BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

From a very perceptive UAB poster:


"ESPN just got inventory for 6 schools it didn’t own, all in top 50 markets, at no additional cost for the next 10 years.

It is about to snag 4 more, also likely at minimal cost, for its FunBelt programming.

It can add more MACtion with two moves, also probably at minimal to no cost.

ESPN is winning."

 

Had I mentioned C-USA's ineffectual "leadership"?

Step 1. Insert thumb firmly into rectum.

Step 2. Put out a press release full of vague blather. "We're scrabbling to find some warm bodies dumb enough to accept an invite, but if you can bring Bernie over for the weekend, that would be fine too."

 

Fun Fact - the American Athletic is HQ'd in Irving, C-USA in Dallas.

 

Arkansas State is not getting mentioned anywhere in the G5 reshuffling and they are a much, much more worthy C-USA replacement than Tarleton Fricking State.

 

All those C-USA rodeo teams will be quaking in their boots, though ...

 

Arkansas State is already in the Sun Belt, which is suddenly not that far behind the AAC (and might be the equal of the Mountain West if Boise State ever leaves).

Even if C-USA makes a bunch of lower level call ups, I don’t think that’s a wise strategy for the new schools coming in. So I fully expect Kennesaw State to start bombarding me with fundraising letters so they can send women’s basketball to Las Cruces.

 

FWIW, former Kentucky coach Billy Gillispie is the head MBB coach at Tarleton.

 

The Mountain West was conceived as a way for their members to divorce themselves from UTEP. The WAC had expanded from 10 to 16. Eight of the 10 members that had been in the downsized WAC withdrew to start the Mountain West. UTEP, which was one of the ten, was not invited. I don't know of any reason that the Mountain West schools would have changed their mind in the last 25 years. I think the reasons that UTEP has been excluded are the small size of the El Paso television market and generally poor football attendance.

I do not agree with the actions of the Mountain West. I am a sentimental old man and think UTEP should be admitted because of the legacy of their basketball program. But it is a cruel damn world.

 

I have, but I used to write about college rodeo a lot when I was out West.

 

What's wrong with Louisiana Tech that they got snubbed by both the AAC and Sun Belt? Seems like they have a solid all-around athletic program.

 

Apparently they have a long record of being total asses to ULaLa and ULM, to the point where the acrimony reached the top administrative levels. They never imagined themselves needing a favor from the Sun Belt schools and then a piano fell out of the sky.

 

Interesting. Had not heard that angle before. They did ditch UTEP in favor of UNLV. Vegas or El Paso ... no brainer, I'd say. That and the utter flustercluck that was the quadrant system.