I'm not doubting Terror, but I only know with 100% certainty that the SHSU and SFASU are protected.
http://itemonline.com/local/x212536571/ ... -SHSU-name
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/13510/

I would assume that Prairie View A&M is also because they are a historically black university and wants to retain their history and not conform to the whims of a system (like TAMUS or TSUS).

Tarleton's main campus has been more vocal about identifying themselves as a "Member of The Texas A&M University System" http://www.tarleton.edu/ but as far as I know (and after a quick Bing search) there is no bill protecting that name (though I'm sure Terror can point me in the right direction).

But Tarleton St's other campuses have been in the A&M system for a long time but also mostly operated as itsself until A&M's recent push for more name recognitian (like naming the Texas Forest Service the Texas A&M Forest Service...not joking) and has recently started pushing their smaller campuses to change to following the Texas A&M Branding. Recently Tarleton's Central Texas Campus in Killeen (http://www.ct.tamus.edu/index.php) was annexed and rebranded to be TAMU-Central Texas. In part to add more campuses and surpass the UT system which while now only has 9 to A&M's 11, there 9 which includes UTEP, UTSA, UTA (Arlington), and UT Dallas are prime institutions in the state with Brownsville, Tyler, Permian Basin, and Pan American still developing, meanwhile A&M has Commerce, Corpus, Prairie View and...a bunch of others that are no better than the lesser UT schools (and that's not counting UT's 6 Medical/H&S center which is clearly superior to A&M's 1 which is why A&M is taking over Baylor's detistry schools and Texas Wesleyan's Law school in order to show how strong they are under our Aggies Gov.)

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

Okay,
From what I can gather, these are the finalists:
School Students Stad Cap Endowment Location Ready Now?
James Madison 19,400+ 25,000 59+ Mil. Harrisonburg, VA Yes - but undecided
Liberty U. 12,600+ 19,200 54+ Mil. Lynchburg, VA Yes - private, religious school
Lamar U. 14,020+ 16,000 77+ Mil. Beaumont, TX Yes
Sam Houston St. 14,900+ 14,000 53+ Mil. Huntsville, TX No
Citadel 2,400+ 21,000 208+ Mil. Charleston, SC Yes - very small student pop.

Did I miss anyone? These are in no particular order. If anyone asks, I can provide the links to where I picked up the information posted above.

The obvious miss in Jacksonville State who should be included.

Other than on here I haven't seen any reports or even rumors about the Citadel...not sure how they appear ready to move up....that mean more than just stadium size.

I posted this a few pages back which has the link from a freedom of information request about who the Sun Belt "approached" and the list is below.
http://www.appstatenation.com/2013/02/0 ... andidates/

Delaware - reportedly will not make any moves until realignment settles down (could join MAC)
Illinois State
Jacksonville State
James Madison - reportedly turned down an offer from the SBC to possibly join the MAC
Lamar
Liberty
Missouri State
Richmond - small school in the A10, would just be for fb only
Sam Houston State
Towson - haven't heard anything about them wanting to move
UT Chattanooga - reportedly was approach by the SBC and said no thank you

_________________
Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

Tkalmus,
Nice one, I was looking at the finalists though. Illinois St., Missouri St., and Indiana St. all declined - happy where they are at. U. Tennessee - C. declined as it was too expensive. You are right that I should have added Jackson St.! My bust!
Link to Citadel came from another forum where a poster said he knew an in on the discussions and that both the state and the city of Charleston were supporting the move.
http://www.gotroytrojans.com/forums/sho ... hp?t=32304
So, it appears that there are only six left:
James Madison U., Liberty U., Lamar U., Sam Houston St., Jacksonville St., and Citadel.
Anyone else I missed?

I don't see the Sun Belt expanding to the Midwest. It's mostly specified within the Southeast, South Atlantic and South Central U.S.

