Conference realignment discussion - v. 2015

[Jet915]

Yeah, I kinda hope the Big XII expands. Seems like there is no interest in UCONN. If they take Cincy and one other team not named UCONN, the huskies might start getting nervous...

[Barley]

Yeah, I kinda hope the Big XII expands. Seems like there is no interest in UCONN. If they take Cincy and one other team not named UCONN, the huskies might start getting nervous...

I think they are way past the point of getting nervous. Most of their fans have already crapped their pants watching everything unfold around them with proud Connecticut on the sideline.

[billyjack]

Whether or not the Big-12 goes to 12 will have absolutely no impact on us expanding, with the exception of what Jet said about UConn... Big-12 takes Cincinnati and UCF/So Fla, and UConn is left in the cold, and UConn panics. Even then, until the Big Ten and ACC fill out their conferences with 16, there is no reason to think that UConn will bail on football anytime soon.

Here's something I've been tossing in my head for months, but I didn't want to re-ignite this thread unless someone else did it first:

Actually, I think in the future we will see the football conferences model themselves after the BE structure-wise in hoops. As much as ESPN and football fans try to criticize us and FS1, every college hoops fan likes our home-and-home model.

So how do they model themselves after us... by that I mean, once the ACC goes to 16, I see them splitting their hoops into 2 divisions of 8 each. One division will be the traditional ACC of the 80's without Maryland. The other will be made of former Big East schools. The "Old ACC" division would do home-and-homes, and then each year would cherrypick 4 intriguing cross-division matchups.

Confederates:
Duke
UNC
Wake
NC State
Clemson
Virginia
Georgia Tech
Florida State

Union (pretty much):
Syracuse
Boston College
Pitt
Notre Dame
Virginia Tech
Louisville
Miami of Florida
Cincinnati or Connecticut (if the ACC had a brain).

So Duke plays 14 games vs the old ACC, and has 4 crossover games each year.
18 games. Clean and neat. The old ACC fans that are pissed about losing the old traditions are now satisfied, and the dreg games that nobody gives a shit about are lost... Wake vs Notre Dame? Clemson vs Syracuse? Zzzzzzz.

I almost don't want to write this because it makes too much sense and will be helpful to the trolls in the ACC hierarchy if they visit our Holy Land.

The Big Ten could do the same thing [EDIT - no they shouldn't, after thinking about it more].
[EDIT: Actually, the 8 team divisions split only really works with the ACC. The Big Ten should keep themselves at one 16-team super-division]

The Big East model of playing home-and-home is very appealing to college hoops fans.

Now, the ACC people have brains similar to dinosaurs and go after shiny objects, so they will probably opt to have one enormous 16 team conference with no divisions. They will do this because the old Big East did away with divisions in 2005 or so, and the ACC has been following our lead for 30+ years because the have phallus envy.

But the ACC has natural divisions splices, more natural than one huge 16-team brontosaurus conference, so they should follow this 2 division advice.

Bottom line is that people are pushing artificially to get the BE to 12 teams, but if we did that, in time I see the football conferences going back to our current hoops model.

[stever20]

home and home doesn't matter to a lot of folks. If you gave me the choice right now of what we have now, or what we had a few years ago with 16 teams- I'd take the 16 team situation 100% of the time. Home and home is a dodo from yesteryear. Yeah it's quaint but end of the day, it's meaningless.

Also end of the day, conferences with 12 teams are a lot more guaranteed to never have a year like we had 2 years ago, where it took PC winning the tourney to give us 4 teams(and with #4 being in the PIG). I'm sorry, but having 4 teams in safely every year means a whole hell of a lot more to me than having home and home.

[GoldenWarrior11]

The most important thing to me is that the Big East, possibly for the first time ever, has options with regards to expansion (as opposed to being reactionary to events around it). The conference could, conceivably, wait to see if any G5 football schools (with strong basketball programs) decide to stop pursuing a seat at the big football table (due to rising costs). The league could also, if it wanted to, grab two top basketball schools right now, today and get up to 12 to align with the other power conferences. Those options don't even examine whether or not they should grab publics/privates, as they have options in that regard as well.

Times have certainly changed.

[Fieldhouse Flyer]

Published a week ago. More of the same, with no new information.

Should the Big East Conference Add Dayton and St. Louis? - USA Today - September 24, 2015

[Hoya Hoya Hoya]

‏@theDudeofWV -Just received an email about Big 12 expansion. Nothing has changed. B12 will only consider expanding if they miss the playoffs.

‏@theDudeofWV -The short list is BYU, Cincy, ECU, Memphis, UCF & UCONN. Those are the ONLY schools on the short list.

Hope they take Cincy/Memphis

[Omaha1]

Published a week ago. More of the same, with no new information.

Should the Big East Conference Add Dayton and St. Louis? - USA Today - September 24, 2015

But it's not exactly a USA Today article. It's a post from a guy in Cincinnati. Not that much different than what a lot of message board people think, although I would hate to dilute the product by adding A10 schools personally. I like where we are now.

[Xudash]

‏@theDudeofWV -Just received an email about Big 12 expansion. Nothing has changed. B12 will only consider expanding if they miss the playoffs.

‏@theDudeofWV -The short list is BYU, Cincy, ECU, Memphis, UCF & UCONN. Those are the ONLY schools on the short list.

Hope they take Cincy/Memphis

UC has put a lot of money into Nippert Stadium, albeit an investment that has led to some nice high-end seating, but only 40k in capacity. UC now is going after a renovation of 5/3 Arena. UC will look as good as it can look if the B12 ultimately decides to expand. Additionally, I would think that UC would be the logical first pick to bring some sanity to a conference that presently has WVU as an outlier member.

BYU probably either is the actual first or second pick, but the Mormon factor and Sundays may be a roadblock with them. Then again, BYU probably is not enjoying watching Utah's program rise as a result of its membership in the Pac12.

I would think that UCF would be up to bat next. It's a Johnny-come-lately, but it's big, it's in Florida, and it's big and in Florida.

In short, any way you look at this right now, UCONN is toast when it comes to P5 football membership.

[stever20]

‏@theDudeofWV -Just received an email about Big 12 expansion. Nothing has changed. B12 will only consider expanding if they miss the playoffs.

‏@theDudeofWV -The short list is BYU, Cincy, ECU, Memphis, UCF & UCONN. Those are the ONLY schools on the short list.

Hope they take Cincy/Memphis

UC has put a lot of money into Nippert Stadium, albeit an investment that has led to some nice high-end seating, but only 40k in capacity. UC now is going after a renovation of 5/3 Arena. UC will look as good as it can look if the B12 ultimately decides to expand. Additionally, I would think that UC would be the logical first pick to bring some sanity to a conference that presently has WVU as an outlier member.

BYU probably either is the actual first or second pick, but the Mormon factor and Sundays may be a roadblock with them. Then again, BYU probably is not enjoying watching Utah's program rise as a result of its membership in the Pac12.

I would think that UCF would be up to bat next. It's a Johnny-come-lately, but it's big, it's in Florida, and it's big and in Florida.

In short, any way you look at this right now, UCONN is toast when it comes to P5 football membership.

I really don't think the BYU Sunday issue is anywhere near as big as you think. Don't know the Big 12 plays any Sunday basketball games at all.