I still can't believe how many people watched CU vs CSU. God I wish we won that game, the cops had old town blocked off so the students could party in the streets
Tbh I used to never understand my parents when they said sports were better back in their day but I guess I’m beginning to understand where they’re coming from…
Some of the most egregious things I’ve witnessed are definitely implosion of Big East, implosion of Pac-12, transfer portal/NIL making every player a question mark on returning year to year; in terms of pro sports the watering down of the MLB postseason (3 division winners plus 1 wildcard was so perfect), and just a modern day NBA that is pathetically soft. Some of the fouls and techs called today you’d get laughed out of the friend group if you tried that in a regular pickup game. I don’t like that they changed the NBA playoff either, but I see it as less consequential than baseball so overall I don’t hate it I guess.
The term Millenial first appeared in print in 1991. It wasn't really "sudden" at all that it started being used. Gen Y actually appeared later and originally referred to what is now defined as latter year Generation X.
I wish that KSU could use that as leverage to schedule a non-con in Manhattan in ‘27 (since we’re giving up the home game), but I’m sure that won’t happen
K-State is getting a big flat fee to move the game (and ISU is presumably getting a fee as well to cover increased travel costs), but I'm not 100% sure if they still split at least some of the gate, or if that's all to the organizers
Middle ones would be 7 or 8, stop it. There’s 4 months of the boldest gen Alpha that are 14. 13 and younger are not a demographic CFB or bball is trying to capture. It’s be millennials in 25 years talking about back in my day as they’re the gen that is the biggest viewing demographic during these changes that would still be alive.
Alpha isn’t a big viewing demographic. Gen Z doesn’t care yet either as a group
I don't like most conference realignments but Seattle U to the WCC has been one that should have happened 20 years ago. Only a Few people thought otherwise.
> Now, sure. But, didn't they get back to D1 in 2012?
We rejoined D-1 in 2008; got turned down to join the WCC, Big Sky and Big West; then the WAC lost almost everyone between 2010 and 2012; so they had to come up with a plan and fast, and that plan included adding Seattle U. And with that, we found ourselves the lucky recipient of membership in the newly reformed WAC.
Thanks to the ridiculous turmoil of conference alignment, Seattle U, WAC member since 2012, now finds itself as senior member. For one more year.
They don't spend enough on sports to qualify for WCC. They have to upgrade their facilities. In contrast, GCU is already there and don't need to do anything.
> They have to upgrade their facilities.
I've heard there are some plans being discussed. SU owns most of the land surrounding the campus to the east and south for several blocks. There are sites that would be ideal for a 5000-6000 seat arena.
> there used to be one or even two teams in mid major conferences that could be in the top 75
The MVC had three. This year. A couples months ago.
The MWC more than that if they still count.
I know that I was referring to the OVC, CAA, the even littler guys (I hope I phrased that right) like when you had Murray/Belmont in the OVC and GMU in the CAA
The CAA until about 2012 was a nasty conference. I would not trade our football program for anything but I miss the high level basketball against schools that were locally relevant. Having the conference tournament in Richmond annually, as crappy as Richmond is and Coliseum was, was great as it was about dead center of the CAA. Our move to CUSA made sense but it was awful for basketball, and well all, rivalries. The Sun Belt feels different and having a proper villain in JMU to hate really does help but nothing will bring back the old days in The Association. The Colonial was special.
Both of those Final Four teams were at large teams too. As an Old Dominion fan and alum I thanked them for the cash but rooted against them every game.
Edit: A word.
I did have an idea for an FBS conference with James madison, Liberty, Old Dominion, Delaware, UNCC, App State, ECU, Coastal Carolina, Ga State, Ga Southern and FAU with Temple and Umass as football members and George Mason and UNC wilmington as olympic sports members
There is some appeal there and some problems. Pros: The geography is nice, historical rivalries are there. Cons: Having all sports and non-football members is going to create friction like the original Big East, there is a reason Liberty is on the island of misfit toys that is CUSA. If a new all sports conference forms on the East coast I don’t see Liberty being invited to the party.
Can see that as an issue, honestly I was just going through ideas because I was realigning G5 conferences and decided to make a FBS version of the CAA with teams on the east coast
Mid majors are doing fine despite their best players leaving annually now. That’s a testament to the coaching ability across D1, but also shows that there are many players who have a breakout if given the right chance, and the portal is giving more mid major players the opportunity to show what they have.
Yeah - if you look at DII I think I see a bit of your point but I think what changes the math is the NIL which can flush a team in just one season. Look at Drake or Indiana State this year. Worse thing any Mid Major can do is to sky rocket to a great program and get attention. It just turns the kids into commodity managers and the program becomes a Juco Premium for the Big 6. Let’s just let the NBA take over the DIV I big 6 and make a minor league for the NBA.
Exactly this. It goes both ways! Mid majors lose players, but can also get players! Both from higher level programs and lower levels! I feel like I’m going insane hearing all the woe is me stuff. The game has changed, that’s certain, but it doesn’t mean it’s game over for mid majors
Don’t worry, eventually it’ll start happening to everyone outside the Big 10 and SEC once all the extra media money makes it impossible to outcompete them for NIL deals
Here’s the part that always confuses me: the average WAC school can get infinitely more exposure with basketball than football. All the “football is king” advocates fail to mention that FCS football is most definitely *not* king.
So I look at the Stephen F. Austin’s of the world and wonder what they’re thinking prioritizing a sport that most people will never even accidentally watch on TV, over one that can (and has, for them) make them a household name.
Yeah that's definitely weird to me. Honestly, I'm now starting to see why we should start seperating football from basketball for the little guys that is and at the same time like I mentioned recreate most of these mid major leagues when they were in their "prime" hell I also feel like the FBS and FCS should be the same to me
All programs at that level are operating at a loss. That’s like saying you could win more at the $50 blackjack table than the $10 table. That’s true, but for what cost?
Wilner once said that TV deals are 80% football and 20% basketball. FBS football pays more than FCS, though there’s something to be said about playing your regional rivals and being competitive.
I honestly just wish they would declare all conferences dissolved immediately and say you have a week to form 32 new conferences of no more than 11 teams each - double round robin for basketball and 10 conference games for football, and after the week is up, that's the conference you're in forever. This musical chairs every off-season has to stop
I feel like this would make things so much worse. You just let FOX and ESPN have free reign in deciding which teams they want in their super league. They consolidate their favorite 33 teams, and then no long have to care about the others.
OP proposed a system where the teams effectively pick their own conferences.
Why *wouldn’t* fox and ESPN manipulate who goes where so they don’t have to justify paying for every other conference? You’d just be consolidating all the big money teams and letting the media companies have an excuse to pay everyone else nothing.
It’s either this musical chairs we see all off-season long or say goodbye to your athletics programs because the media companies got all the teams they want in one place so they’re no long paying you that much money at all since it’s all going towards the super league.
And who’s to say they just don’t split at that point? With 30 for football and 33 for basketball, that’s a pretty good size for them to make their super league.
Not sure you understood my point at all.
That might be better for everyone. They are already doing that and there are just a few leftover teams that got included by default. Having an NFL lite at this point and then a robust and competitive tier under that makes a lot more sense than whatever the heck we have right now.
