(03-06-2014 02:01 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(03-06-2014 01:45 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(03-06-2014 01:39 PM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  Missouri is in the SEC east so I don't see why Missouri St. couldn't be in the SBC east.

Because we are not the SEC and we really could use travel partners to help offset travel costs for Olympic Sports. Missouri State does not make since as a travel partner for anyone but Arkansas State. On the other had you don't use travel partners for Football so I suppose if we don't break into divisions for the Olympic Sports then it really wouldn't matter that much...

Arkstfan brought up the point that a Missouri State add would essentially create several clusters of schools, all within Driving distance of one another.

Cluster 1: App State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern

Cluster 2: Missouri State, UALR (Idaho), Arkansas State

Cluster 3: USA, Troy, ULL, ULM,

Cluster 4: Texas State, UTA (NMSU)

If you made a divisional commitment to keep Clusters together...You could probably divide it up any way you wanted and not face a lot of travel issues.

His proposal was to pair up App and the Georgia Schools with Missouri State and the Arkansas schools, while pairing up the Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas Schools. That puts one non football in each division, which is then paired for football purposes with NMSU and Idaho. Putting NMSU and Idaho in separate divisions.

Using a Cross over rivals deal like the SEC has would ensure that at no point would more than 4 SBC schools ever have to play both NMSU and Idaho in the same year...and those schools would rotate every two years.

It seems to me that adding Jacksonville State, UTC andd Missouri State plus moving all of NMSU's sports into the Sun Belt may not be a bad move.

In football...

Eastern Division

Appalachian State
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Jacksonville State
South Alabama
Tennessee Chattanooga
Troy

and each team play two teams from the west.

Western Division

Arkansas State
Idaho
Louisiana Lafayette
Louisiana Monroe
Missouri State
New Mexico State
Texas State

and each team play two teams from the east.

In other sports divide into three divisions of five. In basketball, volleyball, soccer... play each team within the division twice and all other teams once. In baseball and softball play each team within the division three times and play a set number of teams from the other divisions.

East

Appalachian State
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
Jacksonville State
Tennessee Chattanooga

Central

Arkansas Little Rock
Arkansas State
Missouri State
South Alabama
Troy

West

Louisiana Lafayette
Louisiana Monroe
New Mexico State
Texas Arlington
Texas State

It would strengthen rivalries within divisions, cut down on travel...new invites could strenthen basketball.

If the Big 12 added two causing the AAC or CUSA to raid the conference...we could take a couple of hits. In time...we could pass the CUSA and become more stable. Definitely a more balanced conference of similar universities.