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With all the talk of everyone wanting to break away from the WAC, there remains a possibility that the Big East/CUSA eastern teams come together and preserve the more prestigious Big East brand...possibly in the form of the Big East Alliance that has been discussed. The popular opinion is that Louisville, Cincy & Memphis would jump on the opportunity to align with that bball group, and their football league would be no worse with Pitt, W Va & Va Tech.

There has also been a lot of talk about what happens to the CUSA's southern group if that happens. Would TCU & Houston prefer to remain aligned with Tulane & UAB (both of whose I-A football status appears uncertain), or would it be possible to lure them into a 12 school WAC? For TCU, that would seem a last resort, but think about it.

This would set up a WAC east of Tulsa, TCU, SMU, La Tech, Rice & Houston. A pretty cozy group. There is a lot of talk about Benson proposing a 5/2 football schedule, where the WAC east schools would all play each other and play only 2 cross-over games with our western mates (meaning only one long distance game). That would leave everyone to schedule 1 or 2 addt'l I-A home games to meet the I-A standard of 5 home games against I-A opponents, depending on whether you had 3 or 4 home conference games that year. In our case (and TCU's), I would think we could get home/home series with UNT, Baylor, TTech, Kansas, Missou, Okla St, Vandy, Ole Miss, Miss St, etc... Shouldn't be too tough to accomplish. With TCU and the Ft Worth Bowl, you have something for the eastern WAC, but admittedly would still have to search for addt' bowl opportunities. With 12 schools, you also get a "post season" championship game that could be played at a home site (like the MAC has successfully shown). In bball, you keep the conference's automatic bid and will have a strong enough group to get 2-3 bids every year.

It might be the only way this thing can work in the long run, but it takes a lot of things to fall into place and ultimately for TCU to choose the WAC east over Tulane, So Miss, UAB & ECU.

Sounds like a reasonable and feasible option - but I still favor moving to a modified C-USA. This Benson guy has done nothing to better the WAC while he's been in charge.

The question is whether TCU and UH would "humble" themselves to accept that. I certainly think a 12/14 team WAC with UH and TCU would be great. One thought that has been batted around is trying to lure San Diego State and UNLV away from the evil 5 in the MWC as well. That would make the WAC 14 teams. Allow for a 6/1 schedule. That might appeal to them as well. It would also put the MWC in a box which they of course deserve.

the question is whether the WAC might become their best option. If Memphis gets invited to the Big East (they are said to bring the Liberty Bowl which the Big East will need) and without Louisville and Cincy, what's left of CUSA isn't anymore attractive than the WAC. TCU has taken care of their own bowl needs, and the WAC controls at least one CUSA bowl option (Hawaii). It's not out of the question.

As for the MWC, if BYU and Utah bailed on them for a PAC 10 invite, then I could see the whole bunch wanting to get back in the WAC. I'm getting this vision of an 18 school, 3 division WAC covering the Pacific, Mountain & Central time zones. Ya think Benson has those dreams?

Intriguing....what would you do to determine the conference champion?

Would bringing TCU back to the WAC mean the conference would be able to feed a team to the Fort Worth Bowl, or whatever that thing's called? Or would the pre-written contracts mean the bowl would still be a CUSA team against a mid-level Big12 team?

Abez: I actually threw out that 18 school WAC as a joke, but it would be interesting to "play" with and would certainly focus national attention on the conference. I expect you'd have to break into two 9 school divisions for football and play no cross-over games, but could play the 3 division concept in hoops, although scheduling for both the regular season and post season would be a challenge.

Roach: you've got to keep in mind none of these expansion/realignment moves will happen for at least 2 yrs. The bowl games run year to year in some cases and assuming the Ft Worth Bowl is a success and is sustainable, it would presumably follow TCU wherever they go. The key for that game will be to match up TCU (or their conference) with a Big XII opponent who will help sell tickets.

If the Big East does gut Con-USA then I would argue that a raid by the MWC might actually help us at this point. If the MWC held to thier policy of not taking non-qualifiers and took Hawaii and Boise State off our hands you would see drastically reduced travel expenses and would only lose bowls we won't be going to, all the while making room for UH, TCU, Tulane and somebody else. Take a look:

East: La Tech, Tulane, SMU, TCU, Rice, UH
West: Tulsa, FSU, UTEP, Nevada, SJSU, Take your pick

TCU and Houston would come along after being threatened with playing Army, ECU, and God Knows Who Else for the next decade. Next step would be bowls. We would have to move up in that area.
Now that is a viable conference.

[This message has been edited by leopold (edited 05-29-2003).]

[This message has been edited by leopold (edited 05-29-2003).]