Big 12 announced yesterday that they are beginning to explore expansion. Considering adding either 2 or 4 teams. This game of dominos seems to have no end. Wonder what, if any, impact its going to have on our Mountaineers.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... candidates

Should the MAC or CUSA lose teams, I'd expect us to get a good, long look.

Neither one of those conferences as they stand now are very appealing to me. MAC has good teams but the travel would kill us. CUSA has about the same number of good teams that we do in the Belt. My actual greatest fear is that a couple of CUSA teams get plucked to fill a gap somewhere and they in turn raid the conference for Ark State, UL, and GaSo, but not us. The way I see it, the marketability and entertainment value of the conference for us rides on those three teams being apart of the mix. We've started building rivalries with the UL and Ark State (nothing needs to be said about the Stink) and they are all as committed to FB as we are. If we lose even one, the appeal of our conference home is diminished in my eyes. I don't really envision a scenario where any carousel movement drastically benefits us. We aren't getting called up to the AAC. I think best case scenario B12 takes Boise, BYU and it has no impact on us. Worst case they take 4: Boise, BYU, Cincy, and UCF. In that case AAC probably looks at Marshall, La Tech, WKU, or FIU. And then we are back to being at the mercy of the CUSA regarding the way our conference will look for the next 10 years.

MtnMan09 wrote:Neither one of those conferences as they stand now are very appealing to me. MAC has good teams but the travel would kill us. CUSA has about the same number of good teams that we do in the Belt. My actual greatest fear is that a couple of CUSA teams get plucked to fill a gap somewhere and they in turn raid the conference for Ark State, UL, and GaSo, but not us. The way I see it, the marketability and entertainment value of the conference for us rides on those three teams being apart of the mix. We've started building rivalries with the UL and Ark State (nothing needs to be said about the Stink) and they are all as committed to FB as we are. If we lose even one, the appeal of our conference home is diminished in my eyes. I don't really envision a scenario where any carousel movement drastically benefits us. We aren't getting called up to the AAC. I think best case scenario B12 takes Boise, BYU and it has no impact on us. Worst case they take 4: Boise, BYU, Cincy, and UCF. In that case AAC probably looks at Marshall, La Tech, WKU, or FIU. And then we are back to being at the mercy of the CUSA regarding the way our conference will look for the next 10 years.

Losing any of the teams mentioned would be a disaster for the Belt. I agree I don't think CUSA is any better than the home we have now especially after getting rid of Idaho and NM.

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If the MAC or CUSA loses two of its top four members are they really better than the SBC at that point. If CUSA loses Marshall or ODU and S. Miss. I'm not sure a conference splitting the pie 14 ways is enticing enough to get a SBC member to jump. Not sure it makes sense for CUSA to add unless they lose three of more members given the payout structure.

If they lose four members you're looking at WKU, MTSU, UNCC, UAB, FIU, FAU, Rice, UTSA, North Texas, and UTEP.

I don't think we'd be the first member they called either.

A-State and ULL have been passed over in past rounds of realignment. No reason to think they're any more appealing than we are - possibly less so.

Should CUSA lose teams, I'm not sure they're in as good a position as they were in the past to poach from the Sun Belt.

Not sure what the MAC's TV deal is like, but I can't see us going there either. Just not really a step up IMO, especially given that we'd be talking about a MAC that would have just presumably lost a couple of its best programs.

Barring the total regional realignment scenario that we kick around here from time to time (but which I think we all know is probably a pipe dream), I think we probably stay put unless the AAC comes calling.

Given this statement from BYU's AD, I'd be surprised if they're not one of the new Big XII members:

EastHallApp wrote:Given this statement from BYU's AD, I'd be surprised if they're not one of the new Big XII members:

Yeah I think everyone would be surprised. I think the real question is going to be whether they go 2 or 4 teams.

Yeah I don't think anybody from the Sunbelt goes anywhere unless the AAC calls (which is very unlikely). If two of the top CUSA schools get plucked (Marshall and [take your pick]) is that league really all that attractive anymore? Is it worth FOUR MILLION DOLLARS to join for a 1/14th share? It would take 12+ years under the new TV deal to make that up. Not gonna happen. UL maybe just because they've been passed over before and are desperate but even that is a stretch with that state's budget issues.

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BYU I'm only skeptical of because they refuse to play any sports on Sunday's but I'm sure they can work around that. My best bet would by BYU and I think Cinci is a shoe-in as WVU needs a travel partner. I think UH is the most ready program to move up to the B12 but I'm sure the other TX schools wouldn't be particularly happy over that and I saw where they had an "unofficial introduction" with Pac12 commissioner and ADs. Also saw where Bill Snyder claims there are 2 schools who previously left the B12 who want back in. Contractual wise I'm not sure how/if that's possible.

I would bet at the very least 1 AAC school would be plucked which could start a domino effect but we'll see, if I was Aresco I wouldn't worry about filling that one slot. As far as what this means for us; barring the exit of the teams mentioned above (ULL, Ark St, GS) I would rather stay SBC than move to CUSA or MAC. Travel would be worse/more expensive in both conferences and the CUSA TV is garbage and I'm good on midweek MACtion, I prefer ESPN3 to the alternatives they face.

