Money Will Inspire Changes In College Sports Landscape

[MeanGreen61]

Kansas City Star

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/03/1855194/money-will-inspire-changes-in.html

[UNTflyer]

Kansas City Star

http://www.kansascit...changes-in.html

Looks like the Big (11) Ten is looking to go to 14 teams. That is good news for us as they will be picking off Big East and possibly the Big 12. The other big conferences will look to catch up so they can maintain competitive distribution.

I can see a scenario where the the Sun Belt is dissolved as all of its members either move up (the football schools) or move down (the basketball schools).

New Members

Big (11) Ten (14):

Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Missouri

SEC (14):

Miami, Florida State, Southern Miss

Big East (14):

Central Florida, East Carolina, Marshall, Army, UAB (Basketball teams split off)

Big 12 (14):

TCU, Arkansas, BYU

Pac 10 (14):

Boise State, UNLV, Utah, San Diego State

WAC (12):

Wyoming, Colorado State, New Mexico, UTEP

MWC (12):

SMU, Houston, Rice, North Texas, Tulsa, Louisiana Tech

CUSA (12) This would be almost completely rebuilt, with Tulane and Memphis being the only original teams left:

FIU, FAU, La-La, La-Mo, Arkansas State, Troy, Middle Tennessee

[MeanGreenTexan]

The Ohio State AD implies he wants more than 12 teams. The expected revenue increase or decrease for adding multiples of teams will determine what other member Presidents and ADs think. Value-added for a Notre Dame has to be higher than for adding a Rutgers.

I agree that additions to the Big 6 conferences could trickle down to help North Texas land a better spot somewhere. We must also be open to going west (like TCU) if it means an upgrade in conference.

...big difference between the MWC and the WAC (especially if BSU gets picked off). Much more incentive to go MWC over WAC. The competition is much better there. I don't think anyone would argue with going to the MWC.

Leaving the Sun Belt for the WAC is maybe a slight upgrade in competition, but the hit to the budget is too hard to justify it (Hawaii/Idaho?)

[Graddean]

Short of the other schools kicking them out, Arkansas is not going to leave the SEC.

[GrayEagle]

Flyer, your scenario works well if there are 14 teams but what if the Big 10 with eyes glued on the New York market decides to go to 16? Because if the BCS is either dissolved or diminished the Big 10 will want to be sure that they are in the large markets for a larger share of the pie.

I've looked at the dominoes falling there with the Southeast and possibly others also expanding to 16. If that happens, I can see no way that the Big East survives as a football conference. It could also cause mergers of the MWC/WAC and CUSA/Sun Belt. It could easily be that only eight conferences would remain.

If we vastly improve football and get our attendance up quickly then I can see a scenario where we could join the Big 12. That would assume that they are also willing to expand to 16.

Buy season tickets even if you cannot attend any or all games. The next musical chairs will no doubt include us. Where we land depends on how well we can sell our potential. Facilities should no longer hold us back. Attendance primarily got UTEP into CUSA and we need it to work for us.