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INCONCEIVABLE?!

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I read this article from a site called Saturdayblitz.com. In reality, this piece is an author named Caleb Calhoun’s expansion wet dream. He predicts first that the Big Ten will poach Syracuse and Boston College. They may do so in the future but the only problem is that if the Big Ten wanted them, they could have had them already. With the rule of the Big Ten, geographically, it would have made sense because Penn State borders Syracuse, which is in upstate New York and New York borders Massachusetts, where Boston College is located. It made more sense to add Rutgers and Maryland. One, unlike Syracuse and Boston College, two private schools, Rutgers and Maryland are two large land grant public universities that happen to be members of the AAU, which almost every member of the Big Ten is, saving Northwestern, which is also privately funded and Nebraska, not a member of the AAU. Also, Syracuse marginally penetrates New York City and Boston is more of a pro sports town. On the flip side, Rutgers give you more of the New York/New Jersey metroplex while Maryland gives you on a silver platter the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. markets, a lot more cable subscribers.

More troubling, he states that Notre Dame will join the Big 12. Only one word for this: HUH?! Notre Dame has fought tooth and nail to maintain independence. Why would they change the paradigm now? Notre Dame has a sweetheart deal with NBC to broadcast all their home games and ESPN/ABC will broadcast the rest. Notre Dame, by themselves, have a seat at the Power Five table. If they had to join a conference, why the Big 12? Culturally, it would not make a whole lot of sense, since a large majority of the fanbase and alumni of Notre Dame are from the Midwest and Northeast. He states that the ACC will be dead in the future. If they are so weak, then why Notre Dame decide to become a football partner and Olympic-sports member with the ACC? He states that once the Maryland lawsuit is finalized and if Maryland is not required to pay the full $53 million, this will open the floodgates and all hell will break loose. Even if this were to occur, he forgot about the COCKADOODIE GRANT OF RIGHTS! This guarantees that even if another member were to leave the ACC, they would have to forfeit all their TV revenue to them, even if the new deal they inked was better and far more lucrative.

To sum it all up, everyone is allowed to dream but to make an assumption like the ACC being the weakest conference is just plain foolhardy. If anything, the Big 12 is the weakest link in the Power Five chain because it is a conference cobbled together and suited solely to satisfy the needs and ego of the University of  Texas. Evidence has shown that twice, the Big 12 almost imploded completely, with the bulk of its membership casting a lustful eye at the PAC-12. Only thing putting the kibosh on the whole deal was the asinine Longhorn Network of Texas. West Virginia, like an unhappy married woman, will be making overtures to other conferences in the future including the ACC and the SEC. Also, if The Longhorn Network implodes, which I think it will because of the launching of the SEC Network, Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State might terminate their grant of rights altogether and court the PAC-12 once more and this time, I think Larry Scott and the rest of the PAC-12 will welcome them with open arms. Just imagine the tailgating with games like Texas vs. Washington: Texas dry-rubbed beef from a hickory smoker and Chinook salmon. I think that the rest will have to scramble for new homes.

Here is my scenario for the rest: Kansas will join the Big Ten and Missouri will jump ship from the SEC and reunite with Kansas to reignite their rivalry. Both, after all, are large land grant institutions and AAU members.

This will be the chance for West Virginia to join the SEC and I think they would find a natural intrastate rivalry with Kentucky in all sports. I would not mind any of the SEC games being filmed in Morgantown, WV. Why not? WVU has a very similar football-first culture like the SEC has.

The rump of the membership, Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State, and Texas Christian, would be forced to join the AAC, which would be an absolute boon for that conference. This would turn the AAC into a plausible power in the coming years and this is how the possible line-up would look like:

WEST:

Baylor

Houston

Memphis

Navy

SMU

TCU

Tulane

Tulsa

EAST:

Central Florida

Cincinnati

Connecticut

East Carolina

Iowa State

Kansas State

South Florida

Temple

 

As a football conference, I have to say, not too shabby. Since Navy is a football-only member, there may be a need to add an associate member to bring it to an even sixteen schools in basketball. One school that comes to mind would be St. Louis University.  A basketball conference with Kansas State, Iowa State, Temple, Cincinnati, an improving SMU, NIT champion Baylor, a dangerous Tulsa, reigning champion in both men and women’s UConn and add St. Louis, I could see this conference getting conservatively, at least four bids in the NCAA tournament.

Not to be a  too big of  a hypocrite, I guess I am dreaming too but dreams can be so much fun.

 

 

 


Filed under: News, Discussion and Rumors, Potential Expansion Posts

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