Conference realignment madness appears to be settling in at the top of the pile, with the major conferences settling in for the time being, allowing the final ripples to work their way through the mid majors and FCS levels. Those ripples continue to batter and erode the once proud borders of the Southern Conference, which has once again seen a mass exodus of membership.

In the recent weeks, the Southern Conference (SoCon) has witnessed the departures of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern to the Sun Belt Conference, College of Charleston and Elon to the Colonial Athletic Association, and Davidson to the Atlantic 10 Conference.

Turnover in membership is nothing new to the venerable SoCon. As the years have gone by, and conference realignment has continued on in furious spurts throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the SoCon continues to absorb blow after blow.

Much like a piñata, the SoCon continues to spill it goodies with each swing, wondering if the next swing will be the one to shatter its thin shell.

West Virginia University once called the SoCon home, competing in all sports from 1950 – 1968. The Mountaineers, just as so many before and since, left the SoCon for greener fields.

The SoCon first came into existence in 1921 as an spin-off of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA). Fourteen schools became charter members of the SoCon: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Washington & Lee.

The SoCon would continue to expand throughout the 1920s to add schools such as Florida, LSU, Ole Miss, Tulane, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Sewanee, Virginia Military Institute, and Duke. But all this expansion would not lead to bigger and better things for the SoCon.

The Birth of the SEC…

Oct 27, 2012; Lawrence, KS, USA; Texas Longhorns head coach Mack Brown (left) talks to Kansas Jayhawks head coach Charlie Weis (right) before the game at Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

Dear BFA’s,

I never thought it would take until Iowa State to become bowl eligible, but here we are.  I thought this might be the week we put it all together and play a complete game, but this week we decided our error of the day would be costly penalties and giving up big huge third downs.  Ok, the last part is pretty common.  Kind of crazy that Oklahoma couldn’t touch Tavon, yet Iowa State fared much better isn’t it?  I predict that this week’s unforeseen downfall will come courtesy of a distraction.  That’s right, you heard it here first, holgo’s passe of strippers on the sideline will lead to huge drops on deep routes.

Alas, we get the worst team in the league this week, and that is by a landslide.  Seriously though, if we stay focused we should crush these fools.  In 8 conference games (8 losses), they have lost by just over 21 points on average.  The interesting thing is that in 4 of those, they have lost by an average of 7.75 points, which is skewed up by one 14 point loss, and the other 4 they have lost by 35.  What does that mean?  Overlook them and they will hang around.  Come out prepared, and have a little bit of fun at their expense.  Might as well get it in this week, because it is gonna be ugly when we head out to Phog Allen in the winter.

We have plenty at stake still as we are trying to avoid being placed in the Pinstripe bowl and get a legitimate holiday in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.  More importantly though, we are going up against a team that is led by a man that is well known to be one of the biggest dicks in college football.  Many of the tenured readers here, know my distaste for Ole Charlie, or my love of ripping on him, as he is ripping open a bag of Doritos on the sideline.  Kansas just seems to have a thing for incredibly overweight assholes running their program.  Even Holgo ganged up on Weis this week, in hilarious fashion.  

“We’re going to be at a major schematic disadvantage going against their coaches,” Holgorsen said during Monday’s Big 12 conference call. “They’ve got coaches with tremendous pedigrees who have coached everybody in the world and coached for decades and decades. We’re going to have to regroup real quick.”

Anyone familiar with the infamous Weis quote, where he proclaimed he would have a “decided schematic advantage” over other schools, was just rolling on this diss.  Its nothing new for Dana to be a bit of an ass in press conferences, but this first time I’m aware of him channeling his inner Steve Spurrier and calling out another coach.  Heck, he didn’t even go for the easy kill on his hated foe Todd Graham, so I wonder whats up with Weis?  Not that I’m complaining; I was ecstatic when I heard this beautiful  trash talk.  My guess is that Dana holds himself as an offense innovator, while Weis is a failed college coach who walks around with a stick in his ass, sometimes mistaken as his cane, calling himself an offensive genius, which insults Dana.  Whatever it is, I hope it continues, great stuff.

Around The Nation

I truly do hate the Irish, but I have to give it up to them.  They went undefeated and no matter what you say, they do deserve to be in the position they are in.  Damn Pitt for not sealing the deal when they can.  Damn those Big Ten teams for being awful this year and the refs robbing Stanford.  But ya know what?  They always say to win a championship that you have to be lucky.  Notre Dame was, but also beat a lot of decent teams, more than Alabama and Georgia.  They beat 9 bowl eligible teams, Bama had 6, and Georgia 5.  I don’t like it, but have give it up to them.

