JMU to join American Conference in or before 2028

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• 16 teams? The WAC tried that and it failed terribly,the slice of the pie is getting smaller and smaller.......I think they'll have to cut a couple of schools (Charlotte and Tulsa) to have a chance of this league making it.

  • 15 for football, 14 for all other sports with the JMU add

  • 16 Teams for football would be good for American & I would not mind Miami(OH) to join American along with James Madison.

  • 15.......they should drop Charlotte as you know the SBC will grab them and allow both leagues can keep their status. Charlotte is very non-competitive and would do better the in Sun Belt.

  • The American has more money than any other G6 league. I think they’ll be fine or they wouldn’t have added anyone.

  • Curious to hear the explanation about "making it" at 16 teams, as if the SEC or Big Ten are having any problems.

    The WAC collapsed because the teams at the top got tired of shelling out money to terrible teams at the bottom. So far every American team is pulling their weight (except Charlotte).

  • Unknown if they'll "drop" programs, because, if anything, the conspiracy-theory floating about on other boards is that this is a proactive/pre-emptive move to keep The American stable as one of, if not "the", best, so-called "G6" ("P6") conference for if/when the likes of MEM and/or TUL and/or USF jump ship to the likes of the ACC.

  • @Dan NW-IL-MI The rumor was that Miami (OH) and possibly UConn were slotted to be added alongside JMU. Getting a top MAC and top SunBelt team, for most-all sports, and UConn in (likely) just football (who can be streaky, at-times, at least as seen over the past sixteen-or-so years, giving the likes of Houston, and UT fits, at-times) is still an above halfway decent replacement for some combination of potentially losing MEM/TUL/USF.

    It'd be nice because UNT can avenge that bowl game loss to Miami (OH) that BenRoesthlisberger and "Mean"JoeGreene had a bet over, from a few years ago, and The American and JMU (likely, at least nowadays, given how well they've performed the past half-dozen years) will also not compete for a CFP spot, almost ensuring that whomever wins The American gets a CFP spot!

  • @Jinzo 2400 Hard to see CLT getting dropped, intentionally, from above, unless there's a sweet enough offer that comes along and/or some chaos that prevents at least one of MEM/TUL/USF from joining the likes of the ACC. Charlotte, NC is the seat of much banking and, in SEC/Big 10 fashion, having such a...."designated jobber" to "haze", like they have Vanderbilt, MISST, Kentucky, Northwestern, Rutgers, MINN, etc., allows for potential "Cinderellas" to pad their stats and have the same "second bye-week" that the likes of Alabama and Michigan have been spoiled with over the years. If they get to have two-or-three veritable "bye-weeks", by getting away with having an FCS creampuff (no offense), a real bye-week, and a second "bye-week" against the aforementioned teams, and STILL be ordained as "National" Champions...then why can't so-called "G6" ("P6") programs? P6 programs get punished for daring to schedule beneath them and are almost all but forced to "punch-up", even early in the season, just to have an above non-zero chance at a CFP spot, let alone the Natty! This can also have the added effect of allowing for demands of higher pay for "body-bag games" to said "P4" teams be met (which has been long overdue) and/or less of a reason to get those at all!

• The American should be focusing on evening up for basketball by adding College of Charleston.

  • They'll have an even number of teams for basketball with this add

  • If they don't add CofC they'd still have more football members than basketball, I want to correct that.

  • This is out-of-left-field for this user. Not saying it's impossible, just haven't seen it talked about in recent times. Football is still king, by the way, and, IMHO, should be the driving factor, instead of taking a "basketball focused" approach for the conference, which is in-position to solidify itself as "the" top 'G6" ("P6") conference, because that just seems like a subtle way of "throwing in the towel", unless something drastic happens with regards to revenue from basketball and available programs doing well in it move up or down. Seems like what UT-Arlington heads would tell this user when asked about ever restarting football operations, and UT-Arlington is more than a step below UNT (as someone who has been through both places).

• People in the comments mad about a bloated, odd-numbered American as if an 18-member Big Ten is sustainable.

