"Losing Our Religion: TX College Football Identity Crisis"

[Water Pony]

Texas Monthly comes down [deleted] UT on their past behavior and on their move to the SEC

"With UT headed to the SEC and the Big 12 on life support, the state stands to lose its century-old football culture."

https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-enter ... -religion/

[ponyte]

What a relief! Not once was the DP mentioned.

[EastStang]

A conference with TT, SMU, TCU, Baylor, and UH would recreate a portion of the SWC without the big boys A&M, UT and Arkansas. It would bring back manageable road trips. Add in Tulane, Tulsa, OSU, Kansas, KSU, Memphis and AF you'd have a pretty interesting conference albeit regional. Then Navy, ECU, UCF, USF, Cincy, Temple and WVU could work to build an East Coast version perhaps adding Liberty, ODU, Coastal Carolina, App State and Florida Atlantic (or International). Or you make a 20 team super conference with all of AAC, plus Big XII left overs that makes 19 and one other school perhaps AF, BYU, SDS, Boise or UNLV. That would be located in major urban areas: Philly, DFW, Houston, NO, Orlando, Tampa, DC, Cincy, Memphis, with KC and Tulsa possible. ISU is in the preseason top 10 as is Cincy this year. BYU has a national following and with so many church schools, their Sunday rules should not be a problem.

[mustangxc]

East
West Virginia
Temple
Cincinnati
Memphis
Iowa State
UCF
USF
Navy

West
SMU
Houston
TCU
Texas Tech
Baylor
Oklahoma State
Kansas
Kansas State

[EastStang]

Dropping Tulsa, Tulane and East Carolina?

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

Dropping Tulsa, Tulane and East Carolina?

Keep Tulsa or Tulane and drop Baylor.

[AusTxPony]

I like the new Big-American Conference as presented. Maybe Kansas and Iowa St. leave for B1G so we could keep ECU and Tulane, or not. Greed will prevail however, so who knows what will happen...

[EastStang]

Of course greedily, I'd like to keep ECU so I can see the Ponies play. Tulane and Tulsa are both privates similar to us, Tulane is in a major market.

[mustangxc]

16 seems to be the best number for a large conference. With 8 teams in each division we can recreate a solid version of the SWC in the west and Big East in the east. I don't have anything against Tulsa, Tulane, and ECU but some teams have to be cut. I suppose we could cut Navy and simply form an alliance with them similar to Notre Dame with the Big East allowing for Tulane or East Carolina to stay in the East division.

[mrydel]

The strength of the AAC, at least for now, is unity. If we stay together, I do not see how the little 8 can survive. Especially if one or two of the little 8 leave. It seems to me a merger of them and us should happen even if it turns out to be 20. I would just want assurance to be given P5 standing should such a merger occur.

[Charleston Pony]

I've always thought that 18 teams works well for a large conference as you can play 8 games (4 home/4 road) within your division to determine division champions who would then play for the conference championship. Teams could decide whether to play additional "non-conference" games against other conferences (for big paychecks vs teams from the "super conferences" or games vs comparable conferences). You could even encourage games against non-divisional teams in your same conference that would not count against your record towards winning your division and qualifying for the conference championship game.

Depending on how it all shakes out with the PAC 12, Big 10 and ACC, I wouldn't mind seeing two 18 team conferences formed leaving 6 conferences that would all have access to a 12 or 16 team playoff for the national championship. With four 16 team "super conferences" and two 18 team conferences, that would give 100 schools at least a chance of competing for the national championship. Football's equivalent of March Madness.

[ponyboy]

The powers that be would really like to create an upper division consisting of about 32 nationally-relevant teams. The rest would be relegated to, or remain in, lower-division status.

Though that vision is not do-able in the short to medium term, if ever, I do see B12 rejects falling to us, not us being pulled up. Our best hope is solidfying ourselves as the best lower division conference, in effect making a middle division.

[Charleston Pony]

There are plenty of schools in P5 conferences today that have simply not fielded competitive football programs and they should be concerned about their futures. Some of those schools (see Duke, Kansas & Kentucky as examples) have contributed to their conferences athletic reputations. It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out.

[EastStang]

Funny thing is that interestingly enough Duke and Kentucky both fielded relatively good football teams in the past few years. The weak links in the ACC are Boston College, Syracuse, and Pitt. In the Big 10 are Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern, Rutgers and Maryland. In the Pac 12 are Washington State, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. In the SEC Tennessee, Vanderbilt and South Carolina. The SEC will keep everyone. The ACC will keep everyone for TV reasons. Boston, New York and Pittsburgh are good markets for them. The Big 10 will keep theirs, as Chicago, NJ and DC are TV's they want to keep. And the PAC 12 is on record as liking their current map. So, I don't think anyone gets cut unless UCLA, USC, Stanford and Oregon decide to bolt for another conference or Michigan and OSU bolt for another conference. Or Clemson, bolts for another conference. Then its open season. In reality, after Clemson, the rest of the ACC is mediocre in football. VT, FSU, Miami, and GT are shadows of their former selves. PAC 12 has no dominant football programs although some that bring faces to TV screens: Bruins, Trojans and perhaps Ducks. Stanford seems to produce great players year in and year out, but never that great as a team. They have been left out of playoffs most every year. If the Big Ten got Clemson, FSU, Miami and ND. You'd have two super conferences. Everyone else would be looking in.

[Dukie]

There are plenty of schools in P5 conferences today that have simply not fielded competitive football programs and they should be concerned about their futures. Some of those schools (see Duke, Kansas & Kentucky as examples) have contributed to their conferences athletic reputations. It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out.

Funny thing is that interestingly enough Duke and Kentucky both fielded relatively good football teams in the past few years. The weak links in the ACC are Boston College, Syracuse, and Pitt. In the Big 10 are Illinois, Nebraska, Northwestern, Rutgers and Maryland. In the Pac 12 are Washington State, Arizona, Utah and Colorado. In the SEC Tennessee, Vanderbilt and South Carolina.

There's really some truth to both views, and Kentucky in particular has sustained its mediocre success better than Duke has. But the bottom line is that it's TV eyeballs. That's all that matters. Every private school not named USC or Notre Dame is somewhat at risk, though the more stable your conference, the better protected you are. There is no way there will be a fifth P5 that includes the Little 8 and the AAC, or really any combination thereof. Best case for SMU is at least some route to an expanded playoff, and private capital stepping up via NIL to keep SMU competitive. If a realistic playoff path is open, then just win and throw NIL cash at the players as needed. Although it would be a huge blow if the Little 8 hold together (not a given); expand (not a given); and leave SMU out (not a given).