Editor's note: This is another post from The Barry Coker, whom you can find on twitter at @TheBarryCoker
It has been a rough week or so for us realignment junkies. The dealers have been hard to find, no matter how hard we look for them. However, indications are that a fix is coming soon.
Where UTSA sits in all this is still questionable. It is really start to look to me that what happens with UTEP will determine if UTSA gets included in the MWC/CUSA glob. There seems to be this number of 22 bouncing around that just makes no sense to me. The only conclusion I can reach is that the MWC desires to be at 10 and Conference USA at 12.
There have been some rumblings that the MWC wanted to keep 2 slots open for Boise State and San Diego State in case the Big East cross country setup did not work out. I had heard this a few months back, I believe it was actually written in an article. Some fuel was added to this today, when Jon Wilner from the San Jose Mercury News tweeted that SDSU and MWC were having discussions on keeping a spot open for them, just in case. This was laughed out through the tweetisphere and actually refuted by the SDSU AD, but it’s not totally out of the blue. SDSU and Boise State have the best basketball and football programs in the MWC, respectfully, in fact the best in the entire alliance. So I could see the MWC working this angle and moving up to 10 and staying there. Going the other way, keep in mind, there is also the threat of Air Force moving to the Big East as Navy finally came on board.
As for Conference USA, it has been assumed by many that they would like to return their configuration of 12. This would keep a conference championship game and preserve the regional desire that divisions provide. Conference USA is pretty stable at this point, no more defections are expected, and no one is anticipated to come crawling back.
Alright, so this is where UTEP comes into play. As we know, UTEP is currently a member of Conference USA, which is down to eight teams. It had been widely suspected that they would be shifting over the MWC side, which in my opinion is no slam dunk. So let’s cover that scenario. UTEP to MWC gets them up to 9 football playing schools. Adding San Jose State or Utah St rounds this out at 10, and that may be where they stop. A seemingly less likely scenario adds all three to get to 11. Eleven makes no sense, so here is an opportunity for UTSA to get it to 12. This makes a lot of sense, there would be two clear geographic divisions, but I just don’t think it will go this way. With UTEP in the MWC, Conference USA West opens up and it seems really clear that UNT, Louisiana Tech and UTSA could be joined with Tulsa, Rice and Tulane for a division.
However, if UTEP stays in Conference USA, I think MWC adds Utah St and San Jose State. This gets them up to 10, now UTSA’s bid is in trouble. The west would have UTEP, Rice, Tulsa and Tulane. They would only need two schools on the western side. UNT is a given, and I think the second school is questionable. It would come down to La Tech and UTSA. The pros and cons of the two programs are inverse of each other, with La Tech being a more sentimental choice. They were already passed over for the conference and have been keeping close ties. The advantage UTSA has is TV market, so is that money enough to screw over the school that has been waiting patiently, upgrading facilities and being the outlier in the WAC?
As UTSA fans, I believe we need to be rooting for UTEP to move west. What this entails is unclear. Because of the alliance, could Conference USA waive exit fees? Does that open up any legal issues? If there is a buyout is it worth it for travel cost savings? I am starting to get a feeling that UTEP staying in Conference USA means UTSA to the Sunbelt.
Regarding the Sunbelt, don’t be too upset if we end up there. It’s not a terrible thing, heck it’s better than the rickety WAC, but after getting a sniff at the alliance it would be a bit of a letdown. At the end of the day being in a division with Texas State, New Mexico State, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette and Arkansas State isn’t so bad. Hey it’s FBS and it’s regional.
Regarding that upcoming fix, according to the Tulsa AD, the presidents are meeting at the end of the month. Not sure if that means this week, weekend or Monday, but either way word should start coming out. Hopefully membership will be voted so we can all move on. Oh and hopefully that UNT source of Adam’s that says UTSA is now out is wrong!
Showing posts with label mega conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mega conference. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Barry Coker: Conference Realignment Junkie
Editor's note: This is from Barry Coker, whom you can find on twitter at @TheBarryCoker
It’s the absolute filthiest of guilty pleasure. Selling out on long time friends and associates, all so you can make more money and gain a higher profile. Leaving others to scramble and struggle while you don’t even look back. So is the world of conference realignment, and I love it. Hello, my name is Barry Coker and I am a conference realignment news addict.
So what defines this addiction? Checking message boards every hour from your phone, despite what is going on in your life. Work, family, responsibilities, they all play second fiddle until I make my rounds on the group of websites I need to check in. Waiting and obsessing for tweets from beat writers and groups like Inside Runner Sports. Hanging on the words, from a Bobcat of all people, of great news breaker WAC Jack from BobcatReport.com. Feeling the rush anytime news actually breaks, and chasing that high every hour thereafter. Only thing that sucks is that news has been drrrraaagggiiinnngg on this topic.
