Interested in UNT thoughts on this realignment

Coach Bill Lewis · March 23, 2018

What do you think of this concept as it appears to be gaining traction in C-USA and Sun Belt BBS. There would be 5 divisions separated by geography which is inline with what Arkansas State Fan has proposed.

Southeast FIU FAU Georgia State Georgia Southern Troy Coastal Charlotte USA

Texas UTEP NMSU UNT Rice UTSA Texas State Ark State ULM

Heartland ULaLa USM UAB WKU MTSU ODU LA Tech App State

Northeast JMU Liberty Marshall Buffalo UMass Ohio Akron Kent State

Midwest CMU WMU EMU NIU Ball State Toledo BGSU Miami (Ohio)

UNTLifer · March 23, 2018

Rather not.

DeepGreen · March 23, 2018

ULM? No thank you.

La Tech instead.

Mean Green 93-98 · March 23, 2018

While the geographic proximity would be an improvement, that would be a clearly worse hoops conference than what we presently have, and it would be a worse football conference. And if the whole "TV markets" thing still matters, this alignment would be a massive devaluation from what we presently have.

SAGreenFan · March 23, 2018

Gaining traction with who? The east division schools that constantly bitch and moan about being in a conference with Texas schools? There's a new post up every other day on the CUSAbbs board that's just page after page of fans of east schools coming up with their perfect conference scenarios. Mostly from ODU, Muts and, So. Miss.

meangreenJW · March 23, 2018

2 hours ago, Coach Bill Lewis said:

What do you think of this concept as it appears to be gaining traction in C-USA and Sun Belt BBS. There would be 5 divisions separated by geography which is inline with what Arkansas State Fan has proposed.

Southeast FIU FAU Georgia State Georgia Southern Troy Coastal Charlotte USA

Texas UTEP NMSU UNT Rice UTSA Texas State Ark State ULM

Heartland ULaLa USM UAB WKU MTSU ODU LA Tech App State

Northeast JMU Liberty Marshall Buffalo UMass Ohio Akron Kent State

Midwest CMU WMU EMU NIU Ball State Toledo BGSU Miami (Ohio)

I don't believe this is gaining traction at all.

That being said, logically it makes some sense. Logic has never applied to athletics. Ego drives the train. No way CUSA schools who were formerly Sunbelt will merge with the Sunbelt. Just won't happen IMO. I may have believed it more a possibility before I saw how mad many on this board were that we were playing an SBC school in the bowl game. That was eye opening to me.

forevereagle · March 23, 2018

The way I am reading this is that it is a single conference with these divisions. Not sure why we would merge three conferences and then subdivide. I think the MAC works fine as it is and doesn't need any adjustment. I think a merging/trading of the SBC and CUSA then splitting back into two conferences would make more sense.

Having a single mega conference could actually result in less money for all. The NCAA tournament would not have to invite more than one team as it is one conference. That alone would cost everyone money and there are significant other opportunities for lower revenues.

Leave the number of conferences the same, realign membership to be more regional to lower costs, and put agreements between them to play each other out of conference. That seems to be a more prudent action than to become something completely unwieldy.

Mean Green 93-98 · March 23, 2018

20 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

The way I am reading this is that it is a single conference with these divisions.

Whoops. I just skimmed the post and missed this obvious point.

20 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

The way I am reading this is that it is a single conference with these divisions. Not sure why we would merge three conferences and then subdivide. I think the MAC works fine as it is and doesn't need any adjustment. I think a merging/trading of the SBC and CUSA then splitting back into two conferences would make more sense.

Having a single mega conference could actually result in less money for all. The NCAA tournament would not have to invite more than one team as it is one conference. That alone would cost everyone money and there are significant other opportunities for lower revenues.

Leave the number of conferences the same, realign membership to be more regional to lower costs, and put agreements between them to play each other out of conference. That seems to be a more prudent action than to become something completely unwieldy.

Agreed, agreed, and agreed.

It seems like this arrangement only lets the "G5" teams all take the initiative to relegate themselves to a lower "new FCS / 1AA" division.

drex · March 23, 2018

Pitiful scenerio.

untjim1995 · March 23, 2018

4 hours ago, Coach Bill Lewis said:

What do you think of this concept as it appears to be gaining traction in C-USA and Sun Belt BBS. There would be 5 divisions separated by geography which is inline with what Arkansas State Fan has proposed.

