Southwest plus Army/Navy

[Hoop Fan]

I honestly dont know what happens to TCU in all this, but it sure looks likely that at least Tulane and Houston might get left out of a Big East/CUSA merger. As a fall back plan, how would this hybrid Private League/Southwest Conference grab you:

Private Division: SMU, Rice, Tulane, Army, Navy, Tulsa

Public Division: Houston, La Tech, UAB, Utep, New Mexico State and UNT.

12 team football league with championship game on home field on rotating basis. 7 league games with only 2 crossovers. Allows more non-conference games. 10 team basketball and all-sports league with natural travel partners.

Its not great, but it has several good features: 1)its regional, but with Army/Navy not provincial. 2) It allows the academically strapped private schools a chance to compete, yet they dont have to go it alone or with small numbers and 3) Its very doable.

[Scoops]

Aren't Army and Navy public?
And isn't LaTech private?

Either way, that lineup looks pretty good.

[Hoop Fan]

Well, I guess Army and Navy are public in the truest sense of the word, tuition being 100% subsidized by the taxpayers. However, with their admissions standards, they are for all intents and purposes private for competitive purposes. I don't know about La Tech, I always assumed they were public and not highly selective admissions-wise. Am I wrong?

[Ksig_Stang]

Louisiana Tech is a public school.

[Water Pony]

I think 12 is too ambitious at this point. Go for eight but add TCU and Houston and skip the western schools. Now you have a strong SW foundation, plus Army and Navy.

You could attract like minded schools in the future

[Hoop Fan]

Obviously would rather have TCU than not, but they might have perceived better options. Navy has said no to Conf USA repeatedly, a large part of the reason appears to be lack of academics in the league. I don't see them anxious to be shoulder to shoulder with Houston and La Tech. A separate private division may be the only way to coax them into a Southwest based league.

[Charleston Pony]

Navy has said "no" to CUSA and the MAC because they don't want to pay an entrance fee and don't want to share the revenue from the annual Navy/Army game. That's bigger than any bowl game they might hope to gain by non-BCS conference affiliation.

[Yoda]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Hoop Fan:
<B>Private Division: SMU, Rice, Tulane, Army, Navy, Tulsa

Public Division: Houston, La Tech, UAB, Utep, New Mexico State and UNT.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Forgive me but that sucks.

Tabulate the Sagarin ratings of the schools you'd be picking up. You'd be far better off in a 6-7 school E-WAC that included TCU (and USM?) -- provided the W-WAC was willing to commit to staying in the conference.

Yoda out...

[FloridaMustang]

What the hell is everyone thinking? This conference SUCKS. No way in hell would I support a conference like this. Yoda is right.. we're way better off staying put and fighting for an eastern WAC.

[Hoop Fan]

The Yoda Plan is good thinking, but its a pipe dream that our disfunctional conference could pull it off. Get real, the WWac teams are gone to the MWC anytime BYU picks up the phone. If some of you guys would read more closely, I said the private/SWC hybrid is a back up plan and "its not great".

[gostangs]

Replace NMS and UNT with TCU and Southern Miss - that counference would be as good if not better then where we are now, lower travel cost a ton, and deliver a few bowls. We would have a playoff (with some income from that) and even from a TCU perspective they would not slip any from where they are - you have the two best football schools in the CUSA, and add some good basketball also. I know some at TCU thik this is below them, but when you take in school size, travel costs, TV market and other reality aspects this is a good fit for them while we all tread water trying to figure out how to break up the illegal cartel. Meanwhile, we can start admitting non-qualifiers on a select basis and create some "tread water" degrees like PE, so the athletes can stay in school and therefore SMU becomes the best looking of the ugly girls in the Gulf Coast Conference. There - everything is solved, lets play football!!!