Proposed NCAA Legislation & You Part 4: Conference Realignment

This is not exactly proposed NCAA legislation, but I thought it fit with the theme.

It has been a few weeks since part 3, mostly because I wrote this article, and then stuff happened that made my entire article obsolete: I'm serious. In January I wrote:

Realignment also shows if we can be competitive or better than Temple, ECU and Memphis in football and basketball, we could find ourselves in the Big East

That was wrong as the Big East pushed ahead with one of the few teams that is consistently worst than us in Football Akron Memphis.

Now that I have shown that on this subject, I know nothing, my views on conference realignment.

Conference realignment:

The Pac 12 and B1G stayed stagnant, decided to have an annual PAC 12/B1G showdown basketball style.

The SEC raided the Big 12,

The ACC raided the Big East, and that seemed fun so the Big 12 raided the Big East as well

The Big East raided the Mountain West and the C-USA

The Mountain West raided the WAC and now threatens to steal from the MAC and partner with the C-USA

The MAC, WAC and Sun Belt promoted some FCS teams

Status: The dust settled, and then the Big East finally sealed the deal with Navy, starting round 3 of conference realignment. Big East went back to the C-USA well and took Fed Ex Memphis.

Meanwhile the Big 12 talks about 12 teams, targeting a Big East team and BYU,

If that were to happen the Big East would need another new team from the East to remain at 12. At this point Temple or ECU seem likely.

The Mountain West and the C-USA may merge for real, and might take Temple because Philly was built on an oil field and they have fuel to burn.

UBeffect: Generally positive – The craziness of conference realignment creates an ironic stability in the MAC minus Temple.
Adding FCS teams opens up our recruiting footprint while giving us a few years of easy wins.
Temple may leave, which makes the East easier as Temple has our number and Ohio owns Temple, if Temple leaves, Ohio loses a win and we lose a loss, creating a 1 game swing in our favor in the MAC East.

Biggest Negative - The old Big East with UConn, Rutgers, Syracuse & Pittsburgh would have been a perfect landing place for UB geographically, but it no longer exists. The best place for us now is the B1G or the ACC, neither seem likely, honestly the Old Big East was unlikely, but a move to the ACC or B1G is implausible.

Outlook: You never know, it has changed week to week for the last 3 years …If we get on a winning streak we may get the phone call from a big conference. However we have experience with a premature bump to a higher level of play...do not want to do that again. Conferences will continue to shuffle for money, but we should be very happy to solely focus on becoming a MAC power.