Football only conference?

[Goose85]

If hoops breaks away, could UConn, Memphis, Cincy, etc create a football only conference and stay for other sports?

Football only - UConn, Memphis, Cincy, USF, UCF, East Carolina, Navy, Temple, Army

Boise - San Diego State - SMU - Houston would now maybe join the Mountain West?

The new Big East basketball driven conference - The 7 basketball only, UConn, Memphis, Cincy, Temple, USF, UCF along with VCU, Creighton and Bulter. That would be 16 team conference, would make for a really good basketball tourney at year end, should have good tv matchups, mix east coast, north midwest and southern midwest, and two Florida schools.

Not sure what will happen with UConn / Cincy if the ACC / Big 12 don't take them.

[MUBB713]

I don't see why not. There are a ton of options out there right now. My only fear is that the C7 acts too fast and doesn't maximize their potential with this conference and instead adds a collection of marginal programs.

[MU_Iceman]

My concern is this....what happens if in a few weeks after this is already done, the ACC implodes, and the opportunity to merge with the remaining schools there would have occurred?? I'd like Duke better than any other option.

[TheSultan]

Because the ACC isn't going to implode.

[MUMac]

My concern is this....what happens if in a few weeks after this is already done, the ACC implodes, and the opportunity to merge with the remaining schools there would have occurred?? I'd like Duke better than any other option.

Let's assume the ACC does implode (which I find extremely doubtful). Who is to say the merger could not occur now?

On the flip side, waiting at the bar hoping to meet a bride makes many a drunk man with little else to show for it. That could be an endless waiting game!

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

My concern is this....what happens if in a few weeks after this is already done, the ACC implodes, and the opportunity to merge with the remaining schools there would have occurred?? I'd like Duke better than any other option.

Then Duke can apply for membership. What's important is that we demonstrate control over our own destiny. That means doing what is in our best immediate interest to form a new conference and not sitting on our hands waiting and hoping the dominos fall in our favor.

Honestly, when has any of this conference re-alignment just fallen nicely into our laps since we got to the Big East. Virtually every move has served to weaken our conference. At one point we waited for Kansas to fall into our lap, but the Big 12 got up, dusted itself off, and took WVU. We thought the ACC might be on the verge of failing for awhile, but FSU stayed around and they proceeded to take our best basketball schools with football programs.

Control what you can control today. That means figuring out how to end this messy relationship and build a stable foundation. If Duke is suddenly available (highly unlikely) you address it when it happens. You don't sit on your hands waiting for it to happen, unless you want to see UConn and Cincy find their way into the ACC while convincing them to take GT and 'Nova as basketball-only schools.

[IrwinFletcher]

Eventually, programs like Duke, Kansas, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest might wake up and see that they are losing big time dollars on football. If the trend in football is what many believe (not sure I do but there are many say there are changes coming) maybe they decide to drop football and focus on basketball and olympic sports. They may decide to look for a conference that has basketball as the center of their alliance.

[Markedman]

The problem I have with this model is you would have 6 schools spending every waking hour trying to leave.

At least with a BB only we are with like minded schools who all know that basketball is their identity.

A hybrid model with more basketball schools gives us control but it still is going to be unstable going forward.