He also forgot to include Arkansas-Little Rock, New Orleans, and South Alabama...

Seriously though, something has to give with the influx of D-I independents...

"34TH" CONFERENCE
-Central Arkansas (Southland?)
-Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne
-North Dakota State
-Northern Colorado (Big Sky?)
-South Dakota State
-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
-Texas-Pan American
-Utah Valley State

Probable expansion candidates if such a conference were to establish itself with the membership as listed (obviously this is a BIG "if")...
-Denver (Sun Belt)
-Southern Utah (Mid-Continent)

BCS conferences can handle the travel costs. Stretching something from North Dakota to the Rio Grande to Indiana had better be football-only, and even then it's borderline ugly.

Good point, Pounder. The concept of a "conference" suggests, preferably, something more than convenience by associating similar status schools together. Conferences, particularly those that are not at the top level of competition, often suffer drawbacks by far-flung membership. It poses challenges in terms of travel costs and cultivating rivalries that are economically feasible. Playing fb only, only empahsizes that the connections between or among the schools are conditional and limited.

When a schools plans to move up in divisional status, it is wise to have some assurance there is an acceptable conference available and willing to make an inclusion.

UCONN had such an agreement or understanding in the BE.

<<When a schools plans to move up in divisional status, it is wise to have some assurance there is an acceptable conference available and willing to make an inclusion.>>


The article on Savannah St. on another thread is an excellent example of what you are talking about. They seem like a reasonable candidate to move up, but they had no place to go. The lack of a conference is what has held North Dakota back.

This "conference" will likely come into being in the next couple of years. But without an autobid it will supplant the Mid-Con as the default entry level conference for neophyte D-I schools.

Since most of the D-I independents don't (currently) have realistic suitors, they might as well band together, form a conference, and begin the lengthy process of acquiring an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament...

Central Arkansas: D-II school exploring possible D-I membership; the inference is that UCA (and its football program) won't go D-I without a (Southland) conference affiliation...

Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne: currently in its third season as a "full-fledged" D-I member; instead of adding IPFW in its most recent expansion (2003), the Mid-Con added far-flung Centenary (Shreveport, LA)...

Longwood: presumably the Big South is waiting until the D-I reclassification process has been completed...

North Dakota State/South Dakota State: members of the Great West Football Conference; barring any unforeseen membership issues, the Dakota schools are too far east for the Big Sky and too far north for the Mid-Con...

Northern Colorado: Great West Football Conference member publicly being considered by the Big Sky...

Savannah State: Morris Brown II--enough said...

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi: made some relative noise this season; lack of a football program impedes SLC membership; location impedes Mid-Con membership...

Texas-Pan American: longtime D-I program; exile from Sun Belt (American South) and Atlantic Sun (TAAC); lack of football program impedes SLC membership; location impedes Mid-Con membership...

Utah Valley State: thingy Hunsaker coached Ball State to the Sweet 16 in 1990; location and the lack of football program undoubtedly limit their options...

Temple to the MAC.

Now that July 1, 2005 has gone by could you please put the teams in their new conferences.

It's now August 21, 2005 could please update this list?

Liberty eventually to eastern D-1a conference?Check out article at http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/sports/colleges/13696365.htm