Geoff Calkins: The incredible, shrinking 'Big' East » The Commercial Appeal
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Do they play football or rugby?Quote:
Originally Posted by DistrictCyclone
This is beginning to sound like The Price is Right.
Is bigger better? This is what I go back and forth on and trying to think like a network. Quantity or quality? It has been deemed that the SEC and Big Twelve are the best two football conferences have they not?
Just reading an article about the realignment dominoes in some of the bottom feeder conferences.
Thought this was interesting
Conference USA will also announce on Thursday that Middle Tennessee State will join the conference. Sources told the Sun Sentinel that the conference also reached out to Western Kentucky and New Mexico State this week, agreeing, in principal, for those schools to join the league at a later date, most likely after another round of realignment.
FAU pounces on conference realignment opportunity, jumps to Conference USA - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Sounds like a lot of these conferences have a queue ready to pull teams as necessary. Also sounds like this is the reason conferences like the Big East, Conference USA are at 14, so that they have some buffer.
Also saw an article that mentioned the Sun Belt has 6 FCS schools now in its queue. Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Jacksonville State, Liberty, Sam Houston State, and Lamar.
I wonder if this is the reason UNI to the MAC was getting a little chatter a few months ago. Maybe the MAC is trying to get their queue ready in case they lose a few. Sounds like LakeBison's ND State team is antsy to make the jump to the MAC. There are really few other options in or near the MAC's footprint in addition to NDSU: just UNI and Youngstown State.
UNI is gonna get some Maction?
edit - the perils of leaving a thread open and replying to it 10 minutes later - scyclonekid just wrote what I did.
LaMar? Son of Le Mars? Holy mackeral, are they scaping the bottom of the barrel.Quote:
Originally Posted by cyman05
Sorry I did not mean to repeat anything you said.Quote:
Originally Posted by F5cy
No, it wasn't anything you did - I had this thread open before you replied to it, but went away for a few minutes before I typed up my reply. And by the time I actually did post, you and cyman05 had posted essentially what I was thinking about UNI maybe getting a look.Quote:
Originally Posted by scyclonekid
If there will be 6-8 football teams from current I-AA joining conferences, you'd have to think UNI would be clamoring to get a shot as well.
SIAP
Is CF Tuxedo Yoda's source? Tuxedo Yoda: The Cloak & Dagger side of Conference Realignment
Just got off the phone with an East Coast journalist who wanted to exchange info about conference realignment. He has solid connections at several ACC schools and gets information about other conferences. I let him know what I am hearing from my Austin source in the Texas Athletics Department......a nice little quid pro quo.
The highlights of my conversation with him that I can share:
* Just like I have heard from the Austin side of things, he is hearing it on the East Coast - the Big 12 and the ACC football schools are talking. Behind the scene arrangements are being made on how to help them with exit fees. The Big 12 is being generous. It would be a surprise to this journalist, and to me, if some current ACC schools aren't in the Big 12 when the 2014 season kicks off. Interestingly enough, while these schools are in a wait & see mode, they aren't waiting on finding out Maryland's exit fee. They are waiting on.....
*.....the Big 10. Every journalist on the East Coast has a different source telling them that the Big 10 will SOON add 2 more ACC schools. BC is being talked about but UNC, Ga Tech and UNC are the primary candidates. I'm sure that doesn't surprise you. What may surprise you is that Ga Tech may very well be on the top of the list. Who the Big 10 selects will have a trickle down effect on the SEC and the Big 12, regarding available teams, so things are in limbo for the moment....but it shouldn't last long.
* The most interesting aspect of this drama is how this is playing out at FSU. Not so much their communications with the Big 12 (intermediaries {rich alumni} are regularly used in roles like this to offer deniability to University Presidents and ADs) but the communication between FSU board members. Most public universities can take board meetings into executive session where no written record is kept. That makes talking about realignment rather easy. Not so with FSU.....the Sunshine Laws in the State of Florida prohibit this. In fact, if 2 board members discuss state business anywhere under any circumstance, there is a legal requirement for a written record. As you can imagine, college realignment talk between board members has to be carried out in interesting ways through creative back-channels to cover everyone's ***. We are talking some James Bond **** here. It takes a little longer for FSU to process information and to react because of these shenanigans, and this has consequences for many entities in realignment. FSU is the blue ribbon addition for the Big 12, and Clemson and Miami are likely to follow the lead of the Seminoles. We are all going to have to be patient.
I don't think this is necessarily true. The Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier ran a whole series about UNI athletics last summer. Because the University has a constant budget shortfall and the Regents would like each school to have their athletic programs in the black, one of the major topics has been what to do about football. Should they move to FBS, play FCS- non scholarship, or scrap the program together.Quote:
Originally Posted by F5cy
The University hired a firm to ***** these options and they came back and said Northern Iowa's best bet is to stay where they are. A move to FBS would result in a greater shortfall (more scholarships, travel, etc, etc), while getting rid of scholarship football or scrapping the program completely negates their broadcast and advertising contracts putting the athletic department into a tailspin. I don't really see the Regents signing off on a move to FBS. Rather, I think UNI is in a unique position to continue to be one of the best FCS schools in the country, especially if other power schools like NDSU and Appalachian St. decide to make the jump.
Yep. It's a Hawkeye plot to force us into Division IAA sports.Quote:
Originally Posted by CycloneErik
Everyone's said it a million times before, but I officially think it's a race to four 16-team conferences. I haven't been convinced of that until now. Sure it's all rumors, but with the 4-team playoff around the corner, and all the talks happening (supposedly), the writing feels on the wall. There's no reason the Big 10 and SEC would expand to 14 and stop. The only thing standing in the way are schools trying to be the prettiest girl at the dance: they all want the B1G. Except ND, who thought they could remain independent. So the B1G dropped it and added two more schools. Now here's the funny pickle, and I realize I'm talking out of my *** here:
The B1G probably wants FSU, Clemson, Miami, etc to accept invites to the Big 12, crumbling the ACC and forcing ND's hand. At the same time, nothing is happening because everyone's waiting to see what the B1G does next.
ND may be the only school that cannot be bought- the only way they join the Big 10 is if all the major conferences refuse to schedule them. Even then they may try a schedule of Navy, AF, Army, and some MAC teams for a few years.Quote:
Originally Posted by jboffer
Mizzou must really like the SEC if they are turning down any looks from B1G. I mean, if your throwing the rumor out of Kansas, why not consider Missouri? Good medical school, AAU, Midwestern...supposedly delivers KC and St. Louis. And personally, I can't believe Mizzou wouldn't jump at the chance of joing the Big 10.
Maybe the Kansas rumor is to throw them off the scent of Missouri and UVA.