Obviously, the big topic in the world of UTSA and realignment has to do with the recent reports of a campus visit from CUSA/MWC and that UTSA is shooting up their list. The question that no one has had any answers on is how long this list will be.
Here is a summary to what has been reported and strongly rumored. A few weeks ago, San Jose State and Utah State received visits from the conglomerate. This past week, UTSA and Louisiana Tech received visits, and word is UTSA impressed. There was some talk that Texas State received some sort of a visit as well, perhaps to see the former Aquarena Springs and Wonder World or whatever the hell you do in that shit-hole town. It is widely thought that North Texas and Florida International are already in the mix and have been for a while.
It also looks like the two conferences will stay separate, at least for a while and have some sort of agreement. For some reason, all this is some giant secret and no one has broken any reports on what the plan is. Twenty four makes so much sense logistically. They were talking about having semifinal games and then a championship. Pretty straight forward, you split the 24 into two sides and have two 6 team divisions. This is a common practice and had been seen recently with the Big 12 and SEC before their numbers changed. Then you would just have the two teams on each side meet up for championship. I think everyone understands that scenario, as it is the easiest.
To me, the one that makes the second most sense is 18, with two divisions of 9. Everyone plays everyone in their division and one conference championship game between the two divisions. Another easy scenario.
Twenty and twenty two are difficult to understand. At twenty, seems like your too small for the four division idea, and twenty two isn’t divisible by four, so I have no idea why 22 seems to be some sort of preferred number. Unless, and this has been reported, the MWC side wants to keep place holders in case Boise State and San Diego State want to come back.
So we wait, and no one seems to know what the hell is going to happen, only that it will be wrapped up around June. Oh and that the WAC is going to die. Oh and that Idaho seems to be completely fucked by this whole thing.
Hopefully UTSA makes the cut. The good thing is that there is a backup plan: the Sunbelt, and it’s not that horrible of an option.
Some scenarios that may work out:
If this thing goes to 24:
West side picks up UTEP from CUSA to get to nine. They would then add SJSU and Utah State, the only true candidates west of Texas. That gets to eleven; UTSA would certainly round that out to twelve.
Pros: Good basketball conference. MWC sent four teams to NCAA tournament last year, and only one of those teams is leaving. UTEP could make a good rivalry.
Cons: Not one drivable game in the bunch. If I were to go to El Paso, my ass is flying.
If it goes to 20 or 22:
I think at these numbers, UTSA may be looking at being on the Conference USA side of this. In name alone, this would make Goddess Hickey happy, as this was her stated goal from football day one.
Pros: Geographically this is awesome. Drives to Rice and North Texas. In state rivals, an Oklahoma rival and Louisiana rival(s).
Cons: Single bid league for basketball most years. Lower profile schools, including directionals and privates. Mountain West side has highest profile schools in four states and the second highest in two; CUSA side is a lot uglier in that regard.
If it goes to 18:
Although this makes a lot of sense to me, I don’t think it will happen. If it does, seems UTSA would not be included given the widespread inclusion of UNT and FIU.
UTSA and Texas State have the advantage of being right in the middle of the two conferences which makes them candidates for both leagues.
There is a lot of speculation that this alliance concept won’t work out, and that’s fine. The key is that UTSA gets aligned with these highest of the lower tier, so when the airport meetings get scheduled UTSA is invited. I still believe that all this insanity will one day settle down and we will get back to regional conferences. Hopefully by that time UTSA will be a high profile program that would be included.
So that is what is going on, from the addicted. It has been truly amazing what UTSA has done the last few years. Lynn Hickey is absolutely incredible and I am sure other programs will start trying to woo her away. I am grateful to have her on my schools staff as long as possible.
It’s the absolute filthiest of guilty pleasure. Selling out on long time friends and associates, all so you can make more money and gain a higher profile. Leaving others to scramble and struggle while you don’t even look back. So is the world of conference realignment, and I love it. Hello, my name is Barry Coker and I am a conference realignment news addict.
So what defines this addiction? Checking message boards every hour from your phone, despite what is going on in your life. Work, family, responsibilities, they all play second fiddle until I make my rounds on the group of websites I need to check in. Waiting and obsessing for tweets from beat writers and groups like Inside Runner Sports. Hanging on the words, from a Bobcat of all people, of great news breaker WAC Jack from BobcatReport.com. Feeling the rush anytime news actually breaks, and chasing that high every hour thereafter. Only thing that sucks is that news has been drrrraaagggiiinnngg on this topic.
