Wrote:  

(10-09-2020 10:33 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  

(10-09-2020 09:57 AM)nhoward14 Wrote:  

(10-07-2020 08:36 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(10-07-2020 08:04 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  This is correct. It has to be a multisport conference with 8 full, FB-playing members.

Utah Valley and Grand Canyon could add football. Not sure how fast UVU gets to an FBS level that quickly. Grand Canyon could rent the University of Phoenix stadium for FBS games. Central Oklahoma and Midwestern State are close to FBS level stadiums.

David, UCO is nowhere near being an FBS stadium.

I'm pretty sure midwestern state uses a high school stadium, but remember he thinks random JUCOs should be FBS too so

Actually, the stadiums at Central Oklahoma and Midwestern State don't matter. Neither would be accepted for D1 membership because they do no sponsor enough men's sports. Both have five men's sports, and MSU doesn't even have baseball.

UCO has a very good D2 stadium that holds 10,000 and hosts the Oklahoma high school state championships. The school has 20,000 students. They may very well be considering a move to D1. But, they would have to add sports and additional scholarships to their existing sports. And, they are squeezed out of their market by OU, OSU, and the OKC Thunder. It would be hard to increase the size of their fan base playing at a lower level of Division I while competing for interest with two Big 12 schools and an NBA franchise.

UCO's best course of action is to become the best D2 program they can be. Their ceiling in D2 is higher than most.

Now the guy that reported it was SUU decided it is now a Southland Conference school. If it is a Southland Conference school? Lamar, Sam Houston State and SFAU all looked at FBS.

(10-10-2020 11:14 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Now the guy that reported it was SUU decided it is now a Southland Conference school. If it is a Southland Conference school? Lamar, Sam Houston State and SFAU all looked at FBS.

For a payday game?

(10-10-2020 01:11 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 11:14 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Now the guy that reported it was SUU decided it is now a Southland Conference school. If it is a Southland Conference school? Lamar, Sam Houston State and SFAU all looked at FBS.

For a payday game?

Sometimes, something is true even when DavidSt says it. Back when the WAC was frantically trying to stay FBS, those schools all at least kicked the tires on FBS.

Lamar to the WAC article stub from 2011

2014, New Sam Houston State coach talks about FBS maybe

Stephen F Austin State--I don't see anything on google, so maybe I misremember 10 year old rumors.

(No, they're not going to the WAC. No, the FBS WAC isn't going to be a thing. And I'm very skeptical that anyone in Division I is joining the WAC voluntarily)

Matt Brown has never backed off his original reporting about Southern Utah.

(10-10-2020 01:25 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 01:11 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 11:14 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Now the guy that reported it was SUU decided it is now a Southland Conference school. If it is a Southland Conference school? Lamar, Sam Houston State and SFAU all looked at FBS.

For a payday game?

Sometimes, something is true even when DavidSt says it. Back when the WAC was frantically trying to stay FBS, those schools all at least kicked the tires on FBS.

Lamar to the WAC article stub from 2011

2014, New Sam Houston State coach talks about FBS maybe

Stephen F Austin State--I don't see anything on google, so maybe I misremember 10 year old rumors.

(No, they're not going to the WAC. No, the FBS WAC isn't going to be a thing. And I'm very skeptical that anyone in Division I is joining the WAC voluntarily)

That's funny! Sometimes its true DESPITE the fact that he claimed it.

All quiet on the western front for now. It's being discussed on the WAC board as well for any interested realignmentologists.
https://csnbbs.com/thread-907831-page-66.html

Matt Brown appears to be full of hot air. Nothing he has said recently about the WAC, CAA, and C-USA has come to pass yet. I find it doubtful that this one guy has the inside scoop about serious realignment shifts in what amounts to 10% of D1 conferences.

(10-12-2020 06:13 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Matt Brown appears to be full of hot air. Nothing he has said recently about the WAC, CAA, and C-USA has come to pass yet. I find it doubtful that this one guy has the inside scoop about serious realignment shifts in what amounts to 10% of D1 conferences.

Examples?

(10-12-2020 09:37 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  

(10-12-2020 06:13 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Matt Brown appears to be full of hot air. Nothing he has said recently about the WAC, CAA, and C-USA has come to pass yet. I find it doubtful that this one guy has the inside scoop about serious realignment shifts in what amounts to 10% of D1 conferences.

Examples?

