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Conference Realignment thread

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Just to summarize the whole LaTech debacle:

- In 2000, they left the Sun Belt for the WAC instead of waiting one more year for Sun Belt football to start play, angering the other members of the conference.

- In 2008, they lobbied behind the scenes to keep ULL out of the Independence Bowl so they wouldn't have to play them. They ended up playing a mediocre Northern Illinois while ULL didn't get to go bowling at all.

- In 2012, they turned down an invite to the Independence Bowl because they didn't want to play ULM and they assumed they could easily get another bowl invite. They didn't end up getting one, so they sat at home during bowl season after a 9-win season rather than playing ULM.

- In 2020, the Sun Belt reached out to CUSA to see if they'd be interested in a regionalized merger between the two conferences. LaTech rejected the idea, and their athletic director did an insanely arrogant press conference where he said - and this is a direct quote - "I think if I were in Lafayette's position, I'd be trying to figure out a way to move up to a level like Conference USA."

It's not hard to see why nobody wants them. They are an okay school with okay athletics in a tiny market, but they act like they're LSU. They've repeatedly antagonized other in-state schools and the exact conference they desperately need to be saved by right now.

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51 minutes ago, NewGuy12 said:

Did anyone see what Bob Huggins said about conferences breaking away from March Madness to form their own competition/committee? 

Huggins is a clown and is clearly jealous of football making more money. March Madness will never go away because it's too lucrative for the sport. Even if it did, he'd still probably never win a national title.

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19 hours ago, Wyobraska said:

I wonder what he will do going forward.  Flamed out on the West Coast at Cal.  Would any P5 programs have an interest again if he gets SMU to say the Access Bowl?  He's from Texas, does TT take a run at him when they fire Wells?

If not, does he choose to stay at SMU for awhile since he is from Texas?

Dykes is an excellent coach. Yeah, he went 1-11 his first year at Cal but he was rebuilding the roster which an ill Jeff Tedford had let get bad and over the next three years Dykes went 18-19. Franky, 18-19 is pretty typical for Cal. Otherwise, Dykes has kicked butt and he would seem to be a perfect fit for TT as you say.

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I do wonder if the SBC goes to 14-16 schools and the MAC expands if the MWC won’t end up doing the same and bring in UTEP and either NMSU or Tx State.
 

Yes, I KNOW EVERYBODY, “they don’t add value!!!!!” But if every other G5 conference has 14-16 members does our smaller inventory become an issue when we negotiate our next deal? 

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5 hours ago, bigd said:

To be fair, El Paso is actually a pretty large market and UTEP is the only thing in town. They've just been so bad in football and basketball (and don't have baseball) that they aren't a good choice. 

 

Honestly, if they could get either of their programs to be good their fan support would increase and they could be a good addition. They just have to show they can do that in the modern era. 

Considering its size, there is very little HS football talent in El Paso. Further, there is very little HS football talent for hundreds of miles around El Paso. Accordingly, there is little reason to think UTEP will ever be good in football except on a sporadic basis. The same is true of NMSU so both should just accept that fact and focus on making their basketball programs which require only a dozen kids on scholarship rather than 85 as good as possible. And I'm serious in saying this. Since NAU is a member of the Big Sky, UTEP and NMSU should try to jointly lobby that conference to take them.

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5 minutes ago, SalinasSpartan said:

I do wonder if the SBC goes to 14-16 schools and the MAC expands if the MWC won’t end up doing the same and bring in UTEP and either NMSU or Tx State.
 

Yes, I KNOW EVERYBODY, “they don’t add value!!!!!” But if every other G5 conference has 14-16 members does our smaller inventory become an issue when we negotiate our next deal? 

It is a possibility, with the new trend heading towards larger conferences there is potential to be looked down upon for having less teams. This could even put pressure on CBS and fox to increase the TV deal 

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5 minutes ago, 818SUDSFan said:

Considering its size, there is very little HS football talent in El Paso. Further, there is very little HS football talent for hundreds of miles around El Paso. Accordingly, there is little reason to think UTEP will ever be good in football except on a sporadic basis. The same is true of NMSU so both should just accept that fact and focus on making their basketball programs which require only a dozen kids on scholarship rather than 85 as good as possible. And I'm serious in saying this. Since NAU is a member of the Big Sky, UTEP and NMSU should try to jointly lobby that conference to take them.

NMSU if they were to join an FCS conference would join the new WAC and in regards to NAU their AD stated adamantly that they will not be leaving the Big Sky as they are a founding member but anything can change and I personally feel NAU and Northern Colorado will make the jump to the WAC eventually 

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2 hours ago, NewGuy12 said:

Did anyone see what Bob Huggins said about conferences breaking away from March Madness to form their own competition/committee? 

Huggins also said several years ago that the NCAAs should be open to every one of the 320 some Division I basketball schools.

Huggins is an idiot, should just be ignored and for the most part is.

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4 minutes ago, utgrizfan said:

It is a possibility, with the new trend heading towards larger conferences there is potential to be looked down upon for having less teams. This could even put pressure on CBS and fox to increase the TV deal 

Try telling that to the Pac12.

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3 minutes ago, ShoichiKUN808 said:

 

Uh, yeah.  RIP to CUSA football if that is the case.  Say hello to the WAC in football heaven. 

The MWC should start talking to UTEP about scheduling agreements, assuming the conference doesn't want them as a full member. 

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3 minutes ago, ziggy29 said:

Uh, yeah.  RIP to CUSA football if that is the case.  Say hello to the WAC in football heaven. 

The MWC should start talking to UTEP about scheduling agreements, assuming the conference doesn't want them as a full member. 

UTEPs best course of action would be to put all Oly sports into the WAC and play football as an Independent. As you mentioned have a scheduling agreement with the MWC and they could also do the same with other Texas schools, especially the new AAC ones and Texas State. Hell they do this right they could have almost all their games in Texas.

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Just now, utgrizfan said:

UTEPs best course of action would be to put all Oly sports into the WAC and play football as an Independent. As you mentioned have a scheduling agreement with the MWC and they could also do the same with other Texas schools

I tend to agree.  Basically, the same as what NMSU is doing.  I think there is enough history between UTEP and much of the MWC from the "old" WAC days that it's a reasonable fit.  It fills out an OOC schedule for many MWC teams, and it helps the Miners football program survive. 

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9 minutes ago, ziggy29 said:

I tend to agree.  Basically, the same as what NMSU is doing.  I think there is enough history between UTEP and much of the MWC from the "old" WAC days that it's a reasonable fit.  It fills out an OOC schedule for many MWC teams, and it helps the Miners football program survive. 

Not to mention with all of the new schools heading to the AAC it would be too hard for them to have consistent games against their old C-USA rivals:

UTEP Potential Schedule:

$ Game

$ Game 

Army/Independent/MWC Team/FCS

Army/Independent/MWC Team/FCS

NMSU

UNM

UNT

UTSA

TXST

SMU

Tulsa

You can even replace any of the AAC schools with other independent teams and some of the new Sunbelt schools, JMU in particular will probably be looking for non-conference games

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https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/conference-usa-future-in-doubt-with-four-teams-expected-to-join-sun-belt-next-week/
 

Dodd thinks the conference has a chance to fold. But mentions CUSA has been in talks with FCS schools like Sam Houston St, McNeese St, as well as the FBS indies UConn, NMSU, Liberty and UMass about joining.

as Dodd puts it with regards to Judy (CUSA Commish) “"She's getting calls from every aspiring FCS program," said a source from one of those schools.”

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