Does this sound familar?

[Charleston Pony]

Must be what the old SWC commish said just before the Big XII was formed!

<A HREF="http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/general/story/6380513" TARGET=_blank>http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/general/story/6380513</A>

Suddenly; Rutgers & UConn are in a position similar to what SMU, TCU & Rice faced years ago. Va Tech, W. Va & Pitt may have more options.

[PK]

Somehow, I don't think the old SWC Commish said anything approaching those things. It was a done deal by the two top dogs and half the conference was off down the yellow brick road with no concern whatsoever about the road kill left behind.

[Southland]

Major difference is that the 5 football schools in the Big East are united; whereas SMU, TCU, Rice and Houston had no intention of forming another conference around the SWC wreckage.

My sister works for Notre Dame and told me today that the six non-football schools are going to form their own conference with Marquette, DePaul and either Massachusetts or Xavier. Because they will have six of the remaining 11 Big East members, they will get to keep the Big East name and the automatic NCAA bid, because of a clause in the Big East charter.

The rumor around the ND athletic office is that the 5 remaining Big East football schools will form their own conference and seek to join forces with Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, and either Memphis, Marshall or Central Florida to form an all-sports nine school conference.

Every one of these shifts teach us something. The WAC/MWC split taught us that 16 schools is just too many. I think what we'll all learn from this situation is that conferences with football-only or non-football members are destine to dissolve because the strategy and initiatives of the members differ within the conference.