Memphis and Cincinnati to the Big 12?

[Quaoarsking]

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball-blog/hc-uconn-huskies-conference-realignment-woes-could-continue-if-cincinnati-memphis-leave-american-athlet-20141205-story.html

Personally, I would prefer Memphis not join a major conference.

[engie]

Don't want Memphis in the Big12.

ETA: If you are going that route, doesn't it make more sense to grab Tulane as the second school? Cinci just doesn't do it for me...

[msstate7]

http://www.courant.com/sports/uconn-mens-basketball-blog/hc-uconn-huskies-conference-realignment-woes-could-continue-if-cincinnati-memphis-leave-american-athlet-20141205-story.html

Personally, I would prefer Memphis not join a major conference.

Wouldn't Memphis joining major conference hurt om much more than us?

[dawgs]

Memphis is such a shitty program. Big 12 would be better off going to byu and seeing if they havent found independence to be as awesome as expected.

[Dawgface]

I can't imagine the Big 12 wanting those two.

[Barkman Turner Overdrive]

Looks like desperation on the Big 12's part. They would be better off with going with one of the directional Floridas, Utah State or Marshall.

Also, it just goes to show how irrelevant Southern Mississippi is. All of the conference realignments and they are relegated to the Conference of Unwanted Schools of America.

[Goat from MSU]

Why do you not want Memphis in the Big 12 .We are so far ahead of them now it does not matter. The Big 12 needs schools closer to Wst Vir..Those 2 schools make sense that way. Two words Fred Smith is why Memphis will get in.
Don't want Memphis in the Big12.

ETA: If you are going that route, doesn't it make more sense to grab Tulane as the second school? Cinci just doesn't do it for me...

[Bucky Dog]

It may not be all about football. Those two will help their basketball a little as well.

[msstate7]

It may not be all about football. Those two will help their basketball a little as well.

Decent tv markets

[HoopsDawg]

The Big 12 really screwed up by not grabbing Louisville and Syracuse.

[Maroonthirteen]

The day the big12 takes memphis will be the day it dies. I can't imagine Texas or Oklahoma playing a regular season game in the liberty bowl.

But with that said, it would be huge for the Memphis program and have a negative effect on OM as far as media coverage and walkup attendance.

[ShotgunDawg]

I'm sure the Big 12 ADs and coaches are against adding BYU or New Mexico, because they want to open up new recruiting areas instead of just having more schools recruiting Texas.

Cincinnati makes some sense to me because it is a decent recruiting area and at least offers West Virginia fans a drivable road game.

However, Memphis makes little sense to me since they don't really bring anything to the conference. I would UCF would be the best team to invite because they have the highest ceiling and offer the Big 12 schools a window to recruit Florida.

I would really like BYU to enter the league though, because they would beat up on TCU, Baylor, TX, and OK without having a the ceiling to win a National Title. BYU is a high floor, low ceiling team because they have so many 24 and 25 year olds playing for them. They can beat anyone, but don't have the talent to win every game.

[GrassOfDWS]

If Memphis doesn't lose Fuente and they get in the Big 12, they'll be in the running for the Big 12 title in 3 years. Justin Fuente has done an amazing job with that team in 3 years. Memphis better pray someone doesn't snatch him up.

[engie]

Why do you not want Memphis in the Big 12 .We are so far ahead of them now it does not matter. The Big 12 needs schools closer to Wst Vir..Those 2 schools make sense that way. Two words Fred Smith is why Memphis will get in.

They take one recruit we want per year -- which they'd easily take more given the big stage -- and it hurts us. We got this far ahead of them because they have been relegated to crap conferences. See what already happens in basketball? It would happen to a smaller extent in football...

[TUSK]

Damn, the BIG 12 is gonna hasten their death in football and simultaneously weaken ACC basketball....

nice.

[HailState39110]

BYU and Boise State would make much more sense to the big 12 over Memphis and Cincinnati

[CadaverDawg]

USM fans have to be sick watching all of these teams get snatched up by bigger and better conferences while they sit there playing UTSA in front of 18,000 fans at the Rock. Teams that up until 3 years ago, USM dominated yearly on their way to 9+ win seasons....now those teams are leaving them in the dust.