If this were 2014 and we were staring down the barrel of a playoff, we would be looking at a Notre Dame, UGA, Florida, and Bama playoff.  If you thought this would open us up from SEC dominance, think again.  I have long stated that being a conference champion is very overrated when determining who should play in a title game and Florida exemplifies my argument.  Closing out the year by beating a top ten FSU team on the road, if you were to look at a blind resume of the Gators versus their conference foes who made the conference title game, Florida unquestionably has the superior resume.  The only thing that you can hold against them is low scoring, close wins against lessor teams like Louisiana Lafayette, Bowling Green, and Mizzou.  I’d urge you to read Stew Mandel’s synopsis of this, as it looks like we may see more scenarios of this with super conferences and unbalanced schedules.

If you didn’t, you are in luck.  The silly season is in full effect, and there are too many firings for me to list here, so here is a graph.  Tom O’brien was a bit of a shock, but couldn’t have happened to a bigger dick.  I would say the most drama this week though, came from Arkansas’ recruitment of Les Miles.  I am not sure that anyone really thought it would happen, and it did end up in Les just getting a pay bump, but that would be a crazy inter-conference downgrade.  Perhaps Miles just wanted to upgrade in office eye candy?  Across the SEC pond, its hard to know what to make of the constant Tennessee Gruden rumors, which makes this the best analysis I have seen.  Also in the You Got to be Friggin Kidding Me book, there are rumors that Mangino may be taking the Colorado job.  Seriously?  On top of the fact that he had a most justifiable firing, do we really think he won’t pass out during his first spring practice in the thin air???  Outgoing coach Jon Embree said that they couldn’t even afford water bottles for coaches or chairs for offensive lineman; how are they going to afford air tanks?

I hope you were able to absorb as much of the last great football weekend of the year this past weekend, because outside of the SEC championship game, there are a few okay games, and then nothing much else.  We wont have a solid slate of games again until we hit New Years Day.

Conference Realignment

God almighty has it cooked up again.  We now have Maryland, Rutgers, Louisville, Tulane, ECU, Middle Tennessee  and Florida Atlantic all moving to new digs.  There are rumors that the Big East will now be picking up University High in Morgantown.  Can we officially follow the Al Gore path and rename conference realignment to global conference shift??

The only pertinent question is how will this impact the Big XII.  The Big Ten is expected to reap mountains of cash in this deal upping its per team conference split to a reportedly $40 million plus figure.  If that is factual, you can bet your ass that the PAC 12 and SEC won’t sit by watching.  I thought we would stop short, but it is looking more realistic that we could migrate to 16 team power conferences.  So, how does this effect the Big XII?  I don’t think that it will unless someone can lure Oklahoma or Texas (that would create pandemonium).  First of all you need to look at the motivations of schools.  There are a few main components involved in a school moving on from their existing conference; money, disdain, and competitive edge.  All of the schools abandoning the Big East and ironically joining the Big East are all doing so to move up the food chain of competition in hopes that they survive in a competitive world.  Many of those same schools along with the ones leaving (rumored or already gone) the ACC are doing so to move up in Money (Maryland is broke).  Finally, schools like Nebraska, Colorado, and Tamu all grew tired of big brother Texas, the weak Big XII North, and the fact that there was uneven revenue sharing in the Big XII.  While the influence of Texas is undeterred, the old North and lack of even revenue sharing model are items of the past.  The schools left over seemingly have no gripes with the Big XII and are happy to be in a solid conference.  Lets be honest, WVU and TCU are ecstatic to be in the conference.  The other Texas schools do not share the angst that AM had, in that they knew they were the lessor schools, and are just happy to beat Texas every once and awhile, while eating at their table the rest of the time.  Oklahoma State is not leaving the side of their rival nor do they need money as they have one of the largest benefactors in college football.  The Kansas schools?  I just don’t see anyone really wanting those markets, not to mention that outside of KU bball and Kstate football (when Snyder is around), their athletic programs are very weak.  Kansas likely has no worries because they are very capable of being a powerful basketball independent if worst case scenarios arise. So . . . . all I am saying is that there does not appear to be a motivation for Big XII teams to leave.  I could see the Pac 12 being interested in a few of those teams, but I don’t think that they could guarantee the money that would make everything worthwhile.  It has been heavily rumored already, but if you like my chain of logic, the teams that would have motivation to move on, would be the football schools in the ACC.  I’d look for the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12 to poach the likes of FSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech.  Those schools would bring enough prowess or market share to be able to bring an additional partner without lowering the cash pot for the other members (think UVA to the Big Ten, a Carolina school to SEC).  Long story short, I think we will settle out just fine in the long run, unless someone makes a dream offer to one of the two big boys, which with the Longhorn Network, may be very difficult to find a good match.

