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Conference Re-Alignment?


K-Roo

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This process has been proven effective.

Temple did not have the talent to compete in the Big East. After getting the boot, Temple entered the MAC Wellness Program and turned their life around.

Temple became a viable candidate for a better conference, and subsequently moved on.

Zips football needs to pretend it was in the Big East, and got kicked to the curb. Pretend it is starting from zero in the MAC, with a goal to get healthy over the next 4-6 years and become a viable candidate for whatever conference upgrade might present itself.

So we better all hope (1) Temple does real well in the BE to help convince someone in a more desirable conference to invite us to join them, and (2) that in the mean time all the more desirable conferences don't complete their reformulation process and have no need for us or anybody else.

If we could just find an all sport conference (there really aren't many) that had a reasonable geographic foot print that would be really good. For Akron, that would appear to be the Big Ten or the MAC.

What are the odds in a decade we will be anywhere other than the MAC? One in a million.

That's right, I'm saying we have a chance.

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We'll agree to disagree. If we accepted an invite right this second, we'd have 1-2 more years in the MAC for football. That obviously isn't going to happen so we're looking at a couple years in the MAC still. Add a year of recruiting while it's official that we're moving to the BE, plus a couple years of "building" with Bowden, and we'll be okay. All hypothetical of course, but I don't see a reason to wait 5 years.

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We'll agree to disagree. If we accepted an invite right this second, we'd have 1-2 more years in the MAC for football. That obviously isn't going to happen so we're looking at a couple years in the MAC still. Add a year of recruiting while it's official that we're moving to the BE, plus a couple years of "building" with Bowden, and we'll be okay. All hypothetical of course, but I don't see a reason to wait 5 years.

If we accepted the bid with the idea we would have 1-2 more years in the MAC, we wouldn't draw enough players in the next two years to compete early in the BE. No BE player wants to come to the MAC and play against the MAC for half of his career. I'm not willing to risk an immediate jump for a hypothetical that may not pan out and in 20 years we are still in the building process. I've had enough of that.

If the odds of Akron moving to another conference in the next decade are 1,000,000 : 1...... I'd like to put $50 on Akron.

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We can debate this till we're all blue in the face but the truth is Akron wants out of the MAC and is thinking of itself as better than the conference it's in. The growth the university has seen the past decade plus reflects that. If you want to see a MAC school that is content to stay in the MAC read this Can't is lame. Man I don't ever want Akron to think that way again! Akron will get out of the MAC. It's just a matter of when and to what conference. I am of the opinion that Akron is a good fit for CUSA but needs one travel partner. The question is who would that team be? If they don't have a partner can Akron boost it's budget enough to handle travel expenses? They've been positioning themselves to make this move for a long time. I applaud them in their efforts to think big.

B) B) B) B) B) B) B) B)

:screwks:

:tomato:

I stand corrected on my previous statement regarding, every school wanting a shot. :rolleyes: Ok, every school but Can't.... :screwks:

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So we better all hope (1) Temple does real well in the BE to help convince someone in a more desirable conference to invite us to join them, and (2) that in the mean time all the more desirable conferences don't complete their reformulation process and have no need for us or anybody else.

If we could just find an all sport conference (there really aren't many) that had a reasonable geographic foot print that would be really good. For Akron, that would appear to be the Big Ten or the MAC.

What are the odds in a decade we will be anywhere other than the MAC? One in a million.

That's right, I'm saying we have a chance.

Memphis provides the flaw in your arguement. Since the 2005 MCB they have been equally pathetic (although their fall came quicker, and they recovered slightly). Yet they still garnered an invite to the Big East. Ponts of contention: the Info is miles above the hole that is the Liberty Bowl, Memphis (city) is a disaster located on the Mississippi Delta surrounded by Arkansas, Tenn, and Mississippi. Its enrollment is also smaller. Now, It's not my contention that the domination of their basketball team didn't influence their invite, it did, but that wasn't you arguement.

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I love the listing ship remark.

It would be the end of our success as a basketball program if UCONN, Rutgers, Lvill and Cincy stay in the BE. We can't beat the 7th place Big Ten team in the first round of the NIT with the most talented team in recent memory, we wouldn't compete well in the BE at all.

Sometimes, the best move is to do nothing. Right now, the nonbcs conferences are either cannibalizing each other, or they are bringing in teams that simply don't belong in D-1A. None of them are getting better in a meaningful way. Everyone at our level needs to stop fighting each other in an attempt to become king of the midgets and figure out a way for everyone to work together to stabilize nonbcs football.

You rightly bring up the basketball issue that is often being ignored on this thread. However I disagree that it would necessarily "destroy" the program.

Listen, I love the MAC Tournament for b-ball. It's really an awesome thing to have this event 45 minutes from our campus. One big disappointment is that UA hasn't improved the experience outside of the games; that is easily remedied, however. And I could go on and on about the close games, the good pricing and the close regional rivalries but we know all that.

So back to your "destroy" comment. For a second imagine what Akron home games could be with the likes of Notre Dame, Georgetown, Syracuse, Louisville and UConn coming to play at our new, shiny, larger-but-not-too-large arena. Suddenly- Northeast Ohio is presented a high-level college sports entertainment option that is unprecedented.

Now obviously we are not yet ready to compete at that level in b-ball. So if we're always losing by 20+ points to those teams the value would indeed wear off. It may sound far fetched to think we could ever best UConn. But ya know what, I don't think there's any reason to believe that Akron can't be just like Seton Hall or Providence or a DePaul with multiple NCAA appearances and who knows, even a regular season championship some day. I personally would LOVE that, because as of now I don't have one iota of interest in seeing home games vs. Northern Ill, Ball State or the Michigans'.

