Hey guys, thought this was a super interesting article by the Sun Herald today.


http://www.sunherald.com/sports/college/conference-usa/article188205609.html#navlink=SecList

TLDR: Conference USA & the Sunbelt have disastrously low TV money & attendance (many schools hover in the range of SFA's regular attendance), so the confernces should dissolve & focus on realigning into highly regional conferences. I thought this would be interesting, because if this idea picks up any traction, there could be potential for SFA as an expansion candidate, should we choose too.

Here's the current conference teams.

Sunbelt:

• Appalachian State University
• Arkansas State University
• Coastal Carolina University
• Georgia Southern University
• Georgia State University
• University of Arkansas at Little Rock
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Louisiana at Monroe
• University of South Alabama
• Texas State University
• University of Texas at Arlington
• Troy University

Conference USA

• University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Florida Atlantic University
• Florida International University
• Louisiana Tech University
• Marshall University
• Middle Tennessee State University
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• University of North Texas
• Old Dominion University
• Rice University
• University of Southern Mississippi
• University of Texas at El Paso
• University of Texas at San Antonio
• Western Kentucky University

If they're going hyper-regional, here's my best bet on what a 3 way split would look like.

Conference 1(11 Teams):

• Arkansas State
• Arkansas Littlerock
• ULL
• UL Monroe
• Texas State
• UTA
• Louisiana Tech
• Rice
• UTEP
• UTSA
• UNT

Conference 2(8 teams):

• Georgia Southern
• Georgia State
• South Alabama
• Troy Univ
• UAB
• Florida Atlantic
• Florida International
• Southern Mississippi
  

Conference 3(8 teams):

• Appalachian State
• Marshall
• Middle Tennesse State
• UNC Charlotte
• Bowling Green
• Coastal Carolina
• Old Dominion
• WKU

UTEP is a lot closer to the mountain west conference. As you can see in Conference 1(ArkLaTex), there'd be room for one or two more schools. Not terribly exciting conferences, but potentially a step up. I have to admit, I like the Ark La Tex conference a lot better with just the Tex part.

Very interesting article. I do think the SLC has been relatively smart in its regional bias. I will always say that the expansion to add three private schools at once is a HUGE mistake. The only one that fits conveniently into the SLC footprint is HBU. The only one of the schools that has the facilities a division 1 school should have is ACU Adding all three of those schools jettisoned Oral Roberts a strong basketball and baseball school that has outstanding facilities (I lived in Tulsa for a year). I felt like adding UIW and ACU was malpractice then and I feel the same today. We watered down an already weak conference. Not smooth.

BigJack85 said:

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We watered down an already weak conference. Not smooth.

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Exactly! And what was gained??? NOTHING! (Except it might have put some big $$$ in the pockets of some of the Fat Cats that supported those three Big Boy Wannabe schools.)

The old SLC minus Texas St and plus HBU or ACU is appealing but not the whole mishmash with UIW and HBU. Besides I liked having Oral around.

I don't mind the Southland conference minus the private schools. It's fairly competitive, the rivalries have been around for a while,& like you said, geographically it makes sense. W/ the private schools, it just waters it down too much. I'd rather ditch all 3 & play a round robin format in Football & Basketball.

That said, from a future standpoint, if there was an option for us to move up into a hyper regional league that included, UTSA, UNT, Rice, LA Tech, & Texas State, I'd totally take it. Our basketball team would be competitive right now, our football team wouldn't be competitive in Pee-wee league, so why not? Plus, being in the same conference as those schools would bring academic benefits. Purely hypothetical though at this point, but some interesting rumblings in going on in the conference realignment world.

Maybe basketball can move up but leave football in the SLC.

SFA88 said:

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Maybe basketball can move up but leave football in the SLC.

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It actually makes more sense the other way around. Even a low level bowl game is more exposure than an FCS championship. Conversely, look what Gonzaga & Wichita State built in basketball when they could win the league easily most years & play in the NCAA tourney.

The FCS championship pulled 1.25 million viewers last year in an excellent draw. 38 of the 39 bowl games had over 1 million viewers. Southern Miss vs La Lafayette pulled 1.34 Million. Army vs North Texas 1.65. And it goes up from there. And look at the exposure you can get from being ranked. WKU, Marshall, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, & Tulsa have all finished in the Top 25. A notable accomplishment that tends to lead to a bigger bowl game with more viewers. Plus, you go 7-5 in an FBS league & you get this. You typically need to go 8-3 in FCS to make the playoffs.

Overall, these are simply hypotheticals, but if CUSA & Sunbelt realign, it could get really interesting. Especially if we have a halfway decent football team at the time, our basketball team is already worthy of inclusion.