Interesting site on college sports conference realignment

[Terry in Crapchester]

http://collegesportsinfo.com/conference ... ment-grid/

Yeah, I know the conferences that people in here care about are done (for the time, anyway), but what the heck, it's the offseason.

Most interesting recent news: the C-USA/MWC merger is off, with both conferences expanding. C-USA is returning (for now, anyway) to its roots as a hybrid conference, adding UTSA (which had been set to join the WAC this year, now will join C-USA next year), Louisiana Tech from the WAC, and Florida International and North Texas from the Sun Belt, along with Charlotte from the A-10 and Old Dominion from the CAA (both of those schools will upgrade their football programs in the future). MWC is adding Utah State and San Jose State, both from the WAC. The WAC apparently is done as a football conference, having also lost Texas State and Texas-Arlington to the Sun Belt. The WAC apparently will continue as a non-football conference. Idaho and New Mexico State, the only remaining 1-A football programs in the WAC, apparently will seek football-only membership in either the Sun Belt or the MAC (although there's a slight possibility that New Mexico State could return to the Sun Belt as an all-sports member).

Also, the Sun Belt is adding Georgia State, and South Alabama (a member of the Sun Belt in other sports) will be upgrading football to 1-A. Meanwhile, UMass could be in trouble in the MAC, since its agreement to join the MAC apparently gave the MAC permission to boot UMass if Temple should leave the conference in UMass' first two seasons.

[Felix]

Boise State should be, and probably is giving serious reconsideration on the jump to the Big East given that all other sports teams were supposed to join the WAC.....

while the football team drives the revenue wagon, I've said from the beginning that throwing the rest of the sports teams under the bus in search of bigger, better television contracts for football and the chase for an "AQ" conference is fucking stupid....

now the WAC is on life support and AQ a thing of the past, moving to the big east makes no sense whatsoever....there are lots of deep pocket BSU benefactors that are saying the same thing and Boise State should be listening closely.....

[Terry in Crapchester]

I thik the WAC will drop football but will survive in some incarnation that continues to play basketball and some olympic sports.

Remaining in the conference, for the moment anyway, are Idaho, New Mexico State, Boise State (sports other than football), Denver (non-football member) and Seattle (same). Since you can't really operate a Division I basketball program as an independent anymore (ND fan knows this only too well), schools like CSU-Bakersfield and New Orleans probably would jump at an invite from the WAC. And some programs probably could be drawn from other conferences, likely the Big Sky.

If you turn to the two remaining football schools, I don't think there's much chance that either one gets an all-sports offer from another conference. If the MWC were interested in either, they probably would've offered. I think there's a real chance that New Mexico State could get an offer from the Sun Belt, but it would probably be for football only. The Sun Belt will have 11 football members and one non-football member. Adding New Mexico State for football only puts them at 12 for all sports. Similarly, I don't think they'd give NMSU an all-sports offer to boot out UALR, since NMSU would be a geographic outlier. As for Idaho, I think its only football options will be to go independent, or apply for membership in the MAC and hope they get accepted. Obviously, that would be football-only.

Much like the Big East in football, I think the WAC stays together for basketball and olympic sports if only because its remaining members don't have a better option available.

I can't really speak as to whether Boise is better off maintaining status quo, or returning to the MWC. I will say that I was surprised that Boise could go to the WAC for basketball and olympic sports when it looked like the WAC would still have football. I thought the NCAA rule was that a school could not play in different conferences for football and basketball unless its basketball conference did not sponsor 1-A football. The rule didn't apply to ND since it didn't play in a football conference. And Temple (in the past) and UMass (going forward) were okay because their basketball conference (Atlantic 10) doesn't sponsor 1-A football. I wasn't sure how Boise was getting around that rule, or if the rule had been eliminated. It doesn't seem to matter anymore, though.

I think it's going to be that ultimately determines Boise's fate. Even though there won't be anymore AQ berths, it's rather obvious that most of the AQ conferences will receive a larger share of revenue going forward from the playoff, and possibly from bowl games. The $64,000 (and yes, I know I'm leaving out a zero or two or maybe three) question for Boise will be whether the Big East continues to be included in that group for revenue purposes. The MWC obviously will not, even if Boise rejoins, but the Big East may.

But as much as has been made about the travel issues Boise will face in the Big East, it's worth noting that there isn't a school in the MWC close enough for Boise to travel to by bus.The advantage to the MWC is time zones, of course, but most of the schools that would play in the Big East's West Division will be no more than one time zone away from Boise. And of course, Hawai'i presents greater travel issues than any school in the Big East.

[campinfool]

Pretty retarded that Texas State will play one year in the WAC and then jump to the Sun Belt. Should have just stayed in the Southland for 0one more year. :doh:

[King Crimson]

looks like MWC is adding San Jose State and Utah State. USU has been tough in hoops under Stew Morrill...so, that's a good move for a league that was pretty good in hoops last year. about the best they could do i guess but big fall from arguing for BCS AQ with Utah and TCU just a couple years ago.