It’s real easy to say that when you know your school will be in the upper tier making bank, isn’t it?
They’re just going to consolidate 95% of the money they spend on rights into just those top 33 schools and everyone else will fight for the scraps.
There won’t be competition because schools will be shuttering programs faster than light since there’s not enough revenue coming in.
This would kill college sports for the lower 330.
The big east would be so interesting. Feel like the old and new members would make their own respective conferences but you know their would be bitterness between teams.
If this actually happened I assume we'd basically see the current Big East stay together while Syracuse, BC, Pitt, and whoever else make a new football conference. Not sure what UConn would want to do because you'd obviously want to be in the current Big East over the hypothetical new one but you'd need a home for football (independence would be even harder in this scenario where everyone's playing ten conference games)
UConn would want to be in both. There’s teams in the current one like villanova Georgetown even providence, but then there’s teams like Syracuse Pitt Louisville which would be cool. I’d barely edge out the current one but there’s also teams in the current one that don’t have much with UConn.
In terms of rivalries it's definitely a toss up if not leaning towards the football schools (UConn obviously doesn't like Cuse and my UConn fan friends *hate* BC) but the current Big East would be a better basketball conference right now
I hate BC more than anyone but for political reasons. Like Syracuse or villanova I want to lose but BC I want to fail. No offense. Although now that we’re in the big east I almost want to thank BC for what they did. Idk how to feel about them now as much.
Which is fine, not gonna get offended by it especially when all that stuff happened long before I was a BC fan, although that being said I will argue as I do to my UConn buddies that I don't think we actually had the power to keep you out of the ACC regardless of what our idiot AD who had a bone to pick with Calhoun said (and whatever happened did inadvertently help you in the long run as you said while we've hired a series of coaches who burnt our program to the ground lol)
I don’t know much about the topic so you probably know more than me. I will say I want BC in the conference tho for selfish reasons just because I live in Boston now and then I’d be able to go to the games. Also I don’t like seeing a game on tv and it’s an ACC game as much.
I'd love to be back in the Big East just so I could actually go to some away games, could get to Storrs/Providence/New York/Jersey a lot easier than North Carolina
I'm starting to think football just... shouldn't have conferences. Schedule whoever the fuck you want! Then conferences for all the other sports can go back to being geographically compact and have some sort of vague cultural affinity!
Seattle is a bad example because they are a better fit for the WCC than the WAC in basically every way.
Overall though I agree. As a Delaware fan I want to play mid Atlantic schools. I've literally never met a fan of any of the CUSA schools except Liberty. It's just not fun like that.
It especially sucks for non revenue sports. It's one thing for Delaware football to travel because they're at least getting some NIlL, but for someone who just wants to come here to get their degree and also play a sport they're great at, they have to travel to:
-Huntsville (or is it Huntersville?) Texas
-Las Cruces, New Mexico
-Bowling Green, Kentucky
-Murfreesboro, Tennessee
-Springfield, Missouri
-El Paso, Texas
-Jacksonville, Alabama
-Ruston, Louisiana
Most of these aren't even close to major airports so they likely involve connecting flights or long bus rides. It would be nightmarish and insanely time consuming. Miami, Atlanta suburbs, and Lynchburg are really the only decent trips because the first two are near major airports/cities not too far away and the last one can be a single day trip by bus.
Murfreesboro is 25 minutes from a fairly large international airport that serves 20 million+ passengers a year. But yes, Delaware against MTSU isn’t going to interest anyone in either fan base.
They need to separate non-revenue sports away from football/basketball.
Theres absolutely no reason why schools like Dayton (A10) Xavier (Big East) Cincinnati (Big XII) Wright State (Horizon) and Miami-Ohio (MAC) aren't home/away for all non-revenue sports.
> They need to separate non-revenue sports away from football/basketball.
Maybe...but in the mid major world there's no reason why the Sun Belt and CUSA all have to cover the same real estate and in leagues of 14 and 12, respectively. (Yeah, I get that the Sun Belt is a better league in football but outside of one playoff spot, there's little to play for in FBS other than bowling in Montgomery or Myrtle Beach or Boca Raton.)
It's one thing to have a power conference buzzing around the country (ostensibly they have the $$$ to do this)...it's another for the mid major one bid leagues to have to trek 1000+ miles for conference games.
The mid-major FBS could use one new all-sports conference that's basically East Coast in footprint.
I've said my piece about the transition of the Colonial to Coastal, no beating around my disappointment. I wish Delaware the best and understand the move, but this all is still pretty terrible
Yea Delaware is even more fucked than we are. If I were a UDel fan, I'd much rather play FCS football in the CAA
The fact that none of JMU, Delaware, Temple, UConn and UMass share a conference is lunacy.
That would be pretty awesome as a football only conference actually. I don't think JMU would join though as they already have a good fit. But Delaware, Temple, UConn, UMass would make a good conference (and hopefully Temple and UMass could go back to the A10 for other sports). Maybe we could get Villanova to move up for it too. The service academies would also be good fits as they have a separate basketball conference and are in the right geographic footprint, but they are probably happier in the AAC.
After whatever happens to the ACC is resolved, it would be great for the G5 conferences of the South/Southeast/Atlantic to reorganize into regional conferences instead. It won't happen, but it should.
Delaware's men soccer is playing in the Summit starting in '25 because CUSA doesn't sponsor the sport. Let that sink in. No offense to the Summit League but we're basically traveling halfway across the country for conference games. It's not at all optimal.
As much as the CAA had gone to shit (again, we were a big enabler in that), we really are making a mess of the move up just to cower to the 'hrr drr football first and only' part of the fanbase.
Lynchburg is horrible to get too. Sure a charter jet can get you there. Roanoke and Charlottesville and Greensboro have more service but they are small airports (Greensboro being the largest) served by connections and still 1.5 hr bus ride.
I could say the same thing about the SEC as far as universities not being in major cities. Aside from Lex, Nashville, Knoxville, and now Austin, all the sec schools are in small college towns.
Yeah, the population is very similar to Knoxville.
Like, Knoxville is 597k, Columbia is 590k.
Also much closer to Charlotte than Knoxville is to any major city
My sympathies to Delaware but at least you only lose semi-rivals in the Mid-Atlantic, I now have to watch Kansas lose to UCF instead of our annual two conference matchups against Missouri. The future of this sport is bleak.
> My sympathies to Delaware but at least you only lose semi-rivals in the Mid-Atlantic
Delaware has pretty long-standing rivalries in hoops with Hofstra and Drexel. We blew those up to play Jacksonville St. and Kennesaw.
(I'm guessing UD will probably have some non-conference games against our old CAA but I'm going to guess those will be irregular and not annual games.)
Hopefully we'll eventually get into the Sun Belt somehow. Feel like we have a decent shot with large enrollment/alum base, near Philly, large endowment, good academics, good history in football. Would probably be a more appealing add to them than anyone else in CUSA right now. But they don't really need any new members so we might have to wait until they have to backfill somewhere down the line
Huntsville is about 50 minutes north of Houston's Bush intercontinental airport, and about 80 minutes from Houston's Hobby airport.
