NCAA Football '11-'12

[MadBurgerMaker]

Oh shit.  Supposedly the UT System BoR meeting on Monday has a thing in it approving an invite to C-USA for UTSA. 

Also there's some shit in there saying that since UTSA accepted the invite to the WAC, three schools have decided to leave, leaving only four football schools in the conference. 

The end of WAC football on Monday? 

[stjaba]

Turns out the BCS is considering something similar to what I proposed. Notice that there's no mention of a traditional Big East site. I guess the BCS is assuming that a Big East team is never going to be in the top 2. Or any other conference(or Notre Dame) for that matter.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7863041/four-team-playoff-plan-link-national-semis-sites-conferences-bcs-bowls

"Sources told ESPN.com that the commissioners are leaning toward incorporating the existing BCS bowls into a playoff. Instead of designating two BCS bowls as the host sites for two semifinal games before a particular season, the sites wouldn't be determined until the four participating teams were named.

In an effort to maintain a sense of tradition, conferences would keep their relationships with BCS bowl games -- the highest-ranked ACC team would play in the Orange Bowl, Big 12 in the Fiesta, Big Ten and Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl, and SEC in the Sugar Bowl. For instance, if Alabama finished No. 1 in the retooled BCS standings, the Crimson Tide would host the No. 4 seed in a national semifinal game at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. If Oregon finished No. 2, the Ducks would host the No. 3 seed in the Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO in Pasadena, Calif. A source familiar with the discussions said he preferred this particular plan because it "preserves tradition and the regional tie-ins."

The source said it also solved the "Rose Bowl problem" -- Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott have maintained their leagues' desire to play in the Rose Bowl every season.

Under this proposed plan, if a Big Ten or Pac-12 team finished in the top two spots, it would automatically play in Pasadena. And if a Big Ten or Pac-12 team didn't finish in the top two, teams from those leagues might still play in the Rose Bowl, as long as they were among the teams included in the BCS pool. The source said the plan maintained those leagues' relationships with the Rose Bowl, without giving them an "obscene consideration.""

[MadBurgerMaker]

It hit CBS this morning: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18873583

C-USA adding UTSA in 2013; North Texas, FIU, Louisiana Tech also likely
By Brett McMurphy | College Football Insider

Texas San-Antonio will join Conference USA in 2013, pending approval from the University of Texas System Board of Regents on Wednesday to allow the school to accept an invitation, negotiate and finalize terms with the league.

The Roadrunners are one of four teams that C-USA will add for the 2013 season.
Conference USA also is looking to add North Texas and Florida International from the Sun Belt and Louisiana Tech from the WAC, sources told CBSSports.com from last week's BCS meetings in Hollywood, Fla.

The addition of those four schools -- to offset the losses of Memphis, UCF, Houston and Southern Methodist to the Big East -- would give the league 12 members and means Conference USA's merger with the Mountain West would not occur in 2013, as reported by CBSSports.com last week.

The Mountain West also is expected to add Utah State and San Jose State in 2013, sources said. The league, without the C-USA/MWC merger, are required to add at least one school to meet the NCAA's FBS requirements for maintaining eight women's sports and six men's sports, with at least six member schools competing in each sport.

The Roadrunners were scheduled to join the Western Athletic Conference on July 1. Because they never officially began in the league, they will not have to pay an exit fee. They must pay an entrance fee to C-USA of $2 million, according to the UT Regents agenda.

Conference USA contacted UTSA in March to initiate a discussion about the Roadrunners joining the league and school officials visited with C-USA commissioner Britton Banowsky two weeks ago, according to the UT Regents agenda.

RowdyReport.com first reported that UTSA accepting an invitation to C-USA was on the UT Board of Regents' agenda.

Since 1991, Texas San-Antonio's Olympic sports have competed in the Southland Conference. The Roadrunners just completed their first year of football under former Miami coach Larry Coker.

Texas-San Antonio was sought after by Conference USA and the Sun Belt because of UTSA's location and, more importantly, the Roadrunners' record-setting attendance numbers in their first season. UTSA set the NCAA record for a first-year program, averaging 35,521 fans, including 56,743 in its inaugural game.

For North Texas and Florida International, there is no required exit fee to leave the Sun Belt, but they would forfeit less than $500,000 in revenue sharing, industry sources told CBSSports.com.

Sources also said Charlotte remains a possibility to join C-USA as an all-sports member in 2013, but its football program, which will begin play in 2013, would not be able to compete in C-USA until 2015, at the earliest.

Tags: Florida International Golden Panthers, Houston Cougars, Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, Memphis Tigers, North Texas Mean Green, San Jose State Spartans, Southern Methodist Mustangs, UCF Knights, Utah State Aggies, NCAAF

The Texas State AD also released a statement saying:

"All I can say is that we will have a home in an FBS league and won't become an independent. We have done a lot of work in the past two months just like a lot of other schools across the nation and have thoroughly been involved in the process. We hope to make some sort of announcement in the next few days."

The UNT BoR apparently also already voted on it, so if they're like UTSA, they probably already have an invite.  The ones I haven't heard anything about are LT and FIU.  With the loss of UTSA, LT, USU, SJSU, and presumably Texas State, the WAC is done as a football conference (at least).  They'll have Idaho and NMSU left as football schools (UT-Arlington, Denver, and Seattle are also there for non-football sports).

