Allow me to interrupt this love-in to ask an actual realignment question. Who do you think is going to be the 12th Sun Belt member (and probably the last school to join the FBS)?

Who are the first 11?

Really? I thought it was this guy...

Big East, ACC may team up for football

January 15, 1993 | Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff
DALLAS -- The Big East and the Atlantic Coast Conference are conducting casual talks that could lead to the formation of a 17-team super football conference. Such an arrangement would give an ACC-Big East alliance a solid hold in television markets from Boston to Atlanta to Miami.

Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese would not comment on the matter other than to say, "The Big East has always been a proactive rather than a reactive league."

The move would give the Big East and the ACC a jump on what is expected to be another major quake in the conference structures in the next few years. Leagues such as the Big Ten and the Southeastern Conference are expected to expand once again.

The idea of a Big East-ACC alliance has been discussed for the past few years. The conferences have become compatible in many of their goals as Tranghese and ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan have worked closely the past two years on the bowl coalition which was formed this year and includes the Big East and ACC.

The Big East's desire to solidify its base is obvious. When Penn State moves to the Big Ten next season, it will create an Eastern recruiting window for the league. Many Big East people fear that Penn State will push hard to add another Eastern school to the Big Ten.

Although Rutgers has received some attention and has expressed interest in the Big Ten, the most attractive school would be Syracuse.

"If you want to drive a stake in the Big East's heart, taking Syracuse would do it," said one source familiar with the Big East's concerns. "It would give the Big Ten a huge advantage in the East and it would really hurt the Big East by taking away one of its best teams."

Syracuse officials have indicated a reluctance to go west, feeling their base of support is still in the East, but no one is saying never when expansion is mentioned.

Tranghese feels confident that Syracuse's inclination is to remain with the Big East, but he also wants to solidify his bargaining position with the Orangemen by offering them even more of a reason for staying.

Although Tranghese emphasized that there is nothing imminent, he did not deny that the Big East is exploring its options and talks are being held about a variety of possibilities.

An agreement with the ACC could include several scenarios. The easiest and likeliest initial arrangement would be an alliance, rather than a merger. Each league would play its separate schedule, with a few crossover games and the possibility of an interconference championship game, which would be permissible under NCAA rules because the alliance would be more than 12 teams.

Another possibility, which seems to make more sense if the concept of a super conference is followed, would be to merge the two into one football league of 14 teams. Take the nine schools in the ACC and add Syracuse, Miami, Boston College, West Virginia and Pitt from the Big East.

The new league would then be broken down into two seven-team divisions, and the first-place teams would meet for the league championship.

The problem with that, of course, is that it jettisons Virginia Tech, Temple and Rutgers, although Rutgers could already be in the Big Ten.

Tranghese has a unique problem because he is commissioner of a league that has two almost separate entities, basketball and football, with different concerns and goals.

Under the current arrangement, any talk of expansion in football must account for the impact on the basketball members. There has been talk about including Notre Dame as a basketball member, but that would only be palatable to the football-playing schools if the Irish also joined in football, something Notre Dame has said it does not want or need to do.

By creating a super football conference, the Big East could work on basketball as a separate league and there would be less of a problem admitting the Irish as simply a basketball entry.

No expansion plan could be implemented overnight, nor would it be universally accepted. But there is clearly a movement in that direction.

"I know there are talks being held," said Duke athletic director Tom Butters. "I'm personally against it, but I speak only for Tom Butters. I like the old-fashioned idea of conferences, where teams play each other in every sport. But then I voted against having Florida State join the league, not because I was against Florida State, but because I didn't like the idea of expansion."

Butters realizes changes are coming. Gender equity and equal funding for men's and women's sports, expansion, playoffs -- all are part of the new look of college athletics.

Tranghese and the Big East also see the future and know that changes of some kind are coming. The key question they must ask themselves is: Do they want to be trend-setters or followers?

By talking to the ACC about a merger, the Big East is making its choice obvious.

Idaho
New Mexico St
Texas St
Arkansas State
The UL's
Troy
South Alabama
The GSU's
App State

I think...

Obviously, after losing a bowl game this year, no one will be interested in Alabama football anymore. LMAO

So much irony.
One has little to do w/ the other on it's own.