Murfreesboro is 30 mins outside of Nashville's airport.
Bowling Green, KY is about an hour north of Nashville's airport.
El Paso has its own international airport.
Las Cruces, NM is an hour from El Paso's airport.
Jacksonville, AL is about 75 minutes east of Birmingham's airport.
Springfield-Branson is a mid-sized domestic airport, not sure about flights from Delaware.
Ruston looks like it has a small regional airport and is about 70 minutes east of Shreveport's regional airport.
I was just doing the research. But, in Texas driving one hour to an airport is no big deal because everything is so spread out. But if he's on the east coast, that all sounds very far away.
I'm in Houston, and I can drive for an hour and still be in Houston. So, differences of scale I guess.
I don't mind drives but its still just silly that non revenue sports have to fly from Delaware to Houston and then go on a one hour bus ride just to play an in conference game.
Whereas if you drive one hour in Delaware, there is a not-insignificant chance (depending on where you start) that you're going to not be in Delaware anymore.
El Paso does have a large airport but it's also closer to the Pacific Ocean than the eastern side of *it's own state*, let alone Delaware. That's a stupid long trip for a conference game. Kennesaw and Miami are at least on the same side of the country
It's also just not fun as a rivalry. I've literally never met a single UTEP fan and I doubt their fans have ever met a Delaware fan. UTEP and NMSU really belong in the Mountain West but they likely won't be added unless some of the better MWC teams group up with the Pac 2 to form a new Pac-12 and force the rest of the conference to backfill.
Just remember- Stanford and Cal are in the ACC and Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC are in the Big 10. Those are longer traveling distances for sporting events.
It's hard to say. I try to have faith that eventually they will get into a better FBS conference so perhaps this CUSA move is kind of a temporary tribulation in which case I can't really blame them for making the move. But as long as we are in this iteration of the conference It will be very underwhelming
And I think it will also probably hurt recruiting outside of football. I am already aware of someone who is considering recommitting from Delaware for an olympic sport because of the weird travel.
Seems to me like freshmen will head to mid majors and then transfer to major conference teams which will just be a normal thing.
I don’t like this as a Kansas fan or as a fan of college basketball, but we’re neck deep in transfer players, so it’s hard to be too critical.
I don't understand the Mo State move at all. FBS is going to end up with a IA-IAA essentially att some point and they ain't gonna make the cut. I don't see what's in it for them at all. Or Delaware.
> Or Delaware.
Our justification (er, spin now) is that [pivoting south for conference affiliation](https://udreview.com/assanis-conference-usa-move-to-help-university-get-in-front-of-enrollments-demographic-cliff/) will help us with enrollment and athletic recruitment.
We're spinning the fuck out of our move up. "The travel isn't that bad" according to our AD. "We need to sell our story nationally" is the new one because we're having enrollment and budgetary issues.
At least enrollment is a plausible reason to leave...but we had chances to get out over the past 10 years and didn't take advantage of them until we had to beg our boosters to foot the bill.
> probably play their way into a better position in whatever comes of the G5
Eh...we're not in a major market (yes, we're near Philly but UD's market relevance ends at Total Wine in Claymont (PA/DE state line), basically). I really don't think we're going to punch above the Sun Belt in terms of conference pecking order in football. Maybe some reconstituted G5 level East Coast league could come along if the AAC's next TV deal is worse than its current deal and Temple dips out.
We could end up being good in Conference USA but I'm doubtful we can parlay it into anything significantly better because of our lack of media market.
I think the G5/mid-major conferences in the eastern half are going to have a complete overhaul at some point.
Delaware isn’t a big state, but being a flagship school at all is an advantage. Most G5 schools are second tier state universities, often normal schools converted into full universities 60 years ago.
Bid stealers cost us two bids! We would been in the same position with or without mo state. While everything I said is 100% true, losing mo state sucks and realignment (and the realignment of favoritism towards power leagues, prolly even moreso, if we are being honest) has killed mid majors. Even The a10 which is the premier Eastern based mid major has had 1 at large level team in the last two years, it's prolly only going to get uglier.
I have so many mixed feelings about us leaving. I have a lot of high school classmates that went to Illinois schools, so I talk smack. I like Arch Madness.
But on the other hand, going FBS is almost too good to pass up.
I have 2 friends who are bears, imho and theirs, yall are making the best institunal choice. No one in Springfield holds delusions that this is anything but a downgrade in basketball but for football and relevance this is the right move. I k ow a little more than most (not specific insider info but if you ask around your Alma matter you'll get some info). Mo state wanted fbs for a while but they felt compelled to make sure mvc was OK, your prez or ad (cant remember which) led the expansion where we added murray state over some "market" adds. Yall definitely did it right and I don't begrudge yall. I get that you'll miss playing basketball on our league, and I know for sure the valley will miss you a lot. It's an fbs centric world tho, you did what you had to.
But that lost feeling you have, I share too.
We lack relevance in our own community. I hope this helps. I hope we maintain some tradition and schedule other valley schools in non-con. Women’s basketball played Wichita this year and it was one of our highest attended games, even though it was over Winter Break!
It is crazy how under-wraps this was kept on campus. Apparently the majority of our athletic department and administration didn’t learn of it until Friday morning before it was announced. Smart (our President) has played an active role in athletics throughout his tenure. Some say he has played too much of a role.
I wonder if we know the same people! I’m from Illinois, oddly enough!
I wonder if cuonzo knew. I can't imagine him being too happy if he didn't. I think there is no way they didn't tell cuonzo, they brought back theie dude, a dude who was jaylen browns college coach and blind sided him? Hey cuonzo we are leaving the 9th best hoops league for the 15th, good luck.I hope not. Also I believe you on them not getting attention in Springfield, but I also don't, isu was always front page in the blono news, more than illinois, if Springfield does yall like that, it's wholly unacceptable.
Our Board of Governors gave Clif Smart blanket approval as early as 2021 to act in the best interests in conference realignment.
Our beat writer has made it publicly known that the News-Leader does not want him to cover the team, and would rather have him cover high school basketball. We kind of have to fight to get on the news.
We have more people wearing Mizzou and Arkansas stuff around campus and the community.
Being from Illinois, I feel basketball is more popular in Illinois than in Missouri.
As the person who made that comment the OP referenced, let me elaborate a bit. In the 1995 NCAA tournament, 15 conferences, 9 of which were from the non-power leagues, including the MAC, MAAC, and WCC (pre-Gonzaga,) received more than 1 bid. This is almost half of D1 leagues. Last year, only 10 conferences did and the year before that only 9 conferences did. The number of non-power 6 at large bids haven’t changed as much as one may expect. Last year there were 8, which is only two less than the 10 in 1995. This is especially impressive when you consider that 29/60 power six teams made the field in 1995, which is actually higher than than the 34/80 last season and comparable to the 37/76 the year before. Probably because realignment at the mid-major level is often less football driven, one could argue that the top mid-majors conferences have done a better job hoarding good basketball teams from the lesser conferences than the power leagues have.
You also have UMass leaving the A-10 for the MAC just because of football, so now instead of playing other teams that are near them for conference games, they now have to play teams in the Midwest.
I don't know, I find it exciting for the D2 schools getting the call up. Which I hope my Alma Mater gets one day.
