College Football Realignment

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

My guess is that it's not quite as hopeless for the leftovers as some may think. What I believe you'll have leftover (Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St., Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, Louisville, S. Florida and whichever of Missouri/West Virginia doesn't get the SEC slot) is clearly the #5 conference, but still a step up from the Mountain West and the rest. More importantly, the Big 4 would toss it a bone and give it a BCS slot. It's worth it in order to keep the Baylors of the world from launching a flurry of lawsuits and stalling the realignment in court for years. It's still going to open up additional BCS slots for Big 4 teams. The Big 12 and Big East typically would combine for three BCS bids a year. This Big 12/Big East mashup would get one, which gives two additional spots to the Big 4 conferences. It's simply in their best interests to grease the squeaky Baylor wheel and give that conference a bid so that they can grab the two extra bids for themselves.

Geographically this kinda makes sense, more sense than TCU in the Big East. The problem I see with this conference is that they have little to no leverage to stay a part of the BCS. When the BCS originally formed the Big East had Miami as well as Virginia Tech. If this conference forms with those teams where is the leverage? What program stands out as a legit program? What program screams big time college football can't do without? The teams look a lot like the Mountain West a few years ago with TCU, Utah, and BYU were all nationally relevant.

A big winner of all this may be Xavier. I could see the Big East basketball splitting off and poaching Xavier and maybe Dayton from the A10.

[Captain13]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

My guess is that it's not quite as hopeless for the leftovers as some may think. What I believe you'll have leftover (Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St., Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, Louisville, S. Florida and whichever of Missouri/West Virginia doesn't get the SEC slot) is clearly the #5 conference, but still a step up from the Mountain West and the rest. More importantly, the Big 4 would toss it a bone and give it a BCS slot. It's worth it in order to keep the Baylors of the world from launching a flurry of lawsuits and stalling the realignment in court for years. It's still going to open up additional BCS slots for Big 4 teams. The Big 12 and Big East typically would combine for three BCS bids a year. This Big 12/Big East mashup would get one, which gives two additional spots to the Big 4 conferences. It's simply in their best interests to grease the squeaky Baylor wheel and give that conference a bid so that they can grab the two extra bids for themselves.

I agree, also as long as the current BCS contract is under existance any conference that calls itself either the Big East or the Big 12 gets an automatic bid. I see the Big 12/East the same way you do, but with Houston and UCF added also.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by Danny Serafini

My guess is that it's not quite as hopeless for the leftovers as some may think. What I believe you'll have leftover (Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St., Baylor, TCU, Cincinnati, Louisville, S. Florida and whichever of Missouri/West Virginia doesn't get the SEC slot) is clearly the #5 conference, but still a step up from the Mountain West and the rest. More importantly, the Big 4 would toss it a bone and give it a BCS slot. It's worth it in order to keep the Baylors of the world from launching a flurry of lawsuits and stalling the realignment in court for years. It's still going to open up additional BCS slots for Big 4 teams. The Big 12 and Big East typically would combine for three BCS bids a year. This Big 12/Big East mashup would get one, which gives two additional spots to the Big 4 conferences. It's simply in their best interests to grease the squeaky Baylor wheel and give that conference a bid so that they can grab the two extra bids for themselves.

With the "Super 4" soaking up all the TV money and lucrative bowl tie-ins, I don't see how a coast-to-coast Franken-conference makes sense financially, especially for non-revenue sports.

[LoganBuck]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

With the "Super 4" soaking up all the TV money and lucrative bowl tie-ins, I don't see how a coast-to-coast Franken-conference makes sense financially, especially for non-revenue sports.

Gotta like the UC to Baylor road trip for women lacrosse.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by LoganBuck

Gotta like the UC to Baylor road trip for women lacrosse.

How about the USF / Boise State trip under some of these speculative fictions -- 5 hours on an airplane for the women's volleyball team for a Wednesday night match?

The far better move for UC and Louisville is to regionalize, minimize travel costs, and sue to break up access to the BCS.

[Captain13]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

With the "Super 4" soaking up all the TV money and lucrative bowl tie-ins, I don't see how a coast-to-coast Franken-conference makes sense financially, especially for non-revenue sports.

The trick is to stay in big cities...NOT BOISE. Once you are on a plane, it isn't that much different to go to Houston or Orlando than to Memphis. It is as easy for Louisville or UC to go to TCU (fly to DFW and bus to Ft. Worth) as it is to go to Morgantown (fly to Pittsburgh and bus through the mountains).

[WMR]

Rebirth of the Metro?

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by WMR

Rebirth of the Metro?

The sad thing about all this from UC's perspective is this: as long as the Big East conference is still breathing (even if it is dead-man-walking), UC would still owe $5 million as it's exit fee if it wanted to leave and form a new Metro Conference.

That's $5 million UC's athletic department doesn't have and isn't going to spend. Wherever the Big East goes, UC goes.

[wolfboy]

It's looking grim for UC and others.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

[Caveat Emperor]

Word swirling around twitterverse, apparently started by a source at BearcatLair, that WVU's inquiries have been rejected by the SEC.

[cincrazy]

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but I read on the ESPN bottom line that ND prefers to stay independent, but if it can't, it will reach out to the ACC before the Big 10. I find that absolutely mind numbing.

[Caveat Emperor]

Originally Posted by cincrazy

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but I read on the ESPN bottom line that ND prefers to stay independent, but if it can't, it will reach out to the ACC before the Big 10. I find that absolutely mind numbing.

The power-play move for Notre Dame right now would be to swoop in and "save" the Big East by agreeing to join the football side with concessions regarding it's TV deal w/ NBC (allowing all ND home games to be on NBC).

[Slyder]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Word swirling around twitterverse, apparently started by a source at BearcatLair, that WVU's inquiries have been rejected by the SEC.

Rumors I heard was "not now". SEC wants to wait for Texas A&M to get in before they name 14.

[KronoRed]

Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor

Word swirling around twitterverse, apparently started by a source at BearcatLair, that WVU's inquiries have been rejected by the SEC.

Considering the source, I don't buy it.

The SEC is moving glacially slow on this, I think it's more likely they got the same speech that A&M did at first, ask out of your conference first, blah blah.

[paintmered]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

Considering the source, I don't buy it.

The SEC is moving glacially slow on this, I think it's more likely they got the same speech that A&M did at first, ask out of your conference first, blah blah.

BearcatLair has a pretty good reputation (Mike Shanahan debacle aside) and they're not the only ones to come out with this. But I'm inclined to agree with you: less of a total rejection and more of a "try again in a few days".