  • You need a Snickers, Dan?

  • The Big Ten Conference annually generates more athletic revenue than any other conference, ($1.47 billion), and distributes $1.37 billion to its 18 members. Please let us know what conference is more sustainable.

  • "Profit is the sole arbiter of success" okay Dad.

    Good luck selling recruits on your football team when it annually finishes in 16th place.

  • The discussion is, upon your introduction – sustainability. The current practiced wisdom is you MUST pay for your team – and that, because of Federal Civil rights legislation means ALL of your teams (i.e. basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, tennis, volleyball, etc. for both genders). This alone becomes very expensive and hence extremely non-sustainable very fast. Distributing just under $80 million per school annually (like the Big Ten does) goes a long way to mitigate such problems. Overlooking your puerile denial of the truth that is held within Milton Freidman’s statement and continuing, the future will not hold many destinations for any athletic recruit of any type unless that destination is operating with a sizable profit…. and it’s Dadio!

  • Verbosely asserting that a recruit who has the choice between a first-place American team and a 15th-place Big Ten team will choose the Big Ten because that school generates more profit for itself... is... insane?

    Are you a Republican?

  • The verbose assertion is that; In the near future, ALL athletic recruits will be paid. The better the recruit, the higher the pay and, the ability to pay that salary is dependent upon the athletic department’s ability to generate wealth. There will not be alternative landing places on the Group-of-6 Conferences rosters, going forward because those Group-of-6 athletic departments will suffer short-term liquidity problem to pay for those rosters. (It is not even clear there will be enough liquidity within the 4 Power Conferences going forward to remain solvent.) To believe that in the near future a sizable contingent high potential athletic recruits will suddenly develop low self-esteem or low self-worth, borders upon a delusion - almost insanity. Word of advice – improve your reading comprehension, stop behaving like a clodpole and be informed about the subjects in which you wish to conduct discourse. As well, political discussion, direct or indirect, is frowned upon on this forum.

    Are you neurodivergent?

  • @Your Mom and @Spencer Coldburn Calm down or the driver is turning this car around! =)

    Both of yuh make somewhat salient, and incorrect, points that this user will try to ensure the nuance of expounding upon both is not lost upon either:

    "Profit" is a good thing (IMHO, being that "good" is undefinable, but "Evil" could be, as MarkCuban says, "Yuh can't define what is cool", and because it's basic Austrian/Misesian Economics 101 -- that which underpins anarcho-capitalism, the one, true, "capitalism" and one, true, "anarchy" as MurrayRothbard observed, a.k.a. the logical conclusion of libertarianism, a.k.a. voluntarism -- that, "Value is subjective in the eyes of the consumer [which all are as fewer are those who are producers and/or distributors]"). It is multiplied faith, as if it gave birth to more faith; it is return on investment exceeding costs of investment. Don't be like the food co-op that didn't want to even touch "profit" on "King of the Hill". Now, that said....

    There is both short-term profit and long-term profit, and some profit is more secure/"Antifragile" against "Black Swan Events" than others. So-called "neocon imperialists" see trade as a strict profit-and-loss balance-sheet indicating that "undeveloped"/"third-world countries" (all "countries", such as "America" being imaginary, abstract concepts and should not be conflated with the "gang-of-men" that H.L.Mencken, childhood crush of the philosopher AynRand, called "government", such as "The (Federal) United States" that is "engaged in a kind of advance auction-sale of stolen goods", namely for popularity and/or depopulation of competition to try and sate the indefinite insecurity of a sociopathic-narcissist and/or other "Dark-Triad-Psychology"-afflicted beings, of the Intelligently-Designed amalgamation of races that is colloquially known as "humanity" or aliens, some of whom may be in-disguise as said "humans") always import more than they export and "developed"/"first-world countries" export more than they import. HOWEVER, this should NOT be taken as "gospel truth", all the time, and only as a general "rule-of-thumb"!

