My "new" Southwest Conference

GrayEagle · March 26, 2010

I've had a software problem and couldn't post for a few days so instead of adding comments to the CUSA topic I thought that I'd start a new one.

We won't know until the the Pac 10, Big 10 and Big East pick their teams how the mid-majors can shake out but here's my speculation. The BCS leagues will all go to 12 teams. My guess is that the Pac 10 fills from the MWC, the Big 10 from the Big East or Notre Dame and the Big East from independents and CUSA. If that happens then the best scenario is to form a new conference composed primarily of CUSA teams but in much closer proximity.

Hence, here are my picks for the "new" Southwest Conference:

TCU

SMU

North Texas

UTEP

Houston

Rice

Tulsa

Louisiana Tech

Louisiana (Lafayette)

Tulane

Southern Mississippi

Memphis

If one or two say no, consider Arkansas State and New Mexico State.

This would not be a powerhouse conference but it's fairly solid now. There would likely be two hard sells but maybe only one...TCU. Why would I include TCU when they have been dodging these teams at every chance? Well, the most likely teams to join the Pac 10 are Utah and Brigham Young. Their loss would take the luster from the MWC even if they should add Boise State and someone else. None of those would likely be close to TCU and they would be a better fit in this conference. They would go in as top dog. Memphis may still aspire to be in the Big East but with Calipari gone they have lost a lot of their attractiveness to the Big East.

Travel would be much cheaper because five of the twelve are near two major airports; however, most of the universities are within a day's drive. Only UTEP is distant. All of these teams have played at the top classification for at least 25 years. About half have good football records and about the same number are good in basketball. All of the private schools have good/great academics and North Texas and Houston, among the state schools, are above average.

I had previously been studying how the realignment might end but finally just thought..let's do what's best for the teams in this area. Hopefully, there will be enough left for the teams in the Sun Belt and CUSA east to form another conference. The Mountain West will survive taking what they want from the WAC. It's the WAC that will have survival problems.

ColoradoEagle · March 26, 2010

It would be nice. Still too many dominoes to know exactly what is going to happen. It could very well happen that the Sun Belt ceases to exist after all of this and we join CUSA or the WAC by default.

I'd like to see where all of our upgrades put us in the shuffle. Given the right circumstances, NT and Houston could go into a depleted Big 12. I still think we're at least 10 years out from that kind of situation, but the differences in the school just between 2003 and now are pretty striking. Throw in the new stadium, and I have to wonder how much longer we sit at the bottom of the pile.

Regarding TCU, I don't see a situation where they place themselves in the same conference as NT and SMU. The MWC could be an AQ conference soon, and I can't imagine trading that for an unproven conference. At most, I could see them lobbying for us as a travel partner and a way to encourage a bit more MWC coverage in DFW.

Edited March 26, 2010 by ColoradoEagle

MeanGreen61 · March 26, 2010

Tulane, SMU, Rice, Tulsa & TCU......... Too many private schools. <_<

GrandGreen · March 26, 2010

My idea would be that the Belt and CUSA would in effect trade teams to get a geographical balance. In this manner the conferences would retain their NCAA points and basketball bids. Western Cusa and Sun Belt would merge and have a Northern Division of UTEP, Arkansas State, Tulsa , SMU and North Texas. The Southern Division would be Houston, Rice, Ull, Tulane, ULM and non-football UALR. I think this league would be attractive enough to lure one or more other football teams to it such as NMSU or La Tech or in a pinch UTSA. I don't think TCU is going to be willing to lower themselves to a regional conference for a while.

The other conference new members would be even stronger with an Eastern Division of UCF, FIU, FAU, Marshall, Eastern Carolina and WKU. The Western Division would be USM, Memphis, UAB, USA, Troy, and MTSU. The new configurations could retain the CUSA and Sun Belt names or be renamed .

Edited March 26, 2010 by GrandGreen