Is Rice now hold the rights to the SWC? SWC is already a recognized conference, and reforming it would not make a new conference. Great West Conference is another and Yankee and Border are others.


C-USA:
Marshall
ODU
Western Kentucky
UAB
Middle Tennessee State
Southern Miss.
FIU
FAU
Georgia State
James Madison
Delaware
Charlotte

SWC:
North Texas
UTSA
Rice
La. Tech
UTEP
Arkansas State
Missouri State
Lamar
Texas State
Northern Iowa

UTA and Little Rock as non-football members.

They could wait for schools like West Texas A&M and Central Oklahoma upgrades to D1. New Mexico State would still be blocked by UTEP. West Texas A&M already have history with some of the Texas schools.

(10-02-2019 04:23 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  It shouldn't matter why the conference disbanded. Just go with the scenario presented, for whatever reason CUSA will disband, would there be another conference interested in any of the 14 members that would be needing a new home?

I reckon that any schools that the MAC would go for other than Marshall (which itself might run into Marshall invite fatigue after the latest membership cycle) would be off the table once either (1) the CUSA East plus an invitee from CUSA West forms a new eight school conference, or (2) a set of former CUSA East schools joins the Sunbelt as part of the new Sunbelt East Division.

Partly depends on how close to the next round of CFP negotiations it happens ... a new Go"X" conference would ideally form in time to be part of a CFP round of negotiations, but not so far in advance of it that it spends too many years out of the Access Bowl race.

(10-02-2019 04:23 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  It shouldn't matter why the conference disbanded. Just go with the scenario presented, for whatever reason CUSA will disband, would there be another conference interested in any of the 14 members that would be needing a new home?

The AAC, MWC and MAC are at 12. The finances (tv deals, bowls, CFP payouts, NCAA credits) don’t justify expanding to two to four schools especially for the MAC. The Sun Belt has more room but it would be a lateral move at best. The only way I can see it is if the P5 consolidates into a P4 and one of the G5s meets the fate of the WAC but I think that conference would be the Sun Belt not C-USA.

But let’s say the MAC, AAC (for argument’s sake, Army goes to the AAC as independent) and MWC take two schools each and the Sun Belt takes four that way each G4 would have 14 schools. Whoever the four left behinds are, they can go independent in football and form a schedule agreement with UConn, UMass, BYU, NMSU and Liberty. Nine independent schools. NMSU and UMass would probably want to play all of them. BYU and UConn probably four to five.

I can see more schools going independent (maybe Hawaii will give it a try) or drop to FCS before C-USA or any other G5 get disbanded.

Great discussion topic!

I'm an AAC (and G5 more than P5) fan, but a quick look at the C-USA and Sun Belt maps suggests that most of the members could save an incredible amount of money by re-forming into two new conferences with closer geographical ties, much lower travel costs and times, easier ability to watch your teams on nearby fields, more time for fun, etc.

Preamble:

About half of the Sun Belt and C-USA teams fall within the broader footprint of the SEC (extending into Texas) and almost half fall within the footprint of the ACC. The MAC and MWC footprints don't overlap with any of the other G5s. The AAC overlaps most, but is in an ESPN category of its own that could prevent more than 2 or 3 additions to the AAC in the next few years.

Assuming no exchanges with the MWC or MAC, the most obvious options to rearrange the Sunbelt and C-USA might include the following:

Proposal:

I. Merger of the East Divisions of Sun Belt and C-USA into a new Southeastern Coastal Conference (Name to be determined; fostering P5 rivalries with ACC and SEC teams from Virginia, Kentucky, and the Carolinas through Georgia to Florida)

North Division: AVERAGE TRAVEL DISTANCE PERHAPS 400-500 MILES

ODU
Charlotte
Appalachian State
Marshall
MTSU LOCATIONS: NC (2), VA (1) , WVa (1), KY (1), TN (1)
WKU


South Division: AVERAGE TRAVEL DISTANCE PERHAPS 550-650 MILES

Coastal Carolina
Troy LOCATIONS: SC (1), Alabama (1), Georgia (2), Florida (2)
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
FIU
FAU

Total schools: 12.