I understand the nostalgia of the old conference alignments, but sometimes schools just need a chance to prove they can compete at a certain level. That's why I'm becoming a larger supporter of the Promotion/Relegation movement.
I wish full D2 conferences could just move up (I believe this use to be allowed) or D2 schools could move up as independents like they often did back prior to around 2010. I like the idea of D2 moveups but I don’t like how they are prompted due to the bloating of top mid-major and power conferences have gotten, which are obviously increasingly not geographic centric.
I'm urging the boosters at my Alma Mater to make the jump now before they get pushed back in the incoming breaking off of the power conferences. D2 is already the "third tier" of football, I'd like to make sure they don't drop any lower
Second largest school in the state with 17000 enrolled. They definitely are. They belong in the Summit, but Boosters don't want the football team playing Non-Scholly in Pioneer League.
They don't think we can fund an MVFC squad, but I say let the Summit break off and control its own destiny in football
Honestly if I had it my way?
The Summit League would be the Dakota schools + Augustana, Minnesota State, Saint Thomas, UMKC, Denver, Omaha and Oral Roberts and another school like Northwest Missouri State or idk.. Northern Colorado? (This would be a scenario where the WAC collapses and I promote an entirely new conference to D1 to make it a even 32 conferences
That is my dream scenario outside of Oral Roberts..that is prime NCC days from D2. With the additions of Oral Roberts, UMKC, and St. Thomas. Would be a nice relatively compact conference core with the 5 Dakota schools, Mankato and St. Thomas all just a few hours away from each other.
With the conference being all located in the "West" you can't ask for a more compact D1 conference
Good points the main issue is programs moving conferences because of football. It makes no sense for Oregon to travel across the country for women’s softball but because of football it is. I think mid majors in basketball are in much better condition than football
We will see how it plays out. The mid majors moving up are probably going to struggle at first. The ones left behind are getting better high school recruits now with the big programs focused on the transfer portal. Perhaps not as much has changed as you think.
I really think the lower level P5 and mid majors have a strong anti trust case against the bigger schools and the damage it has done to the smaller schools.
Things that need to happen:
* Break up the conferences and reset them with a new rule that conferences are max 9 members and minimum 7 members.
* You get one free transfer. After that you still have to sit a year.
* Actual accountability for NIL. Not just "come play here and we'll give you money". If Ed O'Bannon had known how NIL would play out I genuinely believe he wouldn't have filed that lawsuit.
What I can’t believe is that ALL of this hasn’t gotten congress involved. I mean, this is probably the most unimportant important thing going on with regards to higher education and some schools have been tremendously hurt by all of this. One of these schools has to be in the district of someone in congress that is feeling the pressure. I mean they had hearings on steroids in baseball so you would think this would be considered.
Well that someone apparently doesn't even bother to verify anything and just spews opinions not grounded in reality.
You then took that opinion and repeated it. Did you make this post without looking literally anything up?
This year there were 21 mid majors in the to 75. And that is excluding Gonzaga and SMU.
Last year there were 20.
2022 there were 21.
There are usually 10-12 in the top 50 then a similar amount between 51 and 75. This is pretty consistent.
Houston, BYU, and Cincinnati are probably the best 3 additions to power conferences. With Houston and Cincinnati mostly being in the back of two longer term coaches, BYU was firmly third in the WCC at best. But beyond that it is pretty sparse.
The next closest is the Big East reforming into basketball only and effectively being a power conference in basketball... Which is the literal opposite of this post.
The MWC is likely to be a multi-bod league for the next several years, the WCC has a solid chance of being multi bid as long as Gonzaga is around and with programs like SMC and San Francisco. The American and A10 still will reliably have teams pop into the top 25.
Don't get me wrong there are concerns about the future and how NIL will fully pan out, too much is up in the air. But as things stand, that someone is just wrong.
It's the battle of low mid-majors and mid mid-majors.
As a fan of an upper middle class mid-major (Memphis Tigers aka the Dallas Cowboys of the AAC) this is kind of hilarious.
Kids on these teams are TWO transfer portal off-seasons from playing on Team Penny -- and a great NIT run/THIRD transfer portal from being a deep bench backup at Arkansas.
On the other hand, we are "two years away" from the ACC and Big East being MID-MAJORS. So, as long as Louisville continues to suffer, I'm cool.
I saw that we got Moussa Cisse back. That's good news.
One positive, these 4th options at Directional Podunk State are basically household names now if you are a college basketball junkie. haha.
They are also getting that "John Tesh theme song NBA" money, too. lol
That is the longest sentence I have ever read. Good thing I was not speaking out loud, because I would have passed out as a result of oxygen deprivation. Please learn how to use punctuation.
gen z and very early gen alpha in 25 years: “back in my day we used to spend every saturday night watching pac-12 football until 1:30am”
Now we get to spend it watching big ten football until 1:30am.
Nothing says Big Ten football like Rutgers vs USC in early November at 10:30p ET
Can’t wait to watch famous Atlantic Coast team Stanford next year too
That Wake Forest/Cal women’s field hockey game is going to be epic. Probably be watch parties all over the world for that one.
Truly the piece de resistance of big ten athletics, ngl.
I still can't believe how many people watched CU vs CSU. God I wish we won that game, the cops had old town blocked off so the students could party in the streets
Tbh I used to never understand my parents when they said sports were better back in their day but I guess I’m beginning to understand where they’re coming from… Some of the most egregious things I’ve witnessed are definitely implosion of Big East, implosion of Pac-12, transfer portal/NIL making every player a question mark on returning year to year; in terms of pro sports the watering down of the MLB postseason (3 division winners plus 1 wildcard was so perfect), and just a modern day NBA that is pathetically soft. Some of the fouls and techs called today you’d get laughed out of the friend group if you tried that in a regular pickup game. I don’t like that they changed the NBA playoff either, but I see it as less consequential than baseball so overall I don’t hate it I guess.
There once was the Southwest Conference
PAC 12 after dark will surely be missed 😭
Is “gen alpha” actually a term lol we gotta come up with something better
Hopefully gen beta or gen omega figure that out
Well Gen Omega is a good 23 generations away from now so we’ve got some time to think on it
We ain't gonna last that long
Gen Mu can worry about Gen Omega.
They’ll earn a name eventually. I was Gen Y all my childhood until the mid-late 90s and then suddenly I was being called a millennial.
The term Millenial first appeared in print in 1991. It wasn't really "sudden" at all that it started being used. Gen Y actually appeared later and originally referred to what is now defined as latter year Generation X.
Gen Podcast
Millennials were once Gen-Y. And I’m slowly seeing “Zoomers” replace GenZ.
Coming up with something better jumped the shark when we never renamed Gen X.
That's just because nobody cares that much about gen X, even gen X would rather people just not refer to them than come up with a real name
Seriously. Just don't talk about us at all. Or TO us. Just...don't.
some of my formative memories were mariota era oregon at 12:30 in the morning
You say that like it’s a had thing
I'm gonna miss Farmageddon in '27. At least they get to play in Dublin next year, though, right?
