Gone Baby Gone: CBS Reports Boise, UCF, Houston, SDSU & SMU Are Joining the Big East
by Adrian Mac on Dec 6, 2011 12:18 PM MST
in NCAA Conference Realignment
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PrintCBSSports.com is reporting that the Boise St. Broncos, Central Florida Knights, Houston Cougars, SMU Mustangs, and San Diego State Aztecs are leaving the C-USA and MWC to join the Big East in 2013. According to the report, Boise State and San Diego will join the Big East in football only. That would likely send their other sports, including SDSU's blossoming hoops program, to the WAC or Big West. With those five schools on board, Navy is expected to join as a football-only member - possibly as soon as next week - to boost the football membership to 11 schools.
Also, it looks like Air Force is being targeted to become the leagues 12th football school. Air Force would only join as football member.
The Big East hopes to add Air Force as its 12th football school - as a football-only member - but the Falcons still remain undecided.
This move has been expected for a while now. UTEP AD Bob Stull, last week, revealed that the C-USA and MWC, in response to these moves, are moving forward with a plan to merge their leagues. The merger, according to Stull, will likely be in all sports and not just in football as has been previously discussed. Previously, the leagues hoped to form a super conference, possibly including the remaining 5 Big East football schools, to snag an automatic selection into the BCS. Today's report suggests the MWC and C-USA expected these schools to depart and are now moving closer to a 16 team merger, as laid out by Stull.
While we don't know exactly how a "MWCUSA" would look, Stull hinted that UTEP would be in the western division,along with UNLV and old WAC-rival New Mexico. That clue makes it pretty easy to assemble potential divisions. The C-USA East would add Tulane, Tulsa, and Rice. UTEP would join what's left of the MWC and the WAC add-ons that are scheduled to join.
MWCUSA West
2. UTEP Miners
6. UNLV Rebels
MWCUSA East
3. Rice Owls
4. UAB Blazers
7. Southern Miss. Golden Eagles
Obviously many questions remain. What if Air Force decides to stay? Would that require making it an 18 team league with 2 round robin schedules and a football championship? What becomes of the MTN? Would the league offices be consolidated? Can this new league get any new TV money?
The realignment story is constantly updating, please post any new links you guys come across in the comments or "FanShot" them.
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The MTN is terrible
I really hope they get rid of it. Especially with UTEP being a part of that “West” division. We don’t even get that channel in El Paso. I would much rather be playing on Fox Sports or CBS College Sports than the MTN. Terrible for recruiting, and terrible to showcase your conference as well. Only people that watch the MTN are people who are fans of the MWC.
To be honest that west division would be a much easier football conference than C-USA West has been. The conference as a basketball conference would actually be pretty nice with UNM, UNLV, UTEP highlighting the West, and Memphis, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, and Tulsa highlighting the East.
I think the conference would need to come up with a completely new name instead of this MWCUSA we’ve all been using. I think you could just name the divisions, “Mountain” and “USA” or something like that.
The MTN isn't all that bad of a broadcast
The problem was the revenue and the exposure. We can see all of our basketball games and women games as well. Our top tier games was on CBS sports and Versus which most cable companies have and with NBC fully buying it on Jan 12, 2012 its actually a decent channel to play games on. I hope we can get a better deal with NBC because they only have Notre Dame.
I agree on name
And the divisions should be named in a way that honors both leagues. Anybody have any name suggestions?
I think we should toss up a post asking for name ideas.
Also- it would be one hell of a hoops league. The MTN is expanding into Texas- I will look and see what providers have it. I know my Uverse package doesn’t carry it but like you said- we do get CBS College almost everywhere.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
by Adrian Mac on Dec 6, 2011 3:36 PM MST via iPhone app reply actions
Names:
Just a few ideas in order of my personal preference.
1. Big Country
2. Big USA
3 Big America or American
4. American Athletic Conference “AAC” (Too close to ACC maybe)
5. EWC (East West Conference)
6. Continental Conference (Sounds too much like “Continental Congress”)
7. CUSA (makes sense right?)
8 MWCUSA
"BCS does not apply to basketball. It's football. You can't tell me Memphis is a mid-major. You can't tell me UTEP, with its history of players, crowd attendance and NCAA Tournament berths, is a mid-major. Same for Gonzaga and St. Mary's - it doesn't apply. These are high-major programs that can play. All we can do is win games and hope others recognize. … We should pass the eye test - if anybody ever watches us." - Tim Floyd
Honestly,
This would truly be Conference USA. I wouldn’t mind it be called that, but I think the MWC people might feel a little different about it. I think my choice would be American Athletic Conference, I like that.
Losing SDSU hurts but this is looking to become a really good basketball league.
Your forgetting Hawaii in the Western Division although they are football only
Yeah I was thinknking about Hawaii....
Bob Stull said UTEP would be in the western division— I couldn;t figure out who to move to the East. Any thoughts on that?
With Hawaii- someone moves east and UTEP seems like the only logical fit.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
Again depends on whether AFA stays, but my feeling is they leave to the BE as well.
I think they were just waiting for Boise to show their hand. I don’t see too much issue with a 9-team West Div (with HAW) and an 8-team East div
If this does become a reality and it appears it will, then local UTEP fans need to put their money...
where their mouth is and start showing back up for games in football and bball. For the past decade, the fan base has complained about losing the “old WAC schools” and those rivalries…well here we are again sans BYU and Utah. That’s the appealing part to me of this merger, but I’ve said it since day one, it will suck losing ties to East Texas. Stull needs to get with Floyd and Price (or whoever the Fball coach is in the future) and make sure we continue to schedule OOC games with Houston, SMU, UNT, UTSA, Texas State…whoever it may be because some of the alums in this part of the state really look forward to watching UTEP play in hoops or football at least once a year. It’s a huge part of recruiting and a great chance for the families of these players to see them. Overall, I’m good with this because I really feared the worst and thought we would end up in the new WAC when it was all said and done. And as you all have mentioned, the TV deal here is huge, we lose some major markets. How that all plays out will be interesting.
It will-- and youre right
We are in a sense returning to a league we all learned to hate about 10 years ago. We are returning to Karl Bensons WAC only with the C-USA east serving as the Centex schools of yesteryear. Something that bothers me, and im sure you, is the fact that Boise State has not only passed s0 many programs with success, but in the Conference pecking order as well in the last few years. Winning matters. And their upward mobility proves that like nothing before.
Axes Up. Miner Rush - For UTEP Miners Fans
has anyone noticed that
9 teams from the new big east used to be in either the mwc or c-usa. Cincy, louisville, usf, ucf, smu, houston, boise st, san diego st, n maybe air force. When those teams belonged to c-usa or mwc they were not good enough for bcs but just because they’re in the big east now they’re bcs worthy?
by el javi on Dec 7, 2011 2:21 PM MST via mobile reply actions
Its the nature of the beast
You’re no one until you’re needed to help a dying major conference stay alive. It is what it is. However, I will say that the old C-USA with cincy, louisville, usf, and basketball schools like depaul and marquette, was much closer to being a high major conference than a mid-major. Those schools were always highly valued.
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