    The likes of the alleged spaceship-city of "Hy Brasil", sometimes seen off the coasts of both Ireland and New Zealand, near antipodal coordinates, may be considered "developed" but may import more than they export if they have advanced technology, such as "matter pattern replicators" (a la "Star Trek: The Next Generation") that can solve world hunger, but may be under contract to a "Prime Directive" that prohibits them from interfering in other, less-developed, societies/expediencies. "Banana-Republics" may also export more than they import if their workers/slaves are not well-off because of not being treated well, and NOT ALL companies have the goal of long-term/indefinite/perpetual profit, because some think that they're charities with a business instead of a business with a charity (a difference spoken about on at least one episode of "Shark Tank") and sometimes the CIA/Mossad start-up a "front-company" for short-term money-laundering and/or extrajudicial goals, elsewhere (like in at least one episode of "The A-Team" that "Hannibal" waltzes into under a disguise to gauge which agents are working there).

    There ARE "intangibles" that do not show up on such strict "profit-and-loss balance-sheets" that should be considered!

    Case-in-point: WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), under new management called "Endeavor-IMG", who own the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) under this "TKO" banner, recently decided to cut-back on "house shows" to "C&D markets" for not being "cost-effective". However, this is a short-sighted and ignorant move, because their talent needs to get their "reps" in from exhibitions at untelevised house shows to stay in "game shape", so-to-speak, and try out new "gimmicks", "finishes", etc., for good market research before bringing them to the big time on TV. Without "C&D markets" nor house shows to them, talent suffers by being at greater risk of injury (which hurts everyone's productivity and bottom-line), stale or unproven gimmicks and finishes leading to a loss of viewers/fans/customers, and the increased risk of giving up regions of people to a competitor either currently in-existence or yet to exist, with more reason to exist! Sometimes it is prudent to invest in long-term stability and satisfaction at the expense of short-term profit. To think so short-term is akin to being "Satanic", as this user has heard a definition of being at a recent "Liberpulco" or "Anarchapulco" conference-festival. It also signals potential evidence of money-laundering to somewhere else and panic atop the company, sending a sense of fear downstream that prevents further investment.

    And before anyone starts: this isn't "politics", because there's no such thing: "politics" is the impressment of "Dark-Triad-Psychology"-affliction upon an otherwise free-market. Two of the only things to truly exist in this Universe are economics and psychology. When one has Dark-Triad-Psychology intersecting with economics, there is the BDSM Paradigm of Statism; when there is sound economics adhered to without Dark-Triad-Psychology, there is anarchy (meaning "without-rulers", etymologically from Greek and "peace" or an "absolution of debts" from "amagi" in Sumerian). Thanks for reading, for those who did!

  • @Spencer Coldburn Addendum: The "Civil Rights Act" was never ratified, nor should it have been, and there shouldn't be such a "Title IX" and other such mandates by coercion from outside forces who think themselves above the Universal Laws of Supply and Demand, such as the State, to force private companies/schools to discriminate, or not to discriminate, as they please, in admissions nor financial support. Departments/conferences should be able to float more money more towards one type of athletic program than others if they want to do so, or if the market, the customer-base, says to do so!

    Who is the State to force the likes of, say, Alabama-Tuscaloosa, to spend the same amount of funds on women's water polo as they do on men's football, or to force The Big 10 Conference to allocate such ~$1 billion dollars to women's basketball or institutions with it instead of ones without it, especially if people don't care about women's basketball?

    "The customer is always right!"

  • @Your Mom

    Again, "value is subjective in the eyes of the consumer [of whom all are, as fewer are those who are producers and/or distributors]", as is basic Austrian/Misesian Economics 101 (the one, true, economics, being that Marxism, Keynesianism, and, yes, even classically-liberal, "laissez-faire", UCLA/Chicago-School "economics" are all nonsensical and, ultimately, self-defeating, as even MiltonFriedman, himself, was called a "socialist" by LudwigVonMises atop Pioneer Mountain).

    This user, for example, would, literally, turn-down a million-dollar offer to play at Alabama-Tuscaloosa, just for the opportunity to play for either UT-Austin Longhorns or the UNT Mean Green (more so the Mean Green in recent years as more so a former Longhorn fan), even if the offer (if any at all) from UT or UNT was paltry in-comparison!

