Looking like it. USF Rice Tulane are next on deck... and they'll replace FSU UNC Clemson to begin with. Duke gets left behind along with WF. 'Cuse and BC may get BBall in a P2/Big 12 as an affiliate, but not full member.

GaTech will go Big 12 if the B1G passes them up. VaTech/Miami probably find their way into P2, as I think both programs are ahead of GaTech by very slim margins, but still a lot of time for those Jackets to catch up by the end of the decade.

I got FSU, Miami, VaTech in the B1G and Clemson, UNC, NCSU UVa to SEC.

GaTech Pitt UL Big 12.

'Cuse UConn BC Tulane Rice Stanford &/or Cal, Duke, WF, Temple, USF is basically your FBS football only league.

Long term, I think ASU Utah CU Stanford can still go B1G.

(08-09-2023 04:26 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Let’s say Cal and Stanford do end up joining the ACC.

If/when programs like Florida St and Clemson start to leave, the academic elite wing of the league is going to get stronger and stronger. It wouldn’t be a Magnolia League in the sense of being all Southern, but it would have a lot of academic stalwarts from across the country.

I could see them schools that don’t fit that model, like Louisville to the Big 12, while bringing in SMU, Tulane, and Rice as backfill:

BC
Syracuse
Pitt
UVA
Duke
WF
NC St
GT
USF
Tulane
SMU
Rice
Cal
Stanford

A conference with the academics of the big 12 and the athletics of the Belch.

(08-09-2023 07:34 PM)Gitanole Wrote:  

(08-09-2023 04:26 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Let’s say Cal and Stanford do end up joining the ACC.

If/when programs like Florida St and Clemson start to leave, the academic elite wing of the league is going to get stronger and stronger. It wouldn’t be a Magnolia League in the sense of being all Southern, but it would have a lot of academic stalwarts from across the country.

I could see them schools that don’t fit that model, like Louisville to the Big 12, while bringing in SMU, Tulane, and Rice as backfill:

BC
Syracuse
Pitt
UVA
Duke
WF
NC St
GT
USF
Tulane
SMU
Rice
Cal
Stanford

I've been thinking this, too. Jack Swarbrick said ten years ago that the needs of private schools are distinct from the needs of public schools. He expected conference structures soon to reflect this. And older universities in the Eastern time zone have a very different history than elsewhere. Many were founded before the start of the land grant movement. Schools that tend to be the odd one out in other conferences could feel right at home in a league for the 'small and smart.' I think you have to bring in respected urban universities as well.

The ACC could stabilise and endure that way, and offer interesting sports to watch all the same.

And speaking of Jack Swarbrick, would Notre Dame continue to affiliate with this group and put its Olympic sports here? If the Irish would, the conference is viable.

Tell me that this original lineup, with a modest media deal, couldn't have been the best option all along:

Clemson
Duke
Maryland
North Carolina
North Carolina State
South Carolina
Wake Forest
Virginia
+1: Virginia Tech