UNTflyer

New Orleans, Dallas, or San Antonio. Looking at the new map, any of those cities would work as a neutral site.

And there are still a number of different options on the table: 1) A simple 16 team football alliance, where CUSA remains at 8, while MWC adds an 8th member for all non-football sports to offset Hawaii as a football-only. 2) An 18-20 school alliance, where CUSA adds new members such as FIU and North Texas while the MWC adds Utah St. and San Jose St. #2 is the most likely scenario 3) There are other options where CUSA could add FIU, North Texas and UTSA, where UTEP leaves for the MWC to be joined with Utah St. In any of the 3 scenarios, the key is still for the NCAA to permit the 8-10 school conference winners to compete in a game similar to the traditional conference championship games. 4) CUSA could expand to 12, with two (6) school divisions (candidates for the 4 spots would include FIU, FAU, Charlotte, Appalachian St., MTSU, LA Tech, UTSA and North Texas), while the MWC expands to 12 with the additions of schools such as Utah St., San Jose St., UTEP, North Texas, UTSA, New Mexico St., and perhaps even Idaho. For #4, CUSA and MWC would establish a joint television deal for all 24 members as a single business entity, while operating as 2 separate conferences by NCAA statues. http://collegesportsinfo.com/2012/04/18/breaking-down-the-cusa-mwc-discussions/

A trophy like this is about $1600, before customization. http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-62535358472046_2207_15497711 http://www.bennettawards.net/winnerscuptower.html

They're not going to merge. The Alliance is dead.

This is just... SO. BAD. Seriously, I am stunned by how bad this is. Who the hell ran this rebranding effort? Between this, the logo, the color scheme, and that God-awful home run feature in center field that looks like a pinball machine on acid, someone should be run out of town on a rail.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- While the conference commissioners continue to determine what college football's playoff will be in 2014, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has proposed a new -- and radical way -- of distributing the hundreds of million dollars in new BCS media rights revenue. The Knight Commission's report, obtained by CBSSports.com, recommends rewarding the individual schools and not the conferences based on academic standards and not on-the-field performance or market value. Instead of dividing up the media rights revenues among the conferences, as it's currently done, the Knight Commission recommends the revenue is allocated to the individual schools. “The Knight Commission wants to ensure that the projected ‘new' media revenues from the FBS football postseason will be used to further strengthen the educational missions of our universities,” the Knight Commission said. The proposal was sent to the 11 Football Bowl Subdivision commissioners, BCS executive director Bill Hancock and the FBS presidents. “It's noble to keep reinforcing the importance of academic success,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said. The Knight Commission proposed three payout models -– a proposed graduation success incentive fund sorted by NCAA football graduation rate. The Commission's preferred model divides the football programs into three categories: Tier I (graduation rates of at least 70 percent), Tier II (graduation rates between 60 and 69.9 percent) and Tier III (graduation rates below 60 percent). In the commission's preferred model, Tier I and Tier II schools would evenly split 50 percent of the new media rights revenue with the remaining revenue split among the Tier I schools. The Tier III schools would not receive any revenue. See the breakdown here Based on the projected amount of the new media rights deal ($360 million), under the Commission's model Tier I schools would each receive $6.34 million, Tier II schools would each receive $2.1 million and Tier III schools would receive nothing – but embarrassment for their sub-par graduation rates. http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18842221/knight-commission-wants-bcs-revenue-distributed-based-on-grad-rates

Man, it was one of the 500 hundreds articles/blogs/message board I read yesterday. Basically, the rumor/speculation is that UTEP was going to leave for MWC but a deal was cut that if CUSA invited two Texas teams then UTEP would agree to stay.

Rumor has it that inviting UTSA is going to keep UTEP in CUSA

"One has to wonder if schools like Houston, SMU, Memphis and UCF might reconsider their decision to leave C-USA for the Big East. "

Driving distance from Denton to: Univ of Tulsa: 274 miles Rice University: 283 miles Louisiana Tech: 290 miles Alamo Dome: 303 miles Southern Miss: 526 miles Super Dome, New Orleans: 546 miles Sun Bowl, El Paso: 642 miles UAB: 672 miles Marshall Univ.: 1,019 miles ECU: 1,297 miles FIU: 1,358 miles

Well, how about that? For years we've asked the question, "Who is our rival?" Now we know... it's UT-San Antonio!

Precisely my point. Without an AQ at stake, is there really a big benefit in forming the Alliance? TV contracts may make a bigger pie, but that doesn't necessarily mean we all get more pie.

It's getting more and more difficult to stick with the Phish.

I don't know. A major selling point of the Alliance was that they were going to lobby to become an AQ conference.

He was signed as an undrafted free agent. https://twitter.com/#!/espn_macmahon

It's like busting your ass for years to get that big executive promotion. The day finally comes, only you find out some 19-year-old intern was just named VP as well.

Barry Coker blog seems to think they'll be in the Big 12 in 10 years. http://www.cokerchronicles.com/2012/04/utsa-to-cusa.html

http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=567409 Does ANYBODY buy this???

I think if this story about C-USA expanding to 12 is true, then the Alliance has been crushed and Young Skywalker is ours.

Not to mention that C-USA going to 12 teams likely kills the proposed Alliance. My guess is that the proposed BCS playoff, the elimination of the BCS "AQ" designation, and the NCAA politics of a 20-team conference just couldn't be worked out.

Playing Las Vegas Community College would be a fun road trip, too. But it would do nothing to enhance the perception of the conference. Sorry guys, I don't mean to poo-poo on this but I think this is a BAD strategic decision on the part of CUSA.

Sun Belt 2.0. Let's face it, this will really do nothing to improve our position. I am mobile.

No, because losing those teams would mean we are just basically in Sun Belt 2.0, and sometimes a new version is just as bad (or worse) as the old version. Would a CUSA roster of Sun Belt teams plus UTSA and Texas State be desirable? Hell no.

I oppose any proposal that includes an FCS school.

From another article: The BCS also announced there will no longer be automatic qualifier and non-AQ conferences, but the power leagues (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC) likely will still earn more revenue than other leagues. A big unknown is whether the Big East will still be compensated as an AQ conference.