Which combinations make the most sense? My ideas:

ACC+SEC
SEC+B1G
B1G+BIG XII
BIG XII+PAC XII
AAC+CUSA
AAC+SBC
SBC+CUSA
AAC+MAC
MWC+PAC XII

(I listed them basically in descending order of likelihood)

Any 3-way mergers plausible?

(06-01-2020 01:01 AM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Which combinations make the most sense? My ideas:

ACC+SEC
SEC+B1G
B1G+BIG XII
BIG XII+PAC XII
AAC+CUSA
AAC+SBC
SBC+CUSA
AAC+MAC
MWC+PAC XII

(I listed them basically in descending order of likelihood)

Any 3-way mergers plausible?

A temporary merger and reshuffling of the SBC & CUSA is certainly being casually discussed, with them re-organizing along geographic lines to cut travel costs.

The only other mergers that have been discussed, to my knowledge, might possibly occur if the Big-12 falls apart - - let's say that Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech or Baylor were to move to the PAC-12, for example, as unlikely as that might be.

The remaining 6 Big-12 schools might try to reload by adding up to 6 or 8 teams, in the hope that they could maintain their status as a power conference. To succeed, they would probably try to add schools that have previously been members of power conferences, such as Cincinnati (BE) and Houston (SWC) (possibly also SMU (SWC)) and schools with strong athletic programs that are relatively near their geographic footprint, such as Colorado State, Memphis, and SDSU. Tulane (formerly SEC) and Rice (formerly SWC) might be considered for inclusion due to their AAU status, to bolster their academic status. USF (former Big East) and UCF might also be strong contenders, but the geographic distance might be prohibitive.


If the remnants of the Big-12 were to reload with 6 AAC and MWC teams, the AAC could be left with only 8 or 9 all-sports member, and the MWC could be left with only 9 all-sports members. In that event, those two conferences could merge, with the AAC possibly becoming the East Division of a 16 team AAC/MWC mega-conference, and MWC becoming the West Division. A couple of current AAC and MWC schools might go their separate ways.

Alternately, the AAC and MWC could reload with various independents and CUSA, Sun Belt and MAC members:

In that event, the AAC might select Buffalo and UMass or UAB (all-sports) and add App State (FB)/VCU (BB/oly) and perhaps Marshall (FB)/Dayton (BB).

MWC might select NMSU, UTEP, and one or two of the remaining Texas schools (Rice, North Texas, UTSA), if they and the AAC decide to go on as separate conferences.

That might be an interesting poll topic...

(06-01-2020 01:01 AM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Which combinations make the most sense? My ideas:

ACC+SEC
SEC+B1G
B1G+BIG XII
BIG XII+PAC XII
AAC+CUSA
AAC+SBC
SBC+CUSA
AAC+MAC
MWC+PAC XII

(I listed them basically in descending order of likelihood)

Any 3-way mergers plausible?

For geographic/academic reasons, I would like ACC/Big Ten and SEC/Big 12. They currently have men's basketball conference challenges so they would work well.

MWC and Big Sky top schools might make it a go. That would mean three more California schools as full members to be up to 6 which Hawaii would come in as full member. Northern Colorado, Idaho, Idaho State, Southern Utah and Portland State would be left behind which the Big Sky will grab Western Oregon, Central Washington, Simon Fraser, Azusa Pacific, Western Washington (restarts football), Colorado Mesa, CSU-Peublo, Fort Hays State and New Mexico Highlands.

(06-01-2020 01:01 AM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Which combinations make the most sense? My ideas:

ACC+SEC
SEC+B1G
B1G+BIG XII
BIG XII+PAC XII
AAC+CUSA
AAC+SBC
SBC+CUSA
AAC+MAC
MWC+PAC XII

(I listed them basically in descending order of likelihood)

Any 3-way mergers plausible?

Trolling.....you know it’s AAC = Big 12. Remnants.... have fun in big East...

(06-01-2020 01:01 AM)Erictelevision Wrote:  (I listed them basically in descending order of likelihood)

Then the list would look like this:

I agree that mergers are unlikely, but it's STILL an interesting thought experiment, IMO.

(06-01-2020 10:15 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  I agree that mergers are unlikely, but it's STILL an interesting thought experiment, IMO.

It is an interesting thought experiment.

I guess some people just aren't interested in thought experiments or hypotheticals.

Only chance of a merger would be B12/Pac 12 or CUSA/SBC.

They would be mergers in the same sense that the Big 8 and the SWC conference merged and became the Big 12.

In other words, the merged conference may not take all the schools in the 2 original conferences with them.

B1G/PAC - overwhelming majority of schools are AAU, which would create a national high academic/athletic conference. Under such a merger, it is possible non-AAU PAC schools like Washington State, Oregon State and Arizona State are not included, but - if it was mandated - I would definitely envision the B1G accepting all PAC members to create a ultra-mega-conference like this one.

CUSA/SBC - overlapping geography, among numerous other reasons listed here on many different threads.

For various other scenarios, full-fledged mergers are very unlikely (but pockets/groups of schools being assimilated are very possible). Like many realignment waves, top-conferences will take the most valuable programs to them, which sparks reactionary moves that trickle down. Very rarely, do full-on mergers occur; even when the Big 8 and remnants of the SWC came together, only 4 of the SWC programs came along. When Big East Football (AAC) became decimated with only 3 programs remaining, even they did not "merge" with C-USA; they simply took the most valuable programs from C-USA, along with an independent (Navy) and a MAC/A10 program (Temple).