As i reported word is Mcneese State may join the elements of WAC and Sunbelt to make up the New Southwest Conference.What Happens to the rest of these guys.
Southland
Jacksonville St. OVC Bound
McNeese State New SWC Conference
Nicholls State
Northwestern St.
Sam Houston St.
Stephen F. Austin
SW Texas State New SWC Conference

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The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

The McNeese people don't know anything about this, and the people I have been exchanging messages with on the subject are insiders. You ought to go over there and visit them about this.

Starting a new thread for this? McNeese State is not going to join a conference that is not going to be formed. The same can be said for Southwest Texas State. Southeast Louisiana football will be in the Southland in a few years. If Louisiana-Monroe's football program is not terminated, it may be returning to I-AA and the Southland in the next few years. Jacksonville State's membership was in the Southland Football League, not the Southland Conference. With the departure of Jacksonville State, the SFL name is no longer going to be used, and football will again use the name Southland Conference, with Southeast Louisiana definitely scheduled to begin competition perhaps as early as 2005. Louisiana-Monroe is an all-sports member who likely be welcomed back into the football conference if it were to return to I-AA. Just for the sake of argument, who exactly are the members of this "New Southwest Conference" going to be? I think they should be readily accessible for the purposes of responding to this thread.

Its call a predicition yungwun dumbass thats all that on hear.Get a life newbie these are rumors.FYI sw Texas state is pushing for 1-A in 2005 learn to read!!



New Southwest Conference

West
Texas Christian
SMU
Rice
Houston
Texas-El Paso
South West Texas State

East
Louisiana Tech
North Texas
Arkansas St.
Louisiana-Lafayette
McNeese St.
Tulsa

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

So I am a "dumbass" because you fail to draw the distinction between reports, rumors, and predictions? If Southwest Texas State is really pushing for I-A in 2005, what conference are they going to join and how are they going to raise their attendance to clear the new NCAA minimums? Do you have any idea how difficult it is for a new conference to obtain an automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament? Why don't you grasp the concept of the English language and not blame me for problems that you brought on yourself? It's not my fault that you carry the same meaning to an AP article that you would something your hear a sports call-in show and expect me to relate to that. Whose "word" is the concept of the New Southwest Conference, yours? How credible and insightful.

I didn't fail at nothing.These are predictions and rumors. You act like your the only one that can start something on this board. Hello wakeup this is freedom at its best.Yes i do know how diffcult it is to raise the level and to get a bid. Its not my fault the NC2A is a pain sometimes,but these are rumors thats all nothing written in stone.FYI I apologize for my remark you are pretty intelligent.By the way i don't speak english,I speak American.

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

SW Texas has the fan base and enrollment to move up to d-1a 20,892 enrollment.I say they would make the move with rather ease.

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

I'd love to see the conference you mentioned form, but i think you might see something more along the lines of the larger Div 1-AA schools in the region trying to lasso in schools like SPECIFICALLY UNT, UTEP, NM St., and Ark. St. for a new SWC. I think ultimately you will see the vast majority of smaller private schools hanging together for a number of reasons (not going to go off on SMU again, I am really not...).

The new SWC to me looks like it might be large/state schools in the 15-45K range in NM,Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. The neccessary markets are there to support a modest TV deal, I think, and the current Div 1 schools have nothing better going on.

My New Southwest Conference

football

North Texas
Texas-El Paso
Southwest Texas State
McNeese St.
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Arkansas St.

and I love to see pipe dreams
Houston
UNM

I would love to see Houston and UNM lured in with deals akin to the Miami Big East deal (albeit on a much lesser scale.) Houston has always been willing to change conferences. UNM...They have history with the MWC schools, but if the money generated by the largest schools in the 2 main TV markets in TX makes their share larger, I think they would do it. They hit me as more mercinary than the BAND OF 5. That the money would be greater, is, of course, a big if. If the right TV deal could be put together a deal like this would make all kinds of sense for all parties.