Southeast FIU FAU Georgia State Georgia Southern Troy Coastal Charlotte USA

Texas UTEP NMSU UNT Rice UTSA Texas State Ark State ULM

Heartland ULaLa USM UAB WKU MTSU ODU LA Tech App State

Northeast JMU Liberty Marshall Buffalo UMass Ohio Akron Kent State

Midwest CMU WMU EMU NIU Ball State Toledo BGSU Miami (Ohio)

This is terrible. The MAC already has what the SBCUSA needs, which is a regional conference with easy travel between the divisions. The MAC's problem isn't geography, its MACtion--the stupidity of playing all of your conference games in the middle of the week, in front of hundreds of fans. They sold their real fans away for some TV games. Games are almost better not being on TV if about 500 people are watching it in person, even if you get money for it. With no butts in seats, you miss out on all of the ticket, parking, souvenir and concession revenues.

But they have the geography we need to have. UTEP, UNT, UTSA, Rice, Texas State, NMSU, La Tech, ULM, and ULL have no business being in a conference with Liberty, ODU, Marshall, Charlotte, Appy State, Coastal Carolina, FIU, FAU, Ga State, or Ga Southern. Arky State, MUTS, WKU, USM, UAB, Troy, and USA are the schools that are in the middle to decide what makes sense for them. But the sooner we all figure this out, the better off we will be. Cut down travel costs, increase regionalized opponents for more attendance, and build rivalries.

DeepGreen · March 23, 2018

Who was the "bonehead" that expanded CUSA into Florida(FAU, FIU), and then ODU and Charlotte. The "major markets" idea guru. Stupid.

Wag Tag · March 23, 2018

Jump to the MWC

MeanGreenTexan · March 23, 2018

29 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

Jump to the MWC

Can't +1 anymore today. Consider this one.

That would be the only logical conclusion as this would basically create a "G2" (AAC & MWC), and some kind of other classification for the above nonsense.

We cannot get mixed up in all of that... Not now that we're starting to get serious.

Edited March 23, 2018 by MeanGreenTexan

untjim1995 · March 24, 2018

7 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Can't +1 anymore today. Consider this one.

That would be the only logical conclusion as this would basically create a "G2" (AAC & MWC), and some kind of other classification for the above nonsense.

We cannot get mixed up in all of that... Not now that we're starting to get serious.

Totally agree, but you know as well as I do that the folks on gmg.com don’t want the MWC. They prefer closer travel. I don’t agree, as the MWC is a huge jump up, especially when the G2 does become a reality.

FAU Connoisseur · March 24, 2018

13 hours ago, Coach Bill Lewis said:

What do you think of this concept as it appears to be gaining traction in C-USA and Sun Belt BBS. There would be 5 divisions separated by geography which is inline with what Arkansas State Fan has proposed.

Southeast FIU FAU Georgia State Georgia Southern Troy Coastal Charlotte USA

Texas UTEP NMSU UNT Rice UTSA Texas State Ark State ULM

Heartland ULaLa USM UAB WKU MTSU ODU LA Tech App State

Northeast JMU Liberty Marshall Buffalo UMass Ohio Akron Kent State

Midwest CMU WMU EMU NIU Ball State Toledo BGSU Miami (Ohio)

The steam is someone's imagination. I believe, for any conference to be successful it can only afford to have one school with ZERO academic standards (you know who I am talking about), so Troy will always be a no vote for me in this fantasy endeavor!

GrayEagle · March 24, 2018

I'll admit that there needs to be some degree of overhaul but this is not the answer.

I don't like the one conference to begin with. I predict there were many different amounts paid to join a conference and dividing any revenue that many ways is unfeasible. TV contracts would have to be redone. What would happen to the basketball tournament conference slots?

There should be standards set and any teams that cannot meet those standards should drop to 1-AA/FCS.

Lastly, who flip-flopped ULM and La Tech geographically? No way, in my book.

Mean Green 93-98 · March 24, 2018

47 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

Lastly, who flip-flopped ULM and La Tech geographically? No way, in my book.

I assume that has to do with the fact that Southern Miss and LaTech have a longstanding rivalry--outside of the MAC, a rarity among the G5 teams--and whoever did this wanted to keep them together.

North Texas Shep · March 28, 2018

I hate alignment... The worst. Wish we never had to deal with it again. Of course... IF we move up in conference I am happy as can be. As long as we have regional (Texas) teams to play... I will also be happy.