(04-10-2013 06:26 AM)GoAppsGo92 Wrote:  

(04-10-2013 12:10 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(04-09-2013 09:28 PM)GoAppsGo92 Wrote:  IF, and I mean IF CUSA goes to 16 it will be to insulate them from future losses due to movements at the top. If they are interested in stAte and ULL, they are not going anywhere. There is no rush. As much fun as talking about all this is, I think we are at the end of this round. I'll say this: IF CUSA expands beyond 14, it is a sheer desperation move on their part. CUSA won't kill the SBC and they know it,

I think the first bolded passage is correct, but the second one isn't. CUSA can diminish the SBC by attrition a couple of schools at a time if they really want to (though that doesn't appear to be their plan). Ark State and La-Lafayette are good examples -- losing them would diminish the SBC because the league would be replacing two of the SBC's bowl teams in 2011/2012 with more FCS move-ups. That's a bigger hit to SBC football than replacing the F_U's.

Again, if that was their plan, they would have done it already. There is, and hasn't been, anything to stop them and taking stAte and ULL would have made more sense before 3 of the 4 most recent invites. My opinion is that CUSA membership has not even decided if 16 teams is in their best interest, and we've all decided what teams they are going to pick. I think the membership is clearly divided on this issue and what it means for revenue distribution and scheduling.

That might be right. Further expansion is clearly in the conference commissioner's best interests, because adding more schools is additional insurance for his own job security in case there's more movement farther up the food chain that results in CUSA losing 2-6 more schools. But even with the hard sell from the commissioner, that doesn't necessarily mean it's in the best interests of the schools that are in CUSA right now. School presidents and ADs need to pay attention.

(And you could say something similar for any of a number of conferences. Commissioners might be trying to talk their member school presidents into moves that might not be in the current member schools' best interests.)