It's good for us, so I can't be too sad for them....and it's not nearly as bad as UAB. Could you imagine being a UAB football fan right now? I mean, what if tomorrow they came out and said "no more MSU football. Sorry, it's over. We're shutting her down effective immediately." I know we have a much bigger program and fan base so it could never happen, but still....It would crush me. Put yourself in their shoes....what if all of the sudden we didn't have MSU football anymore. I feel for UAB fans that actually went to UAB and cheered hard for that program. Hate it for em.

[Leroy Jenkins]

Dont buy it. What will they do with all those "we play everybody in our conference" "one true champion" commercials?

[Dawg61]

It may not be all about football. Those two will help their basketball a little as well.

This is what they are doing. They are focusing on building a great basketball conference. They are taking the gamble that basketball TV dollars will eventually catch up to football. Might happen if football can't fix the concussions.

[msstate7]

This is what they are doing. They are focusing on building a great basketball conference. They are taking the gamble that basketball TV dollars will eventually catch up to football. Might happen if football can't fix the concussions.

Not so sure. I think they're thinking about tv markets. Cincinnati and Memphis are decent markets that'll help the big 12 get more tv money

[Todd4State]

Memphis does seem to have a fairly decent fan base when you compare them to USM or Tulane. And yes, I'm sure they double dip as Tennessee football fans too. I do think it would affect Ole Miss more than us because we don't really recruit the city of Memphis all that much and we seem to focus more on Mississippi. Ole Miss still has the fact that they are in the SEC going for them plus they tend to spend their money pretty freely.

I do hope it happens. Because with the SEC rule saying we have to play a power five team, we can now schedule Memphis if this happens. I used to not like playing them every year like we used to, but because of that stupid rule, it might be worth doing now if they go to the Big 12. Our fans usually make that game a neutral site at worst plus we have a ton of alumni in Memphis and it's drivable for most of our fans. If they took Tulane too, I would turn a backflip because then we could use Memphis and Tulane as our power five opponent and do home and home in Memphis and NOLA.

As far as USM, it's bad on a couple of fronts. If they ever decide to start recruiting Mississippi kids again, it's going to be hard if Memphis decides to start recruiting the Mississippi leftovers because now Memphis is going to have the power five label that they can hold over USM, plus I figure a lot of kids would rather go to college in Memphis as opposed to Hattiesburg. And Memphis does recruit Mississippi probably a little bit more than most people realize.

USM is just in a bad situation right now and the culture is going to continue to not be in their favor going forward. The best thing that they have going for them is us playing them in Hattiesburg next year. That game might actually end up saving them if Monken can get them competitive again before it's too late and they have to drop down. I can't see them ending the program like UAB though. They've been around too long, they have Favre in their corner, and they'll drop down and play I-AA before they shut down. Plus, more importantly I think there would be a lot of support from people in Mississippi rather than UAB where apparently Bear Bryant's son had some kind of a vendetta against them.

[Todd4State]

Don't want Memphis in the Big12.

ETA: If you are going that route, doesn't it make more sense to grab Tulane as the second school? Cinci just doesn't do it for me...

I'm pretty sure Cincinnati has a bigger fan base than Tulane. Unless the Big 12 wants to appeal to a few people in Madison, MS and Massachusetts.

[Todd4State]

USM fans have to be sick watching all of these teams get snatched up by bigger and better conferences while they sit there playing UTSA in front of 18,000 fans at the Rock. Teams that up until 3 years ago, USM dominated yearly on their way to 9+ win seasons....now those teams are leaving them in the dust.

It's good for us, so I can't be too sad for them....and it's not nearly as bad as UAB. Could you imagine being a UAB football fan right now? I mean, what if tomorrow they came out and said "no more MSU football. Sorry, it's over. We're shutting her down effective immediately." I know we have a much bigger program and fan base so it could never happen, but still....It would crush me. Put yourself in their shoes....what if all of the sudden we didn't have MSU football anymore. I feel for UAB fans that actually went to UAB and cheered hard for that program. Hate it for em.

