shaft

I find it hard to believe LA Tech would join the SBC before they know the outcome of the CUSA/MWC merger. No school wants to pull a TCU and pay and admission and exit fee to a conference before they every play a game in it. I also find it hard to think TxSt would beat out UTSA. Neither is proven product, but UTSA has a huge market upside.

Sounds like people misinterpreting recent events. Boise State said it couldn't leave for the Big East early, which is one of the reasons the BE went and got Temple. The Big East payout is double the MWC payout.

LA Tech & UTSA would make good additions to the Sun Belt. SBC West: Ark St, UNT, ULM, ULL, LA Tech, UTSA SBC East: FAU, FIU, MTSU, WKY, Troy, USA Maybe even get rid of the non-football Belt members.

I say the go to 18. UTEP moves into the western division. Temple and either UNT or LA Tech added to the East. Conference to be known as Mega-Conference US of A.

"This partnership brings together like-minded institutions to improve the integrity and stability of intercollegiate athletics" sounds something you'd read on Craig's List Connections

UAB has has one winning season in the last decade. Their not really in a position to throw stones.

Is a 16-team merger really that bad for Tulsa? 8 Team Divisions: Play 7 division games + 2 conference games (1 home/1 away) against the other divion East Marshall ECU UAB S Miss Tulane Rice Tulsa UTEP West Hawaii Fresno UNLV Nevada Wyoming Co St Air Force New Mexico 4 Division Format Play 3 division games + 6 conference games (1 home, 1 away) against each of the other 3divisions West Hawaii Fresno UNLV Nevada Mtn Wyoming Co St Air Force New Mexico Central UTEP Tulsa Rice Tulane East Marshall ECU UAB S Miss

There is still four big moves left in realignment. Move 1: SEC is going to 16. Likely targets are Florida State, Virgina Tech, and/or Miami. Move 2: Big 12 is going to go back to 12. Likely targets Louisville and Pitt. Big 12 probably isn't in that big of a hurry and will wait to get who they want. Move 3: The CUSA/MWC Alliance will decide what it wants to be. Right now my money is on the 16 current teams. Move 4: The SBC will go to 12. Likely targets: any two of LA Tech, NMSU, UTSA, & TXST

No its not. The last meeting was the 90-day meeting from the merger announcement. This meeting is the direct response to the Memphis-Big East announcement. You know they agreed to these "emergency" meeting in the event that any members left. The scary news is no article has mention expansion since Memphis is out and the alliance is at 16.

This is bad new for UNT's shot at the MWC/CUSA merger. It's not that CUSA is "bled out". It's that the alliance is now at 16 and doesn't need another team. Time for the SBC to go after LA Tech and UTSA and get to 12.

Memphis to the Big East would likely mean no expansion candidates for the CUSA/MWC Alliance.

Yeah, that's cool and all. But a grown man creeping on a facebook page and then reposting photos is a big odd.

Show them pictures of 'funroe

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2011-12-15/news/college-football-s-fleecing-of-american-universities/ This article is a bit biased for my taste, it does explain how you can lose money on bowls. The big issue for most schools are the ticket minimums and travel costs. The other problem is 3rd party ticket brokers. Fans can by better seats for cheaper than the schools are selling them for and the school gets left holding a lot of empty seats.

http://wvgazette.com/Sports/Marshall/201201290166 The local Marshall paper talks merger and the 7 win rule. Nothing really new, but it does make fun of SMU basketball.

http://www.abqjournal.com/sports/2012/01/29/the-end-of-the-mtn.html Albuquerque Journal says MWC & CUSA are definitely looking a disolving both conferences and reforming as a new conference. No mention of expansion or number of teams.

22 could be two divisions of 10 full members + football only. The Big Ten (which had 11 teams) went years of having teams only play 8 conference games. So it easy to see how this could work. West 1.Hawaii* 2.Fresno State 3.Nevada 4.UNLV 5.Wyoming 6.Air Force 7.Colorado State 8.New Mexico 9.UTEP 10.Utah State 11.San Jose State East 1.Marshall 2.ECU 3.Memphis 4.UAB 5.Southern Miss 6.Tulane 7.Tulsa 8.Rice 9.UNT or LA Tech 10.FAU or FIU 11.Temple* * = football only

The advantage of playing in a upgraded conference are obvious; bigger annual payouts, more bowl opportunities, proximity, and more recognized competition. But banking on an attendance bump from the other teams fans is a mistake. More recognizable competition helps you turn out YOUR fan base. How well the other team travels is simply a bonus. With that said 30k is an unrealistic standard. What mid-majors pulls those kinds of numbers on year-after-year? The more interesting question is who be in a 22-team conference? West 1.Hawaii 2.Fresno State 3.Nevada 4.UNLV 5.Wyoming 6.Air Force 7.Colorado State 8.New Mexico 9.UTEP 10.Utah State 11.San Jose State East 1.Marshall 2.ECU 3.Memphis 4.UAB 5.Southern Miss 6.Tulane 7.Tulsa 8.Rice 9.UNT 10.LA Tech 11.FAU

A two tiered post season would kill the lower tier bowls. 16 teams means 4 weeks of play offs. The TV pecking order would go NFL, NCAA Playoffs,then the bowls. This would shove the bowls to the middle of the week throughout the month of December. Are sponsors still going to get behind the smaller bowls if their played when no one will watch them?

The 22 number is interesting. This the second mention of that number. UNLV's AD has previously said they were looking at 18, 22, o4 24. 22 is also CUSA (9) + MWC (8) + WAC (5-less the expandess UTSA & TXST). But there's been no talk about completely disolving the WAC and I really don't think the original MWC members want to be back in bead with those schools. Of course there is also a contradicting report out there about number being 18. Fresno State's AD said in a radio interview that they are looking at forming one conference, with Hawaii staying football only, implying UTEP would move over, the need to add on team in East and future expansion would be address in a few years. But to make that scenario work it would mean adding a football only team.

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/mwc-cusa-all-sport-merger-in-hands-of-lawyers-29963 "While Conference USA and the Mountain West already have TV broadcast deals in place with Fox Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports and Comcast/NBC Universal, a broadcast contract for a newly-branded, 22-team league might provide a more significant windfall for the schools involved - if TV networks agree to tear up existing deals. A source also indicated to SbB this week that Mountain West conference television outlet The Mtn., has recently informed some of its employees that the network may cease operation - at least as an exclusive Mountain West outlet - after the MWC baseball tournament in late May." This post has been promoted to an article

You left out UMass. And there is no such things as too many bowls. If you don't like a bowl don't watch it. The existence of "bad" bowls doesn't take away from "good" bowls. Someone else's game as no effect on your game. Obviously a reasonable standard is for school to have a winning records to play in the post-season. Instead of boasting bowl eligibility to 7 wins and more reasonable course of action would be to eliminate FBS vs fcs games.

After the big Dallas meeting UNLV's AD went on Las Vegas radio and said they were looking at an all sports league with 18, 22, or 24 teams. The Big East is going to add one more. Army, and Temple are the top prospects in the East. Air Force and BYU have to be the top prospects in West. If the alliance loses a MWC/West division team, they will have to move UTEP to the West. But there is a good chance UTEP may already move to the Western division. UTEP AD's has said they are seriously looking at the move.

Anybody have a link for this? Haven't seen this on any major sports outlets or NCAA reports. Can't imagine the school presidents would agree to less bowl opportunities for their schools.