Mizzou To Big 10 Big 12 To Big 14?

[Got5onIt]

Yesterday, GAC stated the Big 10 was looking to add Mizzou as a 12th team. The Big 12 would then move to 14 teams since it would be tough to find a good fit for the North, adding BYU & Utah. TCU would be added to the South.

Sounds like the usual offseason B.S., but it is fun to speculate how NT and the Belt would be effected.

[UNTflyer]

I just gotta think the Big 10 is begging Notre Dame to join up. It's a natural fit, given the rivalries with Michigan, Purdue, and Michigan State.

I know, I know... Notre Dame already has the big money TV contracts and the special status bestowed by the BCS and the biggest booster club in Div-I (the Catholic Church) and joining a conference benefits them in no way whatsoever.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Yesterday, GAC stated the Big 10 was looking to add Mizzou as a 12th team. The Big 12 would then move to 14 teams since it would be tough to find a good fit for the North, adding BYU & Utah. TCU would be added to the South.

Sounds like the usual offseason B.S., but it is fun to speculate how NT and the Belt would be effected.

What gets interesting is the domino effect that such moves would create. Let's assume that your scenario is correct.

Even with the core of their leadership gone, the Mountain West might still be the surviving conference. They would likely take Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada to keep a nine team league. That would destroy the WAC because their only alternative would be to take Portland State, Sacramento State and California-Davis, or at the very least two of those three. If that happened then scratch Louisiana Tech, who would have no choice but to seek admission to the Sun Belt. If that were the case (or maybe regardless of what La Tech does), Hawaii and New Mexico State would likely bolt. New Mexico State would then prefer being in the Sun Belt again, except that the SBC would then be an awkward 11-team conference. Would they take Utah State again as a 12th member? Doubtful, but maybe. It would at least give them better basketball.

Hawaii would have to try talk their way into the MWC or give up sports because I don't think that they could make enough as an independent to support 13 other sports. San Jose State and Idaho couldn't make it as independents either which means SJSU gives up football and joins the Big West for their other sports and Idaho goes back to the Big Sky.

There could be so many twists and turns if otherwise. If the Big 12 wants to remain at twelve then who do thay take? Not TCU because that would throw Oklahoma State in the north while leaving OU in the south. Not likely. What if they went to a Big 16? There's no way of telling what five teams they might take. And on and on with the speculation.

Since we don't even know who the next Big 12 Commisioner will be, nor his inclinations, how can we say who might be in that conference? You're right though, it is fun to speculate.

[NT80]

Yesterday, GAC stated the Big 10 was looking to add Mizzou as a 12th team. The Big 12 would then move to 14 teams since it would be tough to find a good fit for the North, adding BYU & Utah. TCU would be added to the South.

Sounds like the usual offseason B.S., but it is fun to speculate how NT and the Belt would be effected.

I think if the Big10 expands it will go East. They want media and Mizzou would not provide enough, but a Syracuse or Rutgers would bring the NY market, plus be a travel partner to Penn St. A loss of a Big East team would probably cause a replacement from CUSA, then perhaps an opening for UNT in CUSA.

[pollock]

Yesterday, GAC stated the Big 10 was looking to add Mizzou as a 12th team. The Big 12 would then move to 14 teams since it would be tough to find a good fit for the North, adding BYU & Utah. TCU would be added to the South.

Sounds like the usual offseason B.S., but it is fun to speculate how NT and the Belt would be effected.

What is GAC?

[DallasGreen]

What is GAC?

Galloway and Cooperstein on ESPN sports radio 103.3 FM weekday afternoons 3 to 6. If these guys say there's smoke, there is fire to this rumor.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Yesterday, GAC stated the Big 10 was looking to add Mizzou as a 12th team. The Big 12 would then move to 14 teams since it would be tough to find a good fit for the North, adding BYU & Utah. TCU would be added to the South.

Sounds like the usual offseason B.S., but it is fun to speculate how NT and the Belt would be effected.

REVISED, EDITED AND (most) MISSPELLED WORDS CORRECTED ON THIS EARLY SUNDAY MORNING...

If anyone would have told many of us back in the day, ie, specifically post-mid 1970's in an another era, that is, one who could look ahead to the future about such things as this current conference re-alignment speculation that UNT would not be part of these discussions in some way or another, I (and many who post on this forum) would have said they were smoking some wacky tobacky.

