Just a thought, but if C-USA doesn’t want to go with 11 members for this upcoming season, it’s short notice, but why not invite New Mexico St. for this season at least for football and can maintain divisions. This would help them avoid having to request a waiver for the CCG. I’m sure C-USA will go on with 11 teams for this year and will get the wavier, but this option would also ease scheduling and help some with travel if they wish to pursue it and get a future conference member a year early.

East:
Charlotte
FAU
FIU
Middle Tennessee
UAB
Western Kentucky

West:
Louisiana Tech
New Mexico St.
North Texas
Rice
UTEP
UTSA

I would expect Liberty FB would like to maintain their independence for 2022, which is why I excluded them from joining this year (hosts UAB, BYU, and Virginia Tech). As for New Mexico St. FB, they don’t have that opportunity, but they would only need to drop 6 games rather than 8 games because UTEP and FIU are already on their schedule.

2022 New Mexico St. FB Schedule:
Nevada
@ Minnesota
@ UTEP
@ Wisconsin
Hawaii
FIU
(Bye)
New Mexico
San Jose St.
@ UMASS
(Bye)
Lamar
@ Missouri
@ Liberty

I would expect New Mexico to obviously remain on their schedule while UTEP and FIU would be 2 conference games.
I then would expect 2 of the buy games to remain (leaning towards Minnesota and Wisconsin).

The final game to keep I think is a toss-up between Nevada, Hawaii, or Liberty. I’m sure New Mexico St. will want that 6th home game, but I’m not sure they would cancel a game against a future conference opponent @ Liberty.

Again, I think this is unlikely, but is something I could see happen.

It sounds like a nightmare for NM State to try to arrange in a very short amount of time. I’d say it is not the right thing to do to back out of all our commitments this late in the game. I think we’ve had great relationships with schools we’ve scheduled since we’ve been an independent and doing this would be screwing them over. I’d prefer to keep the goodwill we have with various schools involved. They haven’t done us wrong in any way.

And I don’t see any existential crisis in CUSA that would necessitate us trying to move this quickly for seemingly little benefit.

Liberty might be able to make this kind of move, but New Mexico State will be harder pressed to manage this change on that time table.

These athletic directors have professional relationships and a school like NMSU can’t really throw things into chaos for other schools. The path of least resistance is just for C-UsA to have 11 for one year.

Here’s the thing, the independents have a lot of games they’d have to back out of to join early and that in turn creates a hardship for 8 more schools who need replacements on short notice.

C-USA should have no problem getting a waiver and playing a season divisionless. Not only did they end up with an odd number on short notice but it’s also a temporary situation.

(02-11-2022 09:24 PM)GoBuckeyes1047 Wrote:  Again, I think this is unlikely, but is something I could see happen.

Can't see it. This would require at least 5 FBS teams on NMSU's 2022 FB schedule to find another FBS opponent, probably for the same date as their NMSU game, with only six months' notice. On top of that, some or all of those teams might insist on receiving the buyout payment in their contract with NMSU even if they find a replacement opponent.

11 sucks but not because you can't make a schedule work for one year. I don't think adding NMSU early (or Liberty) helps anything.

I guess it'd be good for UTEP, but for anyone else it'd be as far or farther away than whoever would replace Mar/ODU/USM otherwise. And be no better draw at home.

For Tech as an example, we'll have to replace an away game at USM, but we're not better off going to NMSU than, say MTSU. And we'll have to replace a home game with ODU, but I don't know that there would be way more interest in the Aggies than a WKU or FIU. Probably not a lot less interest, but no more.

The American only has 11 teams right now. The "easy" thing to do would be allowing one CUSA team to move early. That gives the AAC 12 and CUSA 10.

They aren't gonna do that either. Both will play 2022 as 11-team leagues.

(02-13-2022 12:47 AM)UNT15 Wrote:  The American only has 11 teams right now. The "easy" thing to do would be allowing one CUSA team to move early. That gives the AAC 12 and CUSA 10.

They aren't gonna do that either. Both will play 2022 as 11-team leagues.

Honestly, yeah, that idea can steal the thread. I would nominate UAB to move to the AAC this summer if that were going to happen as UCONN's "replacement." Both divisions in both leagues would be geographical, and UAB plays no AAC schools non-conference in football so no scrambling to find a new game with 6 months notice.

How would that work in terms of payout, though? If the AAC gets additional money for UAB, then the answer is obvious. But if they don't, and C-USA gets a reduction, that could snuff out such an arrangement.

Dumping a bunch of games at the last minute would be unfair to the other schools as well as expensive for NMSU.

People are making this a much bigger deal than necessary. A schedule for an eleven team league isn’t that hard and I’m sure they’ll do the best they can to be fair. It is only for one season, it’s not the end of the world.

There’s a thing Presidents and Athletic Directors have: professional relationships with other peers. You don’t burn any bridges because it can bite you in the azz in the future. The right thing to do for NMSU and Liberty is to keep their commitments with the 2022 football schedule and with the WAC and A-Sun. The AAC has 11 schools. The MWC has 11 in basketball/Olympic schools. The Big Ten managed to make 11 work for almost two decades when my alma mater Penn State joined. So C-USA can make it work for a year.