    Some people are "mercenaries", and some are loyal to their preferred program, local or not! "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

    Also (if this user read this particular part of the argument between yuh and @Spencer Coldburn correctly), the Rebloodlican side of the UniParty are not the only ones who think, or act, as if going to a wealthy, but poor-performing, college than a poorer, but top "P6" program is prudent, because both they and the Democrips have shown that they think that the ends-justifying-the-means -- if those ends are even accomplished in the first place -- isn't an unsustainable business model as it is and BOTH are largely socialists that are perfectly capable of crippling the economy, as they have and are! No need to rope political parties into this discussion, as that's an "ad hominem" fallacy in persuasion, which, when done properly, should include a complete set of "Ethos, Logos, Pathos" arguments.

  • This literal has nothing to do with the discussion we have been waging. Nothing!!! (‘Frankly, I’m not sure what it has to do with.) However, what is for certain is the Civil Rights Act was passed into law in early July of 1964 and then eight years later, Title IX was signed into law at the beginning of the summer of 1972. Both are laws – actual real laws - that US society Must follow. Oh… and the laws of physics are identified as the truths that are invariant within our Universe. Other than this exception your diatribe is completely in keeping with the practice of anarchy free-market capitalism done with the total disregard for the laws of decent society.

  • @Spencer Colburn For one, it does have to do with the argument between the two of yuh, because the Universal Laws of Supply and Demand are as inextricable as the Laws of Physics, perhaps more so if one factors in potential Universes of uneven dimensions, as 2 + 2 = 4 in a Universe of equal dimensions, and can only equal 5 in a Universe of unequal dimensions (which may exist), but the point is that even in such a Universe, scarcity still exists, as scarcity still exists even if the world had "Star Trek: The Next Generation"-like "matter pattern replicators" that could "solve world hunger", because life and intangibles are still scarce. "Gold-pressed latinum" is still used as a currency or store-of-value even in the "Star Trek" Universe.

    "Society" does not exist, as "the people" are a myth; the amalgamation of races that are merely capable of reproduction with one another that is colloquially known as "humanity" is an individualistic race, not a collectivist one, which would be cancerous, and "laws of Man" mean nothing if they do not adhere to aforementioned Universal Laws. They are either redundant or superficial. Such regulations can come from the market, such as how actor RobertDeNiro represented a non-governmental testing-agency in commercial advertisements, and how Underwriter's Laboratories, another non-governmental testing-agency, likely have their seal-of-approval in the refrigerator that the two of yuh may have in the kitchen, or Mopar on car windows!

    Believers in the non-existent authority of the State, any and all States, "statists", inherently have a lack of faith in the ability of the free-market to fix itself and/or of faith in other beings and/or themselves. This is why left-liberal/"progressive" entertainment and "news" media is often laden with propaganda of "self-flagellation". However, as this user heard in an, albeit rare, good sermon in church, "the news is the unusual" and it is the exception that proves the rule that most people are not Evil/"Dark-Triad-Psychology"-afflicted beings, "human" or alien (or at least human), and one being "only human" is NOT an excuse! Source wants people to have dignity, but there are dark forces in this Universe that want others to think of humanity as nothing more than mere "goyim" ("cattle") to be done away with after they serve their purpose as a mere means-to-an-end, instead of respected as "ends unto themselves".