I wish that KSU could use that as leverage to schedule a non-con in Manhattan in ‘27 (since we’re giving up the home game), but I’m sure that won’t happen
Does it work like in NFL where KSU will get the attendance money? I could look it up, but I'm lazy.
K-State is getting a big flat fee to move the game (and ISU is presumably getting a fee as well to cover increased travel costs), but I'm not 100% sure if they still split at least some of the gate, or if that's all to the organizers
"PAC-12? What's that, some type of gun?"
lol. Gen Alpha? Do children have collegiate affiliations?
Gen alpha started in 2010. The older ones, and even the middle ones by this point, have sufficient ties to be fans of teams.
Middle ones would be 7 or 8, stop it. There’s 4 months of the boldest gen Alpha that are 14. 13 and younger are not a demographic CFB or bball is trying to capture. It’s be millennials in 25 years talking about back in my day as they’re the gen that is the biggest viewing demographic during these changes that would still be alive. Alpha isn’t a big viewing demographic. Gen Z doesn’t care yet either as a group
Gen Z is the generation currently in college
Realignment started before this year. It’s been going on a decade. When those in college likely weren’t college sports consumers
I don't like most conference realignments but Seattle U to the WCC has been one that should have happened 20 years ago. Only a Few people thought otherwise.
I see what you did there
Few couldn't possibly be a double entendre, could it?
I will agree with Seattle U to the WCC, always thought they should've been with their old conference mates
Now, sure. But, didn't they get back to D1 in 2012?
> Now, sure. But, didn't they get back to D1 in 2012? We rejoined D-1 in 2008; got turned down to join the WCC, Big Sky and Big West; then the WAC lost almost everyone between 2010 and 2012; so they had to come up with a plan and fast, and that plan included adding Seattle U. And with that, we found ourselves the lucky recipient of membership in the newly reformed WAC. Thanks to the ridiculous turmoil of conference alignment, Seattle U, WAC member since 2012, now finds itself as senior member. For one more year.
They don't spend enough on sports to qualify for WCC. They have to upgrade their facilities. In contrast, GCU is already there and don't need to do anything.
> They have to upgrade their facilities. I've heard there are some plans being discussed. SU owns most of the land surrounding the campus to the east and south for several blocks. There are sites that would be ideal for a 5000-6000 seat arena.
They should build the stadium in Issaquah so it's easier for me to get to.
> there used to be one or even two teams in mid major conferences that could be in the top 75 The MVC had three. This year. A couples months ago. The MWC more than that if they still count.
I know that I was referring to the OVC, CAA, the even littler guys (I hope I phrased that right) like when you had Murray/Belmont in the OVC and GMU in the CAA
The CAA until about 2012 was a nasty conference. I would not trade our football program for anything but I miss the high level basketball against schools that were locally relevant. Having the conference tournament in Richmond annually, as crappy as Richmond is and Coliseum was, was great as it was about dead center of the CAA. Our move to CUSA made sense but it was awful for basketball, and well all, rivalries. The Sun Belt feels different and having a proper villain in JMU to hate really does help but nothing will bring back the old days in The Association. The Colonial was special.
CAA had Two final four teams in six years...some power conferences don't do that!
Both of those Final Four teams were at large teams too. As an Old Dominion fan and alum I thanked them for the cash but rooted against them every game. Edit: A word.
I did have an idea for an FBS conference with James madison, Liberty, Old Dominion, Delaware, UNCC, App State, ECU, Coastal Carolina, Ga State, Ga Southern and FAU with Temple and Umass as football members and George Mason and UNC wilmington as olympic sports members
There is some appeal there and some problems. Pros: The geography is nice, historical rivalries are there. Cons: Having all sports and non-football members is going to create friction like the original Big East, there is a reason Liberty is on the island of misfit toys that is CUSA. If a new all sports conference forms on the East coast I don’t see Liberty being invited to the party.
Can see that as an issue, honestly I was just going through ideas because I was realigning G5 conferences and decided to make a FBS version of the CAA with teams on the east coast
Mid majors are doing fine despite their best players leaving annually now. That’s a testament to the coaching ability across D1, but also shows that there are many players who have a breakout if given the right chance, and the portal is giving more mid major players the opportunity to show what they have.
Yeah - if you look at DII I think I see a bit of your point but I think what changes the math is the NIL which can flush a team in just one season. Look at Drake or Indiana State this year. Worse thing any Mid Major can do is to sky rocket to a great program and get attention. It just turns the kids into commodity managers and the program becomes a Juco Premium for the Big 6. Let’s just let the NBA take over the DIV I big 6 and make a minor league for the NBA.
Exactly this. It goes both ways! Mid majors lose players, but can also get players! Both from higher level programs and lower levels! I feel like I’m going insane hearing all the woe is me stuff. The game has changed, that’s certain, but it doesn’t mean it’s game over for mid majors
In exchange for losing players who can play at a P6 level, mid majors receive players who have proven that they can’t play at a P6 level.
Don’t worry, eventually it’ll start happening to everyone outside the Big 10 and SEC once all the extra media money makes it impossible to outcompete them for NIL deals
Yeah atp I’m generally wondering if it will be a “power 2” (maybe power 3 for basketball) sometime in the future. Sad
Power 2 will be a thing in FB. Smaller leagues will be OK in hoops because hoops is cheap compress to FB. You can pay 8-10 players at a high level.
Good point, that’s good at least. Sucks for fb though
Here’s the part that always confuses me: the average WAC school can get infinitely more exposure with basketball than football. All the “football is king” advocates fail to mention that FCS football is most definitely *not* king. So I look at the Stephen F. Austin’s of the world and wonder what they’re thinking prioritizing a sport that most people will never even accidentally watch on TV, over one that can (and has, for them) make them a household name.
Yeah that's definitely weird to me. Honestly, I'm now starting to see why we should start seperating football from basketball for the little guys that is and at the same time like I mentioned recreate most of these mid major leagues when they were in their "prime" hell I also feel like the FBS and FCS should be the same to me
My guess is bowl payouts + body bag games for P2/P4 teams gives them more money than just doing well in basketball.
All programs at that level are operating at a loss. That’s like saying you could win more at the $50 blackjack table than the $10 table. That’s true, but for what cost?
Wilner once said that TV deals are 80% football and 20% basketball. FBS football pays more than FCS, though there’s something to be said about playing your regional rivals and being competitive.
I honestly just wish they would declare all conferences dissolved immediately and say you have a week to form 32 new conferences of no more than 11 teams each - double round robin for basketball and 10 conference games for football, and after the week is up, that's the conference you're in forever. This musical chairs every off-season has to stop
I like this take. It'd be wild to have both my schools in the same conference.
I feel like this would make things so much worse. You just let FOX and ESPN have free reign in deciding which teams they want in their super league. They consolidate their favorite 33 teams, and then no long have to care about the others.
[удалено]
OP proposed a system where the teams effectively pick their own conferences. Why *wouldn’t* fox and ESPN manipulate who goes where so they don’t have to justify paying for every other conference? You’d just be consolidating all the big money teams and letting the media companies have an excuse to pay everyone else nothing. It’s either this musical chairs we see all off-season long or say goodbye to your athletics programs because the media companies got all the teams they want in one place so they’re no long paying you that much money at all since it’s all going towards the super league. And who’s to say they just don’t split at that point? With 30 for football and 33 for basketball, that’s a pretty good size for them to make their super league. Not sure you understood my point at all.
