For Marquette:

- Independent until 1989 (with many other Catholic schools)
- Midwest Collegiate Conference until 1991 (Xavier, Butler, Saint Louis, Dayton)
- Great Midwest Conference until 1995 (Cincinnati, Memphis, DePaul, Saint Louis, UAB)
- Conference USA until 2005 (Louisville, Houston, Tulane, ECU with GMC schools)
- Big East until 2013 (UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, etc.)
- Big East to Present (C7 and UConn)

Generally speaking, most of the programs we have historically played remain in our conference (DePaul, Xavier, Butler) or on our schedule (Notre Dame, every few years). From the C-USA/BE days, not playing Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis anymore is sad (some really great matchups there), but understandable given conference realignment. Marquette has not scheduled Dayton or Saint Louis as a non-conference game in the past 10 years, so not sure what (if any) interest remains there in continuing that. From the Big East we joined, I miss all of the former conference members (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, USF and Rutgers). There was a special league with an amazing mixture of Public/Privates, Urban/Rural, Old/New programs. It worked for the era for sure.

I wouldn't mind a H/H with Louisville, Cincinnati and/or Memphis for Marquette. I'd think a Cincinnati series is most unlikely, IMO, unless the BE moves away from the round robin via expansion (as we already visit Cincinnati once per year, although maybe it's not a deal breaker). I absolutely love being in a league with Creighton. Never would have thought of that being successful pre-2013. Not all realignment moves hurt the fans. Some create new opportunity and engagement that previously was not considered.

Lol.

(03-11-2024 03:08 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  Vanderbilt: The SEC's adding Missouri and Texas A&M made VU's challenges more daunting. Now with Texas and Oklahoma coming on board ... help us (though in baseball and women's hoops we should be fine).

Memphis: For years, Memphis was aligned in a league with either Louisville or Cincinnati (or both). To lose those two rivals has been rough. Memphis offers a "major to high-major" men's basketball program by most metrics (attendance, coaching history, budget, NCAA/NIT wins, pro players produced, etc.). But because the AAC is perceived a "mid-major" in men's hoops, Memphis is being indirectly and negatively impacted.

DePaul: The Blue Demon athletics program is exactly where it needs to be with this current iteration of the Big East. A perfect fit for DePaul (though many Big East fans would contend a bad fit for the league due to DU horrendous men's hoops).

North Carolina: As long as UNC is affiliated in a league with Duke and N.C. State, I'm pleased. The ACC additions seemingly have not negatively or positively impacted Carolina.

Belmont: As I've posted previously, I'm thrilled the Bruin athletics program (and the school specifically) is now aligned with the Missouri Valley Conference. I strongly disliked the OVC for BU membership

Indiana and Cincinnati (for which I loosely cheer as my brother is a graduate of both IU and UC): HUGE for Cincy to be a part of the Big 12. And I like UCLA joining the Big Ten for men's hoops/Hoosier purposes.

As I asked you before, is there not a school your root for? I only ask this time because I knew nothing of Indiana and Cincinnati.

UConn fan here so pretty much as bad as any school in the country conference wise.

Strangely though outside of football, the performance on the field/court's been amazing.

Let's just say karma has been our best friend and worst nightmare. For now it's our best friend but before and perhaps after, it may be our worst nightmare.

(03-11-2024 04:41 PM)C2__ Wrote:  

(03-11-2024 03:08 PM)bill dazzle Wrote:  Vanderbilt: The SEC's adding Missouri and Texas A&M made VU's challenges more daunting. Now with Texas and Oklahoma coming on board ... help us (though in baseball and women's hoops we should be fine).

Memphis: For years, Memphis was aligned in a league with either Louisville or Cincinnati (or both). To lose those two rivals has been rough. Memphis offers a "major to high-major" men's basketball program by most metrics (attendance, coaching history, budget, NCAA/NIT wins, pro players produced, etc.). But because the AAC is perceived a "mid-major" in men's hoops, Memphis is being indirectly and negatively impacted.

DePaul: The Blue Demon athletics program is exactly where it needs to be with this current iteration of the Big East. A perfect fit for DePaul (though many Big East fans would contend a bad fit for the league due to DU horrendous men's hoops).

North Carolina: As long as UNC is affiliated in a league with Duke and N.C. State, I'm pleased. The ACC additions seemingly have not negatively or positively impacted Carolina.

