MWC getting the old band back together?

Submitted by Leaders And Best on

Boise State, San Diego State, and BYU are in conversations about returning to the Mountain West Conference (before even officially leaving).  This is fun.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8653727/boise-state-broncos-sdsu-aztecs-byu-cougars-talk-mwc-return-sources-say

Red is Blue

November 19th, 2012 at 7:29 PM ^

I don't get this argument.  Does it cost that much more to fly the team from Boise to Cincinnati than it does to fly to San Diego?  Also don't get the argument about how long it will take to travel.  Sure it takes longer, but is a 4 hour flight that much worse than a 2 hour flight?

TTUwolverine

November 19th, 2012 at 7:42 PM ^

Especially when you factor in all of the nonrevenue sports.  They can probably get away with bussing their kids to most of the MWC campuses, but probably not in the Big East.  And, if the monetary incentives are now essentially equal in both conferences, assuming the Big East even survives, staying there to play against teams that you have no rivalries or historical ties with makes no sense.

funkywolve

November 19th, 2012 at 11:21 PM ^

I'd think it costs more.  Right now the eastern most teams in the MWC are Wyoming (Cheyenne), Colorado St (Fort Collins), Air Force (Colorado Springs) and New Mexico (Albuquerque or Santa Fe).  In the Big East they're flying to Louisville, Florida, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia (Temple) and UConn.

 

UMxWolverines

November 19th, 2012 at 6:23 PM ^

This is a good sign. If there weren't so many more teams in the east, maybe they could convince some western/midwest teams to join them and possibly stop the super conference future.

jcgold

November 19th, 2012 at 6:31 PM ^

Why should they go? Big East football is now going to be temple and conference USA circa 2002. Why spend on the extra travel costs to play those teams?

This is the smart move.

davidhm

November 19th, 2012 at 6:34 PM ^

Delaney and the B1G are pioneers!  Totally causing all kinds of ruckus with these expansions.  First Nebraska, now Md/Rutgers, potentially MWC getting back together.  

Seriously, I said it in another post, but the B1G needs to go all in and fuck.shit.up. Force peoples hands, cause havoc.  it's just a big game of musical chairs at this point - you better grab a seat now because the longer you wait, the one you end up with might be much worse.  

I wonder how many other "moves" are being contemplated now that the Big East and ACC are down one team each (possibly more with the MWC talk)

ghost

November 19th, 2012 at 6:40 PM ^

So the Mountain West at that point would have 13 teams.  Guessing number 14 would be Houston, who apparently has an out close in their Big East Contract if they don't meet certain revenue targets.

 

This would leave the Big East wiht USF, Cincinnati, UCF, SMU, Memphis, and Temple (assuming Louisville goes to the Big12 and Uconn to the ACC). Have to think the Big East will again take some teams from CUSA, which will have 14 members next year.

If the Big10 does eventually get GT and another team like UNC or Virginia, the ACC could have as many as 8 former Big East teams in a 14 team conference.  As of now they are going to have 6 out of 14.

davidhm

November 19th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^

And to think that Notre Dame, now the #1 team in the Nation, wants to be part of the ACC for football makes absolutely no sense.  

I can't help but wonder if the folks in South Bend aren't the least bit concerned with this latest news.  Especially if the expectations are that the B1G might push membership to 16 - highly speculative I know, but still a reasonable thought.  

There are truly only 4 "solid" conferences - SEC, B1G, Big 12 and Pac12.  The ACC and Big East teams are the only remaining "target" schools left.  In order for the SEC and B1G to grow, it will be a the cost of the ACC or Big East. (Moves like aTm and Nebraska's departure from Big 12 are not going to be replicated)  I find it hard to believe that ND would settle for such a weak conference...especially now since they are "back".

smwilliams

November 19th, 2012 at 6:42 PM ^

I work at a television station in San Diego and just pointed this out to our sports guy who missed it. Thanks MGoBlog!

EDIT: Comment got cut off, but needless to say, everyone around here was utterly confused why they would stay in the Big East once it lost it's AQ status and basically became the same as the Mountain West. Traveling to Orlando, Storrs, and Louisville is a lot more costly than San Jose, Las Vegas, and Alberquerque.

LSAClassOf2000

November 19th, 2012 at 6:45 PM ^

The carousel continues to spin, and just when Mike Aresco thought he would be able to sell NBC and CBS on the compelling Temple-San Diego State and BYU-South Florida rivalry games. Damnit. Just when you think things are going your way in the Big East, right? 

