Lots of realignment stories and rumors flying right now but there are a couple ideas that I would have expected to see floating out there that simply don’t seem to exist:

A true merger/reshuffle of C-USA and SBC

A 6-team expansion of the SBC, effectively putting C-USA out of business and cutting at least 2 of their members totally adrift.

Any ideas why these routes don’t seem to be openly considered?

Sun Belt could stay at 10 and be happy. Adding 2-4 if it improves things is a bonus.

You can’t shuffle the two into forms that make everyone happy enough that it doesn’t get blocked.

As for taking so many CUSA dies. No one wants to kill a league and leave people adrift but if he dies he dies.

It benefits the SB to only take what adds value rather than cooperate and possibly end up with less. With the additions of JMU, Marshall, ODU to the east, and SM and swifting Troy to the West, divisions become bus leagues. It is a huge benefit for non rev sports. LT, FIU, WKU and Middle through off this balence. MAC also stands to benefit by improving demographics with WKU and Middle. Schools get regionality in divisions, not through conferences. CUSA has nothing to offer

Why negotiate for a coalition when you think you can win on your terms. I could give some examples from recent wars and other events, yet still this give peace a chance as one side is falling calls always go out (I hate futility campaigns).

The SBC has ESPN and they believe correctly that they can win over Marshall or James Madison with their package killing Old Dominion's eastern front plan for saving CUSA. USM is three steps out the door and WKU ready to follow if Marshall or James Madison decide not to join. That Wednesday night App State - Coastal Carolina game on ESPN2 is exposure CUSA cannot offer. The leverage is all with the SBC, Judy + ODU are too weak.

CUSA is about to die as an FBS conference. What is there to negotiate?

In the 20-odd years I've been following D1 conference realignment I don't think I've seen a single example of two conferences cooperating as equals to reshuffle members in the interest of both. It's always been dog-eat-dog. I mean it's college athletics right? Sportsmanship matters but winning is the goal.

I think the merger for football standpoint would be football only with the WAC and ASUN, and invite Little Rock and UTA for olympic sports to keep them at 8. Invite NDSU and SDSU as football only members. Invite Missouri State for all sports.

C-USA cooperation
football west:
UTEP
La. Tech
New Mexico State football only
Lamar
SFAU
North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Missouri State

East:
ODU
Midd. Tenn. State
W. Kentucky
FIU
EKU
Jacksonville State
North Alabama
Liberty

C_USA all sports.
West:
UTEP
La. Tech
Missouri State
Little Rock
UTA

EAST:
ODU
Mid. Tennessee State
Western Kentucky
FIU

I would invite North Florida to make a 10 school conference. It would give C-USA time to bring in schools like JMU, Delaware, Youngstown State and could bring in both Dakota schools as full members.

It's too many mouths to feed for a subpar tv deal.

(10-21-2021 02:14 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  It's too many mouths to feed for a subpar tv deal.

The problem you have right now is that you are at the weakest point right now, and to keep C-USA afloat? You need everything on the table. This way it will give you time to bring up schools from FCS.

(10-21-2021 02:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 02:14 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  It's too many mouths to feed for a subpar tv deal.

The problem you have right now is that you are at the weakest point right now, and to keep C-USA afloat? You need everything on the table. This way it will give you time to bring up schools from FCS.

ugh more FCS moving to FBS... the alliance is already talking about scheduling only each other. How long before the major conferences split off from the FBS...

I'd prefer if some of these teams just relegated down to FCS. Is anyone going to miss FIU in the FBS?

(10-21-2021 03:04 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 02:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 02:14 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  It's too many mouths to feed for a subpar tv deal.

The problem you have right now is that you are at the weakest point right now, and to keep C-USA afloat? You need everything on the table. This way it will give you time to bring up schools from FCS.

ugh more FCS moving to FBS... the alliance is already talking about scheduling only each other. How long before the major conferences split off from the FBS...

I'd prefer if some of these teams just relegated down to FCS. Is anyone going to miss FIU in the FBS?

It seems Marshall and S. Miss. are out the door for SBC. You are now at the mercy of the ASUN, WAC and other FCS schools who are willing to move up.

(10-21-2021 12:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Lots of realignment stories and rumors flying right now but there are a couple ideas that I would have expected to see floating out there that simply don’t seem to exist:

A true merger/reshuffle of C-USA and SBC

A 6-team expansion of the SBC, effectively putting C-USA out of business and cutting at least 2 of their members totally adrift.

