conference realignment G5 Conference Realignment

Mike Jackson · October 17, 2016

With addition of UAB and Coastal Carolina to FBS level football I think realignment between the Sun Belt and Conference USA is in order. I have constructed my ideal version of these conferences with team that will be in them in the 2017 season. I prefer a 12 conference or less whenever possible. However geographically in made more sense to make the border between the conferences the Alabama-Mississippi state line. So my version of the Sun Belt has 14 teams. I did not divide the Sun Belt into divisions cause I don't know much about these eastern programs. I am assuming that my lack of knowledge about these programs isn't unique for your average UNT fan/student. And that is a big part of the reason I think UNT would be better off in a conference without them. None except the marquee programs like Marshall and UAB have any name recognition around here. And if the attendance for the Marshall game isn't an eye opener I don't know what else would make you consider my point.

The New Conference USA

ULM	EAST
ULL	EAST
La Tech	EAST
RICE	EAST
ARK STATE	EAST
Southern Miss	EAST
UNT	WEST
TEXAS STATE	WEST
UTSA	WEST
NEW MEXICO STATE	WEST
UTEP	WEST
IDAHO	WEST

The New Sun Belt

UAB

MTSU

TROY

FIU

FAU

OLD DOMINION

WKU

MARSHALL

SOUTH ALABAMA

CHAROLETTE

GEORGIA STATE

GEORIA SOUTHERN

APP STATE

COASTAL CAROLINA

GreenTexan13 · October 17, 2016

You have some good thought into this. IMO, I dont like getting tangled up into sunbelt stuff. Half of CUSA is the old sunbelt already... yes.. that includes UNT.

If it were up to me (and I don't even know if this is remotely possible) I would like to join a heavier Texas grouped conference. Give me TX State, Rice, UTEP, UTSA. I don't think Idaho or ULM does the conference any good.

Model our conference more like the big 12's structure (West Virginia is the exception) . Keep the schools within a group of touching states or more schools sharing the same state.

Side Show Joe · October 17, 2016

No.

I'd rather we just focus on building our program and building our rivalries with the other C-USA West members. Even though many of them are down right now, I still like the line up of C-USA West.

TheReal_jayD · October 17, 2016

ULM	EAST
ULL	EAST
La Tech	EAST
RICE	EAST
ARK STATE	EAST
Southern Miss	EAST
UNT	WEST
TEXAS STATE	WEST
UTSA	WEST

UTEP	WEST

MTSU

WKU

MARSHALL

drycreek · October 17, 2016

YOUR PLAN STINKS---WHAT DOES UNT GAIN OUT OF NEW GROUPING?

Aquila_Viridis · October 17, 2016

Our current arrangement is about the best it can be unless we can join MW or AAC. It might be good to jettison WK, FA and UTEP. Might take GState just for location. Need to keep TX State down.

outoftown · October 17, 2016

I guess I agree with the general thought: realign the teams on a more geographic base. But this particular grouping will do little for anyone in the west.

Idaho is reclassifying to FCS anyway. NMSU is going to be involuntary independent starting next year Other than UTEP I don't see anyone wanting them (and not sure about UTEP wanting them either). So lost those 2 teams from the start.

I guess you'd either have to move 2 Alabama schools to that southwestern conference or WKU/MTSU.

But no matter how you slice it, it all leaves the fact UNT 'd be rejoined by ULM. And other than Rice, most of these schools would be even less top tier research like UNT is now.

And I see plenty of schools thinking this should be just a bit different for a reason or another very important to them specifically.

Edited October 17, 2016 by outoftown

BTG_Fan1 · October 17, 2016

To inject another idea.. what if C-USA and the Sunbelt made it so that their conference champs played head to head in head to head game?

C-USA and Sunbelt would have their own conference playoffs for their champ, then once that was played out we played the 2 conference champs head to head? could be an interesting idea...

