Just hit the AP wires at work:
"Mountain West, Conference USA combine for 22-member football conference."
how is this supposed to work? Maybe they are assuming that a bunch of their members are going to get poached?
Man I really loathe confrence expansion
It'd be like if the Big Ten and Pac-12 were mid-majors. The winner of the "Rose Bowl" hopefully gets a BCS autobid.
Go Blue!
The fact that this is all occuring during the season is asinine and utterly absurd.
"DAH FUCK!"
He only got the job because he's a Michigan Man not because he was the best. Is that what Michigan is all about? You do the best, you get the job. This MM meme is crap.
Maybe they will split it up so what basically happens is the champs of the Mnt. West division and the CUSA division play each other in a championship game?
BEAT OHIO
ahahahahaha no way!
Edit: http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/6270202/32718514
Abort, Retry, Fail?
They probably think they are a super confrence now but its really not since its C-USA and Mountain west. good effort though
THIS IS MICHIGAN
Link? Maybe the mountain west is expeccting to lose Boise, SDSU, and maybe a few more on top of BYU, TCU, and Utah? Possible that Big East is going to go after some CUSA teams?
EDIT: http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7102822/mountain-west-conference-usa-announce-football-only-alliance here is the link.
"Þetta Er Ágætis Byrjun" Turtles!!! Formerly Dlash15
I read somewhere yesterday that the Big East is trying to lure Boise State. I could see the Pac 12 going after SDSU just for the media market if they go to 16.
This place smells like despair.
Now that is a super conference! Lol cant wait to see how this plays out.
THOSE WHO STAY WILL BE CHAMPIONS
ago that the Big East plans to invite AF, UCF(all sports), Boise, and Navy. So that is 2 MWC teams, 1 CUSA team, and an Independent. Not to mention TCU leaves for the Big 12. So that puts the "mega-baby seal" conference at 18.
Also, SDSU is courting the Big 12 for membership...so that would put them at 17. So maybe they saw these moves as inevitable.
"Þetta Er Ágætis Byrjun" Turtles!!! Formerly Dlash15
Every team is looking to make a move. Too much expansion for me
THIS IS MICHIGAN
This is the very definition of Zugzwang; schools would prefer to not make a move, but circumstances force to do something even though any move they make leaves them worse off then they would have been.
I'm curious, Blue. Just how did you become familiar with Zugzwang?
He's a stats nerd who has done a bunch of work in both sports and politics. I think I first saw him apply it to McCain's decision to announce Palin as his running mate, but he's applied it on a few occasions.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/budgetary-zugzwang/
Has the whole world gone crazy? Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules?

Fuck it, Dude, let's go bowling.
"We shall become...the largest relatively unimportant conference EVER!" *mad laughter*
"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."
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It's like Doofensmirtz invented his evil Conferencerealignmentinator, and this is the result. The Big East, which is neither big nor east, and the, well, whatever the CUSAMWC will be.
They are trying to convince the BCS that quantity equals quality. They seem to think that if they add 22 shit sandwiches together, it becomes poached salmon and filet mignon with piped potatoes and broccoli with hollandaise. That is not the way it works.
we haz them!!!
I find this pretty ironic considering the reason the Mountain West exists is because its members broke away from the expanded WAC because a 16 team conference just didn't work.
Playing fast and loose with the term "teams," aren't we?
I'm so confused...
The Pac-10 is the Pac-12 and has two states in the Mountain time zone. The Big 10 is at 12 and has a conference championship game. The CUSA and Mountain West have formed a crazy alliance. The SEC is at 13. The ACC is at 14. Boise State and Air Force will be in a conference with 'East' in the name.
Don't forget the Atlantic 10 being at 14 teams for the last decade and a half.
They might as well be their own bowl subdivision, located roughly between FBS and FCS.
Can you believe all of this started because the Big 10 wanted to go to 12 teams? Psh..and the Big 10 is irrelevant *rolls eyes*
Their math must be wrong. Its not like when you put 11 bottom feeding teams in C-USA with 11 from the MWC you get a competitive conference with good teams. Now its just one really bad, big conference instead of two smaller ones.
We are MountainConferenceWestUSA hear us roar, in numbers too big to ignore
North Campus' resident Sport Management major
Michigan Concrete Canoe Team - http://umich.edu/~concanoe
I like this move by CUSA and MW; it's smart and pre-emptive given the Big - (L)East's current attempts to poach some teams. In looking at the media reports, it seems like the Big (L)East was not expecting this development and that UCF may well not be leaving and that their plans to expand might be also more limited than they originally thought.
I think you'll see CUSA/MW get an AQ out of this (for their super overall supreme champion of football championship game) for the BCS. The follow up will be the Big (L)East have to turn tail and go groveling to Temple to come in as an all sports member and the elevation of Villanova football (and their 15000 seat stadium...to FBS...
With 22 teams the CUSA/MW football merger could easily supply random Friday night and Saturday noon games forever.
If the haters don't hate you then you're doing something wrong. - David Cone
I guess this works, but that means certain teams won't play each other more than once or twice a decade. Kind of hurts rivalries, but I guess it snags them a BCS bid.
Should the MAC and WAC get together and expecct an auto bid too? Combining the conferences doesn't make their talent or football teams any better.
"Everyone gets dumped Gabe. Let me give you some advice: a little coverup on your Adams Apple will make it appear smaller. Which will make you appear less like a transvestite."
22 members? WTF.
"It would be a travesty, it would be ridiculous to all of a sudden come back and get the feeling back, get the health back, feel good again and then all of a sudden go throw some other colors on my shirt and go coach."