Actually, I got a chuckle out of Houston's provision that it can leave  if certain revenue targets are not achieved. The way the Big East seems to be heading, it seems like their negotiation team may have been one of the smartest in the room, and I am pretty sure that SDSU, BYU and Boise State see this and wonder if "TV revenue" and "free meal at Taco Bell" are the same thing in the Big East now.

michfan6060

November 19th, 2012 at 7:09 PM ^

Will everyone just pick a fucking conference and stay there? I can't keep up with this fucking shit anymore.

superstringer

November 19th, 2012 at 7:11 PM ^

Hunt For Red October:  Fred Thompson, in Navy uniform, standing on carrier, watching a plane crash on the deck, dejectecly commenting to his the CIA officer Jack Ryan something to the effect of, this shit's going to get out of control.  IIRC.

And that's exactly what's happening.

State Street

November 19th, 2012 at 7:16 PM ^

This pandering, pontificating, and politicizing amongst these schools and conferences needs to fucking end.  Sit all of the Presidents and Conference Commisioners and ADs in a motherfucking hotel ballroom.  Shit, even have the whole thing catered.  Let them settle this face to face. 

This is ridiculous now. 

swan flu

November 19th, 2012 at 9:10 PM ^

Next you will see Louisville and Pitt bolt for the ACC or big 12.

At the end of the week the big east will be left with temple, south Florida, and a pile of cash from everyone else's buyout.

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 19th, 2012 at 10:04 PM ^

Don't forget that there are a bunch of basketball-only schools in the Big East, which are sharing that cash and probably high-fiving each other with every departure.  The western schools will have no trouble leaving the Big East arrangement.  It's getting back into the MWC that'll be the stumbling block.  Ten bucks says that's not much of one either.

Tater

November 19th, 2012 at 10:43 PM ^

If they can get the MWC to be taken as a peer to the Big East, which is seriously close to happening due to defections, it would save them a lot of time, money, and PITA to stay where they are.  The way it looks now, whatever happens, the Big East isn't going to have an automatic BCS berth for long, and their champion will have a tough time getting into a four-team playoff, even if undefeated.

Besides, I'm not sure that we won't be seeing the original projection of 4 X 16-team "superconferences" within five years.

93Grad

November 20th, 2012 at 12:04 AM ^

conferences of 12 teams and they would look like this:

I) Big Ten:

    1) Michigan, 2) Ohio, 3) ND, 4) Wisconsin, 5) PSU, 6) Iowa, 7) STAEE, 8) Purdue 9) Illinois, 10) Minnesota, 11) Northwestern, 12) Indiana

II) SEC:

    1) Bama, 2) Florida, 3) Georgia, 4) LSU, 5) Auburn, 6) Ole Miss, 7) MSU, 8) Vandy, 9) Kentucky, 10) Tennessee, 11) Louisville, 12) South Carolina,

III) Big 12:

     1) Texas, 2) Oklahoma, 3) Ok St, 4) Nebraska, 5) TCU, 6) Kansas, 7) K St., 8) A&M, 9) Colorado, 10) Utah, 11) BYU, 12) Mizzou

IV) ACC:

    1) Miami, 2) FSU 3) Va Tech, 4) WVU, 5) Maryland, 6) Pitt, 7) Syracuse, 8) UVA, 9) UNC, 10) Duke, 11) Clemson, 12) NC State

V) PAC12

    1) USC, 2) UCLA, 3) Arizona, 4) Cal, 5) Stanford, 6) Oregon, 7) Oregon State, 8) Washington, 9) Wazzou, 10) Arizona State, 11) San Diego State, 12) Boise St

These 60 "super conference" teams would each have a regular season of 8 conference games (5 in division and 3 cross-division games rotated every 2 years) and 2 non-conference games against other D1 teams and 2 "exhibitions" against the new D1 subdivision ).  Each conference would have a conference champ game and then they would then stage an 8 team play-off featuring the 5 conference champs and 3 at large picks with the top four teams hosting the first round of the play-offs.   The semis and champ games would rotated around the country like the hoops tourney.  The bowls could then pick amongst the non-play-off teams with winning records. 

The remaining 60 Division 1 teams (i.e. MAC, WAC, Conf USA, Sun Belt, etc including fucking Rutgers) would split off into a new subdivision so the have-nots no longer have to keep up with the haves.  They then could either have thier own play-offs and/or they could make their teams eligible to play the super conference also-rans in bowl games. 

Of course there is no sanity we have the cluster fuck of cluster fucks instead.