    Back on direct topic: No one is entitled to the fruits of another's labor nor to a local job, nor reward money for unpopular/unprofitable sports. Having to keep afloat or only bring in those who have "women's basketball" and other, more so b.s., "sports", at the detriment of success in popular ones only gimps programs, and fans/customers. There shouldn't be a Title IX and an unjust law is not worth following! If a law of man is not for the benefit of those who voted for it, then that is slavery at-best and a death-sentence at-worst! Everything should be seen as an apartment-complex with the operator having the Right to allow or deny the likes of smoking or prostitution on its premises and would-be tenants voting with their eyes, ears, mouths and wallets in the market, to better be able to live peacefully and Pursue Happiness where they are accepted and want to live! To think otherwise is an Objectivization of Value, backed by coercion, to try and sate the perennial insecurity of a sociopathic-narcissist/solipsist! "Palpatine" thought he WAS "the Senate"! Even plagiarist-Plato knew that, "all tyrannies fall to aristocracies which, in-turn, fall to democracies (mob-rule) from which new, and even worse, tyrannies arise"! There IS a "fourth way" out of this cycle-of-statism to a "Nirvana", and that is anarcho-capitalism, in which one can retain self-ownership instead of giving it up, without their consent, to another person, handful of people, or everyone trying to tie themselves to everyone else (the latter of which being the worst, because, "One cannot serve two masters")!

    P.S.

    "Decent society"??? W T F is that? Is a society where it's illegal to cut hair without a license, to not collect rainwater instead of fluoride-and-chemical-filled water, be Drafted into military "service" for fake-Jew-psychopath child-molesters-and-murderers to bomb schools and weddings full of innocent little girls from Syria to Russia to Iran, to not be able to engage in activity from ingesting and processing natural plants that provide a better alternative to Big Pharma's poisonous arm-jabs and poor quality clothing made in sweat-shops, to protecting an ever-degrading p0rn industry's monopoly on sex-work by criminalizing prostitution, to not be able to discriminate based upon whatever the private property premises' owner deems acceptable, wasting millions and weeks deliberating if JackPhillips had to "bake the cake" for men who think themselves women after years of brainwashing by the Tavistock-Institute, putting KyleRittenhouse on a monkey-drumhead-trial in front of the world, while GhislaineMaxwell's was barred to reporters and in a country, America, held hostage by the "gang-of-men" H.L.Mencken called "government" in the "United States" in yet another in a long-line of dictators in Diaper-Donnie-Diddler/Zion-Don-Juan-Tsu and his Art of Failure trying to shift ~12% of the world's oil trade from the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz to a Zionist, neocon-colonized Venezuela??? Not to mention the Savile-class, across the pond from the Epstein-class, and the late father of actress NicoleKidman, "doctor" AnthonyKidman, whom the now-missing "Candy Girl" whistleblower said had hunted down children for sport in the Outback, likely for adrenochromes and/or stem-cells for "Vril-ya" Gray reptilian aliens to bathe in that the military-industrial-complex brokered a deal with after the Roswell, New Mexico saucer crash? Is pushing Kalergi-and-androgynous-agendas part of a "decent society", while little girls are molested but told to "use the Force" and wear "magic armbands" as "defense"? Having a coercive monopoly on credit (tokens-of-faith in ones' labor; "currency"), arbitration (the minting and interpretation of private property contracts; "courts"), and defense (the enforcement of said property and personal well-being; "police and military") over a given region, which is what the "State" is defined as existing by having, and having options in is all "anarchy" really is as "that which is in-between the States" as a former-hero, WalterBlock, a far smarter friend of crackpot BernieBotSandanista wrote, only succumbs to the Shirky Principle, Peter and Pareto Principles, and Rand's Razor, among others!

    "One is no less a slave just because they're able to choose a new master every few years." -LysanderSpooner

    There is NOTHING that the State can purport itself as being able to produce (which is nothing, as it is its "corporatocracy" cronies who produce for it in-exchange for special voting privileges, bail-outs, and regulatory-capture to keep down competition from mom-and-pop firms and corporations, local and foreign, currently without a "seat-at-the-table") that the unmitigated free-market cannot produce, better, faster, nor cheaper!

    Peace, Luv, Logic, Truth, and Anarchy!

• Continuing the pattern of the Sun Belt pulling up from C-USA... I would expect the University of Delaware to be the best "get" going forward. It's a Carnegie R-1, land grant, flagship state university... and even though Liberty has had some success on the field, nobody wants that future potential headache with a private religious college. Delaware would maintain the all-public nature of the SBC, and has history with Georgia State and ODU from the old CAA football days.

  • The American is probably going to want a 16th football school so I would say ODU might be on their way there as well.