I remember USM was hoping to get picked up by the Big East a few years ago, and it just didn't happen. That was probably their last hope.

The worst thing that could happen is they get picked up by the American Conference. And even then, I wouldn't panic. We've pretty much killed their program now that we are recruiting logically.

[Todd4State]

I'm sure the Big 12 ADs and coaches are against adding BYU or New Mexico, because they want to open up new recruiting areas instead of just having more schools recruiting Texas.

Cincinnati makes some sense to me because it is a decent recruiting area and at least offers West Virginia fans a drivable road game.

However, Memphis makes little sense to me since they don't really bring anything to the conference. I would UCF would be the best team to invite because they have the highest ceiling and offer the Big 12 schools a window to recruit Florida.

I would really like BYU to enter the league though, because they would beat up on TCU, Baylor, TX, and OK without having a the ceiling to win a National Title. BYU is a high floor, low ceiling team because they have so many 24 and 25 year olds playing for them. They can beat anyone, but don't have the talent to win every game.

I'm thinking that BYU is either happy as an independent or waiting on the next PAC-12 expansion.

[Dawg61]

I'm pretty sure Cincinnati has a bigger fan base than Tulane. Unless the Big 12 wants to appeal to a few people in Madison, MS and Massachusetts.

Sucks to be a Cincinnati fan. This would be their 3rd or 4th conference in a decade.

[dawgs]

I'm thinking that BYU is either happy as an independent or waiting on the next PAC-12 expansion.

Pac 12 culturally is 1000% against byu. It's why they didn't get an offer before. The pac 12 is a pretty liberal, secular conference, so inviting one of the most conservative, religious schools in the country doesn't sit well with the rest of the conference.

[engie]

I'm thinking that BYU is either happy as an independent or waiting on the next PAC-12 expansion.

BYU is courting the Big 12 very hard. They talk constantly about wanting to join a power 5 conference. The PAC12 offer was off the table for all eternity(until the current television model changes) the day that they took Utah over BYU.

[TimberBeast]

Pac 12 culturally is 1000% against byu. It's why they didn't get an offer before. The pac 12 is a pretty liberal, secular conference, so inviting one of the most conservative, religious schools in the country doesn't sit well with the rest of the conference.

Yep good ol' liberal tolerance. Everything is fine as long as you are exactly like them.

[Bothrops]

This wreaks! It's good for Memphis but they are undesirable as ****. This makes less sense than Maryland going to the BIG-10 last year. They are really trying to smear the college football landscape with shit. What now, Miami (OH) to the ACC..

[Political Hack]

Tennessee and especially Vandy won't want this. Arkansas either. Nor will Ole Miss or State.

Seems like the Big12 would go after Ark State, Tulane, ULaLa, or someone else before spreading their footprint again. I still can't see WVU in the big12.

[Quaoarsking]

Yep good ol' liberal tolerance. Everything is fine as long as you are exactly like them.

It's not just that BYU is conservative. (It's not like Washington State and the Arizona schools are bastions of liberalism anyway). It's more that
BYU absolutely won't play on games on Sundays. There's other religious universities that would prefer not to, BYU would forfeit before they play on Sunday. It was one reason joining the otherwise-Catholic West Coast Conference made since for BYU. If BYU joined the Pac-12, it would have to either agree to play on Sundays, at least on occasion, or have the Pac-12 completely redo the scheduling in all of their sports to make exceptions. (This is also a reason why Salt Lake City is probably not going to get an NFL team -- many of its potential fans wouldn't go to the games, unless it was a Monday night game. Similarly, the Utah Jazz don't play home games on Sundays unless it's the playoffs and absolutely unavoidable.)
BYU's archaeology department believes the Book of Mormon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon) is a literally true historical document. For example, they believe and teach that the Olmec, Toltec, etc., ruins in Mexico are actually ruins of ancient Jews in North America. This is a fringe position that isn't believed by anyone who isn't a literalist Mormon and is a major reason BYU isn't taken seriously as an academic university. Stanford especially doesn't want to add BYU for this reason.
The Pac-12 already has access to the Utah TV markets with the addition of Utah. Yes, most Mormons are fans of BYU, meaning any conference that added BYU would also gain fans in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Hawaii too, along with the random Mormons scattered across the country, but the Big 12 would gain more than the Pac-12 would by adding them. Then again, the Big 12 (remember, the most conservative collection of schools as far as the major conferences go) is going to be very hesitant to add them for the 2 above reasons.