Rudy · October 17, 2016

We need to distance ourselves from the SBC as much as possible.

PlummMeanGreen · October 17, 2016

If UNT wants to upgrade to another conference we'd make a ?-line to the MWC since we know the AAC is not a choice due to politics. If we don't others may & we will wonder once again: "Why weren't we more pro-active & let "THAT" school(?) one up us?"

A MWC West Division consisting of a coalition of Texas schools now in CUSA would be the real deal. Then we'd all but be on a par in football with the AAC most years. Right now we are in Sun Belt 2.0 except for Rice & UTEP.

The Wren & our DFW location with a school that is projected to hit 45,000 enrollment may be our aces in the hole; that is, to insure that we won't lock-step ourselves into going backwards with the next round of conference re-alignment & come up a day late/dollar short.

GMG!

Edited October 17, 2016 by PlummMeanGreen

Wag Tag · October 17, 2016

6 hours ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

To inject another idea.. what if C-USA and the Sunbelt made it so that their conference champs played head to head in head to head game?

C-USA and Sunbelt would have their own conference playoffs for their champ, then once that was played out we played the 2 conference champs head to head? could be an interesting idea...

Mac Cusa Mountain west align for a championship game...

MeanGreenTexan · October 17, 2016

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

Mac Cusa Mountain west align for a championship game...

How do 3 leagues send a champ to a championship game?
Drop MAC from that scenario. Seems like C-USA & MWC were working on something like this a few years ago anyhow.

Wag Tag · October 17, 2016

49 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

How do 3 leagues send a champ to a championship game?
Drop MAC from that scenario. Seems like C-USA & MWC were working on something like this a few years ago anyhow.

Take the top 2 highest rated or you could loop in SB! There is a lot of money in playoffs!

Green Mean · October 17, 2016

North Texas to the Mountain West Conference FTW.

Hunter Green · October 17, 2016

It's a lateral move at best. No.

golfingomez · October 17, 2016

6 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

How do 3 leagues send a champ to a championship game?
Drop MAC from that scenario. Seems like C-USA & MWC were working on something like this a few years ago anyhow.

triangular field...

the game would get so much pub, everyone would tune in

UTSA Fan · October 17, 2016

13 hours ago, PlummMeanGreen said:

If UNT wants to upgrade to another conference we'd make a ?-line to the MWC since we know the AAC is not a choice due to politics. If we don't others may & we will wonder once again: "Why weren't we more pro-active & let "THAT" school(?) one up us?"

A MWC West Division consisting of a coalition of Texas schools now in CUSA would be the real deal. Then we'd all but be on a par in football with the AAC most years. Right now we are in Sun Belt 2.0 except for Rice & UTEP.

The Wren & our DFW location with a school that is projected to hit 45,000 enrollment may be our aces in the hole; that is, to insure that we won't lock-step ourselves into going backwards with the next round of conference re-alignment & come up a day late/dollar short.

GMG!

I was hoping for UNT and UTSA to move to AAC. What does it mean UNT can't move "politically"?

Travis · October 17, 2016

IT ISN'T EVEN THE OFF SEASON!?!?!?!!?!?!?!??!!??!?!?!?!??!?!

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · October 17, 2016

23 minutes ago, Travis said:

IT ISN'T EVEN THE OFF SEASON!?!?!?!!?!?!?!??!!??!?!?!?!??!?!

Big 12 made their non-move, so...it's legitimate. The ripple would have affected the C-USA.

I voted yes, with tweaks.

The thing is, we've already combined part of the Sun Belt with the C-USA. The whole thing, in both conferences, simply make little sense geographically.

Everyone at this level has to admit that they didn't spend the money - or, get the result on the field - that would make the P5s even sniff them.

The few who did invest money and won (some for a while) - mainly, Boise State and Fresno State - ...what did it really do for them in the end? They are still G5 and no one is clamoring for them, no matter how competitive they were (Fresno State in the early to mid 00s) or are (Boise from the mid-00s to now).

