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Good luck guys vs Baylor. Looks like the BE will take Cincy and Louisville. I think you will quickly get a call from BB to join us and TCU. That also means they will need three additional schools to make 12. Tulsa, La. Tech and Rice would be welcome as well. Don't see them going for Marshall with louisville and Cincy gone but you never know. Here is what we need:

1. TCU
2. SMU
3. Tulsa
4. Houston
5. Memphis
6. Rice

1. Tulane
2. la tech
3. So. Miss
4. UAB
5. S Fla.
6. East carolina

Looks pretty good to me

Not a bad scenario but nothing will happen until the BE starts the ball rolling, which doesn't appear to be before November. The news about Louisville and Cinncinnati is still speculative.

In the meantime, beat Baylor and win most of our WAC games, plus TCU as a real sweetner.

[This message has been edited by Water Pony (edited 09-04-2003).]

What about the CUSA BB only schools? I think there will be a pretty strong push for UCF and/or Marshall to give some balance in the east along with ECU & South Florida. I'm certainly not convinced by any means that CUSA will automatically move to 12 teams. CUSA would still have 8 football playing members (no UL, Cincy and Army) and would only need to add 1 more. Looking at it realistically, none of the EWAC schools gave a good account of themselves on Saturday so I'm not sure what the CUSA presidents are thinking right now.

Reed....For one thing the UAB AD said last week that the league was committed to 12 teams. CUSA has a multi million dollar deal with espn for a championship game. Central Fla. announced two weeks ago that they have not been contacted by either the Big East or CUSA and that they were talking to the MAC about full membership. I think you can rule them out. Marshall has no chance IMHO without UC and UL in the league. Marquette and DePaul will leave and we will keep St. Louis and Charlotte...two great basketball programs with good baseball as well. I don't think a long term decision is going to be based on what you did last week. Houston was 0-11 two years ago and we might go to a bowl....things change quickly. Anyway, the line up above plus Charlotte and St. Louis would be a great league for years to come.

I'm no expert - but it makes sense to me - one question for an "expert" if you can get a conference championship game with 10, would there not be pressure to keep it at 10 -less hands in the till, and you probably get the same TV money with 10 as with 12?

I agree this will be decided on many things, but week to week football success would be the least important - although a overall decent showing at the end of the year would help.

Thanks for the info. I am certainly not tuned into any ADs nor do I have any inside info. I understand that it will be a long-term decision but I don't see the need to rush to 12 schools just to have a champ. game. I heard it was "only" $1MM for the championship game so I'm not sure that its worth an extra $85K? per school just to add some schools who have really struggled in football. Oh well...I won't be making the decision anyway!