If anyone had told many of us post-mid 1970's era of area college football that TCU would be part of this kind of high profile conference re-alignment discussions, circa 2007, many of us who read the Metroplex sports pages of the mid-1970's would have said they were on far worse stuff than wacky tobacky.

Conference re-alignment speculation such as this latest would be more fun if UNT were actually part of it, but we are not.

Will a new small seat capacity stadium built in this millenium help UNT be part of any such conference re-alignment speculation in the future? We know what our track record has been thus far on that subject. Yet the 1'st question in this paragraph might be a question a few our upper echelon UNT leaders may want to ask themselves in the next few months as plans unfurl for a new stadium at the Mean Green Village. You see, one problem we've had at North Texas that most NT Exes have no control (whatsoever) is we've had some of our leaders from the past who with their decisions set the direction of UNT athletics for years (sometimes decades) to come who may not have given one flippin' iota about our alma mater or its future the first 5 minutes they were off the UNT payroll & onto their next challenge. We all have hope that from top to bottom of our present UNT leadership that that would not be case.

There are reasons we have all cussed & discussed as to why UNT has hovered in and around 15K per home games thru most of this decade and even the ones prior it and many of our past UNT's leader's decisions concerning our alma mater's athletic direction have played a major part in this. Poor hirings, those who didn't have to do much at UNT to stay on payroll and total misfits for our unique situation in Denton have played large parts to all this as well. We all have hope above all hopes that our UNT leaders today will not just build us anything that affects whether or not we'll truly be a player in NCAA D1-A, but rather that our present leaders go outside the box that most all their predeccessor at UNT avoided or chose not to do and build us something that gives us a future above the rest of the non-BCS pack and build such a shining buckle of a stadium on that rolling Texas prairie at our Eagle Point Campus aka the Mean Green Village that will open up wide all the eyes of Texas.

A not so subtle hint to present UNT leadership might be sized up with yet another theory (and we know they've heard many of those from GoMeanGreen.com which could really be called a pretty fair microcosm among the UNT community as to how NT Exes feel about their school & that would be): No one who lives in a major league sports market such as the North Texas Metroplex wants to be associated with anything of which the perception is small time, ie, minor league; and concerning perception, how many times have we all been made aware that how in many areas of life that perception is reality?

Edited August 5, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

[Got5onIt]

What is GAC?

Galloway & Company on ESPN radio.

[gksmith]

The rumor mill grinds on.

Big 10 REALLY WANT Notre Dame. Never happen. "Why should be share our success with other schools?"

Big 10 courted Iowa State, and now Missouri. See if it happens.

Maybe the Big 10 should scavenge from another conference. A lot of C-USA teams want in a BCS conference. There are some MAC teams that would like to be in the B10. Both of those conferences have geographically compatible teams.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Notre Dame is still the one that should be in the Big 10.

The NCAA is an association of universities; it's not about individual schools. IMO EVERY college in the association should be in a conference. Conferences are the life-blood of the NCAA, not individual universities. If Notre Dame is above the rest, then why doesn't Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Texas, Southern Cal, Alabama, etc. bolt and make their own TV deal and keep the money for themselves? That would destroy the NCAA, or at least reduce its worth. NO university should be above what's best for college sports. The more visible schools should have the stronger say but should still adhere to the wishes of the majority.

Edited August 6, 2007 by GrayEagleOne

[Dodge2007]

Their Notre Dame.......Anyone who plays that kind of schedule, year after year, should do whatever the hell they want. Love'em or hate'm, ND has some big catholic balls to play that schedule.

[MCMLXXX]

More on possible Big 10 plans.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dw...wn.37768ff.html

[Arkstfan]

I thought there was a Federal moratorium on realignment talk during the period between football players reporting and the horn sounding at the end of the Final Four.

[NT80]

I thought there was a Federal moratorium on realignment talk during the period between football players reporting and the horn sounding at the end of the Final Four.

I love conference shakeup talk!

OK, like the article says, let's pretend the Big10 takes Mizzou, then the Big 12 nabs Arkansas. Now the SEC's turn: Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Louisville? Does this also give the Pac10 and MWC expansion envy? Let's shake it up!!

Edited August 6, 2007 by NT80

[foutsrouts]

I love conference shakeup talk!

OK, like the article says, let's pretend the Big10 takes Mizzou, then the Big 12 nabs Arkansas. Now the SEC's turn: Florida State, Miami, North Carolina, Louisville? Does this also give the Pac10 and MWC expansion envy? Let's shake it up!!

