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Posted
1 hour ago, CastHorn said:

I know it would never happen, but the original Big12 South could flip the sport on its head overnight by re-forming some sort of Southwest Centric Conference. Texas and OU packing the prestige, Tech and A&M outbidding the field for Texas/Louisiana talent. The T Boone Foundation is still pumping dollars into OSU athletics, I think they could easily be an Ole Miss type in the portal lane if they wanted to. I wouldn’t invite Baylor. 
 

I’d start at 12. Maybe:

Texas, A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas

Other Division: 

Arizona State, SMU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas State, Texas Tech 

 

Obviously you’re betting on Tech, SMU, Colorado, and ASU to pop off in NIL. If you wanted to go to 14, there is some intriguing regional options. College Sports will wither and die if national conference structures aren’t combatted. 
 

 

This is the worst fan fiction I've ever read.

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Posted

The Sun Belt going to Tripling down on the state of Louisiana is just lazy. Western Kentucky may be a good add in a new market but losing the Texas market as a whole is silly when Sam Houston is right there. Would add a solid FB and baseball member on Day 1

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Posted
1 hour ago, CastHorn said:

I know it would never happen, but the original Big12 South could flip the sport on its head overnight by re-forming some sort of Southwest Centric Conference. Texas and OU packing the prestige, Tech and A&M outbidding the field for Texas/Louisiana talent. The T Boone Foundation is still pumping dollars into OSU athletics, I think they could easily be an Ole Miss type in the portal lane if they wanted to. I wouldn’t invite Baylor. 
 

I’d start at 12. Maybe:

Texas, A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas

Other Division: 

Arizona State, SMU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas State, Texas Tech 

 

Obviously you’re betting on Tech, SMU, Colorado, and ASU to pop off in NIL. If you wanted to go to 14, there is some intriguing regional options. College Sports will wither and die if national conference structures aren’t combatted. 
 

 

No.

You see some version of this pining for a SWC redo on other sites and in comment sections as people wax nostalgic for "regionality" in college football.  Let's all remember what regionality did for Texas:

  • Rampant cheating in the SWC
  • Baylor fucking us at the lege
  • TTech trying to fuck us
  • Bleachergate with UH
  • TCU, Tech, Baylor turning the Texas game into their annual jihad game
  • Those same teams restricting tickets for Texas fans into buying multi-game or season ticket packages just for the Texas game
  • Drafting off of Texas' massive fanbase and TV ratings, while simultaneously complaining about big bad Texas

Texas today is right where we should be, and where we need to be. We're in the top conference, where we get consistently pushed by other blue blood programs.  We are still a massive brand but we are one of many peers with Bama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, etc.  All teams that care a lot about football, and invest a lot into football, and have large fanbases.  Getting a lot more money is just a side effect of all that.

Fuck TTech and Baylor in their ungrateful bitch asses.  The only time we should play them again is in the playoffs, if they make it.

And BTW we're still regional.  We play OU, Arky, A&M, and LSU.

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Posted
44 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Came here for Texas State - PAC news and instead I get more hypothetical bullshit about Texas going back to the shitty Big 12. 

CDC must read this 💩 while he's on the can just for laughs

Posted
2 hours ago, CastHorn said:

I know it would never happen, but the original Big12 South could flip the sport on its head overnight by re-forming some sort of Southwest Centric Conference. Texas and OU packing the prestige, Tech and A&M outbidding the field for Texas/Louisiana talent. The T Boone Foundation is still pumping dollars into OSU athletics, I think they could easily be an Ole Miss type in the portal lane if they wanted to. I wouldn’t invite Baylor. 
 

I’d start at 12. Maybe:

Texas, A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas

Other Division: 

Arizona State, SMU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas State, Texas Tech 

 

Obviously you’re betting on Tech, SMU, Colorado, and ASU to pop off in NIL. If you wanted to go to 14, there is some intriguing regional options. College Sports will wither and die if national conference structures aren’t combatted. 
 

