Not the biggest fan of this piece. Was not digging it and then got to the "South Georgia" mention. We can assume he meant "Georgia Southern" but the mistake makes you realize that it's all based on speculation (likely heard once that a georgia school considered an upgrade). This blog post would be a great fit for our "fantasy realignment" thread.

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SBC MB thread with critique of above linked blog article suggesting that the league should consider expansion.Link at http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=394055

Article out of NO reporting that UNO has permission from LSUBOS to drop from D-1 and leave SBC by 7-1-2010.Link at http://www.neworleans.com/sports/uno/28 ... n-iii.html

Blog article discussing possible future SBC realignment scenarios at http://bleacherreport.com/articles/3151 ... conference

A bit of a stretch once you get to the "WAC creates a 6 team East division with La Tech, NMSU, UTSA, North Texas, ULL, Arkansas St" (West division would be Hawaii, Fresno, SJSU, Nevada, Idaho, Utah St).

Once you get into a CUSA split and basketball-only membership to USM, Tulane, it's a bit made for the dream thread.

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Regards to the 12 team WAC, that would of course leave the Sunbelt at only 6 members.

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Some points in the blog are well-taken, and others seem a bit off.

I have never heard the PAC-10 proclaim that they feel compelled to expand to 12 after the Big Ten does. They may do that, but I don't believe the conference office has ever released such a statement.

Not sure LaTech will have the leverage to tell the WAC what to do. Should the WAC drop to 8 (and with no football-playing FCS-> FBS potential move-ups west of Texas), the WAC's only expansion options might be:
a) raid C-USA or MWC (not gonna happen)
b) try to lure North Texas from the Sun-Belt
c) wait for the moratorium to end, and grab some move-ups from the Southland Conference.
Regardless of whether this is what LaTech would want, it may be the WAC's only options.

The initial premise is that the Sun-Belt will be down to 11, following imminent departure of New Orleans, and later departure of Denver. OK, I think we're on board with that much of it.

However, being the bottom rung on the FBS ladder necessarily puts the Sun-Belt in a reactionary position. They need to be engaged in some "game-playing" in terms of contingency planning. One way the Sun-Belt can survive is if C-USA splits, and the western schools want to take in more Texas-centric move-ups. If the C-USA East teams that want to depart lack critical mass (5 or fewer schools, such as: Marshall, ECU, UCF, UAB, Southern Miss), they might look to the Sun-Belt.
This scenario could unfold if the BE takes some C-USA East schools and a few remaining C-USA East schools feel isolated.

We are not the decision makers, and to guess how this all plays out is pure speculation. It would appear the Big Ten will set things in motion, and (like in 2003) the shake-out will trickle down to the Sun-Belt. When things do shake out, this 6/5 rule could likely play a big part in determining which conference entities survive... it'll be a numbers game and depend on which conferences further up the ladder expand to how many, and with whom. The Sun-Belt office might be having some conversations with various Southeastern colleges now, as part of their contingency planning.....

If the Big East ever expanded with UCF and CUSA with NMSU, North Texas, La Tech, etc... I wonder how ECU and Marshall would feel about that. When looking at CUSA vs the MAC, it's almost worth considering this: would Marshall and ECU be better off in the MAC vs a Texas-based CUSA?

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Quinn -

Indeed !

Marshall left the MAC for C-USA in 2003. C-USA seen as higher profile, and the money has proved to be better.

However, Marshall and ECU are really geographical outliers and have travel issues (the C-USA schools are NOT so flush with cash that travel cost is not a major concern) and they would feel even more isolated if the C-USA became more Texas-centric, which could certainly happen if the BE were to expand by taking some of their closer C-USA neighbors like UCF and Memphis.

After the shuffling of 2003, the C-USA office was moved to Dallas. I think the writing is on the wall...
Depending how this next wave of expansion shakes out, Marshall and ECU (in the absence of a Big East invitation) may be compelled to look at some kind of realignment involving MAC and eastern Sun-Belt schools.

Regards,
Tute

I tend to exclude Memphis from such scenarios. Being an urban school, it suits them just fine to be in conference with schools in the Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Birmingham cities. For their travel, it's a 10 minute bus ride to a major airport...versus Marshall and ECU that have to travel to get to where they depart from.

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SBC MB thread discussing above posted linked blog article regarding possible SBC realignment scenarios at http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=409710

the Sunbelt seems to make the most sense at 10/10 or 12/12. Denver adds nothing but travel costs to the other members. UALR could add football but there has been no indication that they would do so. CUSA made some bold moves when it urged it's non-football members out such as St. Louis and Charlotte.

The Sunbelt is in a position where they are still at the bottom, but an ideal home for the schools we have heard about upgrading such as Texas St., UTSA, Lamar and Georgia St. I still think Charlotte would pass on the Sunbelt with hopes of the Big East or CUSA once they are FBS.

So the Sunbelt could be in a safe spot if it could replace Denver and UALR with UTSA and Texas St.

If the Sunbelt got to 11 with UTSA, I wonder if LA Tech would consider a move if it meant extra revenue due to lower travel costs and a sunbelt championship game?

Sunbelt:
EAST:
FIU
FAU
Troy
~USA
MTSU
WKU

WEST:
UTSA
North Texas
Ark St.
ULL
ULM
*LA Tech/Texas St/USA (if ~ = Georgia St)

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What if the sunbelt added 3 football schools from the state of Virginia (Richmond, James Madison, and Old Dominion)? That would bring them up to 12 football teams, with 2 divisions, and a conference championship game.

None of those schools have expressed any interest in leaving the FCS level.

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James Madison has every intention to leave FCS once it's stadium is expanded: it's just very cautious not to irk the Colonial Conference by stating those intentions publicly.

Old Dominion to FBS later this decade is also probable. Liberty is a Virginia school that is very open about FBS hopes.

Richmond does not have the finances or support to move to FBS.