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Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

NCAA,
Under "normal" conditions, I might agree - but now is not normal. The SBC is in a desperation mode to get to 12 before 2014. I say this because it appears that there is no longer a large number of schools wanting to leave FCS for FBS. The Midwest adds could be a possibility under the right conditions. Missouri St. would fit as they are close to Arkansas St., and I could see New Mexico St. being brought in for all sports. Other than that it would probably be Texas schools that get the nod. I don't see anyone else in the Midwest that would be a good add. The south central and south east appear to have the most desirable schools that appear ready to make that jump at this time. Unfortunately there is less desire from a lot of institutions to make that move. This cuts the amount of available choices and the conference then has to be more selective in who they look at and whom they will invite. This takes a lot longer as now the presidents have to be convinced that the school getting the invite is the best choice over their objections.
So, in this case, the SBC has to make a selection and be accepted by the presidents and the selected institution before the summer deadline to get to 12. With it now being May, desperation mode may have set in. Did I miss anything anyone?

I respect and understand your statement, but lemme remind some similar facts. The WAC was ALSO in a desperation mode for this past season (the 2012-13 season) because they lost Boise State, Hawaii, Fresno State and Nevada to the MWC within the past few years. And unfortunately, the conference was forced to drop football because of the realignment now that they lost San Jose State and Utah State to the MWC; Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech to C-USA; and Texas State and Texas-Arlington to the Sun Belt. The WAC was one of the only FBS leagues in the Western U.S., with some schools in the South Central U.S. until this past season.

_________________
Florida State Seminole fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)!

I don't get why the sunbelt would be in desperation mode. Things have stabilized. It would take the big ten expanding/schools giving up their GOR to leave or navy backing out of the AAC to cause a realignment wave that would hit the sunbelt. Right now they have their 11 all sports members and 11 for football when you include the 2 affiliates. Their is no eminent threat of a WACesque collapse.

Okay, point taken - but the B1G can still make moves to get to 16 (U. Mass, U. Conn, Missouri, Vanderbilt), the B12 can still try and go to 12 (Northern Illinois, Cincinatti, Ohio U., BYU, Colorado St.) and that does still not include the CUSA statement of wanting to go to 16. (anyone they choose? - from lower conf of course)
But does Idaho know something we don't?
http://www.thevandalnation.com/?p=7998
Towards the end of this article they state that James Madison is coming into the SBC.

any FCS upgrades would hurt the Sunbelt for the next 2 wouldn't it? there getting 2 teams the next 2 seasons and for the first year their considered a FCS school still and i remember reading here or somewhere else saying that for football it would hurt for home games or something.

_________________
Fan of:
Sun Belt Conference
Summit League
Us National Soccer Team

46566,
It doesn't hurt exactly, but the first year would be this fall (2013) as an FCS transition school. The second year would be as a BCS transitional team playing a full SBC schedule. (2014) Not bowl eligible in transition season. Third year (2015) can play as full BCS member, and bowl eligible.

Posted this thought over on the MAC board but I thought it also fit in over here---The MAC has the option to not renew their deal with UMass after this season and with the "group of 5" conferences only getting $1 million per school for up to 12 schools of playoff money then it would be advantageous for the MAC to drop their awkward 13th member. With this said, if no clear candidate in the East stepping forward for SBC membership, would the SBC consider UMass as a football affiliate if they came available?

Questions no one can give a good answer.

Last fall, Lamar gave a losing FCS coach a pay raise up the SBC level, why?
A recruit was told Lamar was getting the SBC invite, are the coaches liars?
Lamar Athletic budget continue to rise each year, 13 million last year and now up to nearly 14.5 million. Why does Lamar need a huge budget to play in the SLC? The next highest SLC budget is 10 million.

Lamar Athletics $14,390,771

Missouri State $13,761,264 (The Sun Belt fan site flavor of the day)
Georgia Southern $11,335,102 (Received an invite recently)
Jacksonville St $12,261,404 One of the names frequently mentioned
UL $17,532,577 Current Member
ULM $10,769,839 Current Member
Troy $16,504,664 Current Member
Appalachian St $17,238,578 (Received an invite recently)
Arkansas St $15,307,308 Current Member

http://www.setxsports.com/site/index.ph ... =111263.45

Coaches lie to recruits all the time, UConn coaches were telling prospects they were going to the ACC, Cincinnati said the same to theirs about the Big 12.

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What about the other 2 questions.