Conference Realignment (Part 1)

Yep. I think eventually we will end up back in regional conferences with a model like this, which is where this all started, only this time, we would have a playoff, and if my other suggestion takes, we also wouldn’t be exploiting the kids as much.

I think there would be very real pushback on this from the established powers and some of the bowl heads (though to be honest, my model still preserves the revenue for those big bowl games, so why fight it?), but if the public at large wanted this, it would happen. You’d have to drown out the voices of the interested parties who are already used to defending the current model, which, lets face it, is stagnating and stupid, because only a few programs actually have any chance at the prize, as UCF proved last year. If they couldn’t get in last year, no one outside the elite programs ever will, so it will be 4 of the same 8 or 9 teams every season. No Cinderellas = Snooze.

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clt says this is a brilliant plan. Gets the sweet prince harambe award for ideas!

yep, eventually people will tire of seeing Bama, Clemson, another SEC west team, and OSU/UM/Penn State.

Give it 10 years. If the PAC 12 and Big XII can only manage to get teams in a time or two per decade, there will be some big money programs pushing back against the system. They won’t be advocating for schools like ours of course, but it will likely indirectly help G5 conferences at least have a sliver of a chance.

More on Dixie State, including the possibility that the WAC may once again sponsor football, albeit at the FCS level.

Feinstein means nothing. Sports media needs an overhaul.

Good read. Feinstein definitely summed up the P5 in both football and basketball. Not to mention reminding us how much of an elitist Billy Packer was!

Elitist? And all this time I just thought he was a prick.

Amazon and others are bidding for the Fox Regional networks. This could create more outlets for college sport content outside of ESPN. This may improve the TV deals for G5 conferences.

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Just saw one of those Grand Canyon University commercials and noticed that it listed the school as a non-profit. That caught my eye since the main criticism of the NCAA’s approval of GCU’s application for Division I status was the school’s for-profit status, making it the only such NCAA D-I institution.

Anyway, just checked the GCU wiki page and see that the school reverted to non-profit status on July 1st after 14 years as a for-profit.

I know they’d tried to go non-profit even earlier, but were blocked by shareholders, IIRC.

Their wiki page said GCU began exploring the return to non-profit status in 2014.

clt ap0ied to Grand Canyon- Tempe, but was denied

If that’s the case, I think Houston to the XII is a no brainier, along with… Memphis? UCF? Cincy? AOTA?

This need to hold off just a couple more years

Article states '24-'25.

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The standard goal in our Athletic Department is to finish in the top 4 in the conference. That level of success is typical for all of our track & field teams, men’s golf, and men’s soccer. Baseball and women’s basketball are there this year.

We have made coaching moves to position men’s basketball and football in that group. A couple of recruiting classes will be required to get us there, but if we can begin to make noise in the conference, and win a few OOC marquis games like we used to, then our attendance should look good and people will be talking about us.

We may not be able to control where we end up, but we certainly have a good hand to play.

  • 30k students and growing
  • 50% of the growth of the 17 campus UNC System in the past 5 years has been at Charlotte
  • doctoral research university with strong STEM programs
  • beautiful campus
  • Most diverse student population in NC
  • better athletic facilities across the board than most of our peers
  • we have a $49 million athletics war chest, and are completing a facilities master plan study
  • solid financial standing
  • we are not a one or two sport program
  • 17th most populous city in the US
  • while TV is not driving the non-P5 market now, we are in the 22nd largest TV market and that is still added value
  • 7 Fortune 500/16 Fortune 1000 companies HQ’ed in the Charlotte metro area
  • Charlotte Douglas Airport is the 5th busiest in the world, and 3rd most connected in the US
  • weather
  • growing new south city
  • the SEC and ACC have built their conferences surrounding, but not in, the largest MSA between Washington, DC and Atlanta
  • for Conference events Charlotte has
    • Spectrum Center (20,200) and Halton (9105) which are connected by light rail, and Bojangle’s (8600)
    • BofA Stadium (73,778), Jerry Richardson Stadium (15,310 for now)
    • BB&T Ballpark (10,200), Hayes Stadium (3000), new Kannapolis ballpark in 2020 (5000)
    • More than enough hotel rooms and restaurants to host anything
    • Marriott Convention hotel will open on campus in 2020
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I would love, love, love for the old metro to come back bigger than ever. My dream scenerio:
Charlotte, Louisville, Memphis, UAB, Cincinnati, Tulane, Southern Miss, GA Tech, South Carolina, South Florida, Florida State and VA Tech.

The way UAB brought their football program back from the dead to how they did this year, Mike HIll and the UAB AD needs to get with the AAC commish and talk about them taking us for the east and UAB for the west.

I think they would need to take 2 for logistics, right now the AAC is pretty symmetrical with 6 in the east and 6 in the north for football and 12 basketball teams, 14 would be fine for both sports.