UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

[TravelingPanther]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

The people of Kansas (e.g. Fred Phelps) would just love having California schools coming to Kansas on a regular basis.

I didn't realize "the people of Kansas" was 50 inbred hillbillies.

[JayJ79]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

I didn't realize "the people of Kansas" was 50 inbred hillbillies.

there are hills in kansas?!?

[06panther10]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

I just want to know how powerhouse athletic programs such as Wichita state and north Dakota state figure into all of this talk..

[Newsbreaker]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

I just want to know how powerhouse athletic programs such as Wichita state and north Dakota state figure into all of this talk..

WSU will become the flagship member of whichever power league they deem the best. They will resurrect their football program and win the BCS championship in their first season, while going undefeated in all other sports. Then the NCAA will move to Wichita to be closer to the true power base in American sports. ESPN will produce an entire network dedicated to the history of WSU sports.

[ejacobson]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

WSU will become the flagship member of whichever power league they deem the best. They will resurrect their football program and win the BCS championship in their first season, while going undefeated in all other sports. Then the NCAA will move to Wichita to be closer to the true power base in American sports. ESPN will produce an entire network dedicated to the history of WSU sports.

Possibly the funniest thing I have read in months! My compliments Newsie!

[orangetennis]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

if all this talk about 6 Big XII teams heading to the Pac 10 is true then the Big 10 should just take KU, KSU & ISU along with Mizzou & Neb, that'll give em the 16 they were considering. (Syracuse & Rutgers makes no logistical sense.) Baylor could then go to the MWC where they'd be more competitive anyway.
$$$ complicates everything!

[TH1974]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

if all this talk about 6 Big XII teams heading to the Pac 10 is true then the Big 10 should just take KU, KSU & ISU along with Mizzou & Neb, that'll give em the 16 they were considering. (Syracuse & Rutgers makes no logistical sense.) Baylor could then go to the MWC where they'd be more competitive anyway.
$$$ complicates everything!

There's no way the BT takes those leftover Big XII teams.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

The thing that most Clone admin/coaches/student-athletes/fans have to be thinking to themselves is, if the Big 12 money goes away, it's going to greatly restrict their future $$$ growth (and actually, it will probably push them to constricting their budgets in a drastic way).

Hypothetically, if the Big 12 schools (Texas, A&M, Tech, OU, OSU, Colorado) head to the Pac-10 and Nebraska/Mizzou heads to the Big 10, the Mountain West Conference will have no defectors. That could be very attractive to Kansas/KSU/Baylor/ISU and even a schools like Memphis, UTEP, Houston, and/or Tulsa (let's take 2 of those 4 for hypotheticals). Those schools along with the addition of Boise State would have a large geographical footprint, but if we are talking super conferences, that's nothing new. A conference like that would look like:
North:
Kansas
Kansas State
Iowa State
Colorado State
Boise State
BYU
Utah
Wyoming
West:
SDSU
UNLV
Air Force
New Mexico
Memphis
Tulsa
TCU
Baylor

That would be a pretty good conference, and should bolster both basketball and football for it. The fallout from that would probably point to Western Kentucky, Louisiana Tech, and/or North Texas/Louisiana Lafayette or Monroe being added to the C-USA. That would get C-USA to 14 teams.

The MVC, in the meantime pretty much sits pretty and maybe absorbs a Butler (maybe), SLU (maybe), Dayton (not likely), or Xavier (not likely) type school if the Big East or A-10 begin to split/merge/get picked apart by the other conferences.

If the proposal (the initial one on this thread) occurred, I seriously don't know if it is something that UNI would want to do. Financially speaking, unless that conference doled out money more lucratively, it would be difficult for UNI to 1.) pay to play in such a large geographic footprint 2.) be competitive on a yearly basis in most sports against a much more 'southern' conference (harder to recruit north, than it is to recruit south) and 3.) would UNI fans be patient enough to get the athletes necessary to play against Kansas/KSU/Baylor/Memphis on a nightly basis in the primary sport in this conference....basketball? I love Panther basketball as much as anyone, but in a conference championship race, I'm not sure that UNI could compete on a yearly basis to land in the top half of our division. We'd have to start getting the top recruits out of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin yearly (i.e.- top 3 kids minimum). Right now, UNI is getting top 5 kids in Iowa/Wisconsin and top 7-8 kids from Minnesota.

I just think the MVC is a perfect fit for UNI from a geographical standpoint (which = $$$ spent on travel, or lack there of) and a competitive standpoint. I wouldn't mind seeing Butler, SLU, Western Kentucky, Dayton, Xavier, DePaul, etc... type schools come to The Valley, but I don't expect that to happen just quite yet. These next few months are going to be fun to watch.

The good news is that the MVC should improve in visability and stature in the basketball world as some of these conferences become more watered down, and they are all still competing for the same number of NCAA bids (well, actually there will be less conferences, so more at-larges will be available. I'd like to see a few more mergers in lower tier conferences that would allow for more at-large bids to be available.

[UNI83]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

The issue with all of these new conferences and jumping ship is with the FCS programs. Are some of these new conference that would have FBS and FCS teams let the FCS teams play FCS football, or not?

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

Yes. Teams with FCS programs would stay FCS. This is seen with Butler and Drake currently, as they don't play FB and BB in the same conferences...different levels.

[UNI83]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

Yes. Teams with FCS programs would stay FCS. This is seen with Butler and Drake currently, as they don't play FB and BB in the same conferences...different levels.

They still play D1 football. For the most part they are the same FCS level as UNI, Montana, App St. etc... but they aren't eligible for playoffs etc...

[JayJ79]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

They still play D1 football. For the most part they are the same FCS level as UNI, Montana, App St. etc... but they aren't eligible for playoffs etc...

Playoff eligibility has nothing to do with it. Like you said, they all still play D1 football (technically). It is just a matter of having seperate conference affiliations for football, and for other sports. Kind of like how Notre Dame is a member of the Big East for most sports, but is an independent for football.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

They still play D1 football. For the most part they are the same FCS level as UNI, Montana, App St. etc... but they aren't eligible for playoffs etc...

I understand they play FCS football, but they play non-scholy FCS football. IMO, that's a different level (not division, just diff level). Before the FCS/FBS moniker, it was the 1-A, 1-AA, and what the NCAA referred to as 1-AAA, which was non-scholy D1 football. That's obviously been thrown out the window.

The comparison remains, however. Conferences often has schools that are not 100% full fledged members, being auxiliary members. For football, I don't think it would be a major problem if a UNI or Wichita State joined a conference and didn't have FBS football, as long as they thought both schools were a good fit and had other schools who would participate in that conference, sans football (note: Big East, where St. Johns, Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, etc...don't play Big East FB). I don't see UNI bolting to another conference, but there is precedence for a school being a member in a conference with the exception of football.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

http://www.kbtx.com/sports/headlines/95703039.html?ref=039

New possible proposal adds Baylor, not Colorado to the list of invitees to the Pac-10

[in_the_stands]

Re: UNI to join a conference with Kansas and ISU?

WSU will become the flagship member of whichever power league they deem the best. They will resurrect their football program and win the BCS championship in their first season, while going undefeated in all other sports. Then the NCAA will move to Wichita to be closer to the true power base in American sports. ESPN will produce an entire network dedicated to the history of WSU sports.

I don't think there's any doubt about this, except I think the NCAA will also de-emphasize football in favor of baseball. You just don't mess with WSU's nationally significant accomplishments.