Obviously, the big topic in the world of UTSA and realignment has to do with the recent reports of a campus visit from CUSA/MWC and that UTSA is shooting up their list. The question that no one has had any answers on is how long this list will be.
Here is a summary to what has been reported and strongly rumored. A few weeks ago, San Jose State and Utah State received visits from the conglomerate. This past week, UTSA and Louisiana Tech received visits, and word is UTSA impressed. There was some talk that Texas State received some sort of a visit as well, perhaps to see the former Aquarena Springs and Wonder World or whatever the hell you do in that shit-hole town. It is widely thought that North Texas and Florida International are already in the mix and have been for a while.
It also looks like the two conferences will stay separate, at least for a while and have some sort of agreement. For some reason, all this is some giant secret and no one has broken any reports on what the plan is. Twenty four makes so much sense logistically. They were talking about having semifinal games and then a championship. Pretty straight forward, you split the 24 into two sides and have two 6 team divisions. This is a common practice and had been seen recently with the Big 12 and SEC before their numbers changed. Then you would just have the two teams on each side meet up for championship. I think everyone understands that scenario, as it is the easiest.
To me, the one that makes the second most sense is 18, with two divisions of 9. Everyone plays everyone in their division and one conference championship game between the two divisions. Another easy scenario.
Twenty and twenty two are difficult to understand. At twenty, seems like your too small for the four division idea, and twenty two isn’t divisible by four, so I have no idea why 22 seems to be some sort of preferred number. Unless, and this has been reported, the MWC side wants to keep place holders in case Boise State and San Diego State want to come back.
So we wait, and no one seems to know what the hell is going to happen, only that it will be wrapped up around June. Oh and that the WAC is going to die. Oh and that Idaho seems to be completely fucked by this whole thing.
Hopefully UTSA makes the cut. The good thing is that there is a backup plan: the Sunbelt, and it’s not that horrible of an option.
Some scenarios that may work out:
If this thing goes to 24:
West side picks up UTEP from CUSA to get to nine. They would then add SJSU and Utah State, the only true candidates west of Texas. That gets to eleven; UTSA would certainly round that out to twelve.
Pros: Good basketball conference. MWC sent four teams to NCAA tournament last year, and only one of those teams is leaving. UTEP could make a good rivalry.
Cons: Not one drivable game in the bunch. If I were to go to El Paso, my ass is flying.
If it goes to 20 or 22:
I think at these numbers, UTSA may be looking at being on the Conference USA side of this. In name alone, this would make Goddess Hickey happy, as this was her stated goal from football day one.
Pros: Geographically this is awesome. Drives to Rice and North Texas. In state rivals, an Oklahoma rival and Louisiana rival(s).
Cons: Single bid league for basketball most years. Lower profile schools, including directionals and privates. Mountain West side has highest profile schools in four states and the second highest in two; CUSA side is a lot uglier in that regard.
If it goes to 18:
Although this makes a lot of sense to me, I don’t think it will happen. If it does, seems UTSA would not be included given the widespread inclusion of UNT and FIU.
UTSA and Texas State have the advantage of being right in the middle of the two conferences which makes them candidates for both leagues.
There is a lot of speculation that this alliance concept won’t work out, and that’s fine. The key is that UTSA gets aligned with these highest of the lower tier, so when the airport meetings get scheduled UTSA is invited. I still believe that all this insanity will one day settle down and we will get back to regional conferences. Hopefully by that time UTSA will be a high profile program that would be included.
So that is what is going on, from the addicted. It has been truly amazing what UTSA has done the last few years. Lynn Hickey is absolutely incredible and I am sure other programs will start trying to woo her away. I am grateful to have her on my schools staff as long as possible.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Episode 18: Mega Conference
Jared takes sick leave, Darrell from RowdyReport.com fills in. We talk Kevin Brown: new offensive coordinator, Basketball struggles, Mega-Conference, UTSA to the Sun Belt?, and other fun stuff.
Also, I postponed the voicemail stuff until later this week/next week. I am just working some of the kinks out. Thanks to the people who have left a message; we'll play our favorites on the podcast soon.
Audio links:
or here.
We also mentioned contributing: podcast@cokerchronicles.com
You can leave a voicemail for us at 210 701 0763. Keep it under a minute and we may play it on the podcast. Leave a comment, ask a question -- your choice. Bow before the magic of Google Voice!
Also, I postponed the voicemail stuff until later this week/next week. I am just working some of the kinks out. Thanks to the people who have left a message; we'll play our favorites on the podcast soon.
Audio links:
or here.
We also mentioned contributing: podcast@cokerchronicles.com
You can leave a voicemail for us at 210 701 0763. Keep it under a minute and we may play it on the podcast. Leave a comment, ask a question -- your choice. Bow before the magic of Google Voice!
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