Random

Not a lot of random stuff this week as the internet is busting at the seems with realignment and the coaching carousel spinning out of control.

If Wisconsin beats Nebraska in the Big 10 title game, Wisky will have the worst winning percentage for a Rose Bowl team since 1928.  I can get behind that!  Go Badgers.

Speaking of the Big Ten, here is some early Christmas cheer for Buckeye fans:

Oh, you silly Russians.  You remind me of Kazakhstan.

This is an excellent read on the mindset behind the future selection committee that we will be subjected to.  Amazing that they pick two teams that won’t even play for their conference title.  It will no doubt, be an extremely tough job, but I think that these guys have the right foundation.  I hope Ollie is our representative!  This type of writing is why I spend more time at SI than ESPN.

Hope you all have enjoyed the season,

Love Al

November 24, 2012; Houston, TX, USA; Tulane Green Wave wide receiver Wilson van Hooser (9) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the third quarter against the Houston Cougars at Robertson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-US PRESSWIRE

The move to add Tulane for television market makes sense. New Orleans is a major television market, but the biggest question is, who really watches Tulane football?

The Green Wave has not been a nationally relevant program since their undefeated 1998 season. The team has struggled to draw fans into the Super Dome, causing Tulane to begin planning for an on-campus stadium with a much smaller seating capacity.

Then there is East Carolina. The Pirates are a scrappy team that usually hovers in the 7-8 wins per season range. It is culturally a perfect fit for the Big East, but really has no major television market draw. You could argue that they bring some portion of the Raleigh and Charlotte market. If the Big East wanted the Charlotte market, it would have been better to take UNC Charlotte (set to play in C-USA).

This set of expansion is obviously in preparation of the Big East losing either Connecticut or Louisville to the ACC. Early rumors say that UCONN is the leader for vacant ACC spot because of higher academic standards than the Ville. Jim Calhoun’s APR issue must not be factoring into that decision.

With both the ACC and Big East fighting it out for fillers, the Big XII is sitting idle. Some might say that the Big XII is content with 10 teams because of the ability to play a round robin football schedule and the elimination of a top team losing in the championship game, or whatever other party line they want to feed the public. In the end, the Big XII needs to expand to fend off a second raiding attempt by the Pac 12.

Remember, that had the Pac 12 bent to Texas’ will and allowed them to keep the Longhorn Network, the Big XII might have ceased to exist. In the ever shifting conference landscape, where it appears that conferences are all consolidating to 16 team conferences with presumably 4 major conferences, the Big XII has to be nervous.

The Big 10 and SEC appear secure in their major conference status. That leaves the Pac 12, Big XII, and ACC to assume the final two slots. Currently, the Pac 12 and Big XII have agreements to match up with the SEC and Big 10 in the Rose and Champions (Sugar) Bowls, giving them the inside track to remaining major conferences.

If the major conferences are to be 16 team conferences, that leaves few options East of the Mississippi River for the Pac 12. Larry Scott pursued the four-pack of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, and Texas Tech when he was forced to settle for just Utah and Colorado. If those 4 teams leave, the Big XII would be destroyed and picked off by the other big conferences.

For the Big XII to remain viable for the future, they need to strike soon, and take down the ACC.

Maryland is about to enter a contentious legal battle with the ACC, one that Florida State will be following closely. If Maryland is able to negotiate a reduced exit fee and exit time table, expect Florida State to start serious talks with the Big XII.

If Bowlsby wants to ensure the long-term success of the Big XII, he needs to bring the conference up to 16 schools. In my opinion, that should start with Florida State and Clemson. The other 4 schools should come predominantly from the ACC to effectively eliminate any competition for the 4 major league slots and to ward off any Pac 12 poaching.

Possible schools for Big XII expansion, in order of merit: Florida State, Clemson, Miami, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Pittsburgh, BYU, Cincinnati, Boise State. Keep in mind, their are no active rumors linking any of those schools to the Big XII outside of FSU and Louisville.