TCU is the outlier, just getting extremely lucky. Extremely. They put a shit ton of cash down and won through two coaches. And, the Patterson thing...that just fell in their lap. TCU is the one in a lifetime story...that still may end in a nightmare for them if OU and Texas leave the Big 12 and the P5 shrinks out the Big 12 the way Big East football was once shrunk out.

As stated before, this began decades ago, and there is no fix to it. There's nothing to fix anyway. The ship sailed in the mid-80s and early-90s when we were I-AA. We never even had an oar in the water...whether everyone here chooses to admit it or not. There is no T. Boone Pickens to cover the multi-decade sin of apathy committed by both the administration and alumni.

To me, you admit where you are, break the C-USA and Sun Belt into conferences that take geography into account, and be done with it.

Easy.

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · October 17, 2016

Two Conferences

The Ship Sailed I
Arkansas State
Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Middle Tennessee
New Mexico State
North Texas
Rice
Texas State
ULM
UTEP
UTSA

The Ship Sailed II
Division I
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
South Alabama
Troy
UAB

Division II
Appalachian State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Marshall
Old Dominion
Southern Miss
Western Kentucky

If it were still kosher to have eight team conferences, you could neatly make three conferences. Just put Middle Tennessee in with TSS II Division I, and Arkansas State with TSS II DIvision II and make them wholly separate, eight-team conferences.

Honestly, the 24 schools we are talking about generate so little national interest - and, most don't even pull much regional interest - I'm not sure why anyone would oppose them breaking in the common sense geographic eight team conferences. None of the 24 - none - are ever going to be invited to be a Big Boy, so why would the Big Boys even care.

They shouldn't. In fact, it would give each school 5 out of conference games the Big Boys could use to help fill their out of conference schedules, since they won't play each other very often.

Edited October 17, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

Rudy · October 18, 2016

No way in hell would Marshall go to a lesser division

PlummMeanGreen · October 18, 2016

North Texas "only" move up is the MWC. We would get the same treatment from UH (and SMU) has from the Big 12 if we were to apply for the AAC. They'd say North "WHO?"

Some things are just written in concrete in our glorious Lone Star State & pecking order as it began with the old Southwest Conference seems to be one of those things written in concrete. It's a vicious cycle that is so hard to break. If we'd had about a 20 season in a row winning streak and sold out each game it would still be difficult IMHO.

Again: The Mountain West Conference is our best move up; otherwise, all these other G-5 conference scenarios are lateral moves or in some cases maybe even a drop down.

Only way the MWC would make sense (and cents) is if we had almost all the CUSA West move into that league. If they want a Texas presence in the MWC that would sure give it to them.

GMG!

Edited October 18, 2016 by PlummMeanGreen

tmjerm · October 19, 2016

While regional rivalries are important, nothing means more than playing better competition regularly...we need to continue to improve our strength of schedule and we will be in good position when things shake out again as long as we are winning. Don't get me wrong I'd love nothing more than to see the SWC+UNT but I think realistically we need to shoot for national branding if we want to keep this FBS thing up.

UNT 90 Grad · October 19, 2016

14 hours ago, Rudy said:

No way in hell would Marshall go to a lesser division

Not sure if this is shtick, but I think @MeanGreenMailbox should have called them Northeast Division and Southeast Division (or something like that). Division II definitely has a different meaning.

Edited October 19, 2016 by UNT 90 Grad

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · October 19, 2016

56 minutes ago, UNT 90 Grad said:

Not sure if this is shtick, but I think @MeanGreenMailbox should have called them Northeast Division and Southeast Division (or something like that). Division II definitely has a different meaning.

It's just a placeholder for a division within whatever they would call the new conference.

For a couple of seasons, the Big Ten used Legends and Leaders as their tow divisions. The new conference full of Sun Belt and C-USA schools could call their divisions Vagabonds and Hobos.