[aredd33]

That’s awesome for the baseball team. Is it just baseball or are they moving up for all sports?

[Chippy]

That’s awesome for the baseball team. Is it just baseball or are they moving up for all sports?

Good question. I believe they are D2 in all other sports.

[aredd33]

They are D2 in other sports. From everything I could find it is only the baseball team moving.

[Ill flame]

They are D2 in other sports. From everything I could find it is only the baseball team moving.

This is correct. It's a baseball only move

[tyndal23]

This is an excellent insider account of the realignment deliberations within C-USA leading up to where we are now. It's interesting how close we came to other configurations within the league:

https://www.bgdailynews.com/sports/wku/ ... 9d68e.html

First time reading this...

And I quote - “why not go Independent in football....well that is just not sustainable for us” WKU...

WKU is simply waiting another 2 years to bolt to MAC. There is “ and we always knew it” another round of realignment coming within 2 years.

Ian was reading playoff expansion tea leaves and we made a bad move based on bad info.

I will say it again, make a deal with UMASS to take our football slot - leave football Indie and throw some $ at CUSA to make it all digestible... rest of our teams stay CUSA - win win for all. Do it now before TV contracts and schedules are finalized...

[Sly Fox]

Since November it has become abundantly clear that the MAC has no interest in WKU. And it was desperation driving the interest from the Toppers in the first place. All indications are that we are going to be with our current alignment of nine all-sport schools for at least our first few years in CUSA.

As for your tea leaves reference, there was really no way of foreseeing how the 12-team playoff proposal would crumble so quickly. It appeared to be roundly well received at the time we jumped into the league. Hindsight is 20/20 but I still think this is a solid fit for us for the time being.

[Purple Haize]

Since November it has become abundantly clear that the MAC has no interest in WKU. And it was desperation driving the interest from the Toppers in the first place. All indications are that we are going to be with our current alignment of nine all-sport schools for at least our first few years in CUSA.

As for your tea leaves reference, there was really no way of foreseeing how the 12-team playoff proposal would crumble so quickly. It appeared to be roundly well received at the time we jumped into the league. Hindsight is 20/20 but I still think this is a solid fit for us for the time being.

Putting together an Indie football schedule after this latest round of shake up would be an unenviable task to say the least. And I’m not sure how many Conferences worth a hoot want a school for all sports BUT football. I like CUSA with WKU. Would have liked it more with West Virginia’s Junior College but oh well.
I think Ian has done a great job positioning LU for now and in the future.

[olldflame]

tyndal23 is as narrative-driven as Brian Stelter.

[TH Spangler]

As soon as they figure out who will be included, next shoe to drop will be the football super conference breakaway. A bunch of current P5's will not make the cut. They will make for some interesting new conferences that we'll be interested in.

[LUOrange]

I know you have to take the Boomers with a YUGE salt block, but this wouldn't surprise me.

Obviously, there'll be more movement once the B12, Texas & Oklahoma finalize their divorces. Then probably some more down the line after that. However, I still think that the SBC East and West will split and CUSA will fold into the the halves. Time will tell.

[ATrain]

I know you have to take the Boomers with a YUGE salt block, but this wouldn't surprise me.

Obviously, there'll be more movement once the B12, Texas & Oklahoma finalize their divorces. Then probably some more down the line after that. However, I still think that the SBC East and West will split and CUSA will fold into the the halves. Time will tell.

Based on history and strength of programs, I can see this. However, some of the teams they have as DI and DII is a head scratcher.

[TH Spangler]

I know you have to take the Boomers with a YUGE salt block, but this wouldn't surprise me.

Obviously, there'll be more movement once the B12, Texas & Oklahoma finalize their divorces. Then probably some more down the line after that. However, I still think that the SBC East and West will split and CUSA will fold into the the halves. Time will tell.

Based on history and strength of programs, I can see this. However, some of the teams they have as DI and DII is a head scratcher.

Is that App State and Marshall D1

They'll be looking for football programs that constantly put 50k plus in the stands every week.

[LUOrange]

Obviously, some of Boomers picks are huge stretches. But the concept concept is valid. And if there's a split it'll either be all of P5 in D1, or those P5 schools Tyndal wants us to schedule will join the G5 in D2. There's no way a current G5 school not named CYU, Cincy or UCF joins the elite division and I'm skeptical on them.

[TH Spangler]

They have to many going D1. 40ish max is my opinion.

[Purple Haize]

tyndal23 is as narrative-driven as Brian Stelter.

You’ve never seen those two in the same room at the same time together. So maybe…

[flameshaw]

NIL is going to ruin college sports 100%. I hope we have 2-3 more years before it gets worse, but don't expect it.
I was thinking of retiring as a sports fan after 2023 (50th anniversary of LU football and baseball) anyway. This will probably just solidify my decision.

[Ill flame]

IMO we need every football program with 30,000+ attendance to split off into its own subdivision. Based on 2019 numbers that would be 71 teams which is almost all P5 plus the top G5 programs. Everyone between 15,000 and 30,000 should be a subdivision and everyone under 15,000 should be a subdivision. The difference between the haves and the have nots have grown a lot since the last split so it's time for another one.