Belmont: As I've posted previously, I'm thrilled the Bruin athletics program (and the school specifically) is now aligned with the Missouri Valley Conference. I strongly disliked the OVC for BU membership

Indiana and Cincinnati (for which I loosely cheer as my brother is a graduate of both IU and UC): HUGE for Cincy to be a part of the Big 12. And I like UCLA joining the Big Ten for men's hoops/Hoosier purposes.

As I asked you before, is there not a school your root for? I only ask this time because I knew nothing of Indiana and Cincinnati.

My cheering for Indiana is not as intense as it is for Memphis and Vanderbilt. My mother, my father and I have watched lots of Hoosiers hoops games ever since my brother enrolled at IU in 1988. I still watch a good bit of Indiana men's basketball (and some football). I'm hoping Mike Woodson enjoys major success next year (his fourth). Otherwise, he likely will be gone.

I loosely root for Cincinnati, in part because I strongly like the city. It's an underrated old-school American city with lots of both grit and charm. And I strongly enjoy Cincinnati-style chili.

Our family attended a Indiana vs. Cincinnati football game at Nippert Stadium in the late 1990s (when my brother was a UC student). That was fun as we cheered for both teams.

(03-11-2024 04:12 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  For Marquette:

- Independent until 1989 (with many other Catholic schools)
- Midwest Collegiate Conference until 1991 (Xavier, Butler, Saint Louis, Dayton)
- Great Midwest Conference until 1995 (Cincinnati, Memphis, DePaul, Saint Louis, UAB)
- Conference USA until 2005 (Louisville, Houston, Tulane, ECU with GMC schools)
- Big East until 2013 (UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, etc.)
- Big East to Present (C7 and UConn)

Generally speaking, most of the programs we have historically played remain in our conference (DePaul, Xavier, Butler) or on our schedule (Notre Dame, every few years). From the C-USA/BE days, not playing Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis anymore is sad (some really great matchups there), but understandable given conference realignment. Marquette has not scheduled Dayton or Saint Louis as a non-conference game in the past 10 years, so not sure what (if any) interest remains there in continuing that. From the Big East we joined, I miss all of the former conference members (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, USF and Rutgers). There was a special league with an amazing mixture of Public/Privates, Urban/Rural, Old/New programs. It worked for the era for sure.

I wouldn't mind a H/H with Louisville, Cincinnati and/or Memphis for Marquette. I'd think a Cincinnati series is most unlikely, IMO, unless the BE moves away from the round robin via expansion (as we already visit Cincinnati once per year, although maybe it's not a deal breaker). I absolutely love being in a league with Creighton. Never would have thought of that being successful pre-2013. Not all realignment moves hurt the fans. Some create new opportunity and engagement that previously was not considered.

As you can imagine (knowing my thoughts from my years of posting), I would strongly enjoy seeing Memphis play Marquette on occasion. Such a game (even if only once every, say, five years) would "feel right."

The reality is that 1. it would be more beneficial to Memphis than Marquette (and when two programs of this caliber play outside conference, it ideally should be equally beneficial) and 2. Marquette has a rough Big East slate and, as such, has to be judicious with scheduling non-league foes.

UVa

1890-1920 Independent
1921-1936 Southern Conference
1937-1953 Independent
1954-current ACC

UVa has been at the core of the ACC throughout my lifetime. The realignment impact has been minimal. One long-time rival, Maryland, left for the B1G a decade ago. Otherwise, the ACC has been growing in order to stay relevant and keep up with the Joneses.

USF

Before 2011, very positively.

Since 2011, very negatively.

This past nine or so months, there have been cracks of sunshine through the clouds. Still cloudy, but we hadn't seen the sun in over a decade.

(03-11-2024 02:57 PM)CougarRed Wrote:  Goodness.

The SWC collapse blindsided Houston. It almost killed the program during a time the football program was on probation and the football (Kim Helton) and basketball (Alvin Brooks) coaches were awful.

Houston turned down a chance to go to the WAC with TCU, SMU and Rice, and instead forged a path with Louisville and Cincinnati et al in forming Conference USA.

When the MWC split off from the WAC and TCU, Rice and SMU were left behind, that looked like a great decision.

Then we suffered through the Big East raid of CUSA in 2003 which also saw Army (to Indy) and TCU (to MWC) depart.

We really began building our program back in the watered down CUSA with Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin in football and Tom Penders in basketball. This culmninated in a glorious 13-1 season in 2011 with Case Keenum which led to a student referendum in favor of a stadium fee to build a new football stadium.

The Big East came calling and that lasted a few months until the basketball schools pulled out. Houston then helped form a second brand new conference called the American.

