http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2011-09-17/acc-approves-syracuse-pittsburgh-big-east/50448806/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=647xasol7s57

UConn and Rutgers to ACC. Unless Texas agrees to give up LHN, they'll be going solo.

Cal84;571980 said:

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2011-09-17/acc-approves-syracuse-pittsburgh-big-east/50448806/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=647xasol7s57

UConn and Rutgers to ACC. Unless Texas agrees to give up LHN, they'll be going solo.

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Well...maybe. Also, would it take 2 years for this to occur????

Quote:

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The ACC also has not closed off its options about adding two other East Coast teams, depending on how the expansion dominoes fall in other leagues. Connecticut and Rutgers would be the candidates, the official said.

Syracuse and Pitt must give the Big East 27 months notice of their departure and pay a $5 million exit fee.

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It would take two years only if the Big East continued to exist. But a more likely scenario would be that the Big East remnants combine with the Little10 remnants. The new "Little East" or whatever they choose to name it, would probably prefer to begin league play sooner than 2014, particularly if they can convince TCU to stay in the new conference. The Big East remnants would then vote to give the teams that left the Big East their walking papers as long as the exit fee was paid up front.

It could be effective next July 1.

All that any Big East school is either 27 months notice OR $5 million. A $5 million exit fee for an immediate grab at significantly greater riches?

Are you kidding, me? I think you'd come to the same conclusion I did. Spend the money and run.

Yeah, that is a super cheap exit fee.

Pac-12 (16), SEC, Big Ten, and ACC will be our four 16-team super-conferences once this all plays out.

It was pretty clear that the SEC & Pac expanding would hurt the Little10 the most. Kill it basically. But this ACC expansion in my mind hurts the B1G. Sure it hurts the BigEast more, but the BigEast is like the Little10. He's dead JIM! No one is really counting them anymore.

With Pitt and the NY/NJ schools off the board, Kansas and Missouri become the logical way for the B1G to get to 15, and the rumors were that the B1G already turned their noses up at those schools last year. The Kansas and Missouri markets are just plain smaller than NY. The only benefit to the B1G from these developments are that it accelerates the time frame by which ND is forced to come hat in hand.

Cal84;571980 said:

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/story/2011-09-17/acc-approves-syracuse-pittsburgh-big-east/50448806/1?AID=4992781&PID=4003003&SID=647xasol7s57

UConn and Rutgers to ACC. Unless Texas agrees to give up LHN, they'll be going solo.

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...then I predict that the ACC will revisit the conference divisional alignment. The ACC could opt for North and South Divisions and keep the North Carolina schools all in the same division. This was a topic of some contention and consternation when the ACC went to 12 schools back in '05. A North/South alignment would probably look like this:

NORTH
Boston College
Connecticut
Maryland
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
Syracuse
Virginia
Virginia Tech

SOUTH
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Miami
North Carolina
North Carolina State
Wake Forest

The argument against such an alignment is that both Miami and FSU would be in the same division. The current zipper separating these two schools was intended to make possible a CCG matching the Seminoles and the Hurricanes. However, there hasn't been a CCG matching these two schools since the ACC went to 12 schools.

In fact, Virginia Tech has appeared in the CCG 3 times, Georgia Tech 2 times, Florida State 2 times, and Boston College 2 times. Notice someone missing?

Moreover, if Pitt, Syracuse, UConn, and Rutgers all move to the ACC, it puts the Big East on the clock to avoid dissolution as a FBS conference. If the Big East can't get back to 8 members in 2 years, it's kaput as an FBS conference. Which also means that Notre Dame is in somewhat a precarious position as well since its non-football teams are parked in the Big East. There's no guarantee that the Big East survives as a basketball only conference.

This could accelerate the Big Ten offering membership to Notre Dame and three Big XII schools (I'm looking at Kansas, Missouri, and either Kansas State or Iowa State). I doubt that there would be any remaining Big East schools that the Big Ten would be interested in (Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, or West Virginia). West Virginia would probably go to the SEC.

Unless Texas intends to go independent in this climate in order to preserve the LHN, the Pac-12 is their last best choice. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State to the Pac-12 looks more likely by the minute.

Whatever will happen to TCU and Baylor?

FiatSlug;572132 said:

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Whatever will happen to TCU and Baylor?

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TCU remains in the Mountain West (which expands): status quo. The league is stable, TCU is familiar with the landscape (and vice versa), plus the Western geography of the league puts TCU on TV sets in PAC-16 households.

Baylor however will have only 2 options: fall back into the Mountain West, or try to create its own league with the Big-12 and Big East leftovers. TCU could do the latter as well, but why do that when you are already established with the Mountain West setup, plus have access west of the Rockies? Baylor is irrelevant to anybody west of Texas (except for realignment and RG3), whereas TCU won a Rose Bowl last year. Baylor believes that it will not survive if they cannot keep schedules with the Texas schools, whereas TCU has designed its program to be a self-reliant BCS giant-killer. Baylor football has to radically redesign itself if it wants to matter in college football because it was crushed in the Big-12 when trying to compete with the rest of the South until very recently.

We thought Baylor and the Big-12 holdouts were going to hit the worst out all this, now Baylor and the Big East remainders have severe problems.

Also, Notre Dame has to set up some preliminary structure for B1G revenue sports scheduling. I still think they can pull off independence, even in a superconference reality.

FiatSlug;572132 said:

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Unless Texas intends to go independent in this climate in order to preserve the LHN, the Pac-12 is their last best choice. Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State to the Pac-12 looks more likely by the minute.

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My guess is that the ACC is waiting to see if they can bring in Notre Dame and Texas, both of them as independent in football with all of their other sports in the ACC. If that doesn't happen, then the ACC will bring in two more Big East schools to get to a 16-team ACC.

RollOnYouBears3;572129 said:

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Pac-12 (16), SEC, Big Ten, and ACC will be our four 16-team super-conferences once this all plays out.

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When the dust settles, I could see two more AQs:
Remnants of the Big East/Big 12 (aka the "Biggest Losers")
A combined WAC and MWC, which, at 8 teams each, seem like a merger that would merit consideration.

Plenty of reasons why both of these would be too weak to be considered an AQ conference (and others as to why they'd make it), but given that the impending changes will so drastically change the college landscape, it's hard to say what an "AQ" will be.

2000blue;572403 said:

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Plenty of reasons why both of these would be too weak to be considered an AQ conference (and others as to why they'd make it), but given that the impending changes will so drastically change the college landscape, it's hard to say what an "AQ" will be.

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Once you get the 4x16 configuration, the 1+1 playoff is a certainty. At that point the AQ/non-AQ status is meaningless. The teams not in the x64 championship are basically SOL.

Cal84;572413 said:

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Once you get the 4x16 configuration, the 1+1 playoff is a certainty. At that point the AQ/non-AQ status is meaningless. The teams not in the x64 championship are basically SOL.

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That's one possibility. But at this point, the "+1" system is not a certainty, especially as a long term solution -- there are too many interests that would push for a larger system.

I think there are far too many interests at this point for outsiders to do anything other than speculate. But, as speculation, I could easily see a three-tiered playoff system that uses the four big NYD bowls as the first round, a semi-final the next weekend, and a final the week after that.

Such a system would offer significant incentives to many of the key players, for example:
> The better conferences will be eager to have the opportunity for multiple teams to advance in a playoff
> The big New Years Day bowls want to host meaningful games
> Additional revenue for broadcasting games.

Who loses? Jeff Sagarin.