 

Vomit Barf GIF

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Posted
3 hours ago, Sir Ulrich said:

The Sun Belt going to Tripling down on the state of Louisiana is just lazy. Western Kentucky may be a good add in a new market but losing the Texas market as a whole is silly when Sam Houston is right there. Would add a solid FB and baseball member on Day 1

Sam Houston’s football stadium seats 12,000. They belong in FCS.

Louisiana Tech is a good fit for the Sun Belt (so is WKU).

Chasing markets is how CUSA fell below the Sun Belt in the pecking order. Markets at this level aren’t very important. Fan engagement and travel costs are the priority. ESPN/FOX aren’t paying for Sun Belt content for national audiences. They are paying for it to drive users to their streaming services/apps. Eyeballs are more important than markets at the G5 level.

(All that being said, I wouldn’t blame them for going after FIU for the size of the school and market)

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Posted
17 minutes ago, TKthunder2 said:

Sam Houston’s football stadium seats 12,000.

As much as I like to shit on Sammy State, their stadium holds 14k.  Granted, they're currently putting $60M worth of renovations into it, and will end up with a capacity of...14K.  That's how high school the stadium is.

I do agree they should be in FCS...but truth told, I think TXST should be too, and Rice and UNT and UTSA and UTEP and 40+ other current FBS schools.

Posted
6 hours ago, CastHorn said:

I know it would never happen, but the original Big12 South could flip the sport on its head overnight by re-forming some sort of Southwest Centric Conference. Texas and OU packing the prestige, Tech and A&M outbidding the field for Texas/Louisiana talent. The T Boone Foundation is still pumping dollars into OSU athletics, I think they could easily be an Ole Miss type in the portal lane if they wanted to. I wouldn’t invite Baylor. 
 

I’d start at 12. Maybe:

Texas, A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas

Other Division: 

Arizona State, SMU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas State, Texas Tech 

 

Obviously you’re betting on Tech, SMU, Colorado, and ASU to pop off in NIL. If you wanted to go to 14, there is some intriguing regional options. College Sports will wither and die if national conference structures aren’t combatted. 
 

Wow, major time warp. It's like I've been transported back to 10 years ago and we are back to realignment wish casting.

🙄

Posted
On 6/2/2025 at 3:03 PM, Al_4_ISU said:

Boise is a great road trip.  Mountains, good beer scene, etc.

Boise sucks.  Been there, won there, no need to go back to that shit hole. 

Posted
6 hours ago, CastHorn said:

I know it would never happen, but the original Big12 South could flip the sport on its head overnight by re-forming some sort of Southwest Centric Conference. Texas and OU packing the prestige, Tech and A&M outbidding the field for Texas/Louisiana talent. The T Boone Foundation is still pumping dollars into OSU athletics, I think they could easily be an Ole Miss type in the portal lane if they wanted to. I wouldn’t invite Baylor. 
 

I’d start at 12. Maybe:

Texas, A&M, OU, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Kansas

Other Division: 

Arizona State, SMU, Colorado, Utah, Kansas State, Texas Tech 

 

Obviously you’re betting on Tech, SMU, Colorado, and ASU to pop off in NIL. If you wanted to go to 14, there is some intriguing regional options. College Sports will wither and die if national conference structures aren’t combatted. 
 

 

Hell no,  I hear tooooo many TCU grey hairs longing for the good ole' days of the SWC and unless we are going all the way back to Dutch and 50's fuck no.  

As far as the group above, Texas has already been there and left it so why go back?  

 

Posted

So if what is being reported is true…

Texas State > PAC12
LA Tech > Sun Belt
Tarleton State > CUSA

That mean that the remaining WAC: UT-Arlington (no fb), Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah

Seems like UTA and ACU should beg the Southland for an invite at this point. Weird that they haven’t already…

Sac State appears to be leaving the Big Sky so maybe the Utah schools lands there and the WAC can finally be put out of its misery.