If anything the holistic bowl season is being pointed to as evidence that the SEC is the strongest league once again.
I've read it in more than one place. Which means simply as far as this conversation goes that the narrative is out there.

Which again singularly has nothing to do w/ what success the SEC Network ultimately has.

Whatever the SEC Network $'s end up being the outcome of a couple bowls won't have any impact on it so again your angle puzzles me.

Clay Travis is an idiotic dbag. Of that much you are certainly correct.

So Syracuse moved to the Big 10, and the Big East created a super football conference? I must have missed that one. Credit him for predicting that the Big 10 wouldn't remain at 11 teams forever, though.

The South simply doesn't have to population base to command the numbers CT is thinking are going to come in. Nationally there is interest with the top programs (Alabama, Florida, LSU, Auburn, and possibly Georgia) but not coming through and being shown to be lower than the top Big 12 and ACC programs it's going to be unrealistic for the SEC Network.

The SEC has the largest population base. You should try saying something correct sometime.

LMAO Nobody remembers final four teams. Nobody really remembers BCS teams. The only ones that people will likely remember are the champions. kansas has that in basketball and you should be proud. Then again, I polled my office mates and nobody could recall who won the national championship in basketball last year. I'm guessing a few might remember if I actually told them. Of course, I can't remember who they played.

1 New York
2 Los Angeles
3 Chicago
4 Philadelphia
5 Dallas-Ft. Worth
6 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
7 Boston
8 Atlanta
9 Washington, DC
10 Houston
11 Detroit
12 Phoenix
13 Tampa-St. Petersburg
14 Seattle-Tacoma
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul
16 Miami-Ft.Lauderdale
17 Cleveland-Akron
18 Denver
19 Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne
20 Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto
21 St. Louis
22 Portland, OR
23 Pittsburgh
24 Charlotte, NC
25 Indianapolis
26 Baltimore
27 Raleigh-Durham
28 San Diego
29 Nashville
30 Hartford-New Haven
31 Kansas City
32 Columbus, OH
33 Salt Lake City
34 Cincinnati
35 Milwaukee
36 Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson
37 San Antonio
38 West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce
39 Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
40 Birmingham
41 Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York
42 Las Vegas
43 Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News
44 Albuquerque-Santa Fe
45 Oklahoma City
46 Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem
47 Jacksonville, FL
48 Memphis
49 Austin
50 Louisville

The top big 12 team Baylor lost to UCF. The #3 big 12 team lost to Mizzou.

Again, IDK what the #'s will be. I'm not even really following it frankly. It's not relevant to me.

But I do know the outcome of a couple bowls in a given season isn't going to impact whatever the $'s end up being one way or the other. That notion is ridiculous. As I alluded said outcomes didn't even so much as sway many views as to which league is strongest in this given season let alone impact something w/ many more layers of factors.

lol, maybe you should work somewhere else. More people watched multiple CBB games last year before the 2nd CFB game.

But it's all your office right? lol


# Date League Event Net Rating Viewers

1 Mon., 1/7/13 CFB: BCS Champ. Alabama/Notre Dame ESPN
15.1
26.38M

2 Thu., 6/20/13 NBA: NBA Finals Spurs/Heat Game 7 ABC
15.3
26.32M

3 Mon., 4/8/13 CBB: Final Four Louisville/Michigan CBS
14.0
23.43M

4 Tue., 6/18/13 NBA: NBA Finals Spurs/Heat Game 6 ABC
12.3
20.64M

5 Wed., 10/30/13 MLB: World Series Cardinals/Red Sox Game 6 FOX
11.3
19.18M

6 Sat., 4/6/13 CBB: Final Four Michigan/Syracuse CBS
10.2
17.10M

7 Tue., 1/1/13 CFB: Rose Bowl Stanford/Wisconsin ESPN
9.4
17.02M

8 Sun., 2/24/13 NASCAR: Sprint Cup Daytona 500 FOX
9.9
16.65M

9 Sun., 6/16/13 NBA: NBA Finals Heat/Spurs Game 5 ABC
9.5
16.27M

10 Thu., 6/13/13 NBA: NBA Finals Heat/Spurs Game 4 ABC
10.0
16.23M

I don't doubt viewership and I imagine many will be able to name national champs (I could). I'm a sports fan, though, and I had to look up who Louisville beat in the title game. I have no clue who they beat in the final four.