Conference Realignment Grid

[UNTflyer]

An interesting website listing all Div-I and Div-IAA teams, and the possibility of their moving.

http://collegesportsinfo.com/conference-realignment-grid/

Here are a few highlights:

North Texas

Sunbelt

Comfortable in the Sunbelt, but could be targeted by CUSA if there were a Southwest conference split their.

On the list of candidates to join the WAC as replacements for Rice, Tulsa, SMU, and UTEP. Considered highly by CUSA before they eventually chose UTEP.

Probable: Remains in Sunbelt

Texas State

Southland

News: 11/1/07:

Internal committee has voted in favor of a FBS (formerly I-A) upgrade. Changed school name from Southwest Texas St. in recent years in preperation of a potential upgrade.

Possible: Joins the Sunbelt

Lamar

Southland

With Billy Tubbs as AD, the school could bring back football and join the Southland for that sport as well. Has aspirations to add football and participate on the FBS level in 2012.

Possible: Joins Sunbelt

Sam Houston St.

Southland

News: 11/27/07:

Internal committee is in favor of a FBS (formerly I-A) upgrade.

Possible: Joins the Sunbelt

Texas-San Antonio

Southland

Has aspirations to add football and participate on the FBS level in 2012.

Possible: Joins Sunbelt

============================

Personally, I think 4 more teams joining the Sun Belt could be a real upgrade. We'd be able to have a Conference Championship game and gain TV exposure. Plus, I like the idea of a road trip to San Antonio

Edited March 1, 2008 by UNTflyer

[El Paso Eagle]

Great..... others move up/in and we stay in the Belt.

[risinggreen]

Great..... others move up/in and we stay in the Belt.

Yeah, we still seem to be most comforable in an entry level position. Wouldn't mind a promotion myself.

[filmerj]

Yeah, we still seem to be most comforable in an entry level position. Wouldn't mind a promotion myself.

Ditto. I think Better conference attracts better athletes. therefore we compete against the big boys.

Edited March 1, 2008 by filmerj

[greenjoe]

I too would like to play SMU, RICE, Houston, Tulsa, etc. each year be it in the Sun Belt, CUSA, or a new conference. As far as a better conference, I'm not sure that CUSA is really a better conference from top to bottom than the Sun Belt (see win-loss records). However, we keep telling each other that we are not in a good conference.

And by the way, as far as drawing better athletes, we, the 'Belt went 4-4 against CUSA with the athletes we've got. So with a 4-4 split, is CUSA really better ? Or are we and others just used to saying that it is ?

GO SUN BELT (our home conference until it's not )

GO MEAN GREEN

[NT80]

Well, image is everything, regardless if it has substance or not. The SBC is improving but it's image still says "newcomers". The possible addition of up to four 1-AA moveups won't help. The Southland II is not where we need to be.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

My main reason for finding out out about which teams we would want to play the most was based on the New Southwest Conference rumor of CUSA splitting on an East/West basis. I don't know how close they are to each situation but at least they have an ear to rumblings in general. If CUSA should split into two conferences and we could join this "New Southwest Conference" then that would be our best bet.

If the NSW has 12 teams the best bet for me would be UTEP, Tulsa, SMU, North Texas, Houston, Rice, Tulane, Louisiana (Lafayette), Arkansas State, New Mexico State, Southern Miss, and Louisiana Tech. I hope that's the goal of our Athletic Department and that was what Rick V was referring to when he was talking about CUSA not being the same in the future.

I do not believe that any auto-bid conference will expand to 14 teams. It would not surprise me to see 8-10 more FCS teams move to FBS. It's possible that the Big East will split but it's also possible that they take in four football-only teams. Army and Navy would likely be two of them. The other two could come from Temple, East Carolina or UCF. I also think that when the first domino tips that there will be a lot of changes. The next few years will be interesting. That's why, more than ever, we need to start on our new stadium.

[UNTflyer]

I think it will be moves made by the Big East that may change CUSA. There are rumors of the basketball-only schools forming their own conference, then the football schools would be looking to fill in the gaps with UCF, East Carolina, Marshall, and perhaps Memphis. If this split occurs, the new Big East will beg Memphis to come on board in order to maintain respectability in basketball and it will eave CUSA scrambling for schools in order to keep their conference championship game in football.

Edited March 1, 2008 by UNTflyer

[NTPhiKap99]

I'm sure not all of these schools will make the jump but do we really need 4 more D-1 programs in Texas we already have 10.

[DeepGreen]

Going on 13 years in D1A and all we have to show for it is the far flung Big West and the "bring in any new 1A team that can breath" Sun Belt Conference. Sure, the SBC is done well the past two years as a conference, especially against CUSA. But like NT80 says, the conference still "gets no respect". As far as NT goes, I guess it really doesn't matter until we start winning conference championships in the high profile sports on a consistant basis.