[Quaoarsking]

I do hope it happens. Because with the SEC rule saying we have to play a power five team, we can now schedule Memphis if this happens. I used to not like playing them every year like we used to, but because of that stupid rule, it might be worth doing now if they go to the Big 12. Our fans usually make that game a neutral site at worst plus we have a ton of alumni in Memphis and it's drivable for most of our fans. If they took Tulane too, I would turn a backflip because then we could use Memphis and Tulane as our power five opponent and do home and home in Memphis and NOLA.


I hadn't even thought about that angle, but I would like that. I wonder if there's any chance that we're holding off on announcing our 2016-17 opponent because it's going to be Memphis if they can officially join the Big 12?

[dawgs]

It's not just that BYU is conservative. (It's not like Washington State and the Arizona schools are bastions of liberalism anyway). It's more that
BYU absolutely won't play on games on Sundays. There's other religious universities that would prefer not to, BYU would forfeit before they play on Sunday. It was one reason joining the otherwise-Catholic West Coast Conference made since for BYU. If BYU joined the Pac-12, it would have to either agree to play on Sundays, at least on occasion, or have the Pac-12 completely redo the scheduling in all of their sports to make exceptions. (This is also a reason why Salt Lake City is probably not going to get an NFL team -- many of its potential fans wouldn't go to the games, unless it was a Monday night game. Similarly, the Utah Jazz don't play home games on Sundays unless it's the playoffs and absolutely unavoidable.)
BYU's archaeology department believes the Book of Mormon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon) is a literally true historical document. For example, they believe and teach that the Olmec, Toltec, etc., ruins in Mexico are actually ruins of ancient Jews in North America. This is a fringe position that isn't believed by anyone who isn't a literalist Mormon and is a major reason BYU isn't taken seriously as an academic university. Stanford especially doesn't want to add BYU for this reason.
The Pac-12 already has access to the Utah TV markets with the addition of Utah. Yes, most Mormons are fans of BYU, meaning any conference that added BYU would also gain fans in Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, and Hawaii too, along with the random Mormons scattered across the country, but the Big 12 would gain more than the Pac-12 would by adding them. Then again, the Big 12 (remember, the most conservative collection of schools as far as the major conferences go) is going to be very hesitant to add them for the 2 above reasons.

Yep. Though arizona and tucson is a pretty liberal city and university. Tempe and arizona st not so much. I'd also throw oregon st in as pretty conservative. byu is in its own world.

[scottycameron]

BYU is huge when it comes to tv markets and ratings. Your average tv household is man wife maybe a kid to two, liberal places maybe two guys no kids, but with a BYU tv you get a man and 3 or 4 wives and a whole shitload of kids. Don't think the tv execs don't know this. I suspect somebody grabs them up very soon.

[dawgs]

BYU is huge when it comes to tv markets and ratings. Your average tv household is man wife maybe a kid to two, liberal places maybe two guys no kids, but with a BYU tv you get a man and 3 or 4 wives and a whole shitload of kids. Don't think the tv execs don't know this. I suspect somebody grabs them up very soon.

lol

but yeah, the big 12 needs byu, and byu needs the big 12. i think that happens. it'll be interesting to see who the big 12 gets to go with them. cincinnati is a really unsexy pickup. maybe boise? memphis is laughable and would be an embarrasing pickup for the big 12. no chance texas ever signs off on that.