Primary advantage: More local rivalries, much lower travel costs & reduced travel time for athletes & fans. 12 schools = ideal conference size.

============================================

II. Merger of the West Divisions of Sun Belt and C-USA into a new G5 South Central Conference (Name to be determined; fostering P5 rivalries with Big-12 and SEC teams from Texas to Alabama).

West Division: AVERAGE TRAVEL DISTANCE PERHAPS 550-600 MILES

UTEP
UTSA
Rice
UNT LOCATIONS: Texas (5) & Arkansas (1)
Texas State
Arkansas State

East Division: AVERAGE TRAVEL DISTANCE PERHAPS 300-400 MILES

Louisiana-Monroe
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana Tech
Southern Miss
UAB LOCATIONS: Louisiana (3), South Miss. (1), Alabama (2)
South Alabama

Total schools: 12.

Primary advantage: More local rivalries and much lower travel costs & travel time. 12 schools are better than 10 or 14 team conferences.

========================================================================================

OPTION TO CONSIDER:

OVER-ARCHING TWO CONFERENCE ORGANIZATIONAL SETUP, ENCOMPASSING TWO NEW CONFERENCES FROM THE TEAMS IN THE CURRENT SUN BELT AND C-USA CONFERENCES WITHIN A 24 TEAM MEGA-STRUCTURE WITH 4 ROUND-ROBIN DIVISIONS SET FORTH ABOVE, ROTATING INTER-DIVISIONAL GAMES, PRESERVATION OF SOME RIVALRY GAMES.

CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES FOR THE G5 SOUTH CENTRAL AND G5 COASTAL -CONFERENCES, WHICH WOULD FUNCTION AS QUASI-INDEPENDENT CONFERENCES LINKED ONLY BY A COMMON ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, WHICH WOULD NEGOTIATE MEDIA CONTRACTS, BOWL AGREEMENTS, ETC.

Advantages:

Travel costs and travel time would be cut substantially with streamlined divisional systems, as above.

New organizational structure would be in a much more powerful position to negotiate media contracts, bowl agreements, etc., and costs on salaries to conference executive staffs could be cut by 25%. Result, more money to the conference members and a more efficient organizational setup.

The over-arching organizational structure would also have more power in dealing with State governments, airlines, etc.

(10-01-2019 07:05 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  MAC invites Marshall in a millisecond.

Marshall might or might not accept, because they were MAC and chose to leave once before.

They could try to work out a deal to join a MAC strengthened by itself and WKU and/or MTSU, if the MAC would go for it. Larger conferences would have bigger footprints and more bargaining power.

Another option for Marshall and WKU is to pool the organizational resources of the C-USA and Sun Belt conferences, split the conferences into two 12 team conferences in the broader footprints of the ACC and SEC, and benefit from much lower travel costs and much greater bargaining power by operating under a structure that manages the two new conferences deals with media and bowls, etc.

See this discussed in more detail above.

Another option would be for the C-USA, Sun Belt, MAC, and perhaps MWC to join together their organizational structures under a common framework that handles all their negotiations with the large media companies and cuts the costs of executive salaries by having fewer executives managing a 48 team mega-G4 structure. This structure would have more political power in Congress and with the NCAA. It would also be able to get much better deals with bowl games, to get more games televised, etc.

(10-02-2019 05:02 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Is Rice now hold the rights to the SWC? ...

No. Those rights lapsed with the dissolution of the conference. (Southwest) Texas State for some reason registered the trademark about ten years ago.

(10-02-2019 04:10 PM)Bronco14 Wrote:  

(10-02-2019 12:09 PM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(10-01-2019 07:05 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  MAC invites Marshall in a millisecond.

No thank you

In that case you'd have to join the SunBelt or pray the AAC invites you. But I think people just want you for nostalgia. You guys don't offer anything X 'mid-major' school doesn't.

We recruit the Southeast and all of our Alumni Clubs are in the Southeast. Playing 4 games a year in the State of Ohio doesn't help with recruiting LOL. We'd go to the SB or AAC.