Whither the BE should add a 9th FB member or not, is entirely separate from whither or not it should split. However, if the BE (NBE/EAC) does decide to add a 9th team, the question then becomes: Who?.

This thread is for all you wannabees. Post why your favorite team should be added to the BE. You can also post why your favorite team should be in some other BCS conference.

FBfan

PS: Since my favorite team is already in the SEC, I will not start the discussion. I am happy where we are.

PSU

PSU immediately came to my mind too.

Realistically, I think the best hope for the FB 8 would be a 12-team conference that looks like:

NORTH:
UMass flagship MA
UConn flagship CT
Syracuse flagship NY
Rutgers flagship NJ
Pitt #2 school in PA
WVU flagship WV

SOUTH:
Cincy #2 (?) school in OH
Louisville #2 school in KY
Memphis #2 (?) school in TN
E Car. Greenville (decent metro area)
UCF Orlanda (big metro area)
USF Tampa (big metro area)

The southern half are all C-USA refugees, but they represent some decent metropolitan areas.
In terms of readiness to move up and compete in a BCS conference, Memphis is there NOW, UCF is making the investment, ECU has been good in the past and has excellent fan support, and UMass has yet to commit.

If this 12-team arrangement (I think it lays out nicely in terms of rivalry potential and travel partnerrs, etc.) is where you want to go, then adding a 9th now should move you toward that end. Although Memphis geographically is far from the eastern seaboard, they are the most help now in terms of BB power rankings, FB rankings, and should bring along the Liberty Bowl next time the contract is up for renewal.

UMass may not commit. I think then some schools like Marshall and Temple may get a look. Marshall could be in precarious position if Big East were to invite ECU, UCF, and Memphis form the CUSA East. Geographically they would be isolated and might look back to the MAC.

I've said it many times on here before that UMass to the Big East isn't happening. UMass may be the flagship public of the state, but so is UVm and UNh but nobody is talking about putting New Hampshire in a BCS conference. UConn would block UMass every step of the way with the schools being so close together. UMass is not going to have a big stadium built for them in Springfield, Mass the same way UConn was able to do in Hartford. Simply the critical mass of funding and for support is not there for UMass on the BCS level.

Temple, the Big East just fired them. Think of them as an employee, Temple was told it had 1 year before they were fired......3 members of the company leave (Miami, VT, BC) and Temple still can't talk its way back into a job. When have you ever heard of an employee being fired and then picked up a couple years later by the same company? Temple has no buisness to be even in the game of football.

The NorthEast Corridor right now is divided between the Big Ten, ACC, and Big East. There isn't much the Big East can do about it. If Penn State and ND are going anywhere it will be to the ACC, not a conference with South Florida.

The Big East should be looking at building toward USF with a couple more southern members. The knock on Memphis is geography, but they are not much further west than DePaul and Marquette. TCU/Dallas would be too far but Memphis is okay, plus its in a contigous state to the Big East footprint. The support in basketball at Memphis would place it up near the top of the football playing conference. Football fan support at Memphis has really improved in recent years as they've started winning more ball games and Big E affilation could only help that.

One school nobody is talking about from CUSA as a possible good fit is UAB. UAB has been to a final four and has strong basketball tradition. They have a good sized market and are not as far west as say Southern Miss. Football support is not yet there for UAB, but they have shown potential to draw 35,000 at times and keep in mind UAB is still a young school. The Blazers remind me a lot of South Florida actually. Alabama is contiguous to Florida and Tennesse so between them and Memphis they could bridge the geographic gap down to USF to some degree.

UAB Football records since 2000:

2005 5-6
2004 7-5
2003 5-7
2002 5-7
2001 6-5
2000 7-4
Total: 35-34

Southern Miss Football records since 2000:

2005 7-5
2004 7-5
2003 9-4
2002 7-6
2001 6-5
2000 8-4
Total: 44-29

East Carolina Football records since 2000:

2005 5-6
2004 2-9
2003 1-11
2002 4-8
2001 6-6
2000 8-4
Total: 26-44

Central Florida Football records since 2000:

2005 8-5
2004 0-11
2003 3-9
2002 7-5
2001 6-5
2000 7-4
Total: 31-39

UAB without doubt has a better basketball program than USM, ECU, and UCF. They have a market comparable to UCF in size. Medical school and an academic reputation beyond what UCF, USM, and ECU have. UAB is a comprimise candidate for a 10th when the Big East snubs its nose at ECU and UCF lack solid basketball.

PSU or ND would be my choice for the BE.


As far my team going to another conference:
If the BCS bid would go away and the BE collapses I would like a new home for Pitt - and that would be the ACC. :o

I prefer Pitt to be in an East Coast Conference (preferably NEastern) and the Big10 is a midwestern conference. Pitt would be sandwiched between PSU and OSU in the Big10 and would have a hard time competiting in the Big10 in FB and other sports. I think they would only be 'ok' in MBB. Pitt would also have one of the smallest athletic budgets outside of Indiana (I think) in the Big10. The only thing I would like for Pitt in the Big10 would be the CIC. Pitt is in the same league as other CIC schools in terms of graduate research $$ and would be a good fit in the CIC in terms of academics.