Um, the big pile of nothing that has *actually happened* since I think St Thomas moved up to the Summit?

I don't follow Matt Brown, but right now any prediction from the last 6-12 months about CAA, CUSA or WAC membership changes would have to be rated "False" because no one's gone anywhere.

(10-12-2020 09:37 PM)DoubleRSU Wrote:  

(10-12-2020 06:13 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Matt Brown appears to be full of hot air. Nothing he has said recently about the WAC, CAA, and C-USA has come to pass yet. I find it doubtful that this one guy has the inside scoop about serious realignment shifts in what amounts to 10% of D1 conferences.

Examples?

He’s come out recently saying that realignment is in the works among the WAC regarding SUU and others joining—hasn’t happened

He’s said that serious discussions are happening regarding C-USA schools breaking away—also hasn’t happened

There’s also been nebulous comments that CAA is in store for some big alignment but nothing has materialized yet

Maybe these things are developing slowly but it seems odd to come out with so many big realignment stories all at once.

Matt Brown sounds more like NoDak about who is joining the WAC and all that. But for the podcast for Weber State, it sounds like the Big Sky could split.

North:
UC-Davis
Cal. Poly
Sacramento State
Eastern Washington
Idaho
Weber State
Montana
Montana State
Central Washington
Western Oregon

Adding Central Washington and Western Oregon could ease up on the student fees as the travel will be more favorable to Idaho, Weber State, EWU and Portland State.

Northern Arizona, Southern Utah, Northern Colorado and Idaho State to the WAC.
Idaho State and Northern Colorado is just a short bus ride to Grand Junction for Colorado Mesa. CSU-Pueblo is not that far from New Mexico State as well for a bus ride. Add Texas A&M to the mix, and you get a tighter footprint.

Matt also said a South Dakota school is in talks of joining the WAC. The only school that wants D1 is Augustana. How much money are they throwing at the WAC to take them?

Other schools that fits in the footprint of the WAC are:
Eastern New Mexico too close to New Mexico State, but do have rabid football fans that do travel which could help New Mexico State to sell tickets.
Western New Mexico who are not really rabid.
New Mexico Highlands which is just off I25 could build a bridge to the Colorado schools. Easy access for bus travel.
Adams State, Colorado Western and Fort Lewisaretoosmall.
Colorado-Colorado Springs no football.
Colorado Mines have the money.
Colorado Christian no football.
Metro State said no.
Fort Hays State large student body and is near the Colorado border.

Arizona Christian and Ottawa in the NAIA are way too small.

There is no other football schools in the footprint unless New Mexico Military and Snow College becomes 4 year. There are D2 schools like East Bay State were flirting the idea of adding football.

As it is, you have to flirt D2 schools in the footprint to start an FCS football for the WAC. Southern Utah will not move until the WAC gets more football schools.

His CAA story was basically that the conference makes no sense and members are a little unsure of its future, which I think is pretty accurate.

(10-13-2020 01:03 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  His CAA story was basically that the conference makes no sense and members are a little unsure of its future, which I think is pretty accurate.

Just out of curiosity—what do you thing the fix for the CAA or do you think it’s fine the way it is?

If I recall, you have no desire for William & Mary to move to the Patriot right?

(10-13-2020 01:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(10-13-2020 01:03 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  His CAA story was basically that the conference makes no sense and members are a little unsure of its future, which I think is pretty accurate.

Just out of curiosity—what do you thing the fix for the CAA or do you think it’s fine the way it is?

If I recall, you have no desire for William & Mary to move to the Patriot right?

The CAA core of W&M, JMU, Towson, Elon, and Delaware actually isn't that bad. It's a nice Mid Atlantic geographic footprint with a solid focus on FCS football. Drexel, even though they don't play football, fits in nicely in this core as well.

The problem comes with the geographic extremes the rest of the non football members bring - UNCW/CoC vs NE/Hofstra. It makes zero sense for the CAA to have such geographically diverse non football members. NE and Hofstra really screwed the CAA over when they dropped football

One of the pair needs to leave so the CAA can establish a footprint again.

Divisions would have helped but Hofstra ruined that.

Personally I would like to see Hofstra and NE leave so the CAA can have a northern hub of Philly and fill in the gaps with schools south of Philly.

(10-13-2020 01:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(10-13-2020 01:03 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  His CAA story was basically that the conference makes no sense and members are a little unsure of its future, which I think is pretty accurate.