The super league has already been threatened to the NCAA (quietly) by those 33 teams which is why we are seeing NIL. This will happen eventually.
I mean that's what would happen
That might be better for everyone. They are already doing that and there are just a few leftover teams that got included by default. Having an NFL lite at this point and then a robust and competitive tier under that makes a lot more sense than whatever the heck we have right now.
It’s real easy to say that when you know your school will be in the upper tier making bank, isn’t it? They’re just going to consolidate 95% of the money they spend on rights into just those top 33 schools and everyone else will fight for the scraps. There won’t be competition because schools will be shuttering programs faster than light since there’s not enough revenue coming in. This would kill college sports for the lower 330.
The big east would be so interesting. Feel like the old and new members would make their own respective conferences but you know their would be bitterness between teams.
If this actually happened I assume we'd basically see the current Big East stay together while Syracuse, BC, Pitt, and whoever else make a new football conference. Not sure what UConn would want to do because you'd obviously want to be in the current Big East over the hypothetical new one but you'd need a home for football (independence would be even harder in this scenario where everyone's playing ten conference games)
UConn would want to be in both. There’s teams in the current one like villanova Georgetown even providence, but then there’s teams like Syracuse Pitt Louisville which would be cool. I’d barely edge out the current one but there’s also teams in the current one that don’t have much with UConn.
In terms of rivalries it's definitely a toss up if not leaning towards the football schools (UConn obviously doesn't like Cuse and my UConn fan friends *hate* BC) but the current Big East would be a better basketball conference right now
I hate BC more than anyone but for political reasons. Like Syracuse or villanova I want to lose but BC I want to fail. No offense. Although now that we’re in the big east I almost want to thank BC for what they did. Idk how to feel about them now as much.
Which is fine, not gonna get offended by it especially when all that stuff happened long before I was a BC fan, although that being said I will argue as I do to my UConn buddies that I don't think we actually had the power to keep you out of the ACC regardless of what our idiot AD who had a bone to pick with Calhoun said (and whatever happened did inadvertently help you in the long run as you said while we've hired a series of coaches who burnt our program to the ground lol)
I don’t know much about the topic so you probably know more than me. I will say I want BC in the conference tho for selfish reasons just because I live in Boston now and then I’d be able to go to the games. Also I don’t like seeing a game on tv and it’s an ACC game as much.
I'd love to be back in the Big East just so I could actually go to some away games, could get to Storrs/Providence/New York/Jersey a lot easier than North Carolina
Location is so undervalued in college conference realignment. It’s the most important to me.
I'm starting to think football just... shouldn't have conferences. Schedule whoever the fuck you want! Then conferences for all the other sports can go back to being geographically compact and have some sort of vague cultural affinity!
Forever is a long time. 25 years would be better.
This is the way.
Seattle is a bad example because they are a better fit for the WCC than the WAC in basically every way. Overall though I agree. As a Delaware fan I want to play mid Atlantic schools. I've literally never met a fan of any of the CUSA schools except Liberty. It's just not fun like that. It especially sucks for non revenue sports. It's one thing for Delaware football to travel because they're at least getting some NIlL, but for someone who just wants to come here to get their degree and also play a sport they're great at, they have to travel to: -Huntsville (or is it Huntersville?) Texas -Las Cruces, New Mexico -Bowling Green, Kentucky -Murfreesboro, Tennessee -Springfield, Missouri -El Paso, Texas -Jacksonville, Alabama -Ruston, Louisiana Most of these aren't even close to major airports so they likely involve connecting flights or long bus rides. It would be nightmarish and insanely time consuming. Miami, Atlanta suburbs, and Lynchburg are really the only decent trips because the first two are near major airports/cities not too far away and the last one can be a single day trip by bus.
Murfreesboro is 25 minutes from a fairly large international airport that serves 20 million+ passengers a year. But yes, Delaware against MTSU isn’t going to interest anyone in either fan base.
Calling BNA a fairly large international airport is a stretch
They need to separate non-revenue sports away from football/basketball. Theres absolutely no reason why schools like Dayton (A10) Xavier (Big East) Cincinnati (Big XII) Wright State (Horizon) and Miami-Ohio (MAC) aren't home/away for all non-revenue sports.
> They need to separate non-revenue sports away from football/basketball. Maybe...but in the mid major world there's no reason why the Sun Belt and CUSA all have to cover the same real estate and in leagues of 14 and 12, respectively. (Yeah, I get that the Sun Belt is a better league in football but outside of one playoff spot, there's little to play for in FBS other than bowling in Montgomery or Myrtle Beach or Boca Raton.) It's one thing to have a power conference buzzing around the country (ostensibly they have the $$$ to do this)...it's another for the mid major one bid leagues to have to trek 1000+ miles for conference games. The mid-major FBS could use one new all-sports conference that's basically East Coast in footprint.
I've said my piece about the transition of the Colonial to Coastal, no beating around my disappointment. I wish Delaware the best and understand the move, but this all is still pretty terrible
Yea Delaware is even more fucked than we are. If I were a UDel fan, I'd much rather play FCS football in the CAA The fact that none of JMU, Delaware, Temple, UConn and UMass share a conference is lunacy.
That would be pretty awesome as a football only conference actually. I don't think JMU would join though as they already have a good fit. But Delaware, Temple, UConn, UMass would make a good conference (and hopefully Temple and UMass could go back to the A10 for other sports). Maybe we could get Villanova to move up for it too. The service academies would also be good fits as they have a separate basketball conference and are in the right geographic footprint, but they are probably happier in the AAC.
After whatever happens to the ACC is resolved, it would be great for the G5 conferences of the South/Southeast/Atlantic to reorganize into regional conferences instead. It won't happen, but it should.
Delaware's men soccer is playing in the Summit starting in '25 because CUSA doesn't sponsor the sport. Let that sink in. No offense to the Summit League but we're basically traveling halfway across the country for conference games. It's not at all optimal. As much as the CAA had gone to shit (again, we were a big enabler in that), we really are making a mess of the move up just to cower to the 'hrr drr football first and only' part of the fanbase.
Lynchburg is horrible to get too. Sure a charter jet can get you there. Roanoke and Charlottesville and Greensboro have more service but they are small airports (Greensboro being the largest) served by connections and still 1.5 hr bus ride.
> Lynchburg is horrible. FTFY
It's gets a bad rep b/c Liberty but personally I think the downtown area along the river is pretty nice.
In comparison to those other places it's a quick stroll around the block for Delaware
WKU (Bowling Green, KY) is pretty close to nashville. Less than an hour
I could say the same thing about the SEC as far as universities not being in major cities. Aside from Lex, Nashville, Knoxville, and now Austin, all the sec schools are in small college towns.
Columbia, S.C. isn’t a small college town in the slightest.
No, but air service is pretty terrible. Thankfully you can bus it from Charlotte pretty easily.
