The Magnolia League....

[Kaplankrazies]

Has made me it's summer commish. The founder, known as MagnoliaLeague, is currently serving the troopsin Kuwait.

The Magnolia League is a football league made by a William and Mary fan. For the bracket, go here.

Anyway, the Tribe play the UMD Terps to start the season and we are confident this manwill lead us to a big-time W.

Thanks guys! Go Tribe! Go Mustangs!

[McClown27]

He told me that he is really obese. He couldn't be in the army, they have weight requirements.

What is he doing in Kuwait? Oil industry?

[couch 'em]

Dancing Fat-Man USO troop?

[LonghornFan68]

The Magnolia League makes me giggle.

[magnolialeague]

Krazies is a good poster for picking this up for me.

I am at Camp Arifjan serving the Army in a finance capacity to reduce the risk of our soldiers. Iwish it were oil. Perhaps then I would get paid a decent wage.


Oh yeah...I'm still a fat man...perhaps the fattest in Kuwait. These120 degree days are unbearable.

[HixsontoLeVias]

...longhorn68..what does an archy intern actually do, besides post all day, everyday on PonyFans? Nice gig, huh....

[CalallenStang]

The Magnolia League idea has some potential, but not how it currently is formatted. Here's what I would do to make it more of a reality:

1) Limit enrollment in the Magnolia League to 16 academically sound Southern institutions (no Villanova or U of Delaware!)
2) Include SOME academically strong BCS schools such as UVA, UNC, and Clemson, rather than the military institutes and academies (they should have their own concept similar to this but solely for military institutes and academies)
3) Ask each school to dedicate one game per year to playing a non-conference, Magnolia League foe in football.
4) Ensure that all teams play a double-elimination tournament each year in Men's and Women's basketball preseason.

The results for football: a four-year long tournament with significant media coverage (and some hyped up school spirit on campuses). All schools play 4 games, but only the winners will advance to elimnation games the next year. So it could look like this:

Year 1: (games are given by alphabet)
A. Baylor vs. Rice
B. SMU vs. TCU
C. Vandy vs. Tulane
D. Furman vs. Clemson
E. Richmond vs. Georgetown
F. Virginia vs. William & Mary
G. Duke vs. Wake Forest
H. North Carolina vs. Elon

(note that teams are grouped by region)

Year 2:
I: Winner A vs. Winner B
J: Winner C vs. Winner D
K: Winner E vs. Winner F
L: Winner G vs. Winner H
All the "losers" will be given a game against another loser that is NOT in their conference. Preferably these games will be based on school similarity and region interest. Since there are 8 losers, there will be 4 games.

Year 3:
M: Winner I vs. Winner J
N: Winner K vs. Winner L
Now, there's 12 "losers" so there will be 6 games. All losers will play a game against a team they have not yet faced in the 4-year tournament

Year 4:
O: Winner M vs. Winner N for the championship. This game will be played at a large venue such as the Georgia Dome or Alltel Stadium.
The 14 losers will play a game against a team they have not yet faced in the 4-year tournament.

So looking at SMU's run through the tournament, this could (hypothetically) be predicted:

Year 1: SMU vs. TCU - let's just say we win
Year 2: SMU vs. Baylor (or Rice, in which case the two would play the regularly-scheduled conference game in lieu of the Magnolia League game) - let's just say we lose this one
Year 3: SMU vs. Vanderbilt - SMU is academically similar to Vanderbilt and competes in admissions for many of the same students.
Year 4: SMU vs. Virginia - The battle of "Where Jim Copeland was once the AD," or, "We both have rotundas as trademark buildings on campus," or, "The people in our states all think we are elitest schools but we really aren't."

So there would be a 4 year cycle to evaluate not who is the best team, but who has the most consistent program over the years. The regional rivalries and school similarities would be interesting to say the least. The students would get into it, especially the ones who start school at the beginning of the 4-year tournament cycle.

[EastStang]

First, I got my law degree from William and Mary, so I have a certain fondness for the school. For one thing, they used to let us bring beer into the stadium without any hassles (no longer true, sorry). First, SMU is Division 1A, not 1-AA like W&M and has no intention of going further backward. If we were to join a Magnolia League it would have to have the following schools in it, and none of them would agree to join.
Vanderbilt, Tulane, Tulsa, Rice, TCU, Baylor, SMU, Duke and Wake Forest. Army and Navy are possible. That would leave 1 possible opening for a new 1-A school. Since every other school (except the academies) is private, the school I would add would be a school like Richmond. Despite its prestige and size, William and Mary is alas a public university and couldn't join.

[McClown27]

I want to join the Big 12 or SEC. Leave the MagnoliaLeague to Sam Houston State, TCU, and Southwest Texas

[CalallenStang]

I want to join the Big 12 or SEC. Leave the MagnoliaLeague to Sam Houston State, TCU, and Southwest Texas

That's why I am saying it shouldn't be a real conference. That just wouldn't work, for obvious reasons. Instead, it could be used as a way to develop some new rivalries and provide some interesting OOC matchups.

[LonghornFan68]

...longhorn68..what does an archy intern actually do, besides post all day, everyday on PonyFans? Nice gig, huh....

Well, I also happen to be the network admin, so I do just about anything I want.

But in all seriousness, I only post during lunchs and breaks, and when I'm at home. Besides, what do you care? Are you with the interweb police?

[LonghornFan68]

I want to join the Big 12 or SEC. Leave the MagnoliaLeague to Sam Houston State, TCU, and Southwest Texas

I wish you were too. Baylor is a joke in this conference.