(04-11-2014 01:50 AM)Check Yosef Wrote:  

(04-11-2014 01:38 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(04-10-2014 09:35 PM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  I am inclined to agree that if we add this year it will be in May. I guess JMU if they join will not announce until the mid-late part of May. So another month of speculation. All I know is that our AD, T. Kleinlein has publicly said the Sun Belt has voted to expand and that it was a goal to have a 12th fb playing member by June 1.

I have no sources and limited insight. But it seems to me that this is the one confirmed fact about this whole situation: the conference wants a 12th football-playing member. All the rest is rumor and conjecture.

With that in mind, I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the conference will do exactly that, and nothing more: add a single new school to bring the number of football-playing members to 12. I expect the invitee to be JMU or, if JMU says no, EKU.

I view EKU rather than Liberty as the most likely fallback choice for several reasons. It's in the right geographic location. It has a winning football tradition and a 22,000-seat stadium it filled to capacity 10 years ago and therefore has proven potential to fill again. EKU's basketball team is coming off an OVC championship and NCAA tournament appearance. The school is a good academic and institutional fit in the SBC, and doesn't bring the political baggage Liberty would.

As for MSU, I don't see any reason to invite the Bears right now. The conference already has six western football members. MSU's stadium seats only 16,300 and there's no approved plan or funding to expand it (the current renovation will replace seats but not add any). And no one else is likely to invite MSU to move up, so what's the hurry? Better to wait a couple of years and then decide whether the Bears have advanced enough to bring them in and push Idaho out.

You definitely haven't paid attention


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I think you will see a compromise. Before (hopefully not) JMU or (better choices) EKU or Liberty get invited in the east, you will see Missouri State added in the west and perhaps NMSU as a full member. As long as we have a lifeline out to Idaho...we could do the same from Massachusetts...after all it would keep both sides balanced in football and help the belt get more bowl eligible teams.