Football carried the day early in the American with Tom Herman at the helm, then basketball picked up the torch with Kelvin Sampson (who demanded and got a new basketball arena and practice facility).

Texas and OU's departure opened up a spot in the Big 12 for Houston that almost did not happen. We had to twist a few arms politically and I'm pretty sure we weren't the first, second or third choice.

Thank the lord everything worked out and we can now play in a league at the highest levels with several historical and geographical rivals.

Yeah, I think you said it all, man. Plus, in the case of Cincinnati, this is now our fourth conference together. We shared a conference with them threetimes before now. The two most recent times were CUSA and the AAC, but people do tend to forget that we were in the MWFC together for a few years before we went independent, starting in 1959. (And I still think a Twin Sisters cannons trophy would be a great trophy for our games.)

Memphis' plight is well documented so no need to reiterate those details here.The impacts of realignment, NIL $$$, and the transfer portal has all but depleted any interests I previously had in college sports.

(03-11-2024 04:12 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  For Marquette:

- Independent until 1989 (with many other Catholic schools)
- Midwest Collegiate Conference until 1991 (Xavier, Butler, Saint Louis, Dayton)
- Great Midwest Conference until 1995 (Cincinnati, Memphis, DePaul, Saint Louis, UAB)
- Conference USA until 2005 (Louisville, Houston, Tulane, ECU with GMC schools)
- Big East until 2013 (UConn, Syracuse, Georgetown, Villanova, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, etc.)
- Big East to Present (C7 and UConn)

Generally speaking, most of the programs we have historically played remain in our conference (DePaul, Xavier, Butler) or on our schedule (Notre Dame, every few years). From the C-USA/BE days, not playing Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis anymore is sad (some really great matchups there), but understandable given conference realignment. Marquette has not scheduled Dayton or Saint Louis as a non-conference game in the past 10 years, so not sure what (if any) interest remains there in continuing that. From the Big East we joined, I miss all of the former conference members (Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, West Virginia, USF and Rutgers). There was a special league with an amazing mixture of Public/Privates, Urban/Rural, Old/New programs. It worked for the era for sure.

I wouldn't mind a H/H with Louisville, Cincinnati and/or Memphis for Marquette. I'd think a Cincinnati series is most unlikely, IMO, unless the BE moves away from the round robin via expansion (as we already visit Cincinnati once per year, although maybe it's not a deal breaker). I absolutely love being in a league with Creighton. Never would have thought of that being successful pre-2013. Not all realignment moves hurt the fans. Some create new opportunity and engagement that previously was not considered.

I think realignment has put Creighton in its ideal league. I also really enjoy being in a conference with Marquette. In my (limited) experience, of all the fans at MSG, I feel like the Creighton and Marquette fans get along best.

I'm also glad that Marquette, similar to Creighton, has good women's basketball and great women's volleyball.

UNT's fortunes in realignment have been directly impacted by commitment to growth. Back in 2004 North Texas got left for dead in the Sun Belt, when C-USA chose to expand with UTEP. Can't blame C-USA for passing on us at the time. I believe UNT had about a $12million athletic budget back then and we were still playing in Fouts, which had to be the worst D1/FBS stadium at the time.

By the 2013 realignment, UNT had grown their athletic budget to around $26million, which paced us among the top 6 in C-USA. Plus, North Texas opened a new $76 million stadium. The improvements made an impact on C-USA and we got an invitation, despite have posted several horrible football seasons under Todd Dodge.

When the 2023 realignment occurred, North Texas had again invested to a point that the AAC couldn't ignore us being among the programs most-ready to move up. UNT had an athletic budget of around $44million, and built several facilities, IPF, soccer/track stadium, softball park renovations, basketball arena renovations, .... Despite SMU being in the AAC, the conference still wanted UNT. North Texas was among the 4 original selections for expansion (UNT, Rice, UTSA, & UAB). Some would have you believe that the AAC added UNT as a replacement for SMU, but after seeing how realignment played out, it is easy to see that SMU never had a place to go, and will now be spending nearly a billion dollars ($500million + the loss of 9 years of media revenue) to buy their way into the ACC.

North Texas is still building facilities and increasing our athletic budget. If my sources are correct, UNT's athletic budget will be north of $50million next year. It will take a few years, but UNT has every intention on raising our spending to match what the top AAC programs are spending. If there is another round of realignment in another decade, UNT should be in a good position to be a candidate.