I'd like to see

UT-SA
UT-Arlington
UT-Pan American
Sam Houston St.
Lamar
Central OKl
University of New Orleans
SE Louisiana

Invited in as non-football members (and encouraged to get Div1 football going, allowing a non- football 8/8 break---I know, too unweildy, but a man's gotta have dreams...

football god, the moves made by CUSA to form a more southwest based conference have been fairly public. It's doubtful any new league would form when it is not a guaruntee that there would be an automatic berth for the NCAA basketball tourney.

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It is hard to say. I suggest this, because the elements for a new league forming are certainly present. If the league was able to land a nice TV deal--- a possibility I will get into shortly, the league would have a chance to move ahead of a number of other second and third tier conferences in short order.

If they were to mimic the BE's half basketball/half football structure, I think there is no way they don't get an automatic bid. The schools I am mentioning generate a lot of graduates and some are in pretty good markets.

North Texas (enrollment: 30k+)
Largest school in #7 market (2.255M TV households)

Houston (33k+)
Second to A&M in #11 market (1.848M TV households)

Texas State (formerly SW Texas St.) (26K+)
Second to UT in #54 market (557K TV households)

Texas-El Paso (17K+)
Largest school in #100 market (283K TV households)

Now the other 4 schools don't give you a thing in terms of market share, but they would likely be game to join. Travel costs seem to be a little better in this for most established Div 1 teams.

McNeese St.
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Arkansas St.

Would this generate more income than the MWC TV deal? (SD 1.029M+ Utah 786k + Denver 1.399M)

hmmmmmm....

If so, would UNM bail? If no BCS bid is there to hold them and an automatic basketball bid for the new conference seems likely, would they jump to be the big fish in the conference? (a bird in hand is going to be worth two in the bush, but lets let this play out and say they do.)

UNM (23K+)
Largest school in #49 market (633K TV households)

Does this conference now look better to Memphis than the remaining CUSA?

Memphis (19K+)
Largest school in #43 market (662K TV households)

that gives you 10 schools for football, and should make you strong enough to justify an automatic bid.

But if you go with the BE/CUSA model and add non-football schools....

UT Arlington (21K+)
Second to UNT in #7 market (2.255M TV households)

UT San Antonio (19K+)
Largest school in #37 market (736K TV households)

New Orleans (17K+)
Largest school in #42 market (665K TV households)

Central OKlahoma (14K+)
Third to OU & OSU in #45 market (647K TV households)

Houston, UNM, Memphis, La. Tech, UTEP, and NO should be enough legitimacy for a automatic BB bid, although with those schools in place, I don't see that as an issue. This looks nearly as attractive as the OLD CUSA in terms of markets.

Just a side note---with Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston, this would be a fun travel conference for fans.

Are you familiar with the 6/5 rule? That seems to be the current sticking point in the creation of "mid-major" conferences...at a glance it appears as though there are no more than four members from any one conference (SLC: UTA, UTSA, Texas State, McNeese State; SBC: ASU, ULL, UNO, UNT).

Six members for five years? That rule? I am unfamiliar with how that applies to new conferences.

You mention the schools that belong to the same conferences---I am not sure i follow you there. I am talking about a new conference---why would them coming from the same conference impact that? Is the implication that the MWC when they broke away created a blueprint for this type of conference forming? The nature of their genesis---7 schools from the same conference over a long period of time---over the minimum 6 teams---was what allowed them to get an NCAA basketball bid so quickly? (Pretty much immediately I had thought.)

If the implication is that this conference would not have an automatic bid for basketball for 5 years, I think by letter that would be accurate---but in practice would that be the case? Is there a recent precidence that shows this? One with the types of high profile schools we are discussing? Ultimately, i would think even if they DIDN'T get an automatic bid, they would get bids. Too many basketball schools. Now possibly without the automatic bid, there wouldn't be an iron clad reason to have a tournament and they would be a financial hit. Maybe they have a tournament anyway for TV? I think it would be surviveable, but it does cloud things.