Any ideas why these routes don’t seem to be openly considered?

1) People are in panic mode;
2) Seem to be a lot of egos involved.

(10-21-2021 03:04 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 02:29 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 02:14 PM)ArmoredUpKnight Wrote:  It's too many mouths to feed for a subpar tv deal.

The problem you have right now is that you are at the weakest point right now, and to keep C-USA afloat? You need everything on the table. This way it will give you time to bring up schools from FCS.

ugh more FCS moving to FBS... the alliance is already talking about scheduling only each other. How long before the major conferences split off from the FBS...

I'd prefer if some of these teams just relegated down to FCS. Is anyone going to miss FIU in the FBS?

That's the flaw in operating dog eat dog. They force the other to bring up a lot of FCS and it hurts all of them.

When I look around the country there are only a handful of schools that even potentially have the resources to be FBS and most of those have a ceiling of becoming Wyoming since they are in small population states and/or areas:

Montana
Montana State
Northern Arizona
North Dakota State
North Dakota
South Dakota State
South Dakota
Delaware

Then you have a few who while maybe not capable now, could potentially be more:
UC Davis
Cal Poly
Missouri State
Illinois State
James Madison

In the south, everyone but James Madison who could successfully move up has.

EKU, Lamar, Jacksonville State, etc., just really can't justify moving up.

(10-21-2021 12:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Lots of realignment stories and rumors flying right now but there are a couple ideas that I would have expected to see floating out there that simply don’t seem to exist:

A true merger/reshuffle of C-USA and SBC

A 6-team expansion of the SBC, effectively putting C-USA out of business and cutting at least 2 of their members totally adrift.

Any ideas why these routes don’t seem to be openly considered?

As far as a "true merger / reshuffle", it's really hard to pull off, since both sides have to think (1) that they are effectively equal in power and (2) that there is a reshuffle that benefits them and that benefits the schools that are leaving, so get the supermajority votes required.

As far as why not six, because the CFP money is diluted with each add ... right now it's $1m/school for the first ten schools in the conference ... and since Go5 schools like 8 game conference schedules, a 16 team conference means 7 division games and one inter-division game, which isn't a lot of games with half of the conference.

Ok, yes I'm an odu fan. I like the sun belt. Good conference, but let me throw this out at you. Inflation is coming soon and is about to explode on the scene and travel costs are going to skyrocket. CUSA stands to get a nice payout from the leaving schools. Tell me what is wrong with this idea. Put that money in the pot and with Liberty and James Madison, you get to 20 teams combined. You waive exit fees and you geographically split the conferences and you have only 10 mouths to feed on each side, not 12, not 14 and you can freaking have an alliance to schedule for all sports, increasing your chances in all sports for success. Now, imagine all the money you will save on travel and imagine the more people traveling to your town or city to watch a game. You could adjust this any way you want, but I will throw this out at you.

CUSA- Marshall, JMU, Liberty, ODU, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, FIU, Troy

SUN BELT- South Alabama, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTEP

Everyone would benefit and profit greatly. This would not surprise me at all if they were talking about this as we speak. I know a lot of Louisiana schools dislike each other and there is contempt for FIU, but ladies and gentlemen, this makes the most sense by far, which wouldn't surprise me if the absence of common sense did not rear it's ugly head again (see AAC picks).

(10-21-2021 03:59 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Ok, yes I'm an odu fan. I like the sun belt. Good conference, but let me throw this out at you. Inflation is coming soon and is about to explode on the scene and travel costs are going to skyrocket. CUSA stands to get a nice payout from the leaving schools. Tell me what is wrong with this idea. Put that money in the pot and with Liberty and James Madison, you get to 20 teams combined. You waive exit fees and you geographically split the conferences and you have only 10 mouths to feed on each side, not 12, not 14 and you can freaking have an alliance to schedule for all sports, increasing your chances in all sports for success. Now, imagine all the money you will save on travel and imagine the more people traveling to your town or city to watch a game. You could adjust this any way you want, but I will throw this out at you.