If you are a fan of bad 1980s movies like I am, you have watched the Back to the Future trilogy countless times. You fell in love with the idea of a DeLorean that could transport you to anytime in history by simply accelerating the engine to 88 mph. I know there was a time in my life when I wish that Back to the Future was real so I could get my hands on that DeLorean.

As I watched the headlines today, the little kid inside of me saw a glimmer of hope. Could it be, Back to the Future was happening? Well, not exactly, but the recent conference realignment rumors have certainly followed the script of the famous movie.

Today, rumors surfaced in reliable media sources that the University of Maryland was in discussions to become the 13th member of the Big 10 (making the misnomer even more farcical).

The announcement makes it apparent that the Big 10 and Commissioner Jim Delaney are not done in their pursuit of Notre Dame. Let’s be honest, that is the major motivation behind this move. Obviously the Big 10 sees the value of adding Maryland for television revenue, but UMD’s value pails in comparison to the value of Notre Dame.

When the first batch of conference realignment was fired up, the Big Ten made strong overtures to Notre Dame about joining their conference. Enter Jim Delaney in the role of Biff Tannen and Notre Dame AD John Swarbrick as Lorraine Baines.

Ultimately, Swarbrick would turn down Delaney just as Lorraine rebuffed Biff at the ice cream parlor. Without knowing it yet, Swarbrick was unaware at that time of just how strongly the ACC Commissioner John Swofford pined for his golden dome. We now cast Swofford in the role of George McFly.

After Biff was left with a car full of manure after his failed wooing of Lorraine, Biff would vow to have Lorraine no matter the cost. Jim Delaney has been just as adamant in his pursuit of Jack Swarbrick and Notre Dame.

Now that Notre Dame has officially joined the ACC for all sports and committed to playing half an ACC schedule, it appears as if Jim Delaney and the Big 10 are out to destabilize Notre Dame’s new conference home. Just as Biff tried to corner Lorraine in the car outside of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, Delaney is attempting to corner Swarbrick and force Notre Dame into becoming his.

If Maryland should leave the ACC after nearly 60 years, it would re-open questions of the ACC’s stability. Maryland’s departure would give schools like Florida State and Clemson the opportunity to take a second look at joining the Big XII. Surely those kind of defections would make the Irish contemplate the Big 10′s offer a little more seriously.

What remains to be seen is whether George McFly (John Swofford) will show up to rescue Lorraine (Jack Swarbrick) from the powerful meat-hooks of Biff (Jim Delaney). Tense times for the ACC in the climax of the movie.

This is your chance Swofford, to save Marty and the kids! If not, Marty (as Florida State) might choose to head to the West (Big XII).

Sep 1, 2012; Morgantown, WV, USA; The West Virginia Mountaineers mascot reacts in the third quarter against the Marshall Thundering Herd at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: James Lang-US PRESSWIRE

Earlier this afternoon, I spoke with a representative from the Washington Redskins.  We are playing James Madison on the Redskins’ home field, FedEx Field, on September 15.  The call was a pitch to sell tickets to the WVU-JMU game and was going out to all WVU season ticket holders and featured the small talk you’d expect leading up to a sales pitch.

However, towards the end of the conversation, the person I was speaking to shared an interesting bit of information.  After telling him that I would be interested in attending WVU games at FedEx Field if the opponent was decent and mentioning the BYU game in 2016 as an example, he told me that nothing was official, but the Redskins & FedEx Field are working on a game between WVU and a “big name ACC team” for next season.  He didn’t give any more details.  There really aren’t many “big name” ACC teams anymore though.  The only options would seem to be Florida State, Clemson, and Virginia Tech.

What’s most likely?  Well, we just cancelled two games against Florida State, and DC is a pretty far for them to go for a neutral site game.  Ditto for Clemson (although they may want revenge for the Orange Bowl beat down).  Virginia Tech seems to be the most likely option, and I think this would be great.  Could this indicate a renewal of the rivalry with Virginia Tech?  Will there also be games in Morgantown and Blacksburg?  I hope so.  Our rivalry with Virginia Tech was as heated as the Pitt rivalry, and much more competitive.  It would be great to get Virginia Tech back on the schedule.

Basketball games with Virginia Tech have already been scheduled (the Hokies visit the Coliseum on December 8, and I believe we will return the game next year).  Oliver Luck also expressed interest in renewing the rivalry with Virginia Tech in football when discussing the future (or lack thereof) of the WVU-Marshall series:

“At this point there’s no intent on my part to engage in any discussions because we’re still dropping teams because of the Big 12 move,” Luck said. “We have to get through that and see where we are with Pitt and Virginia Tech because I would argue they have a much longer history with us, with WVU, than Marshall.”

