What I heard very specifically (and read) was that ORU (that plays in a really nice 10000 seat arena) wasn't keen on traveling to Houston and Corpus to play in front of 300 people. They could have handled one boner but two (HBU/UIW).

BigJack85 said:

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I hope we do. The SLC is just a load of crap. Especially with the addition of UIW and HBU which in my mind was a GIGANTIC mistake.

4-1/2 years ago we add Abilene Christian period.... Oral Roberts stays in the league and we conveniently split into two divisions of 6. New Orleans, SLU, Nicholls, McNeese, Northwestern and UCA - East. SFA, Sam, Lamar, Abilene, A&M CC and ORU - West.

Nice clean 9 team football conference.

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That would have been a nice setup. Not perfect, but better than the current mess.

BigJack85 said:

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I hope we do. The SLC is just a load of crap. Especially with the addition of UIW and HBU which in my mind was a GIGANTIC mistake.

4-1/2 years ago we add Abilene Christian period.... Oral Roberts stays in the league and we conveniently split into two divisions of 6. New Orleans, SLU, Nicholls, McNeese, Northwestern and UCA - East. SFA, Sam, Lamar, Abilene, A&M CC and ORU - West.

Nice clean 9 team football conference.

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Agree with everything you said, especially about adding UIW and HBU. As I've said before, there HAD to be some under-the-table money exchanges made in order to make that happen. Made no sense then, and still doesn't.

nacluth said:

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CertifiedAxeman98 said:

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I believe we need to position ourselves for when the Big 12's tv deal comes up in 2025. It will come up before that date probably 2 years before that and realignment will be fast and furious. We need to be ready to take advantage of it like Texas State and the others that left the SLC during the last realignment. I know that SAM looked at moving up I think in 2011 or 2012 they did a study and decided to stay. Ivey will need to do a similar study.

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Just curious about what part of the possible realignment do you think would fit into SFA's potential. Honestly I don't see the core of the Big 12 jumping ship, because there's nowhere to really go - except a lot more money on another media deal. Just curious to see what schools in Texas people think are in what tiers of sports power?

Tier 1: Texas, A&M, Tech, Baylor, TCU

Tier 2: Houston, SMU

Tier 3: UNT, UTEP, UTA, Rice, Texas State

Tier 4: UTSA, SFA, Sam Houston, Lamar

Tier 5: ACU, HBU, Prairie View, TAMU-CC, UTRGV, TSU

What you think? My criteria is that the school has to have the ability to be considered a tier higher (with continued success) in the next 5 years.

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This would be my take:
Tier 1: Texas, A&M

Tier 2: Houston, Tech, Baylor, TCU(more like tier 1.5 for the frogs)

Tier 3: SMU, UNT, UTEP, UTSA, Rice

Tier 4: UTA, SFA, Sam Houston , Texas State

Tier 5: Lamar, ACU, UTRGV(high potential)

Tier 6:, HBU, Prairie View, TAMU-CC, UTRGV, TSU

That's how I would tier them. And as you can see, SFA and Sam are on the level of some FBS schools. More accurately, some FBS schools are on the level of SFA/Sam.

Quite personally, if you think of these in levels of name recognition/prestige, I think our goal should be to move up to the Tier 3, which also likely denotes our sports move up. I want people to consider us academically & athletically on a level of the other regional schools in the tier above us (Rice is an outlier). SFA has to own East Texas, from the Sabine to I45. We're a regional uni, let's use the region to our advantage.

That likely means a move up for basketball, which is a hot property. And if they want to take the rest of our sports, let's do it. Winning an FCS championship is a worthy goal, but practically useless from a marketing perspective. Our FBS level teams(UNT/UTEP/Etc) have a much lower bar of 6 wins to get a good level of press. Plus, they more often get to play against Texas/A&M/and others.

But realignment trickling down to SFA all hinges on what Texas and OU decide to do. Does Texas/OU jump ship and the Big 12 collapses? Do they steal ASU/Zona and the Pac 12 is relegated to an AAC role?

I personally don't think Texas is going jump ship on the Big 12(Though they should.) The optimal solution is that Texas and OU call Clemson and FSU about forming a football centric conference to rival the SEC. It'd look something like this.

East
Texas
OU
Ok State
TCU
Arkansas

West
Clemson
FSU
Miami
Georgia Tech
(Auburn) Why not see if they'll try the A&M route?

That conference would rival the SEC in money and prestige, plus you've got room to expand if you get the chance.

But I don't think Texas will blow up the Big 12 for now, even if given the chance. The fastest trickle down route includes Houston to the Big 12, but I still don't see that happening.