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Sadly I was afraid this would happen. Coast to Coast conferences do not work .

It will be interesting to see if we can hold on to Larry Brown........and our basketball recruits.

per the article:

A source said the Big East was leaning towards a second option - adding schools. It wants to return to its days as a 10-12 school conference with a homogenous membership headlined by elite basketball programs in urban markets.

do we qualify?

Comet wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:

Stallion wrote:Little Secret-not a single Big East team would have drawn flys either. We are on our own. Either our fanbase wants to pay to support College Football or they don't.

THIS is why I am rather pessimistic about all this.

Yup, SMU really probably has about 5-10 years to turn it around before being stuck in a tier 2 level of football forever.

Think the fanbase is bad now, wait till we become Tier 2. I would shut it down at that point.

SoCal_Pony wrote:

Comet wrote:

SoCal_Pony wrote:
THIS is why I am rather pessimistic about all this.

Yup, SMU really probably has about 5-10 years to turn it around before being stuck in a tier 2 level of football forever.

Think the fanbase is bad now, wait till we become Tier 2. I would shut it down at that point.

While there's a pulse, there's hope. It's all going to come down to the next football hire. If the AD and co. can pull off another Larry Brown type of situation, there will be hope. The PAC-12 has already been in talks with SMU, there's discourse and potential there. We just have to do our part, there's still time but not enough to make a hiring error.

yeah we've been there for 15 years already. At least most of these schools have bright new shinny stadiums to show for it.Maybe schools like UH, UCF and Tulane can suceed focusing on providing reasonably priced entertainment for the family.

Comet, you may want to change your by-line

Stallion wrote:so now we are that conference that is looking for Division 1AA schools to jump to the next level. No thanks just create the Best of the Big East/MWC Conference and hopefully stay with theEastern side. Sooner or later we are likely going to be in the Great Southern Conference and that's not all bad for football at least

For once in 25 years we are going to have to be proactive in creating a conference. I was sorry to see Louisiville go, but we despearately need a Texas/Deep South Conference go begin with.

The problem hanging over all of this is that the major conferences ARE going to expand AGAIN. As such we would very possibly be wasting our time - not to mention look foolish and hypocritical - in starting a new conference just to watch founding members, hopefully including us, walk out the door to an invitation to the whatever conference will have us

But frankly, if I had been Villanova, Depaul, etc. I would have left, too.

We most likely will end up in some combination of Conf USA, MWC, and Big East leftovers which was probably where we always were heading. And a football conference with BYU, Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Cincy, Houston, Nevada and Tulsa would probably have 2-3 ranked teams each year, which is an improvement for us in competition. And on the basketball side of things, a conference with Memphis, Cincy, UNLV, BYU, Tulsa, UTEP, New Mexico, and Houston would be very competitive. Not the Big 12, but not the Sun Belt. I think we want to avoid being the the southern school like Southern Miss, Tulane and UCF. Being in Texas should be meaningful to the MWC. Say

East Division
Cincy
Memphis
SMU
Houston
Tulsa
UTEP
New Mexico
Nevada

West Division
BYU
Boise State
Air Force
Colorado State
UNLV
San Diego State
Wyomig
Hawaii

Has UMASS been in the NCAA since Calipari coached there?

Cincy and Memphis and SMU and UH won't go West-they'd rather go toward Florida and be on in the Eastern Time Zone. The MWC is not going to play 52 card pick-up. Wyoming, New Mexico, UTEP, Hawaii -no way. Now if you want to weed out 7-8 from the Big East footprint and 7-8 from MWC footprint you might have a conference. For TV, UCF, USF are better options and you still got UConn out there

I agree. I was basing that off of what already exists in the MWC and sadly due to defections they have schools like Hawaii, New Mexico, and Wyoming. I do feel the best case is kind of a best of the MWC/Conf USA/Big East

Cincy
Memphis
SMU
Houston
Tulsa
Boise State
BYU
Air Force
San Diego State
UNLV
Fresno State

Start with that and you can build a competitive conference in both Football and basketball in major markets. I'm writing UConn off to the ACC

yeah I agree that's a start-but you need 12, 14 or 16 for regionally limited schedule and playoffs. Which begs the question-if you are going to go Nationwide-quadrants maybe the way to go-not just Divisions

When Texas pulled out of the Pac-12 at the last minute with their demands, it kind of screwed us as our best case was really Big 12 Leftovers + Conf USA + Big East leftovers + Best of MWC

Kansas, Kansas State,Baylor,Iowa State,TCU

Memphis, Houston, Cincy, Tulsa

Boise State, BYU, Airforce

The sad part is that the conference looks great with Cincy and Uconn, but they too are likely on their way out.