Getting a neutral site game on the schedule next year would take some schedule massaging from Oliver Luck and company though.  According to Scout.com, WVU is currently scheduled to play 6 home and 6 away games in 2013.  4 home and 5 away games would seem to be set in stone as they are conference games.  Out of conference, we are scheduled to play Maryland in Baltimore as well as William & Mary and ECU at home.  I could certainly see the William & Mary or ECU game getting dropped in favor of playing a big game in DC, but that would put us at only 5 true home games.  I doubt WVU would go below 6 home games.  So either the Maryland game at Baltimore would have to move, or the Big 12 would have to help us out and give us 5 home games again next year.  I don’t see that being likely.

2014 looks more promising.  Currently, we have 5 conference home games, 4 conference away games, plus a home game against Towson, an away matchup vs. ECU, and a neutral site game against Alabama (total of 6 home, 5 away, 1 neutral).  You could certainly imagine the ECU road game being dumped in favor of a big game in DC.

Luck hasn’t been shy about buying out of games and changing the schedule though.  We’ve bought out of the series with Florida State, canceled an upcoming series with Michigan State, and moved dates around with ECU (by the way, how long before Luck just drops that series altogether?  Or at least make it a 2-for-1 deal) to accommodate the switch to the Big 12 and the Kickoff Classic matchup with Alabama in 2014.  I’m sure Luck wouldn’t hesitate to change the schedule again for a good matchup.

It certainly sounds like Luck is being aggressive in scheduling marquee out of conference games.  This will be very important as college football moves towards a playoff system where big out of conference victories may be the difference between being one of the 4 teams in the playoffs and getting left out and is great exposure for the football program.  Kudos to Luck for all he has done for WVU.

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After much speculation and debating, the WVU Mountaineers will be heading to Miami, FL to take on the ACC “champs” Clempsum Tigers in the Orange Bowl, which will take place on January 4, 2012, 8pm, ESPN.

Looks like the next month is devoted to mocking the Clemson Tigers, talking about Tajh Boyd verbal’ing to WVU, then backing out, and more Clempsum bashing.

WVU was declared the Big Least’s BCS representative by being the highest ranked team in the BCS rankings, ahead of Cincinnati and Louisville.

Suck on that, Marinatto.

Final score from Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati- 35, Connecticut- 27.

This win seals WVU’s bid to the BCS in a 3-way tie with Cincinnati and Louisville, with WVU attaining the higher rank in the BCS by Big East tiebreaker rules.

This is WVU’s first trip to the BCS since the 07-08 season and the Fiesta Bowl vs. Oklahoma. Notice that Bill Stewart never took WVU to the BCS, but Holgorsen did, IN HIS FIRST YEAR?

This is my last request to tell all the Stewart lovers to go jump off Cooper’s Rock.

BUT… with WVU going to the BCS, the destiny is unknown. With Houston laying a bag of turds to Southern Miss in the C-USA title game (Houston was undefeated and ranked 6th), that could open up a spot in the BCS. Let me see if I can figure this out… AFTER THE JUMP!

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Last year, ODA fired their beloved head coach, Dave Wannstache. They hired a woman beater named Mike Haywood(jablowme). When they realized that hiring a woman beating thug wasn’t good PR, they went out and got former Tulsa Golden Monsoon coach Todd Graham.

Yes, this is the cheating bastard they scraped up from Conference USA at the last second…

Cheatin' Todd Graham

Wait, you think he’s an honorable coach? Then, you’ve got another thing comin‘.

UH offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen has a more blunt way of describing the practice of faking injuries: “We view it as cheating.” The 2009-2010 NCAA Football rule book agrees, stating: “Deliberately teaching players to violate the rules is indefensible. The coaching of intentional holding, beating the ball, illegal shifting, feigning injury, interference, illegal forward passing or intentional roughing will break down rather than aid in the building of the character of players.”

By the way, did you know that The Cheater also didn’t bring a lot of his own staff with him? Nope. He brought along a staff from Michigan that went 15-22 under The Product. Want some mugshots and info about the traitors otherwise known as the “Prod Rod Sloppy Seconds Band”? Comin’ up tomorrow!!!

Now, we finally get to the tale of the tape.

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Last night, the 14 remaining Big East presidents (yes, that included the precious basketball schools including DePaul) held a teleconference to double the exit fee to $10 million, with a huge catch.

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