CUSA- Marshall, JMU, Liberty, ODU, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, FIU, Troy

SUN BELT- South Alabama, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTEP

Everyone would benefit and profit greatly. This would not surprise me at all if they were talking about this as we speak. I know a lot of Louisiana schools dislike each other and there is contempt for FIU, but ladies and gentlemen, this makes the most sense by far, which wouldn't surprise me if the absence of common sense did not rear it's ugly head again (see AAC picks).

Sorry but the Sun Belt won't take UTEP or LTU. We'll take Troy and Georgia Southern or Georgia State. Or the deal won't happen.

(10-21-2021 04:07 PM)ARSTATEFAN1986 Wrote:  

(10-21-2021 03:59 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Ok, yes I'm an odu fan. I like the sun belt. Good conference, but let me throw this out at you. Inflation is coming soon and is about to explode on the scene and travel costs are going to skyrocket. CUSA stands to get a nice payout from the leaving schools. Tell me what is wrong with this idea. Put that money in the pot and with Liberty and James Madison, you get to 20 teams combined. You waive exit fees and you geographically split the conferences and you have only 10 mouths to feed on each side, not 12, not 14 and you can freaking have an alliance to schedule for all sports, increasing your chances in all sports for success. Now, imagine all the money you will save on travel and imagine the more people traveling to your town or city to watch a game. You could adjust this any way you want, but I will throw this out at you.

CUSA- Marshall, JMU, Liberty, ODU, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, FIU, Troy

SUN BELT- South Alabama, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTEP

Everyone would benefit and profit greatly. This would not surprise me at all if they were talking about this as we speak. I know a lot of Louisiana schools dislike each other and there is contempt for FIU, but ladies and gentlemen, this makes the most sense by far, which wouldn't surprise me if the absence of common sense did not rear it's ugly head again (see AAC picks).

Sorry but the Sun Belt won't take UTEP or LTU. We'll take Troy and Georgia Southern or Georgia State. Or the deal won't happen.

You can go north/south, give sun belt the east, cusa the west whatever, but the idea is not that. It is about SAVING MONEY. Ladies and gentlemen, what is coming our way is not looking very pretty and ODU has a huge budget, but none of these schools cannot afford to travel like this forever, neither can your fans. It is all going to dry up and these schools will not be able to keep up with the big boys, without smart decisions and you wanting to keep up with the jones's is not one of them. Ok, sun belt, let's say cusa dies. Who do you think will be the new cusa? The one who follows their model.

I put this up for all of the cusa and sun belt people. Read it and wake up,please

(10-21-2021 03:59 PM)jaybird44 Wrote:  Ok, yes I'm an odu fan. I like the sun belt. Good conference, but let me throw this out at you. Inflation is coming soon and is about to explode on the scene and travel costs are going to skyrocket. CUSA stands to get a nice payout from the leaving schools. Tell me what is wrong with this idea. Put that money in the pot and with Liberty and James Madison, you get to 20 teams combined. You waive exit fees and you geographically split the conferences and you have only 10 mouths to feed on each side, not 12, not 14 and you can freaking have an alliance to schedule for all sports, increasing your chances in all sports for success. Now, imagine all the money you will save on travel and imagine the more people traveling to your town or city to watch a game. You could adjust this any way you want, but I will throw this out at you.

CUSA- Marshall, JMU, Liberty, ODU, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, FIU, Troy

SUN BELT- South Alabama, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Texas State, UTEP

Everyone would benefit and profit greatly. This would not surprise me at all if they were talking about this as we speak. I know a lot of Louisiana schools dislike each other and there is contempt for FIU, but ladies and gentlemen, this makes the most sense by far, which wouldn't surprise me if the absence of common sense did not rear it's ugly head again (see AAC picks).

CUSA holds no cards to poach teams from the Sun Belt, period. I can’t put that any clearer at this point.

(10-21-2021 03:26 PM)bullet Wrote:  When I look around the country there are only a handful of schools that even potentially have the resources to be FBS and most of those have a ceiling of becoming Wyoming since they are in small population states and/or areas:

Montana
Montana State
Northern Arizona
North Dakota State
North Dakota
South Dakota State
South Dakota
Delaware

Then you have a few who while maybe not capable now, could potentially be more:
UC Davis
Cal Poly
Missouri State
Illinois State
James Madison

In the south, everyone but James Madison who could successfully move up has.

EKU, Lamar, Jacksonville State, etc., just really can't justify moving up.

How do you justify your opinion on who cant?