C-USA would be: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, UNT, LaTech, Tulane, UAB, Southern Miss, Tulsa, ECU, FIU, and Marshall.

MWC would be: Wyoming, UNM, Air Force, UNLV, Hawaii, Fresno, SJSU, USU, Colorado State, and Nevada.

[MadImmortalMan]

Poor Idaho. They thought they'd made the big time when they came in to the WAC. 

[PDH]

I would be willing to bet that UTEP is allowed to shuffle from CUSA to the MWC.  Old friendships and all that.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I would be willing to bet that UTEP is allowed to shuffle from CUSA to the MWC.  Old friendships and all that.

  I can see why they would want to maybe do that if SMU and Houston weren't replaced, meaning their only in-state + in-conference "rival" left was Rice.  Might as well bail and schedule Texas teams OOC in that case. But with UTSA and UNT though, it goes back up to four Texas teams.  Pretty painless way to get some good exposure inside your primary recruiting areas, then still take your bodybag OOC games against OU or UT or something. 

Then again, if they bail, maybe Texas State would get into C-USA, which would free up a non-conference game for the Roadrunners.  Hm.

[PDH]

UTEP was old WAC back in the day - there are still ties with Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, New Mexico...

[MadBurgerMaker]

They left the WAC to go to Conference USA with Rice, Tulsa, and SMU (and TCU, also from the WAC, was already there along with Houston, who had come straight from the SWC, IIRC).  UTEP doesn't recruit the majority of their players from Wyoming, Colorado, or New Mexico.  They recruit most of them from Texas, with a whole lot of those coming from places not called El Paso.

Now, ff they feel like they can still pull the recruits they need with their home games + some OOC, and they want to go to the MWC, then more power to them.  Like I said, hopefully that would mean TSU would be able to get into C-USA instead of the Sunbelt.

[PDH]

Ahh, I meant back back in the day.  Before the WAC went to 16 in the 90s, UTEP was in cahoots with the schools I mentioned above - there are still ties.  UTEP didn't want to run to the MWC, but later regretted that.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I know when they were in the WAC.   If UTEP had these strong ties, why didn't they want to go to the MWC with all their buddies they were in cahoots with in the first place?  What does that even mean?  What are these ties that are super strong?  Why did they go with SMU, Tulsa, and Rice to C-USA instead? 

[PDH]

I know when they were in the WAC.   If UTEP had these strong ties, why didn't they want to go to the MWC with all their buddies they were in cahoots with in the first place?  What does that even mean?  What are these ties that are super strong?  Why did they go with SMU, Tulsa, and Rice to C-USA instead?

Really, they didn't join because they were the 10th team.  All the talk I have been hearing is that UTEP desires more to be in the MWC than CUSA right now.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Really, they didn't join because they were the 10th team.   All the talk I have been hearing is that UTEP desires more to be in the MWC than CUSA right now.

The 10th team?  In the MWC?  They would have been 9, I thought.  Either way though, 9th, 10th team in the MWC....what difference does that make?    Just UTEP being weird?  Right now, they would be either the 9th or 11th team.  Well, for football.  Hawaii is in the Big West for everything else. 

Anyway, yeah, there's talk about UTEP going, but I've never heard of these super strong ties being what might send them to the MWC (because, again, why didn't these ties put them there in the first place?).  More that there was just no real reason to stay in C-USA anymore when the Big East took the better remaining Texas schools, and the MWC is a much better conference.  UTSA and UNT suck shit at everything, and aren't good replacements for Houston and SMU competition wise, but their upsides are that they are in solid recruiting areas (with them C-USA would be in Houston/East Texas, DFW/North Texas, and San Antonio/South Central Texas).

[PDH]

Yeah 9th.  I think that the original MWC left them out (as well as Hawaii) because they wanted a smaller, more regional conference (we see how that went...), and UTEP wanted to be part of something larger at the time.  I dunno, I think that the arguments about tradition and such have all gone by the wayside anyway, but I wouldn't count out the MWC-CUSA faux-merger yet.  If that does happen, expect UTEP to move to balance out the numbers.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Yeah 9th.  I think that the original MWC left them out (as well as Hawaii) because they wanted a smaller, more regional conference (we see how that went...), and UTEP wanted to be part of something larger at the time.  I dunno, I think that the arguments about tradition and such have all gone by the wayside anyway, but I wouldn't count out the MWC-CUSA faux-merger yet.  If that does happen, expect UTEP to move to balance out the numbers.

Yeah, if Mount USA gets some sort of scheduling agreement going, it would make a bit more sense for UTEP to go since they'd still have a presence in their primary recruiting areas, while at the same time getting to be in the better conference (it wouldn't be as good as actually being IN the conference, but it's better than nothing). 

Without that though, I don't know...it just doesn't seem like it would be in their best interests, which is what they're supposed to be looking out for, good buddies in the other conference or not.  But hey, like I said, if they feel they can get along just fine: whateva!

[MadBurgerMaker]

Texas State and UT- Arlington to the Sunbelt: http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/brett-mcmurphy/18911274/texas-state-utarlington-to-sun-belt-in-2013