[TH Spangler]

IMO we need every football program with 30,000+ attendance to split off into its own subdivision. Based on 2019 numbers that would be 71 teams which is almost all P5 plus the top G5 programs. Everyone between 15,000 and 30,000 should be a subdivision and everyone under 15,000 should be a subdivision. The difference between the haves and the have nots have grown a lot since the last split so it's time for another one.

50k plus D1
20k to 50k D2
Less than 20k D3

Big TV deals to D1. About 40 teams.

Wake Duke Boston College Pitt Vanderbilt types land in D2 with us.

[ballcoach15]

NIL is going to ruin college sports 100%. I hope we have 2-3 more years before it gets worse, but don't expect it.
I was thinking of retiring as a sports fan after 2023 (50th anniversary of LU football and baseball) anyway. This will probably just solidify my decision.

Add the Transfer Portal to NIL. More and more coaches now are recruiting from other schools, and I don't mean high schools.

[tyndal23]

tyndal23 is as narrative-driven as Brian Stelter.

Ann Coulter...build the wall and stay out of G5 no matter what.

[Ill flame]

50k plus D1
20k to 50k D2
Less than 20k D3

Big TV deals to D1. About 40 teams.

Wake Duke Boston College Pitt Vanderbilt types land in D2 with us.

With a 30k cutoff the following P5s would be "D2"

Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Washington St

Imo that number cuts off the least competitive P5s while letting the top G5s compete with the big boys.

A 50k cutoff leaves off some decent sized fanbases/TV markets/geographic areas:
Arizona
Arizona St
Baylor
Boston College
Cal
Cincinnati
Colorado
Georgia Tech
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
K state
Louisville
Maryland
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ole miss
Oregon St
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
TCU
UCF
UCLA
Utah
Virginia

[TH Spangler]

50k plus D1
20k to 50k D2
Less than 20k D3

Big TV deals to D1. About 40 teams.

Wake Duke Boston College Pitt Vanderbilt types land in D2 with us.

With a 30k cutoff the following P5s would be "D2"

Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Washington St

Imo that number cuts off the least competitive P5s while letting the top G5s compete with the big boys.

A 50k cutoff leaves off some decent sized fanbases/TV markets/geographic areas:
Arizona
Arizona St
Baylor
Boston College
Cal
Cincinnati
Colorado
Georgia Tech
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
K state
Louisville
Maryland
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ole miss
Oregon St
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
TCU
UCF
UCLA
Utah
Virginia

Yep. Some of those are probably where the resistance is coming from. A couple have powerful basketball programs.

[tyndal23]

50k plus D1
20k to 50k D2
Less than 20k D3

Big TV deals to D1. About 40 teams.

Wake Duke Boston College Pitt Vanderbilt types land in D2 with us.

With a 30k cutoff the following P5s would be "D2"

Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Washington St

Imo that number cuts off the least competitive P5s while letting the top G5s compete with the big boys.

A 50k cutoff leaves off some decent sized fanbases/TV markets/geographic areas:
Arizona
Arizona St
Baylor
Boston College
Cal
Cincinnati
Colorado
Georgia Tech
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
K state
Louisville
Maryland
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ole miss
Oregon St
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
TCU
UCF
UCLA
Utah
Virginia

Yep. Some of those are probably where the resistance is coming from. A couple have powerful basketball programs.

Basketball or any other sport isn’t going to semi pro. It will be completely separated and free of Title 9. Title 9 is an NCAA / congress mandate - the lawyers will break it free of both. The fight will be legal war over tv rights of existing contracts with networks - did the lawyers think to include verbiage if Alabama football was no longer an existing NCAA CFB product - then the next fight would be if Alabama could still use “Crimson Tide” if they dissolved from NCAA, formed a corporation and leased the stadium for $1.00 while paying the University 90% of its total revenue ( example ). The ugliness hasn’t even begun to start...hence I think 32 teams max and “invite only”.

[tyndal23]

Super Conference segment - all these experts assume it will morph from 2 Super Conferences Big 10 and SEC and then they will break away with their strongest teams. I don’t see it. - smaller market teams in existing conferences will fight tooth and nail. It will be an outside entity that forms and “invites the 32 or 48 ( whatever number ). Otherwise, they bring Vanderbilt, Miss St and leave out Clemson,VT,FSU etc just to avoid a legal fight. Even if they picked off 4 best teams off PAC,ACC, Big 12 etc -they would still have to bring the dead weight of Big 10 and SEC. Much simpler for a 3rd party to form and invite the 32 best tv/football programs completely outside NCAA structure.

[Ill flame]

Super Conference segment - all these experts assume it will morph from 2 Super Conferences Big 10 and SEC and then they will break away with their strongest teams. I don’t see it. - smaller market teams in existing conferences will fight tooth and nail. It will be an outside entity that forms and “invites the 32 or 48 ( whatever number ). Otherwise, they bring Vanderbilt, Miss St and leave out Clemson,VT,FSU etc just to avoid a legal fight. Even if they picked off 4 best teams off PAC,ACC, Big 12 etc -they would still have to bring the dead weight of Big 10 and SEC. Much simpler for a 3rd party to form and invite the 32 best tv/football programs completely outside NCAA structure.

I just don't see any of this happening. There is way too much history in the SEC and B1G for those two conferences to cut anyone unless it's a mutual thing which seems unlikely. Especially in the B1G where having all AAU membership (Nebrasky had it) and the prestige that comes with it means everything to university presidents compared to some super league that they are already kind of in.