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DEM
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Joined: 02 Apr 2003
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Location: Providence
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 Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 9:13 am Post subject: |
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| Jackman wrote: | We need a BCS conference left alive in the northeast. Move Rutgers and UConn from the Big East to the ACC, and there will be no more BCS conferences in the northeast, while the ACC will be full at 16. What's left of Big East football will be West Virginia and the former CUSAs. They'll either find new homes, work with the Big 12 leftovers, or work with their CUSA buddies. Why would they look northeast at a fledgling UMass program when West Virginia is the most northeastern member left (and is possibly moving to the SEC)? They'll shift to the Mississippi River vicinity and write-off the northeast.
Rutgers and UConn are the last remaining staples barely holding the Big East together, IMO. Remove them, and how are a bunch of former CUSAs going to negotiate with the majority Catholic basketball schools about new members? The Catholic schools never wanted most of those football teams in their conference in the first place. That was to keep the original Big East football schools happy. I can't see those two groups staying together so that academically prestigious Georgetown and Villanova can share a conference with ECU as a new member. At that point they may as well ditch football, part ways with the CUSAs, and invite Xavier, Dayton, and maybe some non-religious private universities like Richmond. Temple probably still won't get in, thanks to Villanova. I don't think they'd invite us either. We wouldn't fit their new culture, and we're not all that great at basketball at the moment. |
I get what you're saying...but if that's the case, "if only they waited one or two yrs to do this" doesn't really apply, no? If that scenario comes to be, I'm thinking that the same thing would happen whether we're a good MAC team or just preparing to be in the FBS. Plus, won't UConn block us from membership for as long as they're in the Big East?
Maybe a best-case scenario would be for UConn to leave and Rutgers get left behind in the BE, if that is possible.
Anyway, the timing may not be ideal, but right now, we should (and McCutcheon probably will) contact the Big East offices about membership. Even though we haven't played an FBS game yet, plenty has changed since last year on both ends. We are now fully committed to FBS with Gillette Stadium as our home field, and the Big East, with its HQ right near our home turf is weaker than ever and may soon be lacking any presence in New England. I don't know what our chances are but it's worth a try. |
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chapter 11
Junior
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 304
Location: NYC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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| At least we made the important jump. I commend the admininstration. Granted we are not even a cherry yet. We need to have Mr. Kraft on the line with the admininstration and contact the other conferences. Think we were one of the schools to submit an application to the ACC? And what can the MAC do? |
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photoman
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Location: Attleboro
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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^^
Are you suggesting we give the MAC an "EFF U" before we even play a game?
I'm not understanding this at all. |
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chapter 11
Junior
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 304
Location: NYC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Not in the least and that was not inferred. Im looking forward to our new rivalries. I'm sure the MAC has a contingency plan for the pending landscape of realignment and I was inquiring about it. Every FBS member in every conference is reevaluating things at the moment. That's what Texas A&M started. |
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DEM
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Location: Providence
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| Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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I agree. Technically, the "only" thing we owe the MAC is 2 million dollars if we leave before Temple does. That may actually be an incentive for the first invitee (if there is one, between us and Temple)) to try and arrange for a package deal to split the buyout. I am all for loyalty as it pertains to non-BCS conferences, but it's pretty much understood that any institution within the MAC, or within all of non-BCS actually, will take a BCS invite if they get it. You can pretty much rest assured that the MAC folks know this.
Of course, all of what I'm saying is premature...I don't think it's very likely that we can an invite to a BCS conference, especially at this point. The more likely scenario that I'm rooting for is stasis in the conference shuffling from here on to bide us some time for a chance to fulfill our potential as a flagship state school. |
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Kosty
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MajBugman
Sophomore
Joined: 01 Jan 2009
Posts: 227
Location: Fort George G. Meade, Maryland
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:59 am Post subject: |
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Ugh. Won't be long before the "little" conferences merge. C-USA and MAC merger makes sense.
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Raise the bar, do the minimum. |
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photoman
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Location: Attleboro
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:19 am Post subject: |
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| Problem is, we're nothing but a pretty small player in all this shake-up business and I really don't see us having much of a say as to how things work out in the end. I'm taking a wait and see attitude. |
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sldrums
Junior
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Posts: 311
Location: South Boston
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:33 am Post subject: |
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MWC and C-USA already talking merger....
Does that leave MAC &... sunbelt? |
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Berkman
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Kosty
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 8:57 am Post subject: |
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| sldrums wrote: | MWC and C-USA already talking merger....
Does that leave MAC &... sunbelt? |
Well this will just be another way for a sub .500 ACC and SEC team to get in to the tournament.......conferences forced to play off against each other to get to the tournament!!! Ugh. I hate the NCAA. |
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UMass87
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Posts: 7335
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| I am surprised that Missouri and Kansas haven't bolted for the Big 10 yet. They will be big losers in this shuffle if they get stuck in a Big 12/Big East castoff merger. |
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CrooksisRhyming
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Joined: 19 Apr 2005
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Location: Oak Square
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 9:21 am Post subject: |
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I look at all this maneuvering, and I can't help but wonder if we just put ourselves in FCS-Plus, and it scares me. What is going to happen to all of these smaller conferences? Sure, if the MAC merges with another league, that adds more teams, but does it add any stability?
This whole thing hearkens me back to an old Hunter S. Thompson quote: Watching college football requires "[t]he desperate assumption that somebody, or at least some force, is tending the light at the end of the tunnel."
(NOTE: That quote is in reference to the acid culture of the '60s, not college football)
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Roadtrip
Senior
Joined: 28 Nov 2004
Posts: 1566
Location: Back in FL
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:09 am Post subject: |
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| A Murphy's Law corollary as it applies to UMass. If UMass can get screwed, it will. Seems like no matter what the University tries to do to upgrade, outsides forces bring doom. UMass will just have to be the best in whatever conference they end up. |
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photoman
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Joined: 26 Apr 2003
Posts: 919
Location: Attleboro
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| Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:15 am Post subject: |
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^^
Sensible thinking here. If we moved to the MAC with NO crazy outside forces shaking things up, we were still NEVER going to become the next Michigan, Florida State or Tennessee. Being the best we can be whereever we end up is a decent goal for now. |
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