    In which event, the Sun Belt can expand to 16 by adding Eastern Kentucky, McNeese, Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin, with the Alabama schools moving to the East Division.

  • Literally anyone is acceptable as long as they don't jump on any real estate scams in Lynchburg.

  • I just wanted to add that this post is retroactively extremely funny, because he posted it and literally the next day Delaware lost to 2-3 Middle Tennessee.

• It will be 15 for football right now and I imagine they will invite somebody else for 16

  • Old Dominion makes sense as another football-playing member. They have a budding in-state rivalry with JMU. College of Charleston would make it 16 members for basketball as well since Army and Navy are football only.

  • @Z-Man, ODU will always be Sun Belt, theyre too mediocre for any other conference

  • Adding UConn back for football only makes a lot of sense. 16 football teams, 14 basketball teams. No odd numbers.

  • If the American wanted UConn for football only it would have started in 2020 after UConn's other sports joined the Big East.

    It makes sense for UConn to join the MAC for football only though, regional rival in UMass. UConn would probably only stay in the MAC until the ACC or Big 12 come calling.

  • @Z-Man It's hard to see ODU joining The American unless something drastic happens, as, outside of the TaylorHeinecke-era, in football, they don't add much anything different than what The American already has.

  • @Z-Man That's another good point, in that UConn would probably be fought for by their new MAC home, as the MAC would be more "on-the-ropes" than they've been. They're probably angling the MAC, if not being courted by the MAC, as this all is happening, just to avoid being poached by The American. Who knows? It'd be quite the trip from the likes of UTSA to Connecticut, multiple times a year, sometimes, at least in football, and definitely multiple times a year for other sports, if included, and vice versa from Connecticut to UTSA. Do Temple fans and UConn fans really care about one another?

• This leaves them with 15 football playing teams. I would think they would add UConn is football only or Miami Ohio next to make 16 which is better for scheduling.

  • This assumes that one, they get some combination of them (which is likely, as Miami of Ohio is rumored, with UConn beyond that, in some capacity), and two, that the likes of MEM/TUL/USF do not jump ship to the likes of the ACC, which is a conspiracy-theory that this move/these potential moves may be out of a proactive/pre-emptive stance before such moves to the ACC begin. Depends on what the ADs and Conferences know of one another and of the situation, behind closed doors, if such potential realignment is coming or not. If NOT: this propels the American Champion DIRECTLY into the Playoffs, more often than not, period. Even if so, The American is still a solid conference, moving forward without MEM and/or TUL and/or USF with at least JMU and Miami (OH) and/or UConn as further successors.

  • True if the Power 4 go to the 20 max teams the Congress will pass in a few months. If that happens who knows how everything will shake up.

  • @Paul Am NOT in-favor of "super-conferences" with the top 30-50-60-something programs, namely from the "P4", acting as a "D-League on-the-cheap" for the NFL (because the owners are too cheap to start a proper D-League of their own) while tossing-aside everyone else. IMHO, there shouldn't even be such a "G6" moniker, with such discrimination, because if one is in FBS, then they should be able to compete for the same "National Championship" as everyone else!

    And as if Con-gress can fix anything, let alone CFB! It'd just be whomever has them in their pocket for their benefit. Monopolists WANT State regulation for their benefit.

• If Old Dominion were also to be added, then the American could have three protected opponents for each football school and either 4 or 6 rotating opponents for a 6- or 4-year rotation, with the caveat that Army and Navy are not allowed to meet in conference play, during seasons in which Army-Navy would otherwise be a conference game, those schools would instead be allowed to count their games against Air Force as American Conference games; conversely, Army and Navy would not count as Mountain West opponents for Air Force.