As I said, I would prefer the ACC - as long as SU or RU (Prefer SU) came along and made it 14 and it split North-South. That would make Pitt part of the BC, SU, UM, Pitt, VT, and Virginia + NC school - a nice 'compact' region. Also, Pitt would be more inline in terms of their athletic budget with other ACC schools.

Just my 2 cents.....

Lets assume from now on that no teams from the 5 largest BCS conferences are going to move to the Big East.


I think UMass may have more chance than you think. UConn build their football stadium in Hartford, so why couldn't UMass build their stadium in Boston? Or maybe use the Patriots stadium? It's only about a two hour drive. All they'd need to do to move up to I-A is build a football complex (indoor practice, weight room, meeting rooms, coaches offices, locker room, etc.) like what UConn is doing and add Volleyball to even out scholarships.

And just how would UConn "block" them? Ha. I'd like to see that.


UCF and Memphis are no brainers. UCF for the huge market and they're building brand new football and basketball facilities on campus. You think being in the Big East with a brand new 10k arena isn't going to help bball recruiting? Memphis, well, what do I really have to say that hasn't already been said?

That gives them 11, one more.

UAB, Marshall, and ECU have all been mentioned.

I do like the idea of UAB. I think they have huge potential.

Marshall would be a nice travel partner for WVU, though.


I don't see why ECU is factoring in at all, but supposidly they're the front runner to be a FB only member.

Also, how can you compare UMass, the public flagship of a state with 6 million population to UVT and UNH, states with less than a million?

Nice try.


UVT doesn't even have football for crying out loud!

UMass a public flagship, okay.

States in the deep south, for example in Mississipppi Ole Miss and Miss State are the top 2 schools in the state and really capture that state and its attention.

In Massachusets, the top two schools are Harvard and MIT. Boston has historically been the intelectual capital of america with something like 100 colleges.

Boston College is the D1-A program for the Boston metro, which is like 90%. UMass is the D1 program for western mass, and of little interest and respect in Boston.

Boston College/UMass is kind of like Boise State/Idaho...nobody argues for Idaho to the Moutain West.

The UConn situation is much like UMd. While not having a very tight traditional college town football atmosphere, or even being the top school in the state, they are the only viable D1A options of their respective states, so the entire state rally's around them.

If UMass had a really strong basketball program that was selling out a 10,000 seat arena at premium prices, that would be an indicator that potential support for football is there but it isn't. The support for hoops is very mid majorish up in Amherst, completely nothing like what UConn has.

Then football recruiting, what does UMass add? Next to nothing. UConn by itself can cover New England. Storrs is like the the same distance to Boston as UMass.

Make Sense?

All except the part where there is no support in Boston for UMass. Dream on.

I guess since UConn can cover all of New England they should drop Syracuse.

Syracuse is not in New England Dumb-bell.

New England is CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, and ME.

I've been to Hartford, I've been to Storrs, I've been to Springfield. I will just say that when there is a Hartford-Springfield regional airport, the Springfield/Amherst area is contiuned to be in the orb of influence of Hartford.

UConn wants a series with BC. They don't even want to bother with UMass.

I thought UConn-UMass have a basketbal series. UMass makes the most sense out of any I-AA move ups.

According to you.

And what a great objective standard you are.

The UConn-UMass basketball series is a rolling 2 for 1 in favor of Storrs.

1999 at UMass
2000 at UConn
2001 at UConn
2002 at UMass
2003 at UConn
2004 at UConn
2005 at UMass
2006 at UConn

UConn has 10-12 non conference games to fill out in basketball and can find room for a solid local D1 opponent on the schedule every year.

When you are talking football, specifically UConn is in the Big East but hasn't developed any type of identity as a national program yet. UConn has to try and get other "progressive" BCS schools on the schedule 1 for 1 like Oregon, Texas Tech, and NCState if they want to look progressive themselves. A UConn-BC series could be just like Pitt-WVU, a backyard brawl affair.

I don't think UConn would be served by a series with UMass in football, which is not a progressive program.

Delaware would be a more intriguing idea as a replacement for adding Temple because they already have a CUSA type fan base down there with a lot of alumni in Philadelphia. Its a very good school that would attract recruits.

DE is not a very populated state. IE, there isn't as much money to support the move up.

Delaware has 850,000 and is growing. It will be over 1 million people by 2020. There are numerous Fortune 500 companies in Delaware because of the financial incentives and tax advantages that are provided there. DuPont is one such company that is located in Delaware along with numerous financial institutions. There is lots of corporate money in Delaware.

Newark, DE is the home of the University of Delaware. It is located in the Wilmington, DE Metropolitan Division of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Statistical Area. There are about 650,000 living in the Wilmington, DE Metropolitan Statistical Division. Philly MSA has 6 million. According to a CNN article there is very strong support for the University of Delaware sports statewide. They have a bigger market than the University of Wyoming, and are probably bigger in market than many midmajor I-A schools. Perhaps bigger than many MAC schools in market, as well as some WAC schools, possibly bigger in market than Utah State, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, etc. They also usually top D-IAA attendance, averaging better than the 15K I-A minimum at 22,000 per game. They have deep penetration and hardly any competition. The only competition is Delaware State which is a HBCU Black Land Grant and has a lot less in attendance and enrollment in comparison.

Delaware is also a great academic school.