Should these four "newbies" move into the SBC, how does the conference makeup differ from the Southland of the 1980's? Just hang a D1A tag on these teams, let 'em in the conference and everyone is O.K. with that?

[NTPhiKap99]

Going on 13 years in D1A and all we have to show for it is the far flung Big West and the "bring in any new 1A team that can breath" Sun Belt Conference.

I think thats the biggest point everyone in the conference is a new program we all need time to develop. Very few programs can move up and compete immediately. The Florida programs have a leg up since they had a bout the same population and talent pool but only three historic D1 programs. So when the four new schools came in it was easier to take a piece of the pie but when we moved up there were already 9 other D1 programs. So with thats said I'm not really sure I'd want another local school to move up but if they meet the requirements I'd rather have them in the Belt than some where else.

[UNTflyer]

Is it even possible for TxSt and the others to move up? I thought the NCAA put a freeze on this?

[NTPhiKap99]

Is it even possible for TxSt and the others to move up? I thought the NCAA put a freeze on this?

The NCAA has a four year moratorium on teams moving up. Teams already making the transition are exempt but other teams like TX St will have to wait until 2012 to make the move and I believe that is their target date.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

Should these four "newbies" move into the SBC, how does the conference makeup differ from the Southland of the 1980's? Just hang a D1A tag on these teams, let 'em in the conference and everyone is O.K. with that?

The four can't move up to the Sun Belt. There'll only be room for two. Western Kentucky will make the ninth football-playing member and South Alabama the tenth. They're already members so they can't be denied. Texas State is further down the road to 1-A than the others so they might make it. But, Appalachian State has made overtures to the Sun Belt and possibly Georgia Southern as well. A "newbie" can't make it as an independent these days what with the scheduling requirements.

If CUSA breaks up into east and west conferences, then these new FBS colleges might have a place to go. The "New Southwest Conference" could consist of universities that have been in the highest division at least 25 years and would form a totally new conference, raising the total number of FBS conferences to twelve. The "east CUSA" would likely take all, or at least many of the Sun Belt teams left, leaving plenty of room for the new schools.

[BleedGreen64]

If and when the aforementioned schools are able to move up FCS status it is only natural that they would want to join a conference. Within the footprint are truly on three conferences and two (Big 12 and CUSA have 12 members and would be foolish to expand (see history of the WAC). The Mountain West (TCU) is senseless leaving the Sunbelt as the only option. Thus it is not a put down of our up and coming conference. Their addition could slow any progress in our quest for respect. The addition of only two would make sense ast the addition of WKU and USA will put is at ten.

[greenjoe]

Who has the rights to the name "Southwest Conference ?" I can't imagine that the trademark is available to anyone.

GO SUN BELT

GO MEAN GREEN

[PlummMeanGreen]

I was informed that these thoughts posted in another thread should have really been posted in this thread.....sorry.

YET...........if like any normal growing institution of higher learning that alleges to aspire improvement across the board in whatever endeavor (athletic and academics); anyway, if we plan to advance this football program beyond this present quasi-NCAA D1-AA conference we're in now (of which now some of you are now trying to make a case of how future conference trips to San Marcos, Huntsville, Nacogdoches & San Antonio would be the real "future" deal for UNT, yet if all that became the future of NT Mean Green football (once again)..............well, (based on illustrious past on this subject)........

.........way too many of our UNT community, alumnus body and Mean Green fans would merely see all this as being a case of UNT waving the white flag as far as our aspiring to ever be a NCAA D-A Top 25 program. If we downgrade (once again), all upward bound aspirations would be completely dismantled if we have to make trips to the aforementioned Texas college outposts to play conference games (again no matter how any of us are classified whether as "would be" D1-A schools or the obvious 1-AA traits that all such schools would continue to have while annually holding each other down, out and in the Bottom 10.)

Remember those trips to Nacogdoches, San Marcos and Huntsville? Think much has or will change if they are in bed with us? If we go back to all that we can look forward to away games playing in front of those huge crowds of 7,000 and on a good day (Homecoming versus UNT?), maybe 10,000. WHOOPS! All those kind of attendance numbers sound quite familiar already now doesn't it (insert sublimenal we're already doing all this in the Sun Belt.

AND.............if we choose the road well traveled by our former Southland Conference 1-AA mates now apparently making overtures to get into D1-A (which is their rightful perrrogative) you'd find many on GMG.com and well beyond all the limited opinons (when you consider there are over 100,000 of us in the Metroplex); anyway, such a collegiate association of where we've already been before would bring about a loud, sudden rush of wind which would be NT Exes/Mean Green fans all over the great Southwest wondering yet one more time: "How did we once again get ourselves in such another athletic pickle of a mess" but worse....................many of these multi-decades of most loyal fans and alums saying.............."how can we dis-associate or remove ourselves from this athletic cesspool of poor decision-making on our leader's part coming from our own alma mater, ie, the future 2'nd Largest University in Texas which just keeps on operating athletically as if we were a souped up JUCO or a school in old Lone Star Conference of NAIA days gone by?