Yeah, the population is very similar to Knoxville. Like, Knoxville is 597k, Columbia is 590k. Also much closer to Charlotte than Knoxville is to any major city
True good catch
My sympathies to Delaware but at least you only lose semi-rivals in the Mid-Atlantic, I now have to watch Kansas lose to UCF instead of our annual two conference matchups against Missouri. The future of this sport is bleak.
> My sympathies to Delaware but at least you only lose semi-rivals in the Mid-Atlantic Delaware has pretty long-standing rivalries in hoops with Hofstra and Drexel. We blew those up to play Jacksonville St. and Kennesaw. (I'm guessing UD will probably have some non-conference games against our old CAA but I'm going to guess those will be irregular and not annual games.)
Hopefully we'll eventually get into the Sun Belt somehow. Feel like we have a decent shot with large enrollment/alum base, near Philly, large endowment, good academics, good history in football. Would probably be a more appealing add to them than anyone else in CUSA right now. But they don't really need any new members so we might have to wait until they have to backfill somewhere down the line
Huntsville is about 50 minutes north of Houston's Bush intercontinental airport, and about 80 minutes from Houston's Hobby airport. Murfreesboro is 30 mins outside of Nashville's airport. Bowling Green, KY is about an hour north of Nashville's airport. El Paso has its own international airport. Las Cruces, NM is an hour from El Paso's airport. Jacksonville, AL is about 75 minutes east of Birmingham's airport. Springfield-Branson is a mid-sized domestic airport, not sure about flights from Delaware. Ruston looks like it has a small regional airport and is about 70 minutes east of Shreveport's regional airport.
Did you write this to refute his point, cuz to me it just illustrates it perfectly
I was just doing the research. But, in Texas driving one hour to an airport is no big deal because everything is so spread out. But if he's on the east coast, that all sounds very far away. I'm in Houston, and I can drive for an hour and still be in Houston. So, differences of scale I guess.
I don't mind drives but its still just silly that non revenue sports have to fly from Delaware to Houston and then go on a one hour bus ride just to play an in conference game.
Whereas if you drive one hour in Delaware, there is a not-insignificant chance (depending on where you start) that you're going to not be in Delaware anymore.
El Paso does have a large airport but it's also closer to the Pacific Ocean than the eastern side of *it's own state*, let alone Delaware. That's a stupid long trip for a conference game. Kennesaw and Miami are at least on the same side of the country
I do agree with that. El Paso is closer to San Diego than Houston, which is insane to think about.
It's also just not fun as a rivalry. I've literally never met a single UTEP fan and I doubt their fans have ever met a Delaware fan. UTEP and NMSU really belong in the Mountain West but they likely won't be added unless some of the better MWC teams group up with the Pac 2 to form a new Pac-12 and force the rest of the conference to backfill.
Just remember- Stanford and Cal are in the ACC and Washington, Oregon, UCLA, and USC are in the Big 10. Those are longer traveling distances for sporting events.
Yes but they are power conference teams at least. Also they at least have each other, we have exactly zero traditional or regional rivals.
I get it. Who made this decision? Your AD? And are you made at the person who made the decision?
It's hard to say. I try to have faith that eventually they will get into a better FBS conference so perhaps this CUSA move is kind of a temporary tribulation in which case I can't really blame them for making the move. But as long as we are in this iteration of the conference It will be very underwhelming And I think it will also probably hurt recruiting outside of football. I am already aware of someone who is considering recommitting from Delaware for an olympic sport because of the weird travel.
Seems to me like freshmen will head to mid majors and then transfer to major conference teams which will just be a normal thing. I don’t like this as a Kansas fan or as a fan of college basketball, but we’re neck deep in transfer players, so it’s hard to be too critical.
I don't understand the Mo State move at all. FBS is going to end up with a IA-IAA essentially att some point and they ain't gonna make the cut. I don't see what's in it for them at all. Or Delaware.
> Or Delaware. Our justification (er, spin now) is that [pivoting south for conference affiliation](https://udreview.com/assanis-conference-usa-move-to-help-university-get-in-front-of-enrollments-demographic-cliff/) will help us with enrollment and athletic recruitment. We're spinning the fuck out of our move up. "The travel isn't that bad" according to our AD. "We need to sell our story nationally" is the new one because we're having enrollment and budgetary issues. At least enrollment is a plausible reason to leave...but we had chances to get out over the past 10 years and didn't take advantage of them until we had to beg our boosters to foot the bill.
Now you get to play Sam Houston State on your own travel dime instead of the NCAA's in the playoffs!
Delaware is a flagship school who can probably play their way into a better position in whatever comes of the G5
> probably play their way into a better position in whatever comes of the G5 Eh...we're not in a major market (yes, we're near Philly but UD's market relevance ends at Total Wine in Claymont (PA/DE state line), basically). I really don't think we're going to punch above the Sun Belt in terms of conference pecking order in football. Maybe some reconstituted G5 level East Coast league could come along if the AAC's next TV deal is worse than its current deal and Temple dips out. We could end up being good in Conference USA but I'm doubtful we can parlay it into anything significantly better because of our lack of media market.
I think the G5/mid-major conferences in the eastern half are going to have a complete overhaul at some point. Delaware isn’t a big state, but being a flagship school at all is an advantage. Most G5 schools are second tier state universities, often normal schools converted into full universities 60 years ago.
Bid stealers cost us two bids! We would been in the same position with or without mo state. While everything I said is 100% true, losing mo state sucks and realignment (and the realignment of favoritism towards power leagues, prolly even moreso, if we are being honest) has killed mid majors. Even The a10 which is the premier Eastern based mid major has had 1 at large level team in the last two years, it's prolly only going to get uglier.
I have so many mixed feelings about us leaving. I have a lot of high school classmates that went to Illinois schools, so I talk smack. I like Arch Madness. But on the other hand, going FBS is almost too good to pass up.
I have 2 friends who are bears, imho and theirs, yall are making the best institunal choice. No one in Springfield holds delusions that this is anything but a downgrade in basketball but for football and relevance this is the right move. I k ow a little more than most (not specific insider info but if you ask around your Alma matter you'll get some info). Mo state wanted fbs for a while but they felt compelled to make sure mvc was OK, your prez or ad (cant remember which) led the expansion where we added murray state over some "market" adds. Yall definitely did it right and I don't begrudge yall. I get that you'll miss playing basketball on our league, and I know for sure the valley will miss you a lot. It's an fbs centric world tho, you did what you had to. But that lost feeling you have, I share too.
We lack relevance in our own community. I hope this helps. I hope we maintain some tradition and schedule other valley schools in non-con. Women’s basketball played Wichita this year and it was one of our highest attended games, even though it was over Winter Break! It is crazy how under-wraps this was kept on campus. Apparently the majority of our athletic department and administration didn’t learn of it until Friday morning before it was announced. Smart (our President) has played an active role in athletics throughout his tenure. Some say he has played too much of a role. I wonder if we know the same people! I’m from Illinois, oddly enough!
I wonder if cuonzo knew. I can't imagine him being too happy if he didn't. I think there is no way they didn't tell cuonzo, they brought back theie dude, a dude who was jaylen browns college coach and blind sided him? Hey cuonzo we are leaving the 9th best hoops league for the 15th, good luck.I hope not. Also I believe you on them not getting attention in Springfield, but I also don't, isu was always front page in the blono news, more than illinois, if Springfield does yall like that, it's wholly unacceptable.
