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punchinello

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Everything posted by punchinello

  1. That may be, but it would depend on which other schools the AAC adds and on which, if any schools the MWC would add in response. If the AAC has 12 and the MWC stands pat with 10, the AAC could end up having the most strong FB & BB schools. Thus, failing to replace AF and CSU, if they leave, would be a pretty obvious strategic error. . btw: Thompson's idea of standing pat at 10 ("because there's no one good to add") would make it that much harder for them to rebuild when they lose BSU & SDSU. Nobody thought App State or Coastal Carolina would be good to add, but they were. How many people thought that Boise State would be good to add when they made the FCS to FBS transition?
  2. Most of the media are speculating. No doubt, Boise St. is one of the top five under consideration, but have you considered the possibility that Kansas and Iowa State, the two AAU schools, might oppose adding Boise for academic reasons? That might help to explain why some people have Boise in as a dead lock, while others are saying it's not 100% certain yet.
  3. "If you build it, they will come." If the MWC invites them, with enough broadcasting revenue to offset travel costs, they will probably come.
  4. Being proactive seems the right idea. If MWC doesn't persuade those two schools to stay, it would make sense to come up with a Plan B and start implementing it, whether it would be inviting some CUSA schools, independents, or FCS-to-FBS schools. The Sun Belt conference is arguably as strong as any G5 in football right now, due to adding FCS-to-FBS schools (App. State and Coastal Carolina). Bearing in mind that Boise St. was an FCS-to-FBS school, a case can be made that adding two more of those might be worth considering.
  5. NDSU would be an exciting addition for the MWC (or the American or MAC) as a FB-only member. They have won 8 Division I FCS championships in the past 10 years, winning nearly 14 games/year. The Bisons would probably be one of the upper echelon FB programs in the MWC. They would probably agree to join as FB members, because the travel costs might be prohibitive for their other sports. If so, the MWC could add one of the stronger BB western schools to join along with NDSU.
  6. SDSU is an R2 school, according to wikipedia. Memphis fans are claiming that they will have R1 status by year's end.
  7. There are people on the AAC board saying that "the AAC is finished," too, but the truth is that none of the conferences are "finished." Even if it loses AF, CSU, BSU, & SDSU, the MWC will reload, and some of the upper-to-middle of the pack schools (e.g., Nevada, Utah State, & Fresno) will become the upper echelon FB/BB schools. Meanwhile, BSU and SDSU won't be big fish in a small pond any more, and their teams will struggle if they end up in the Big 12, just like Cincy, UCF, and Houston will in a few years. Take Utah FB, for example, they were winning 10 games/yr. before joining the PAC-12, but they're a mid-pack team now. Same with WVU, top of the Big East, middle of the Big 12. NMSU and UTEP and UNT would be sensible additions to replace AF & CSU. It might be a good idea for the MWC to start talking to Montana & Montana State, etc. about moving up to FBS, which they would probably do if invited.
  8. That doesn't seem like a very strong argument, since the AAC's commissioner talks regularly to ESPN and expressed confidence that their broadcasting revenue wouldn't drop if they add the MWC schools on their short list.
  9. I agree with UNLV2001. UTEP and NMSU would be good additions for the MWC, and the era of 10-team conferences is probably coming to an end. There will only be 61 non-P5 FBS schools in a couple of years, and the number will drop to 57 when the Big 12 expands to 16, as they are expected by many to do in 5-10 years. A member of the Big 12 expansion committee asserted that the conference plans to add Memphis, USF, SMU, and BSU within a few years, and the Big 12 Commissioner recently stated that they may even consider a future expansion to 20 teams. 61 - 14 (CUSA) = 47; 47 - 12 (MAC) = 35; 35 - 12 (AAC) = 23; 23 - 10 (SBC) = 13 schools Five of those 13 schools are independents (Army, UConn, UMass, Liberty, & NMSU), and NMSU is the only one that is near the MWC's footprint. 13 - 5 (Independents) = 8 Given these facts, it probably makes sense to have 12, rather than 10 members.
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