So yeppers, All Ye of Young Gun Alums Fame & Fortune, we Old Gunners have heard that rushing wind before as on that fateful day back in 1982 when our North Texas officials announced it would put us full speed back on our varsity athletics roller-coaster and join a new NCAA classification group--namely NCAA D1-AA and then after spending a "too short" era playing & beating schools like Tennessee, Houston (1 yr before they went to the Cotton Bowl), SMU for the first time since Coolidge was president................... NEVERTHELESS.............

...............dear ol' alma mater would spend the next 13 years in what many of us "not so fondly" call our NCAA college football purgatory. One only has to wonder if UNT had hung in there in NCAA D1-A during this era as a few did, would we today still have those 15,000 empty seats here in this milleneum? Better yet, if we let everbody & their dogs into the SBC with UNT in it, are we prepared to lose another generation or 2 of Mean Green fans?

Many of you Young Gun Alums were still eating Gerbers back in 1982 when we went "down" to NCAA D1-AA, but rest assured, any semblance of a conference affiliation with those now wanting to join us in the Sun Belt (which is, again, their perrogative), yet you cannot begin to know what this will do the pysche (and helplessness) of a multi-year fan base that I fear will not choose this time around to go back to NCAA purgatory (or what might be called hell this time around).

Strong UNT leadership can take this ship to new, exciting uncharted waters or they can make decisions now that would all but sink our ship.

Of course, the upside of being in another Southland Conference grouping of schools is that we would save ourselves about $60 million that a new stadium will cost us because Fouts Field will more than meet the demands for a SBC/Southland Conference athletic affiliation.

Edited March 3, 2008 by PlummMeanGreen

[eulesseagle]

pmg-

do you really think our current "prez" is going to lead unt into your delusional fear of 1-aa again?

pmg, you have seen "her" at all home and some away football games as well as basketball games haven't you?? she was smoozing with mean joe green at two home football games.

jimbo, just take your prescribed meds before you go to bed tonight, let the nurse turn out your night light and quit having your "dang" 'ol hallucinations from whatever you were forced to inhale at Woodstock.

[PlummMeanGreen]

pmg-

do you really think our current "prez" is going to lead unt into your delusional fear of 1-aa again?

pmg, you have seen "her" at all home and some away football games as well as basketball games haven't you?? she was smoozing with mean joe green at two home football games.

jimbo, just take your prescribed meds before you go to bed tonight, let the nurse turn out your night light and quit having your "dang" 'ol hallucinations from whatever you were forced to inhale at Woodstock.

ee, merely responding to what I heard from another alum were some of our elect who were getting all worked up about future conference games with our old friends from NCAA D1-AA and the Southland.

No, I don't think Dr. B would ever let it happen, but who ever thought we would have spent 13 years in 1-AA, too, when others like La Tech and UL did not venture downward to NCAA D1-AA; but it just never ceases to amaze me what seems to be so acceptable as rather low expectations for Mean Green athletics for the future 2'nd Largest University in the Lone Star State. Of course, we are still only talking about very few with such ideas out of 100,000 plus alums who I think if polled I know what athletic neighborhoods they would all prefer.

[eulesseagle]

pmg,

I really don't think playing one division 1AA team, a year, is going to destroy the program......unless you are someone like Michigan and get beat by App State in the "Big House." Ok, their conference teams laugh at them, give them crap for one year and App State gets to sell a "ton" of mechandise for that year. Ok....now it is 2008....does anyone remember all the d1-aa victories over d-1a schools????....(whatever the acronyms are now). At the "end of the day" does anyone really remember who you played two....three....four.....five years ago??? Naw, they just sort of remember W's and L's.

Is playing one D1-AA team going to deter me from getting season tickets for FB??? NO.....and IMHO there is no underlying conspiracies that lead me to believe that unt is getting ready to swap conference places with Tx State, SFA or let UTSA take our place (when they get their FB program).

Did UTPB deter me from getting season tickets in BB last year??NO....and I did not have any dellusions that Prez GB, RV & JJ were subliminally getting us prepared to play in the same conference with UTPB in D-II?? NO.

Jimbo, you remember the conspiracy theories about playing some of the Beatles records "backwards" to get subliminal messages about John or Paul??? Now get that old vinal out and play some of your old country and western - crying in your beer music backwards & you will get your ex-wife(s) back, your trailer back, your job(s) back and your money back.

IMHO, there is too much of, "I have a friend who overheard the secretary of the Prez say........blah blah blah."

Whatever happens, happens.

Edited March 3, 2008 by eulesseagle