I wanna see some shakin, but I don't want it to start until we're a more attractive alternative. Hopefully in a couple of short years.

[UNTflyer]

Scenarios were pulled together in print across the country. Texas, Florida, Rutgers, Notre Dame. If a school had a significant TV market, it was thrown into the list of possible defectors.

Yeah, keep dreaming. Florida will never leave the SEC even though it is the toughest conference in Div-I. And if by some weird fate in the alignment of the planets they did move, Big 10 players would be shaking in their cleats.

[Censored by Laurie]

I still have the hardest time that the if the Big 10 expands that it goes anywhere but to South Bend. However...I'll indulge...the Big 10 takes Mizzou, what motivation would there be for the Big 12 to expand to 14 as was suggested? The MAC is the largest conference in college football with 13 schools...essentially 12 with Temple sort of oddly thrown in that bunch...and we've seen the instability of an oversized conference with the 16 team WAC. The Big 12 would seek just one school to replace Mizzou...BYU, Utah, Colorado St. or TCU seem to be the most likely...leaving the MWC with 8. Who does the MWC go after...and how big do they choose to go? Boise St. seems likely if they try to go back to 9, add Nevada if they want to go to 10...12 is unlikely as for respectibility purposes Hawaii would probably be added...but financially that move makes little sense...so lets say the stay at 10. WAC is down to 7 and UNT seems a likely candidate, but we've balked on that before, and I would prefer we did again. La Tech would be itching to leave now...travel costs still prohibitive, but it was worth it when you were playing Nevada and Boise...SJSU and Utah St. aren't much better than the UL schools that are a 2 hour drive rather than a four hour flight.

Arkansas isn't going anywhere.

The x-factor that nobody seems to be figuring into conference expansion is D-1 expansion: Texas State, Georgia Southern, Portland State, and Delaware are all likely candidates to start making a push for D-1 status in the next few years.

[Arkstfan]

OK I'll play.

Mizzou goes to the Big 12.

First call is to Arkansas, I think they say no even though it makes better geographic sense because the difference in revenue more than covers it. Big 12 comes out ahead most likely.

Second call is to BYU to see how firm they are on "never on Sunday". If the church suddenly makes the decision that Sunday play is OK, BYU goes to the Big 12 (look at the numbers no one not in a BCS league has better attendance or a better television following). Big 12 again comes out no worse than they are, maybe better.

If BYU is firm on never on Sunday choices get pretty bad. TCU, Houston, UTEP, Colorado State, Utah, Memphis. Not a choice there that puts the Big 12 back in as good of position as they are currently in. Going to 14 makes the situation worse because they aren't in a financial position to raid the Big 10, SEC or Pac-10. You have to stretch all the way out Louisville or Cincinnati to get a really good choice that doesn't hurt the Big 12.

Let's say BYU and the LDS repeal never on Sunday.

MWC doesn't HAVE to expand but really needs to. Pool is pretty small. Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, and UTEP. My guess is Boise State either alone or with one of the others, with Hawaii possibly in the worst position because BYU was rumored to be their strongest support in the MWC.

Let's say its Boise and another WAC team. The WAC is now short one team from being a I-A league. Options? Not many. Some talk that the WAC has long-term interest in UC Davis. Portland State is the eternal fart in a skillet about moving I-A putting Texas State's on/off history to shame. No reason to think Montana is suddenly interested in FBS football. Could approach the Sun Belt about merging into a 16 team football alliance question would be how do you make it work because divisions of 8 requires either UNT or ULL to align west with La.Tech or create a bizzaro unbalanced divisional alignment. All-in-all few decent options.

So what if it is Boise State alone? WAC maybe does nothing and waits out to see if one of the western I-AA's is serious about moving up.

If it is Boise and UTEP? Could be very interesting. Memphis and UAB opposed going to 12 last time around. It seems apparent that East Carolina isn't wildly interested in playing western schools and has advocated a big expansion.

The math in this situation gets quite interesting. CUSA is at 11 with a UTEP departure and some interest in 16 so that there is little to no east/west crossover. The WAC would be at 8. Five Sun Belt teams takes CUSA to 16. Four Sun Belt teams takes the WAC to 12. 5+4=9 which just happens to be the total number of Sun Belt football schools.

[Eagle1855]

why would any conference want to have 14 football-playing members? Seems to me that would just mean smaller slices of the BCS pie, without any real improvement in the overall quality of the conference.