FBS Conference Shuffling

[ST_Lawson]

Kind of crazy if you asked me a couple years ago i would have said the big12 would be the conference to fold. The Pac12 thought they were better than everyone else and now it's biting them. 

 

Crazy how things have turned out so far. Central Florida vs BYU, Cincinnati vs Colorado...those are conference games now.

Meanwhile, the MAC...

[sealhall74]

When you can afford charter flights to every game and match, you have entered the professional sports arena.

[ST_Lawson]

Great article about the realignment of the last few years: https://www.extrapointsmb.com/p/didnt-way

I'll admit that there have been times in the past that I wished that I was a fan of a "big time" college football team (or that WIU was a "big time" team) so we could watch them on national TV or see a stadium filled with 80k loud fans cheering for them...but last week is not one of those times.

One suggestion that I saw online that might help a bit would be to completely separate football conferences from all other sports conferences. So, a team like Oregon or Arizona can be in the Big 10 (18) or Big 12 (16) for football, but play in a much more "regionally-focused" conference for all other sports.

I already saw a comment elsewhere that suggested that Stanford might decide to just go independent in football (like what BYU did for quite a while) and join either the West Coast Conference (almost entirely California-based, all private, although they're all religious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Coas ... ll_members) or the Big West Conference (also almost entirely CA-based, but all are public schools: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_West_ ... nt_members) for all other sports. The WCC has much better basketball (on par with the Pac 12 as of last year) but idk how adverse Stanford is to joining an all-religious school conference considering they spent so much time in a conference that was majority public schools.

[ST_Lawson]

[ST_Lawson]

Stanford, Cal, and SMU to the ACC.
That's right...the Atlantic Coast Conference, entirely made up of schools in the Eastern time zone and with 7 out of 10 of the represented states having coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, are adding a team from Dallas, TX, and two schools in the San Francisco Bay area.
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... rd-cal-smu

It looks like maybe the only option left for the PAC 2 is to merge with the Mountain West, which also makes it highly unlikely that the MWC would invite up teams like the XDSUs or Montana/MT State.

[wiu712]

Army will be moving to the American Athletic Conference as a football-only member starting in 2024.

Army will replace Southern Methodist which is moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference.  

The move puts Army and Navy in the same conference, but their traditional end-of-season game will remain a non-conference game so it can be played after conference championships.

Army mostly competes in the Patriot League, but it has been an independent in football for the most part of the program's existence.  Army did compete in Conference USA from 1998-2004 and never won more than 3 football games in a season.

[ST_Lawson]

Relating to the Washington State and Oregon State situation, both teams will be playing as football affiliates in the Mountain West next year. They are in talks with the WCC to join as affiliates in that conference for most of their non-football sports. WCC had been down to 9 schools this season after losing BYU to the Big 12 last year.

The WCC is a good fit geographically, with teams in California, Washington (Gonzaga), and Oregon (U of Portland), but maybe not the best fit institutionally with all the full members of the WCC being private religious schools (7 out of the 9 are Catholic institutions) and only one also being a football school (San Diego) . Still, it's a good spot to hang out for a bit to give them time to plan future moves.

https://www.oregonlive.com/beavers/2023 ... 25-26.html

[ST_Lawson]

Well...this is fairly unexpected news. UMass will be joining the MAC as a full member starting in 2025-26. They had been a football-only affiliate from 2012 to 2015, but had tried to go the independent route for the last 8 years.

[leatherneckcountry]

Well...this is fairly unexpected news. UMass will be joining the MAC as a full member starting in 2025-26. They had been a football-only affiliate from 2012 to 2015, but had tried to go the independent route for the last 8 years.



 

Wow seems like a downgrade in hoops.
 

[ST_Lawson]

Wow seems like a downgrade in hoops.

 

Yeah, it's a downgrade for basketball, but it gives them a much better position for football. The reason they left the MAC earlier was because the MAC said they had to be all-in or all-out.
On the plus side for them, their route to the conference autobid for basketball will be a lot easier.