Thanks to you and mike for injecting some realism into this discussion. This is a media driven world and they will have a big, big say in how this all evolves. Right now it's Fox with the Big Ten and ESPN on the SEC. But those arrangements may or may not be totally exclusive and there are other players stirring the pot like Apple, Amazon, Starz and some of the linear networks like NBC and CBS Sports. It's going to get complicated before it becomes clearer. Some of the media deals may top $1billion.I get conference realignment is scary for a lot of people on here because URI has no control over its own fate, but most of these takes are off the wall.
1. Dayton to Big 12?
2. UMass to Big 12?
3. VCU to ACC?
4. URI to Big East or ACC?
5. Davidson to the ACC
Football drives all these decisions. Repeat that as many times as you need to until you realize how foolish 1-3, 5, and URI to the ACC sounds. "But..." No. Seriously, no. Keep repeating football drives all these decisions until you realize how foolish those proposals are.
Now let's tackle the rest of these where it relates to non-football matters, starting with URI. Look, it would be great to get invited to the Big East, and you can make a solid case that we'd be a good add for them, however there's just one giant problem there. Why would PC give up one of its biggest advantages over us and let us in to the Big East? They wouldn't, so we're stuck in the A10. VCU and Saint Louis both make more sense to join the Big East than us from the perspective of the Big East membership. Richmond would also make more sense if for some crazy reason VCU declined an invite. Loyola faces the same problem we have with joining the Big East, there's already a team in their market that probably wants nothing to do with sharing their market with a second Big East team. As for UMass, why would they jump all the way up to the Big 12 when they couldn't even get the American to sniff them in all the moves that happened last summer? Speaking of the American, I didn't dismiss the possibilities you mentioned out of hand but let's take a look at the future AAC as best we can tell right now:
East Carolina, Memphis, South Florida, SMU, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa, Wichita State, UAB, Florida Atlantic, UNC Charlotte, North Texas, Rice, Texas San Antonio.
That is a TERRIBLE basketball conference. The Atlantic 10 is going to be a better basketball conference than that collective in three years time if
we're not poached by the Big East in the meantime, but that also assumes the AAC isn't poached either. Why would A10 schools move to that conference as basketball only members? Hell, we should be making overtures to Wichita State if we haven't been all along.
Hey, it sucks that things are changing and we don't control our own destiny, but it's not so scary if we stop inventing possibilities that will never take place in the real world for lots of logical reasons. All we can do is try to use our voice in the conference to make it better. If we can't force the dregs of the conference out try to get rules instituted where they have to use the money they get from the conference to invest more into their men's basketball program. If we admit members make sure they're ones that add value. We've seen that the A10 can be a good basketball only conference that exists a tier below the Big East, now we need the conference to get back to that place
It's important that we follow this closely because how it shakes out will definitely affect URI. It would be nice if URI got into the Big East, but I agree PC would block that. My only optimism on this score is how the media has influenced college athletics so that branding and pairings have now become more important than market size which was the predicate for the BE formation. So a conference's attribute will not be solely based on the sizes of markets served, but how many brands do you have and how many interesting pairings does that produce. What URI has is a fierce in-state rivalry with PC. PC fans in their smugness don't acknowledge that, but the truth is it is unique in New England. UConn doesn't have that, neither does UMass. URI in the Big East makes more sense if the BE becomes a basketball-centic super conference of 18 or twenty teams. The number of interesting game pairings would significantly increase which is exactly what the media giants will pay for. This not only gets us more TV revenue, it also gets top notch productions, not Flosports. PC fans hate us, UMass fans hate us, VCU fans hate us, Dayton fans hate us. I love hate, it brings notoriety and increases viewership.