I'll take an uneducated guess and say they add BYU, Cincinnati and stop at 12. Then the AAC adds Marshall. No clue what CUSA would do then.

CUSA could lose 2 and not add since they are at 14 with UAB back in the mix. As stated earlier, if CUSA loses 2 of: USM, Marshall, Rice and/or ODU to the AAC, is CUSA really that attractive? The only 2 teams that I can see jumping ship would be GSU (market) and TxSt (wants to join other TX teams). This could possibly open the door back up for NMSU (west) or JMU (east).

Looking on the bright side, if GS does get plucked by another conference, our 2 programs could essentially have a strong OOC rivalry game against each other every year in perpetuity. However, I don't see either of our programs wanting to fork over the millions of dollars to exit and enter another conference unless it's the AAC.

EastHallApp wrote:I'll take an uneducated guess and say they add BYU, Cincinnati and stop at 12. Then the AAC adds Marshall. No clue what CUSA would do then.

If what Yosef 10 says is correct I wouldn't be surprised to see Nebraska come back into the fold. Texas really is the thorn in everyone's side here and if they won't play ball you could see Oklahoma and Kansas hit the road to SEC country. Nebraska may be what it takes to prevent that...but they'd have to be willing to carry Texas' baggage and step back into a dysfunctional relationship for the sake of historical rivalries).

2 - Houston and Memphis (it BYU will relent on Sunday games, then they're in)

4 - Houston, Memphis, Nebraska, and Cincy.

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I'm with moonshine...It would take 2 schools with winning tradition across all sports AND market size AND facilities AND cash at hand for CUSA to want to back fill and get back to 14.

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APPdiesel wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:I'll take an uneducated guess and say they add BYU, Cincinnati and stop at 12. Then the AAC adds Marshall. No clue what CUSA would do then.

If what Yosef 10 says is correct I wouldn't be surprised to see Nebraska come back into the fold. Texas really is the thorn in everyone's side here and if they won't play ball you could see Oklahoma and Kansas hit the road to SEC country. Nebraska may be what it takes to prevent that...but they'd have to be willing to carry Texas' baggage and step back into a dysfunctional relationship for the sake of historical rivalries).

2 - Houston and Memphis (it BYU will relent on Sunday games, then they're in)

4 - Houston, Memphis, Nebraska, and Cincy.

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From what I gathered from context clues Nebraska was one of the 2. Rivalries hadn't really started to form, still missing the old ones and just an overall feeling of being out of place in the B10

APPdiesel wrote:I'm with moonshine...It would take 2 schools with winning tradition across all sports AND market size AND facilities AND cash at hand for CUSA to want to back fill and get back to 14.

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Agree, but the question is, what happens if the AAC only needs to poach one and leaves CUSA at 13?

APPdiesel wrote:

EastHallApp wrote:I'll take an uneducated guess and say they add BYU, Cincinnati and stop at 12. Then the AAC adds Marshall. No clue what CUSA would do then.

If what Yosef 10 says is correct I wouldn't be surprised to see Nebraska come back into the fold. Texas really is the thorn in everyone's side here and if they won't play ball you could see Oklahoma and Kansas hit the road to SEC country. Nebraska may be what it takes to prevent that...but they'd have to be willing to carry Texas' baggage and step back into a dysfunctional relationship for the sake of historical rivalries).

2 - Houston and Memphis (it BYU will relent on Sunday games, then they're in)

4 - Houston, Memphis, Nebraska, and Cincy.

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No way any of the Texas schools let Houston into that conference. Just don't see it happening. The same way Clemson and FSU will never sniff the SEC. Letting in TCU has already presented recruiting issues I believe for UT and Tech.

APPdiesel wrote: If what Yosef 10 says is correct I wouldn't be surprised to see Nebraska come back into the fold. Texas really is the thorn in everyone's side here and if they won't play ball you could see Oklahoma and Kansas hit the road to SEC country.

Nebraska was the one that came to mind for me too. You think the SEC wants Kansas though?

If the trickle down starts impacting SunBelt schools and App specifically I do not want to join the MAC at all. CUSA would only be an option if Marshall and ODU are still there. I doubt CUSA would want us as they have historically put more stock on TV markets than actual play on the field. If AAC comes calling then we would bolt ASAP. Otherwise, I'd hope we stay in Sunbelt now with Coastal coming in and the east / west divisions forming along with a CCG. However, if ULL and Ark St leave - we have a very watered down west division going forward that is not desirable at all. It's going to be interesting!

If CUSA is raided - could we see the a merger with Sunbelt for a super conference that aligns geographically by divisions?

A lot depends on what the Big 12 does. If they recruit 4 new programs to the conference and bring the total number to 14, the PAC12 would be the only power conference with 12 members. If the PAC12 wants 14, they'll take Houston to try and get in the Big12's backyard. Who would be the next logical western team? One has to think that they'll look at either Boise (doubt academics are strong enough) or Air Force or SDSU. If a MWC team is poached, they'll try to grab UTEP and CUSA would snatch up NMSU if they need to replace one western program.