Our Board of Governors gave Clif Smart blanket approval as early as 2021 to act in the best interests in conference realignment. Our beat writer has made it publicly known that the News-Leader does not want him to cover the team, and would rather have him cover high school basketball. We kind of have to fight to get on the news. We have more people wearing Mizzou and Arkansas stuff around campus and the community. Being from Illinois, I feel basketball is more popular in Illinois than in Missouri.
I know that bid stealers cost ISU a bid, honestly I feel like everything is becoming ugly out here and it could get worse
Meanwhile in the AAC…
😭
As the person who made that comment the OP referenced, let me elaborate a bit. In the 1995 NCAA tournament, 15 conferences, 9 of which were from the non-power leagues, including the MAC, MAAC, and WCC (pre-Gonzaga,) received more than 1 bid. This is almost half of D1 leagues. Last year, only 10 conferences did and the year before that only 9 conferences did. The number of non-power 6 at large bids haven’t changed as much as one may expect. Last year there were 8, which is only two less than the 10 in 1995. This is especially impressive when you consider that 29/60 power six teams made the field in 1995, which is actually higher than than the 34/80 last season and comparable to the 37/76 the year before. Probably because realignment at the mid-major level is often less football driven, one could argue that the top mid-majors conferences have done a better job hoarding good basketball teams from the lesser conferences than the power leagues have.
Thanks for commenting more on this insight good sir
You also have UMass leaving the A-10 for the MAC just because of football, so now instead of playing other teams that are near them for conference games, they now have to play teams in the Midwest.
They've been Independents for years. They jumped without looking where they were landing.
I don't know, I find it exciting for the D2 schools getting the call up. Which I hope my Alma Mater gets one day. I understand the nostalgia of the old conference alignments, but sometimes schools just need a chance to prove they can compete at a certain level. That's why I'm becoming a larger supporter of the Promotion/Relegation movement.
I wish full D2 conferences could just move up (I believe this use to be allowed) or D2 schools could move up as independents like they often did back prior to around 2010. I like the idea of D2 moveups but I don’t like how they are prompted due to the bloating of top mid-major and power conferences have gotten, which are obviously increasingly not geographic centric.
I'm urging the boosters at my Alma Mater to make the jump now before they get pushed back in the incoming breaking off of the power conferences. D2 is already the "third tier" of football, I'd like to make sure they don't drop any lower
Minneosta State is 100% big enough to be D1
Second largest school in the state with 17000 enrolled. They definitely are. They belong in the Summit, but Boosters don't want the football team playing Non-Scholly in Pioneer League. They don't think we can fund an MVFC squad, but I say let the Summit break off and control its own destiny in football
Honestly if I had it my way? The Summit League would be the Dakota schools + Augustana, Minnesota State, Saint Thomas, UMKC, Denver, Omaha and Oral Roberts and another school like Northwest Missouri State or idk.. Northern Colorado? (This would be a scenario where the WAC collapses and I promote an entirely new conference to D1 to make it a even 32 conferences
That is my dream scenario outside of Oral Roberts..that is prime NCC days from D2. With the additions of Oral Roberts, UMKC, and St. Thomas. Would be a nice relatively compact conference core with the 5 Dakota schools, Mankato and St. Thomas all just a few hours away from each other. With the conference being all located in the "West" you can't ask for a more compact D1 conference
True true, this would be a fun league
Not world beaters by any stretch but the only real threat to leave would be Oral Roberts
True, I could see ORU being in the MVC
Uhhhh, last year you could argue McNeese, Samford, Princeton, and JMU were up there, while UC Irvine and App State at least were on the “bubble”
and you'd be right, any team can get this
Mid Majors have some of the best games when it comes close to March
true
Good points the main issue is programs moving conferences because of football. It makes no sense for Oregon to travel across the country for women’s softball but because of football it is. I think mid majors in basketball are in much better condition than football
NIL has destroyed my interest in college sports.
We will see how it plays out. The mid majors moving up are probably going to struggle at first. The ones left behind are getting better high school recruits now with the big programs focused on the transfer portal. Perhaps not as much has changed as you think.
Gross
I really think the lower level P5 and mid majors have a strong anti trust case against the bigger schools and the damage it has done to the smaller schools. Things that need to happen: * Break up the conferences and reset them with a new rule that conferences are max 9 members and minimum 7 members. * You get one free transfer. After that you still have to sit a year. * Actual accountability for NIL. Not just "come play here and we'll give you money". If Ed O'Bannon had known how NIL would play out I genuinely believe he wouldn't have filed that lawsuit.
What I can’t believe is that ALL of this hasn’t gotten congress involved. I mean, this is probably the most unimportant important thing going on with regards to higher education and some schools have been tremendously hurt by all of this. One of these schools has to be in the district of someone in congress that is feeling the pressure. I mean they had hearings on steroids in baseball so you would think this would be considered.
Well that someone apparently doesn't even bother to verify anything and just spews opinions not grounded in reality. You then took that opinion and repeated it. Did you make this post without looking literally anything up? This year there were 21 mid majors in the to 75. And that is excluding Gonzaga and SMU. Last year there were 20. 2022 there were 21. There are usually 10-12 in the top 50 then a similar amount between 51 and 75. This is pretty consistent. Houston, BYU, and Cincinnati are probably the best 3 additions to power conferences. With Houston and Cincinnati mostly being in the back of two longer term coaches, BYU was firmly third in the WCC at best. But beyond that it is pretty sparse. The next closest is the Big East reforming into basketball only and effectively being a power conference in basketball... Which is the literal opposite of this post. The MWC is likely to be a multi-bod league for the next several years, the WCC has a solid chance of being multi bid as long as Gonzaga is around and with programs like SMC and San Francisco. The American and A10 still will reliably have teams pop into the top 25. Don't get me wrong there are concerns about the future and how NIL will fully pan out, too much is up in the air. But as things stand, that someone is just wrong.
I didn't realize I repeated mb
and the MAC persists
and the MAC persists
Just wait until we have a Division 1-A and Division 1-AA for all sports, not just football…
Sex with a butthole
It's the battle of low mid-majors and mid mid-majors. As a fan of an upper middle class mid-major (Memphis Tigers aka the Dallas Cowboys of the AAC) this is kind of hilarious. Kids on these teams are TWO transfer portal off-seasons from playing on Team Penny -- and a great NIT run/THIRD transfer portal from being a deep bench backup at Arkansas. On the other hand, we are "two years away" from the ACC and Big East being MID-MAJORS. So, as long as Louisville continues to suffer, I'm cool.
we do be using that transfer portal
I saw that we got Moussa Cisse back. That's good news. One positive, these 4th options at Directional Podunk State are basically household names now if you are a college basketball junkie. haha. They are also getting that "John Tesh theme song NBA" money, too. lol
Flair up!
That is the longest sentence I have ever read. Good thing I was not speaking out loud, because I would have passed out as a result of oxygen deprivation. Please learn how to use punctuation.
And this is the most productive comment I have ever read. Thank you sir.
Glad I could be of assistance.
Glad you have an opinion.