Or do you think the program is better off with a realistic chance at a MAC title every year?

I can understand that. But given a hypothetical choice, my choice is still the Big East.

Back to football, I just want to add that there's no reason Akron shouldn't be able to compete with Rutgers, SDSU, UConn, Cincy, Navy etc. Only Boise St. is head and shoulders above the pack at the moment. But shouldn't we be shooting for a Boise-level of success anyhow?

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Hypothetically - what if we could go into a bigger conference in all sports except football. Keep football in the MAC.

Would you do it?

That answer is simple: NO! Make it all or nothing. If that happens, it will force football to be a independent because the MAC would throw them out.

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That answer is simple: NO! Make it all or nothing. If that happens, it will force football to be a independent because the MAC would throw them out.

I'm not inferring it would be our new conference's choice. I hypothesize it would be UA's choice remain MAC in football, but upgrade its programs that could be competitive in a better conference.

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Hypothetically - what if we could go into a bigger conference in all sports except football. Keep football in the MAC.

Would you do it?

Do you mean like the Ivy League or something even better?

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I'm not inferring it would be our new conference's choice. I hypothesize it would be UA's choice remain MAC in football, but upgrade its programs that could be competitive in a better conference.

All kidding aside. That league would have to be the A-10 and ONLY the A-10. With the addition of VCU and Butler to the league, it presents a strong challenge and we have the horses to compete. I wouldn't do it for any other league.

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All kidding aside. That league would have to be the A-10 and ONLY the A-10. With the addition of VCU and Butler to the league, it presents a strong challenge and we have the horses to compete. I wouldn't do it for any other league.

Why hold football back. We would dominate the A10 in football.

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EDSBS posted this about conference realignment.

Realignment continues to be an exhausting and inefficient way to give us what we really want - a schedule where Georgia Tech plays 11 games against a parliament of owls and goes 7-4. It does, however, serve as an excellent game for road trips! Pass this back to the kids and enjoy the laughter as they put Auburn into the ACC!

After months of speculation and rumor, (any team except Notre Dame) announced that it is leaving (conference) for (new conference, or possibly the same conference) starting with the 20(SPF level Bob Davie should use but won't minus number of years Lane Kiffin will get on his contract to coach the Redskins) season. Athletic Director (John) (kitchen tool) said that the move would "provide us with the highest level of competition from long-established programs like (Holiday Bowl loser), (perennial 8-5 team), and (basketball school)." (Transferring school) will move into the (synonym for wizard) Division for football, where they are projected to finish (any ordinal number).

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I'm not inferring it would be our new conference's choice. I hypothesize it would be UA's choice remain MAC in football, but upgrade its programs that could be competitive in a better conference.

I still think that the MAC would not let them stay, even if it was UA's choice to stay for football only

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This is for those of you who think ODU going to C-USA is a stretch, let's make a few comparisons.

Category/Akron/Old Dom

Undergrads/24600/18600

Post-grads/4,600/6,200

Endowmnt/$133m/$170m

The above statistics are somewhat of a wash.

ODU is located in Norfolk, VA. It is the leading university in the Tidewater region (Hampton Roads), which encompasses the sizeable cities of Norfolk, Virginia Beach (largest population in state), Hampton and Newport News. Two HBCUs (Norfolk St and Hampton) plus the smallish, elite College of William and Mary (of which ODU was actually a branch campus to begin with) offer meager competition in terms of local collegiate sports.

Now here is the key statistic for ODU. The Tidewater region is the third largest metro area in the country (behind Vegas and Austin) without a single major league franchise (football/baseball/basketball/hockey/soccer). So the 1.6 million metro area residents do not currently have local major college football or local professional sports at the highest level as a distraction. I believe (as do the folks who run C-USA) that ODU is perfectly poised for significant growth in terms of athletics, particularly in football. The Tidewater region is a hotbed for recruiting (Vick brothers, etc) and Va Tech USED to own the area, making their ascent to the upper portion of D-1 possible over the last few decades much easier. I can tell you that the Hokies (or Wahoos) won't be too happy about getting another FBS competitor in the state.

I've said before that the history of ODU (or any FBS newcomer) in football is largely irrelevant in these decisions. But even so, ODU has come out of the gate VERY strong, winning 9, 8 and 10 games in their 1st three years against decent FCS-level competition. Let's put it this way. They would have smoked the Zips the past two years. I'll bet they do just fine in C-USA.

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Good post JZ84. I would only lend some caution. I've spent a lot of time in VA Beach in my corporate life and after living in the south, I see it as more of an area not starving for "big time" college athletics.

VA Beach is similar to Charleston, SC in the three types of people who live there: old money, new money, no money. There is a lot more no money than anything. Hard to really support big time sports with that demographic. The old money is in retirement from somewhere else and they aren't interested in spending money. The new money is interested in other schools. The no money in VA Beach consists of poor Navy enlisted (many of whom are out to sea a lot) and poor minority. In areas like Mytrle Beach and Virginia Beach, people only make money 100 days a year when the summer months bring tourists. The other 265 days they hold tight to their money (ever see what a dump Myrtle Beach is 3 miles from the coast?). I don't think the question is whether or not they can get people to games...Give away enough tickets and anyone can afford to go. The question is whether or not they can get people (not just a few really rich people) with money to support the program.

There is no doubt the recruiting is great, but the question of the population supporting the team is important.

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