Front page story

[PK]

DMN Sports Section front page story:

<A HREF="http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/colleges/smu/stories/062603dnspofraley.5dbe7.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/colleges/smu/stories/062603dnspofraley.5dbe7.html</A>

[Nacho]

Now that the DMN has picked this up it must be gaining steam. They don't usually speculate for the sake of speculating.

[Greenwich Pony]

While it may not happen, a nine team conference (with Army and Navy perhaps added for football only) would make a lot of sense. I just don't think UAB fits well or adds enough TV, and NMSU doesn't really add TV or quality, but may be included to give UTEP a buddy. I have included each school's football gate numbers (according to the NCAA) and their Sears cup rankings. While nowhere near BCS, it could be a healthy regional conference, with solid all-sports members, and local interest would almost have add a thousand or two to the football gate. Decent TV markets (D/FW, Houston, El Paso, New Orleans) and virtually everybody would have a travel buddy. Travel money saved could be spent elsewhere in the department (like facilities, coaches or other improvements) and make this a pesky mid-major. It could event be a respectable Basketball Conference in a few years.

UTEP 28310 #133 (123)
Tulane 27901 #77 (205.5)
TCU 27813 #64 (277.75)
Rice 20069 #71 (231)
Tulsa 18986 #145 (108)
SMU 18292 #41 (461.5)
LA Tech 17242 #188 (64)
North Texas 15260 #260 (23)
Houston 14986 #115 (150.5)



[This message has been edited by Greenwich Pony (edited 06-26-2003).]

[Dooby]

Fraley is a moron. I'm not even going to bother reading it. I'll just wait for someone to tell me what facts he makes up.

[Sam I Am]

Fraley is not paying close enough attention to reality and has simply dreamed up some sympathies for a return to the old SWC. Facts - this ain't going to happen because TCU is not leaving C-USA and Houston does not want to be in the same conferene with Rice. Regrouping schools regionally is not politically feasable, but I'll bet it helped sell a few papers in Denton today.

[Yoda]

That's a really dumb idea unless SMU, TCU, Rice, Houston, et. al. have resigned themselves to going forward in a defacto D1-AA conference.

Correct me if I'm wrong – I read it a couple of hours ago and it’s not worth reading twice – but if I recall, Copeland’s contribution to that article was very limited. He said that he was supportive of the WAC but that SMU needed to explore options – and those options could include either a SWC or a formal E-WAC division.

Ninety percent of the article consisted of the author taking that limited information and constructing his own little fantasy out of it. I say fantasy because it’s absurd – there is no way that any of the key players want anything at all to do with this unless all their other options are gone. And there is no way that Army and Navy want to play a conference football schedule before small crowds west of the Mississippi.

If CUSA crashes and the MWC kills the W-WAC, then the Texas & environs schools may have to do something and then, and only then, might something like what this guy imagines develop. But if that happens, it almost certainly will not include TCU, Army or Navy.

Yoda out…

[Yoda]

The same basic post offended some folks on the WFF and I wanted to clarify what I meant. Following is a repost...

==============

My apologies for any offense as none was intended. My point wasn't that the schools in that conference would be of a D1-A quality or that they would be inferior to Fresno State. I was focusing on a particular quote: "SWC II will not be part of the Bowl Championship Series. That is just as well."

The author is encouraging you to give up on the BCS and to settle for what he clearly feels is some sort of nice little out of the way and out of the limelight conference. That's what D1-AA is -- a collection of conferences who have given up their D1-A aspirations and who have settled. Conferences who know their place and it isn't in the limelight.

That's what he's arguing for and that is what I was objecting to.

Yoda out...

[Nacho]

Thanks Yoda. We have seen the light and are now concentrating on the SEC.

[EastStang]

With all due respect, Yoda, 1-AA is less than what you stated. It involves lowered scholarship limits. It means no longer having to meet all academic criteria of Division 1 (Fresno State might like this aspect, sorry I couldn't resist). Myles Brand wants the WAC, the SBC, and the MAC in Division 1-AA. He says it in Code using words like, "strengthening I-AA". He likes the BCS and will not mess with it. Certainly a lot of schools the size of SMU and TCU are 1-AA in football. But none of them has ever won a National Championship at 1-A (except maybe one of the Ivy League Schools). None of them were recently members of a major football conference. Because SMU, TCU, Rice and others were formerly in big time football conferences, 1-AA is unacceptable as is any affiliation with the SunBelt Conference teams. This proposal keeps some formerly big time programs together and allows for them to play a regional schedule and keeps possible the 1-A qualification levels. I don't see the SWC II conference as a ticket to 1-AA. I see the SunBelt as our ticket to 1-AA.

[PK]

Miami is an anomaly, but by and large, no small private university with a small alumni base and small fan base is going to be invited to join any BCS conference. The schools that are part of one now were part of the conferences pre-BCS...in other words just damn lucky. TCU may well be good enough to be ranked in the top 25 from time to time, but they don't bring anything to the table in terms of fan support, i.e., money or TV ratings, i.e., money to interest any BCS conference. Niether does SMU. What we need is a conference affiliation that allows us to maintain our 1-A status, develop good rivalries and have a chance to beat a BCS school every once in a while in OOC games. To be like Baylor and get trounced in every conference game year after year can't be much fun even if you can say you are in the big xii. Conference USA would be nice, but it still would be hard to develop rivalries with most of the other teams. A new SWC might not set the world on fire, but I think it would be more fun for us and might actually develop more local interest then even ConfUSA affiliation as long as we could get the core group mentioned in the article together. BTW, the writer didn't dream all this up himself...he has to have been reading the posts over here.

[This message has been edited by PK (edited 06-26-2003).]

[PK]

After reading more posts on the subject, I have to agree that trying to form a new conference of just regional schools is probably at best a plan "C" fall back position in the event that all else fails. It looks like we may have a little more time to show other conferences, i.e., C-USA that we are making progress in getting our act together. I personally believe it is in our best interest and TCU's also that we somehow get back into the same conference together. So on that basis, I'm going to hope that our AD is working toward that end and that C-USA will give us a serious look and an offer if a slot opens up.