C-USA has no interest in Louisiana schools. Ruston, Lafayette, Monroe... they add no TV sets, no revenue, no nothing.

North Texas, FIU/FAU perhaps. But I'd also fully expect Charlotte to leapfrog them within five years.

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CUSA has held its expansive league together for a while but now it may be spread a bit to thin, the Big East, Big 12, MWC, MAC, and Sun Belt will all be coming after CUSA schools when the Super Conference hysteria hits. If the Big 12 or Big East come calling CUSA is DOA however if the SEC/PAC/B1G/ACC finish them off before they can poach, then CUSA could really gain from the LEFTOVERS!

AQ's-Iowa St, Kansas, Kansas St, Baylor, TCU, USF, Louisville, Cincinnati, plus quality non-AQ's

Some combo of the three remaining AQ's will be taken by the ACC after that I'd take the best remaining schools on the board that match up with the current conference. But priority one should be to PROTECT TEXAS. The West has run out of schools even if the MWC added the rest of the WAC pack Utah St, SJSU, Idaho, and NM St, plus get BYU back they'd still be one school short, but we all know the Mountain West wants back into Texas in a big way so the best way to protect the Texas schools (UH/SMU/Rice/UTEP) would be to put all efforts into grabbing TCU and Baylor as 13/14.

After that CUSA would need to decide if they want to solidify their outlier schools or grab the best programs available. Kansas and K St are probably the best combo of schools out there but they would be isolated with only Tulsa and Memphis nearby. Louisville and Cinncy would help tie in Marshall better into the conference but then its still pretty spread out. And USF would help keep UCF in company down in Florida. ECSU would still be an outlier.

No real solution that condenses this conference into a solid unless unless...

The MWC grabs TCU and Baylor and then poaches Houston and UTEP. Then CUSA could grab Kansas and K St, and LA Tech (or UNT if SMU prefers) to help solidify TX/LA which could be the new West Kansas, K St, Tulsa, SMU, Rice, LA Tech, Tulane, and So Miss. After that simply add USF, Louiville, and Cinncy to go with Memphis, UAB, Marshall, ECSU, and UCF.

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Big East Commissioner John Marinatto says he has been in constant contact with Dan Beebe of the Big 12 and John Swofford of the Atlantic Coast Conference in recent days and has suggested the three meet to discuss conference realignment.

Marinatto didn’t reveal details about his conversations with his fellow commissioners but said Tuesday: “I thought it would be important for us to meet face-to-face and take the lead in trying to do things the right way.”

Marinatto also has spoken with NCAA president Mark Emmert, but he said Emmert was not planning to hold any meetings with conference commissioners to discuss conference realignment.

good bye CUSA unless you get all of the WAC and SUNBELT schools.


Edit:Please do not copy complete copyrighted articles on this MB.

Here is link to this ESPN piece at http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... n-swofford

Thanks
Freaked

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Think they can smell Marinatto's sweat? Big East is the bottom of that relationship, the replacement feeding ground for ACC, Big 12, SEC, etc.
And to put things in perspective, we all must remember that TCU, the top football program in the Big East, is not considered a top candidate for Big 12 expansion, with CUSA schools considered more likely as options. The same "non-BCS" CUSA.

I'm not sure if it's something to be admired or to laugh at. It's like Liechtenstein trying to flex some muscles with France and Belgium.

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La. Tech in contact with C-USA
http://louisianatech.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1267935

aren't they always?

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

why is tcu not a top candidate for the big 12?

Because with Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, the market area in Dallas is covered...even with just Texas.

And since the merger was the plan if Texas and Tech left, the Big 12 would have had TCU added anyways. So they were going to the big 12 if Texas had left.

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Also TCU would be another tag-a-long that could prevent UT from joining the PAC/ACC/B1G or going independent...its obvious that Baylor was going to get left out but now if it become Baylor AND TCU people may object...

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

Louisiana Tech has wanted out of the WAC for some time...CUSA is there...but who would be #14? Troy is a good possibility for #14.

How about Appalachian State? They want to go to the FBS and this would be a good time to join the C-USA. Especially if they lose UCF or ECU or both. Sure it will take some time for them to develop but in the long run it will work.

With the Big East in a tough spot, it seems worth looking at any CUSA impact.

So...
Say the Big 12 invites Louisville...TCU likely then to remain in MWC, and Big East is down to 5 schools...a tough spot to stay together.
Say the SEC invited WVU...TCU likely then to remain in MWC, and Big East is down to 5 schools...a tough spot to stay together.
Say the Big 12 brought in BOTH UL and WVU...TCU likely then to remain in MWC, and Big East is down to 4 schools...a tough spot to stay together.
And even worse, say UL and WVU left but then UConn and Rutgers went to ACC, and TCU to MWC...Big East down to Cincy and USF.


So really, if the Big East numbers dip to even just 5, I think that CUSA could be in a position of power.

The proposed football partnership with the MWC would only happen if they are awarded a BCS AQ. So Big East schools joining would at least have a BCS AQ to work for. Might not be the case if they just added 3-4 new schools (even from CUSA).


So as a last resort, a stretch, but maybe you'd see some form of combination like:

*Uconn
*Rutgers
*Cincy
Marshall
ECU
*USF
UCF
Memphis

UAB
USM
Tulane
Tulsa
Rice
Houston
SMU
UTEP

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At the very least, this is far preferable to continuing with that BE FB mess.

If UConn, Rutgers went, then CUSA would only be 14.
If TCU returned to MWC as you say, maybe they grab UTEP for 12, then CUSA is down to 13.

For this MWC - CUSA thing to work, both need to be small enough for a round-robin, then play each other in a CCG.
I think here we're stuck dealing with 25 teams, 20 would be ideal....

Ideal would be that the MWC take the CUSA Texas' & Tulsa. BE leftovers merge w CUSA East & Tulane

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I have a hard time seeing the MWC expand past 12. The reason the MWC was formed was because the WAC was too clunky at 16 teams. If they feel 16 teams is the way to go in this NCAA climate then a combo of Houston, SMU, UTEP, and Tulsa would be ideal. Leave Rice in C-USA with Tulane.

C-USA then:
Tulane
Rice
UAB
Memphis
Southern Miss
UCF
East Carolina
Marshall

At that point they could bring in the Big East scraps, more than likely USF and Cincinnati. Invite Temple and say either Appalachian State, Florida International, Troy, James Madison, etc...