(03-11-2024 04:08 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  Went from ~ top 20 program in revenues to more like a top 5 program. More wins than we had in the 2000s, but fewer than we had in the 90s, at least in football. In other sports, all that money has made a big difference and we're generally more successful across the board now. Kyle Field is much bigger and more full. We still never play Georgia.

<----We still never play A&M!!!

UGA- we went from playing Tennessee every year and having a good rivalry with them, to not playing them at all this coming year, and wondering when we will play them again. Have yet to play A&M!!! Wondering if we will be able to keep Tech (GT) on the schedule. I do want to keep Tech, for all sports.

U of O/Oregon- went from getting Colorado & Utah as conference opponents to wondering how much longer the Ducks-Beavers rivalry will last. For the record, I hope the Ducks-Beavers rivalry does last!!!

Troy U- went from DII Gulf South, to FCS Southland, to FBS SunBelt. I view the 'Belt as Troy's forever home. Upgrading to a national university soon and getting an indoor practice facility. Also, plans are in the works to be less dependent on government subsidy from AL taxpayers.

U of Montevallo- went from NAIA to D2 Gulf South to D2 Peach Belt with no rivals except Columbus State then back to D2 Gulf South where we have rivals again, and we kept the Peach Belt rivalry with Columbus State going non-conference in some sports and rejoined the Peach Belt for Men's & Women's Lacrosse.

Rice will be the only SWC school still stuck in the G5 after SMU leaves for ACC next year.

Can't really say it's anybody's fault but Rice's though? We have the resources to buy our way into a conference if we want to, but seem to be content sucking.

As for my master's university (NYU), undefeated for the past 70+ years! MBB is pretty good for D3 though, and we're in a school with some good peer institutions so no complaints.

Our peers have left us in the dust.
Left Tarleton State behind in 1959 to become a four-year school.
1960's included Abilene Christian, Arkansas State, Lamar, Trinity in the Southland Conference.
1970's and early '80's = Arkansas St, Lamar, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, McNeese St, North Texas.
Late 1980's to late 1990's = Louisiana-Monroe, McNeese St, Nicholls St, North Texas, Northwestern State, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State.
Late 1990's added back Lamar and included Southeastern Louisiana, lost North Texas.
Mid-2000's added Central Arkansas and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and lost Louisiana-Monroe.

Left for the WAC in 2012 with Texas State and Texas San Antonio to include: Denver, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico St, San Jose State, Seattle, Utah St.

2013 started the SBC with Texas State making the move with us: Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas St, Georgia St, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Troy, Western Kentucky.

Over the next half decade, we lost Western Kentucky and gained Appalachian St, Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern.

Stint two in the WAC saw us rejoin New Mexico St and Sam Houston St for a year, currently have Abilene Christian, California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle, Southern Utah, Stephen F Austin, Tarleton St, Texas Rio Grande Valley, Utah Tech, Utah Valley.

The WAC was the 11th best conference in men's basketball this year, which actually was better than our old home in the Sun Belt. However, had we kept football, there's no reason to think we wouldn't be in the Sun Belt now. So that's a kick in the crotch. Two peers in the AAC, four old one in the Sun Belt, two in C-USA. They only long rival that hasn't passed us up is McNeese and Lamar. Don't know how long that will last.

(03-11-2024 10:17 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  The WAC was the 11th best conference in men's basketball this year, which actually was better than our old home in the Sun Belt. However, had we kept football, there's no reason to think we wouldn't be in the Sun Belt now. So that's a kick in the crotch. Two peers in the AAC, four old one in the Sun Belt, two in C-USA. They only long rival that hasn't passed us up is McNeese and Lamar. Don't know how long that will last.

Were it not for Wendell Nedderman, UTA would likely be where North Texas is today, and probably playing in the old Ballpark (aka Choctaw Stadium) by now.

Positively, I guess?

Honestly just happy to have athletics after the stupidity that occurred nearly a decade ago.

Though it's easy to overlook right now, the ACC has been good for the Seminoles and the Seminoles have been good for the ACC. Florida State athletics for both men and women have been able to develop and thrive thanks to the year-round competition the league offers. That year-round aspect of the league is indeed one of the reasons the ACC was chosen for the school's conference membership back in 1990.

Times are changing and the gang is breaking up, but it's fair to say the Seminoles have built champions across the sports spectrum thanks in major part to the competition and inspiration provided league partners. I hope we see some of them again once The Next Big Thing arrives. In any case the Florida State community wishes all our league partners the best.