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Conference realignment

Temple has shown that they are making decisions based on football, making it highly unlikely they come back to the A10
 
No one cares about non-revenue sports. The dollars to operate all sports come from Football and Men's Basketball. The A-10 either protects its Men's Basketball product by getting as much high quality MBB programs or it will end up being poached by conferences that do.

I think the only party that would care about travel would be Witchita State, but since they were already in AAC, which has a bigger geographical footprint than the A-10, they've already made that decision that geography is not a top concern, particularly in relevance to their hoops program.
They got that Koch money. They could afford to put an airport on campus there if they wanted. Its a little geographically odd, but not much more than SLU being in the conference. I do think the A10 needs to make moves though. Going after Butler, VCU (Vomits) were aggressive moves while Davidson was more of a reactionary one IIRC. Sure they arent Xavier or Temple in terms of moving the needle, but had the A10 added those schools even sooner maybe there is less incentive for those other schools to leave?


Ferrrum good points, do you think the BE would break it's private school rule?
As another poster pointed out they already did but that is more of an exception than rule. I don't see them going another public route baring something unforeseen and am not sure I see anyone on their radar worth adding. I feel they'd add SLU from our conference before anyone just because of its proximity to Creighton, STL market and arena.
 
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Well, at least the AAC will fully live up to the "American" in its name if their plan goes through. Sea to shining sea.

"In reaction to the Big 12's recent raid of Cincinnati, Houston and UCF, the AAC has focused on recruiting a group of schools that includes Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and UAB, sources tell CBS Sports."

 
I’m beginning to think travel doesn’t mean squat to teams now days.
Was West Virginia the leader in this thinking When it joined the Big 12?
 
Are there any good basketball schools in Great Britain we can add? I mean they're on the Atlantic, too, so we wouldn't have to change the name of the league or anything.
My high school girlfriend’s brother played for Oxford, they do actually have some decent basketball in the UK. Happens to be heavily American athletes.

 
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I’m beginning to think travel doesn’t mean squat to teams now days.
Was West Virginia the leader in this thinking When it joined the Big 12?
If you have to fly anyway, what is an extra 300 miles, an extra half hour-45 minutes of air travel. We fly to most of our games anyway and some conference teams (St. Louis, UMass, Rhody, Dayton), I would guess all sports teams fly because driving just takes too long.
 
Keep in mind it's not just hoops and football. Non-revenue sports would also have to deal with increased travel costs.

Many conferences are dealing with that at least in some sports by only requiring a limited number of in-conference contests rather than a full round-robin or whatever so you can stay regional, but still worth considering whether you've got some conference mates within driving range so you're not putting your field hockey, swimming, and soccer teams on planes all the time.

If you're WVU and you've got a chance at a big payday in the Big 12, it's probably worth it. But to join the AAC? Maybe, maybe not.
 
Here is my suggestion: the CAA agrees to take in UConn football but let UConn stay Big East for everything else. The Big EAst takes - - - UR for basketball but nothing else and UR agrees to go back to the CAA for everything except basketball. Big East purges itself of UConn football, UConn football finds a home with some natural rivals, CAA gets Richmond back but let's us go to BE for hoops and we are the biggest winners as we get BE hoops and back to CAA for everything else which is a better spot!

Many problems solved!

Zero chance this happens, but I love it for us!
 
Here is my suggestion: the CAA agrees to take in UConn football but let UConn stay Big East for everything else. The Big EAst takes - - - UR for basketball but nothing else and UR agrees to go back to the CAA for everything except basketball. Big East purges itself of UConn football, UConn football finds a home with some natural rivals, CAA gets Richmond back but let's us go to BE for hoops and we are the biggest winners as we get BE hoops and back to CAA for everything else which is a better spot!

Many problems solved!

Zero chance this happens, but I love it for us!
You are at a happy hour somewhere, right? LOL
 
AAC about to raid C-USA...FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, UTSA, Rice and UAB.

 
Both Sun Belt and C-USA are trying to land JMU.

The Sun Belt is targeting Southern Miss, Marshall and Old Dominion from Conference USA along with FCS James Madison, as first reported by The Athletic's Chris Vannini.

Conference USA believes it can add James Madison and FBS independent Liberty inside of the next two weeks if details can be worked out, sources tell Dodd. Should C-USA succeed with those additions, it's believed Marshall and Old Dominion would be apt to stay in a nine-team league with C-USA only losing Southern Miss.

 
Gosh could you imagine being Temple right now? That AAC looks horrendous. So close to getting into the real big east for all sports only to be left in a multiple bastardized version of it.

Come back home to the A10 and go indy in football.
 
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Credit Jim Miller for getting us in the A10 20 years ago, which has been a pretty stable conference.

I can't imagine how humbling it would be for my school to be mulling over Sun Belch and (extremely watered down) CUSA offers like JMU is.
 
I can't imagine how humbling it would be for my school to be mulling over Sun Belch and (extremely watered down) CUSA offers like JMU is.
If FCS schools stopped trying to chase higher aspirations, only to pay more to lose more (generally speaking) in a system rigged against them, the second level of college football would be a far better product.
 
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I can live with it depending on the divisional breakdown with the 3 SC Schools/ETSU/WCU. Either way certainly a soft landing spot. I think the CAA is about to change big time.
 
Honestly, there would be some rivalries lost (Delaware, Villanova) but i think a move like this would be a good thing for our program.
 
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New SoCon Fball(mileage from UR).
—————————————————

VMI bus
Elon bus
WM bus
Furman bus(388)
Wofford bus (360)
E Tenn bus (360)
WCU bus(422)
Citadel bus (425)
———————
UTC plane(546)
Mercer plane(562)
Samford plane(677)


CAA revised(add Monmouth)
———————

Nova bus
UD bus
WM bus
Elon bus
Towson bus
Monmouth bus
SBU bus(425)
——————-
UNH plane
Maine plane
Albany plane
URI plane
 
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I wouldn't mind it. Playing Furman and Wofford instead of Maine and Towson, etc., seems like a good trade-off to me, especially if WM comes with us. I prefer driving south on 95 instead of north. The more excuses to do that, the better in my book.
 
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New SoCon Fball(mileage from UR).
—————————————————

VMI bus
Elon bus
WM bus
Furman bus(388)
Wofford bus (360)
E Tenn bus (360)
WCU bus(422)
Citadel bus (425)
———————
UTC plane(546)
Mercer plane(562)
Samford plane(677)


CAA revised(add Monmouth)
———————

Nova bus
UD bus
WM bus
Elon bus
Towson bus
Monmouth bus
SBU bus(425)
——————-
UNH plane
Maine plane
Albany plane
URI plane
Thank you. Interesting that SBU and The Citadel are equi-distant. I bet the average bus ride to Charleston is, at least, an hour shorter than go into Long Island because of congestion north of DC.
 
Definitely looks like a good fit if all the Southern CAA schools move. I don’t follow UR football, but wonder if the shift South would affect recruiting. I always thought more students/athletes came from the North than the South. Seems like the athletes parents travel requirements have to factor in to some degree.
 
Don't hate this. Throw in a few OOC games with UD and 'Nova over the years and all is good.
 
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Would W&M leave the CAA completely with a move like this? I don't think they could leave just CAA football without pissing off the other stuff.
 
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