Posted
On 6/18/2025 at 11:58 PM, TKthunder2 said:

So if what is being reported is true…

Texas State > PAC12
LA Tech > Sun Belt
Tarleton State > CUSA

That mean that the remaining WAC: UT-Arlington (no fb), Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah

Seems like UTA and ACU should beg the Southland for an invite at this point. Weird that they haven’t already…

Sac State appears to be leaving the Big Sky so maybe the Utah schools lands there and the WAC can finally be put out of its misery.

I've heard that the non-Louisiana Sun Belt schools vetoed La Tech and there have been discussions with ECU and UAB. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Saint Austin said:

ECU and UAB won't leave the American for the Sun Belt.

From what I've heard, there have been discussions, and it hinges on what is going to happen with Memphis. 

Posted (edited)

Memphis to the PAC made no sense but I saw more recently they might do so as football only and join the Big East for everything else. That actually makes some sense. Well, as much sense as is possible when a school participates partially in a conference named for the Pacific Ocean and everything else in a conference named for the East Coast. Cal and Stanford are full time members in a conference named after the Atlantic Ocean, so nothing matters anymore.

Edited by 'stache
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Posted
2 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Memphis to the PAC made no sense but I saw more recently they might do so as football only and join the Big East for everything else. That actually makes some sense. Well, as much sense as the same school participating in partially in a conference named for the Pacific and everything else in a conference named for the East Coast, but Cal and Stanford are full time members in a conference named after the Atlantic Ocean, so nothing matters anymore.

You really can't get more Pacific than Memphis, TN.

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Posted

Why is ECU in the spot they're in?

They have probably the biggest fanbase of a remaining G5 school.  Their stadium wouldn't be the smallest in any P4 league.  They've shown you can win there.

But they've never ever even been close to being a candidate to move up in the world.  Just always seemed a little weird to me.

Posted
4 hours ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Why is ECU in the spot they're in?

They have probably the biggest fanbase of a remaining G5 school.  Their stadium wouldn't be the smallest in any P4 league.  They've shown you can win there.

But they've never ever even been close to being a candidate to move up in the world.  Just always seemed a little weird to me.

Because they are in a state with 1/3rd the population of Texas with 4 schools in the P4 and 2 others in the G5. They just aren’t going to move the needle for realignment.

Pairing them with App State would be far better for them than putting them with UNC-Charlotte (if there wasn’t money involved).

Posted
Boise is a great road trip.  Mountains, good beer scene, etc.

If Texas St can do back to back weekends at Boise and Pullman it will be one hell of a bender for them. Cougs and Bobcats are one of the same fan bases.
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Posted
16 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Because they are in a state with 1/3rd the population of Texas with 4 schools in the P4 and 2 others in the G5. They just aren’t going to move the needle for realignment.

Pairing them with App State would be far better for them than putting them with UNC-Charlotte (if there wasn’t money involved).

How does ECU traveling across the state to rural, mountainous Boone, benefit their program and university as a whole? I think ECU would rather have increased exposure in NC's largest city than BFE. More eyes and potential NC students in Charlotte.

And, yes, money is the key driver to ECU staying in the AAC. It pays better than the Sun Belt, doesn't it?

Posted
7 hours ago, DFW Horn said:

How does ECU traveling across the state to rural, mountainous Boone, benefit their program and university as a whole? I think ECU would rather have increased exposure in NC's largest city than BFE. More eyes and potential NC students in Charlotte.

And, yes, money is the key driver to ECU staying in the AAC. It pays better than the Sun Belt, doesn't it?

Because in this new era of college football markets don’t mean as much. Eyeballs and fan engagement mean more. If you don’t have a major national TV contract then markets mean next to nothing.

The American and the PAC12 are both on the cusp of this size. But the Sun Belt and MAC have proved that having a smaller regional conference of passionate fans is still a good TV product for casual fans.

For now ECU chasing the money is not a bad strategy, but if they are trying to drive more regional interest and fan engagement playing then the Sun Belt is a far better fit.

