Rumor swirling: BYU, WVU and L'ville to B12

[Hoop Fan]

exactly, and we surely have the full support and backing of Ken Starr and Baylor, right? what with 100 years of tradition and history that SMU and TCU have with Baylor. Something tells me Ken changed his tune already and is kissing up to UT and therefore voting for Louisville.

[leopold]

If Big 12 goes to 12 teams and gets WVU, Louisville/Cincinnati, and BYU then the Big East is finished as a conference.

Heck no it isn't. They aren't going away just b/c they lose three schools. They will simply take from C-USA or anybody else who keeps their status.

Again, everybody needs to quit thinking this next round is the last. It has a ways to go to play itself out.

[smupony94]

If Big 12 goes to 12 teams and gets WVU, Louisville/Cincinnati, and BYU then the Big East is finished as a conference.

Heck no it isn't. They aren't going away just b/c they lose three schools. They will simply take from C-USA or anybody else who keeps their status.

Again, everybody needs to quit thinking this next round is the last. It has a ways to go to play itself out.

Then what else do we have to [deleted] about besides the turf, sound system, horses, black uniforms or QB's?

[03Mustang]

We'd have the exact same attendance problems we do now if we were in the Big East....no chance we end up there. People aren't going to come out to see an SMU-USF, SMU-Cincinnati, or SMU-Rutgers game any more than they come out to see us play UCF or Southern Miss now. We need to be in a REGIONAL conference, period....then we may add some real value.

Our only hope for AQ is a merger of smaller groups (i.e., MWC-CUSA) or a rebuilt Big 12 (which seems highly unlikely now).

We add zero value for the Big East (same with Houston) beyond a game in Texas, which those teams could easily get by playing any number of the Texas schools in non-conf.

Ignore the truth if you want, but we have to show up for games and win consistently before we actually ADD value to any existing conference.

[NickSMU17]

AQ conference will boost attendence...

[StallionsModelT]

So if the Big East loses Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, West Virginia, Rutgers, Lousivile and/or Cincinnati what is left?!?!

[abezontar]

If Big 12 goes to 12 teams and gets WVU, Louisville/Cincinnati, and BYU then the Big East is finished as a conference.

Heck no it isn't. They aren't going away just b/c they lose three schools. They will simply take from C-USA or anybody else who keeps their status.

Again, everybody needs to quit thinking this next round is the last. It has a ways to go to play itself out.

BE won't be finished as a conference, just as a BCS conference. MWC gets the BCS when they keep TCU and add SMU, Houston...

What do SMU and Houston add from a BCS perspective? Neither team has any BCS points to speak of.

[ponyscott]

AQ conference will boost attendence...

Yep....everyone keeps missing that.

[Stallion]

in general the teams that have been added to the BCS have dominated on the field for long periods of time and have strong attendance. Oh sure there are a few USFs but the its true for the teams that earned BCS inclusion. SMU doesn't measure up on either factor. We are really hoping for lightening to strike. We haven't earned a thing yet. You guys keep saying that attendance will improve but the teams that have earned BCS inclusion PROVED that they could have good attendance BEFORE inclusion.

[NickSMU17]

agree unfortunately...

[StallionsModelT]

Again, I don't think "earn" has anything to do with it. What has UCF "earned"? What has ECU "earned"? They've had marginally more success in CUSA than us. Also both schools are an academic joke (I know that is not really anything to consider w/ realignment but its an interesting note). When conferences are fighting for survival they aren't going to care about who has "earned" anything. They're going to think about what schools/programs can offer the potential to stabilize.

[03Mustang]

AQ conference will boost attendence...

Not if you're playing the teams in the Big East that no one cares about. Any other major conference would have an effect, but not that one. It's going to be the same for TCU...after an initial increase the attendance will settle back down to MWC levels after a couple of years (assuming, of course that the Big East still exists).

It's not like Michigan, USC, Texas, Miami, Alabama, etc are coming to town....it's USF, Rutgers, Louivsville, Cincy, UConn, WVU, etc. No one in Texas cares about those teams.

[smupony94]

Again, I don't think "earn" has anything to do with it. What has UCF "earned"? What has ECU "earned"? They've had marginally more success in CUSA than us. Also both schools are an academic joke (I know that is not really anything to consider w/ realignment but its an interesting note). When conferences are fighting for survival they aren't going to care about who has "earned" anything. They're going to think about what schools/programs can offer the potential to stabilize.

They average 45,000 fans against crap teams like us

[Hoop Fan]

we need a break or we need to buy our way into a better situtation plain and simple. This notion that we are gonna pull ourselves up by our bootstraps by winning more games in CUSA, or earn our way in by gradually building attendance aint gonna happen. I agree with those that say attendance is never going to change much by playing the schedule we currently play. Look at this year's home slate, its awful! Second of all, we are out of time. Even if more moves occur in 3 years, thats not enough time nor will there be many spots left to earn, if any, given what is happening now.

[Stallion]

TCU doesn't rely upon opponents to pad their attendance figures because they have almost 23,000 season tickets which is almost 3 times SMU's season ticket base. Oh and BTW SMU in its third year of relative success is about 40% below the fan base TCU had in its 3rd year under Franchione. Heck we had to throw in a Bowl Game to pad our Season Ticket sales numbers when many were definitely not SMU fans. Time to stop making excuses and rationally compare.