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Conference Realignment


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38 minutes ago, Gxtrex said:

Would that still be a step up? 

Honestly its pretty lateral in my opinion. It just was at one point much higher. But I do believe ub has a better chance to land in an actual good conference by being in cusa rather than the Mac. Unless of course ub becomes the gonzaga of the Mac in both football and basketball  

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Think its pretty lateral

Think its a necessary move to get to even an AAC level though

Also with cusa seemingly getting pillaged by the aac, would be interesting if a conference like cusa threw some weight behind Ub and went all in on making and growing ub athletics. Kind of taking a gamble on a huge state school and seeing if they can grow and be a pillar and flagship in their conference

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I agree this move is mostly lateral but even more importantly is necessary for UB.

If the rumored teams leave for the AAC here are the remaining teams in CUSA:

Florida International

Louisiana Tech University

Marshall-WV

Old Dominion-VA

University of Southern Mississippi

University of Texas El Paso

Western Kentucky

Middle Tennessee State

Is this conference an upgrade?  Geographically it seems to be much grander than the MAC.

My thoughts are we need to do it and the decision should be based on the schools that the conference plans to add.  

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17 hours ago, SGBull said:

Not sure if anyone has brought this up yet, but you need to apply to join the AAC. UB did not do that, which I’m sure contributes to the lack of talk around them joining.

From what I've read it seems to me every "official" outreach regarding AAC membership was all about the schools and ESPN. The MWC are CBS/Fox schools and had the AAC option and balked, CUSA is CBS/Stadium so ESPN likely worked with the AAC committee to shore up East and Central Texas and take the best CUSA schools. UB is already under ESPN so that's why we likely were not even targeted.

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1 hour ago, RecoveringHillbilly said:

From what I've read it seems to me every "official" outreach regarding AAC membership was all about the schools and ESPN. The MWC are CBS/Fox schools and had the AAC option and balked, CUSA is CBS/Stadium so ESPN likely worked with the AAC committee to shore up East and Central Texas and take the best CUSA schools. UB is already under ESPN so that's why we likely were not even targeted.

Even with all of the new sports networks, the monopoly still controls the world. 

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1 hour ago, UBlearns said:

Some hubbub about Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee to the MAC. 

Solid adds basketball wise 

Wonder what Marshall(cusa is falling apart) and Temple(new travel costs) are thinking as well

All been thinking leaving the Mac but maybe expanding/growing the mac is the actual answer 

Edited by Tee4three
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1 hour ago, UBlearns said:

Some hubbub about Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee to the MAC. 

Any chance we could lure Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State from SBC instead.  Here is what recent rankings (last 4 years including 2021 and pre-season basketball ranking) are:

image.png.1369c42cb335950a12b0a15a50c2e912.png

The MAC is a slight step up over the SBC ex CC / App St for football and a pretty material step up for basketball:

image.png.ef75ea72633a294cd4d05ff7f89b9525.png

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3 hours ago, Tee4three said:

Solid adds basketball wise 

Wonder what Marshall(cusa is falling apart) and Temple(new travel costs) are thinking as well

All been thinking leaving the Mac but maybe expanding/growing the mac is the actual answer 

I think the most likely scenario is Marshall and Southern Miss jumping to the Sun Belt.

Conference USA is on life support. They’re trying to court Liberty and James Madison.

Sun Belt also wants JMU. If CUSA misses out on Liberty and JMU, they’d need to look at FCS programs to stay alive or merge with another conference.

That potentially leaves Middle Tennessee State, Western Kentucky, Old Dominion, UTEP, FIU and Louisiana Tech looking for a conference.

WKU and MTSU make the most sense for the MAC geographically and have decent basketball programs.

I had tweeted about wanting the MAC to pursue Temple and Marshall. I still believe they should check in with both schools but don’t think either is a strong possibility at this moment from what I’m gathering online.

 

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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I think the Sun Belt could end up being the big winner from this next wave of conference expansion.

The American went from being as close to P5 without the title to becoming the new Conference USA.

CUSA is the biggest loser and the Mountain West and MAC are pretty much status quo.

This is how I would rank the G5 conferences post expansion based on how it looks like it’ll play out:

1. Mountain West

2. Sun Belt

3. American Athletic Conference

4. MAC

5. Conference USA (If it still exists)

 

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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23 minutes ago, MaineBull said:

Rumors are MTSU and WKU could move to the MAC.  I think these would be solid adds.  WKU has 14th most mens college hoops wins alltime.  That's impressive no doubt.  

Agree solid adds.  On basketball side MTSU had success with prior coach, Kermit Davis.  If they return to that level, both MTSU and WKU will be basketball games to look forward to and raise competition further.

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