Just out of curiosity—what do you thing the fix for the CAA or do you think it’s fine the way it is?

If I recall, you have no desire for William & Mary to move to the Patriot right?

Yeah, I'm not big on the Patriot, I don't think most W&M fans are either. While they're all great schools academically it's a pretty bottom tier conference athletically, and we'd be a pretty big geographic outlier. Games against Colgate or Holy Cross don't really excite W&M fans.

I really don't have an answer for the CAA. Basically all the schools are in it due to a lack of a better option, but we can all agree it doesn't make sense. What do Northeastern and UNC Wilmington have in common? It's got schools that are (semi) willing to spend on athletics, it's a great FCS conference and generally one of the best 1 bid basketball leagues, but it's tough to really explain its value. The only real upside is we play a lot of games in big media markets, which is good for our alumni.

The only real way to fix it would be to create something from the ground up, make a conference from like South Carolina to Maryland, combining teams from the SoCon, CAA, and Big South.

Something like:

Towson
Delaware
JMU
W&M
Elon
Furman
Wofford
Hampton
Stony Brook
Howard
College of Charleston
UNCW

With Richmond and Villanova as football only schools. 12 for football, 12 for basketball.

Even that doesn't explicitly make tons of sense, I don't know that Wofford or Furman care about Stony Brook, or visa versa. But it's a collection of schools that are all generally regarded well academically, are willing to spend on athletics, and it hits some decent media markets.

I also don't mind UNCW or College of Charleston, but I think the only reason I would even consider them is they were both in the CAA for a while, so I feel obligated to mention them.

Edit:

This is all purely from W&M's view, I don't know what other schools want.

I would start with the "CAA core," for lack of a better term. W&M, JMU, Delaware, Towson, Elon. From there, those 5 schools should decide if they want to go north or south.

I would also try to add Howard and Hampton, and you have Richmond and Nova as football only members.

North additions:
Monmouth
Stony Brook
Hofstra

The north gets a little murkier after those 3.

Bucknell (I don't know if they want to leave the Patriot)
Drexel (I could take or leave Drexel, Philly is nice to have games in, but they don't really care about athletics)
Northeastern (Geographic outlier, but they usually field a solid basketball team and Boston is a plus)

South additions:
Furman
Wofford
UNCW
College of Charleston
UNCG

I would somewhat prefer the league go northern, more W&M alumni are in the north, and our general student body is more northern, so getting more of a presence there is generally helpful.

(10-13-2020 01:56 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(10-13-2020 01:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(10-13-2020 01:03 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  His CAA story was basically that the conference makes no sense and members are a little unsure of its future, which I think is pretty accurate.

Just out of curiosity—what do you thing the fix for the CAA or do you think it’s fine the way it is?

If I recall, you have no desire for William & Mary to move to the Patriot right?

The CAA core of W&M, JMU, Towson, Elon, and Delaware actually isn't that bad. It's a nice Mid Atlantic geographic footprint with a solid focus on FCS football. Drexel, even though they don't play football, fits in nicely in this core as well.

The problem comes with the geographic extremes the rest of the non football members bring - UNCW/CoC vs NE/Hofstra. It makes zero sense for the CAA to have such geographically diverse non football members. NE and Hofstra really screwed the CAA over when they dropped football

One of the pair needs to leave so the CAA can establish a footprint again.

Divisions would have helped but Hofstra ruined that.

Personally I would like to see Hofstra and NE leave so the CAA can have a northern hub of Philly and fill in the gaps with schools south of Philly.

The shame is Hofstra and NU are both generally pretty solid at basketball, which makes it a little tough to kick them, but I tend to agree.

W&M is probably more of a northern school than southern, but as you said the core of the league is solid, it used to be even better with GMU, ODU, and VCU, but it just drifted too far away from that core. I actually would like adding Howard and Hampton to that, two good schools academically, in the region, that care about athletics, but I have no idea what (especially Howard) wants to do. Hampton is obviously open to non HBCU conferences.

(10-10-2020 01:11 PM)esayem Wrote:  

(10-10-2020 11:14 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  Now the guy that reported it was SUU decided it is now a Southland Conference school. If it is a Southland Conference school? Lamar, Sam Houston State and SFAU all looked at FBS.

For a payday game?

I look at FBS most Saturdays.

Things are heating up on reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/jf...t_invites/

So ...... when does this 10th member actually get added?