It looks like UTEP is heading West..Merger thoughts

Harry · February 14, 2012

You can hear it here:

Basically, its the same theme that we have heard from their AD Bob Stull, ie that they look forward to rekindling their rivalries with New Mexico etc...

So -- given that - and assuming Air Force stays in - it would appear you would have 9 MWC teams (Air Force, Fresno, CSU, Wyoming, New Mexico, UTEP, UNLV, Nevada, Hawaii)

and 7 on the CUSA east side (Southern Miss, ECU, Marshall, Tulsa, Tulane, UAB, Rice)

This means you would add two to the east side to get to 9 and 9 or 18 teams total. That means 8 conference games and 4 non-conference.

The usual suspects show up on the east side. Temple could be a good football only to offset Hawaii in the west. But Temple may be holding out for a Big East invite and might not be a long term solution. FIU (TV market, academics), North Texas (TV market, facilities), UTSA (TV market), La. Tech (FB program) are probably all in the mix and with Memphis leaving I think MTSU has to be considered, ASU hired Malzahn, WKU brings basketball and improving football...I could go on and on here but you get the point. We have six months of political and public scrutiny to look forward to but in the end I see the TV consultants driving the decision.

But let's not forget about the west, what about Utah State and San Jose? USU brings good basketball and San Jose has a good TV market. Will the new conference decide to kill the WAC? Do they want the blood on their hands?

The Alliance is in an interesting position because they have the ability to kill the WAC and severely cripple the Sun Belt if they choose to expand in a big way. At the same time many of their fans are screaming out for keeping it small to exclude the schools perceived to be below them. Right now the East side has 7 teams, if they wanted to get to 24 they could poach as many as 5 Sun Belt schools which may not kill the Sun Belt but would severely damage it and probably require a merger with the remaining WAC leftovers.

Should be an interesting 6 months...

MDH · February 14, 2012

I predict this thing stops at 18 then. Not really good news since UTEP was probably going to be one of our cheerleaders getting us into the CUSA/East side of things.

KoldBeer · February 14, 2012

I think for North Texas a 24 team league is the best situation. I think we'd be in the league but would also get some good regional rivals b/c La Tech, Ark State or somebody else would probably be grouped with Tulsa, Rice and UNT.

At 18, I just think we get left behind w/ Temple and FIU going (FIU keeps getting thrown out there so I guess they are favorite). It wouldn't be end of world b/c Sun Belt could pickup La Tech and UTSA (or some other schools) so we'd get some closer rivals. The Sun Belt wouldn't be too far behind the new conference in on the field performance.

I just don't want to see 20-22 teams added and North Texas getting left out. That means best of Sun Belt is gone and we are left behind with Sun Belt and WAC scraps. I feel good at 22 but 20 scares me a little because you never know exactly what the new league will be thinking.

Got5onIt · February 14, 2012

I predicted 24 teams in another thread. I read somewhere this "conference" has no intention of cross divisional games, thus giving some ease to the worries of a huge footprint. If TV contracts are as big a driver as we are lead to believe, I think the 2 divisions will try to establish themselves in as many big markets as possible (for money & viability). Maybe they wish to send this Super Conference Champ to a "Big Bowl"?

greenminer · February 14, 2012

120 team league.

thoughts?

TIgreen01 · February 14, 2012

6 more months of this sh!t???! Just blow my head off.

MeanGreenTexan · February 14, 2012

6 more months of this sh!t???! Just blow my head off.

Get your popcorn ready!

LakeTravis · February 14, 2012

Get your popcorn ready!

So just the tip?

Just to see how it feels?

kalebschumann · February 14, 2012

Best scenario for UNT is a 20 team league..

2 divisions of 10
2 pods of 5

play everyone in your pod, (4 games) play 3 rotating games in you division(7 games), 1 game out of your division (8), and then 1 game with the corresponding ranked team in the opposing division, giving home field to the team with the best BCS number (9).

That gives you 9 conf games, 3 OOC and still the potential of the winners of the #1 in the last week of the season to play in the title game.

You could do the same with 24/12/6, but the numbers get a little crazy.. But pods in general would be great for UNT. We would either be in a pod with Rice, Tulsa and teams in LA or a pod with Tulsa, UTEP and the range schools. Hard to see us not having a pod with a team that is close to eventually form a rivalry with.

I like this idea a lot!