The “local” teams for ECU in the American are Charlotte, UAB, a pair of South Florida schools, Temple, Army and Navy. Everyone else is basically on or West of the Mississippi River.

The local teams in the Sun Belt are App State, Coastal, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, and a trio in the Virginias. These are more similar to ECU’s profile and would drive more engagement and future dollars.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Because in this new era of college football markets don’t mean as much. Eyeballs and fan engagement mean more. If you don’t have a major national TV contract then markets mean next to nothing.

The American and the PAC12 are both on the cusp of this size. But the Sun Belt and MAC have proved that having a smaller regional conference of passionate fans is still a good TV product for casual fans.

For now ECU chasing the money is not a bad strategy, but if they are trying to drive more regional interest and fan engagement playing then the Sun Belt is a far better fit.

The “local” teams for ECU in the American are Charlotte, UAB, a pair of South Florida schools, Temple, Army and Navy. Everyone else is basically on or West of the Mississippi River.

The local teams in the Sun Belt are App State, Coastal, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, and a trio in the Virginias. These are more similar to ECU’s profile and would drive more engagement and future dollars.

Do you really think ECU students and fans give a shit about those schools you mentioned above more so than Charlotte or the other AAC teams? I doubt it. Most MAC and SBC teams have nowhere else to go, so they make it work out of necessity.

Edited by DFW Horn
Posted (edited)

Yeah I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

App State has fairly good brand power. Not claiming they are Boise State but they are up there and are way better than Charlotte.

The Sun Belt has gone after good football schools with passionate fans bases. ECU fits that mold more so than any Eastern school in the American Conference.

Edited by TKthunder2
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Posted
12 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

Yeah I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.

App State has fairly good brand power. Not claiming they are Boise State but they are up there and are way better than Charlotte.

The Sun Belt has gone after good football schools with passionate fans bases. ECU fits that mold more so than any Eastern school in the American Conference.

If the SBC's fans were super-passionate, they'd be driving higher TV ratings and its media contract would pay better than the AAC's. But, it doesn't. Maybe basketball raises the AAC > SBC? Money talks

I'm not arguing that Charlotte is "better" than App State. But, the money says AAC affiliation benefits ECU more for now.

Posted
3 hours ago, DFW Horn said:

If the SBC's fans were super-passionate, they'd be driving higher TV ratings and its media contract would pay better than the AAC's. But, it doesn't. Maybe basketball raises the AAC > SBC? Money talks

I'm not arguing that Charlotte is "better" than App State. But, the money says AAC affiliation benefits ECU more for now.

How much of the AAC contracts/ money/ supposed interest is the residual of the much better teams it lost not long ago? Genuinely don't know. I'd watch the SBC all day over the AAC. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, LTbear said:

How much of the AAC contracts/ money/ supposed interest is the residual of the much better teams it lost not long ago? Genuinely don't know. I'd watch the SBC all day over the AAC. 

https://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/espn-1-billion-deal-aac-espn-plus.html
 

12 year deal signed in 2019 when they had Houston, SMU, Cincy, and UCF.

They have since expanded and diluted the per school number by adding UNCC, FAU, UNT, UTSA, UAB, and Rice as full members plus Army as football only.

If Memphis, Tulane, USF, ECU moved to the Sun Belt that conference would be head and shoulders over the AAC if they were to renegotiate the TV contracts tomorrow.

Posted
1 hour ago, TKthunder2 said:

https://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/espn-1-billion-deal-aac-espn-plus.html
 

12 year deal signed in 2019 when they had Houston, SMU, Cincy, and UCF.

They have since expanded and diluted the per school number by adding UNCC, FAU, UNT, UTSA, UAB, and Rice as full members plus Army as football only.

If Memphis, Tulane, USF, ECU moved to the Sun Belt that conference would be head and shoulders over the AAC if they were to renegotiate the TV contracts tomorrow.

I agree with this. Memphis and Tulane is who PAC should target after they get to 8.

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