BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

I think the way this works is that it is decided at the conference level. So that, for example, the Virginia schools say that everyone else is leaving hence, regrettfully, they must also move. And the North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida schools say the same thing.

 

Everything is settled at the conference level ... until someone in (insert name of state capitol) decides to go on a power grab.

Look at what happened with Penn State (yeah, extreme example, but work with me). The governor basically told the board to fire Paterno/Spanier, or else. It happened much, much quicker than it would have otherwise. And that's at a university that, at this point, might get 15 or 20 percent of its budget from the state. I'm not sure on the current figures.

 

See also: Va Tech to the ACC.

 

But let's say, for example, that the BCS schools in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia decide to join a super league. At that point a school like UVA can plausibly argue as political cover that they have to go along with the others to avoid relegation to mid-major status.

 

The Virginia House of Delegates doesn't care what happens in Gainesville, Columbia or Athens.

 

For the sake of argument, let's say half the states with BCS conference schools would make it difficult for their universities to leave, would the rest still make the move? Maybe the Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina schools could go with little resistance, but would they if they can't take, say, the Virginia, North Carolina, Texas and California schools with them.

The break-away thing doesn't really work unless all 64 power conference teams unite and bail.

 

The Virginia House of Delegates will care if UVA and VT are threatened with playing UConn and Cincinnati because the ACC disintegrates around them. Even in Virginia, where state wide interest in the football programs is tepid (not sure how much interest exists south of the D.C. metro area, but there is not much in the Northern Virginia suburbs), the legislature would not want their premier schools being excluded. I believe the constituency of sports fans that follows Virginia and Virginia Tech is larger than the smaller schools and would create a countervailing pressure.

 

The Mountain West West and the Mountain West Mountain apparently beat out "The One With Nevada" and "The One With Boise State" as the choices for division names in the MWC.

http://www.themwc.com/genrel/012213aaa.html

 

Better than Legends and Leaders. I do think "The One With Nevada/Boise" has a nice ring to it though.

 

Surprised they went with the "higher seed hosts" model for the championship game. Thought they might give Mile High/Invesco a try for a year or two to see how it goes.

 

I don't think they would draw at Mile High, which seats 76K-plus. The MW couldn't draw shit to the hoops tourney the few years it was in Denver, so they went back to Vegas. The host site model, I believe, is the best avenue for the mid-major football programs. Most would probably sellout and if not, then the game would be one of the more higher attended games of the season.
The old WAC used Vegas as a host site back in the 90s. Vegas is that conference's bread and butter when it comes to a host site. The only problem now, is the Sam Boyd is the worst football stadium in the country. Maybe when UNLV complete's its on campus stadium the league will re-visit the host site.

 

Yes, for the Pac-12 and MWC (and CUSA, for that matter), which are far more far-flung than the SEC, ACC or Big 12/Big 10, with many schools not within easy driving distance of a neutral site, the host site makes the most sense.