  These are the protected rivalries I have come up with for American football in this configuration:

  Army: Charlotte, James Madison, Temple
  Charlotte: Army, East Carolina, James Madison
  East Carolina: Charlotte, Old Dominion, UAB
  Florida Atlantic: Memphis, South Florida, UAB
  James Madison: Army, Charlotte, Old Dominion
  Memphis: Florida Atlantic, Tulsa, UAB
  Navy: Old Dominion, Temple, Tulane
  North Texas: Rice, Tulsa, UTSA
  Old Dominion: East Carolina, James Madison, Navy
  Rice: North Texas, Tulane, UTSA
  South Florida: Florida Atlantic, Temple, Tulane
  Temple: Army, Navy, South Florida
  Tulane: Navy, Rice, South Florida
  Tulsa: Memphis, North Texas, UTSA
  UAB: East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Memphis
  UTSA: North Texas, Rice, Tulsa

  The Thanksgiving weekend schedule would be this:

  Army-Temple (an extension of the NYC-Philly sports rivalry given Army's close proximity to NYC and Temple being in Philly)
  Charlotte-East Carolina (battle of North Carolina)
  Florida Atlantic-South Florida (battle of Florida)
  James Madison-Old Dominion (Royal Rivalry)
  Memphis-UAB (Battle of the Bones)
  Navy-Tulane (large amount of people with US Navy ties in the New Orleans area where Tulane is located
  North Texas-Tulsa (close proximity in neighboring states)
  Rice-UTSA (a matchup of Texas schools located along I-10)

  With (College of) Charleston, James Madison, and Old Dominion added for basketball, the basketball programs can be organized into pods as follows:

  Charleston, Florida Atlantic, South Florida, Temple
  Charlotte, East Carolina, James Madison, Old Dominion
  Memphis, Tulsa, UAB, Wichita State
  North Texas, Rice, Tulane, UTSA

  Each team would play the others in its pod twice a year (once hosted by each school), and the others once year (6 schools at home, 6 schools on the road, alternating home court every year) for a total of 18 conference games in basketball.

  • Navy-Old Dominion being protected would also be notable not only because of close proximity and both being along the Chesapeake Bay, but also like New Orleans, the Hampton Roads area where ODU is located is home to a lot of Naval institutions and people with ties to the US Navy.

  • It should be noted that I don't care if G6 conferences have 9-game conference schedules. The reason I'm not a fan of P4 conferences doing them is because I want more OOC games between P4 teams, some of them being annual rivalries that were lost in recent years to realignment. There are also some P4 teams that have not played an OOC P4 opponent outside of an annual rivalry game in a long time, a notable example being Kentucky, which currently only has their rivalry with Louisville as an OOC P4 game in future schedules. If the SEC for instance dropped to 7 conference games, then they could require at least 3 OOC games against P4 opposition each year, with Kentucky in particular scheduling more OOC football games against other P4 schools better known for basketball like Duke, Kansas, Michigan State, North Carolina, and UCLA.

  • Z-Man, Major problem if there are more P4 vs P4 OOC games that you are dreaming of. Your biggest nightmare is that they will not have your regular referees for example, There will be Big Ten, Big 12 & ACC referees at Kroger Stadium & there will be SEC, Big 12 & ACC referees at Ohio Stadium & 95% of college football referees wants to work at their own stadium for example SEC at Kroger Stadium & Big Ten at Ohio Stadium.

    Furthermore Z-Man, There is no way on God's Earth that college football will dominate more than NFL plus NFL is King & college basketball is by far much different than college football & speaking of college football P4 conferences is excellent with nine game conference schedules so they can have Michigan-Minnesota, Georgia-Alabama, Oklahoma State-TexasTech & Syracuse-North Carolina to play more often instead of waiting 3-6 ridiculous years.

  • Okay, this user can respect the theory-crafting done here IF those such MEM/TUL/USF teams stay-put in The American, however (and what is likely the case), if they leave, then that all isn't happening. It's hard to see such an American, without MEM/TUL/USF going for divisions in this post-division landscape, at least until or if serious realignment elsewhere happens.

    Secondly, as a UNT Mean Green fan (hence the name here), Tulsa doesn't care about UNT and UNT doesn't care about Tulsa; nobody really cares about Tulsa. Now, this user is, actually, in-favor of a budding rivalry between the two taking-shape, and actually called in to "The Solid Verbal ReVerb line" after their recent game (which was replete with drama, such as the referee botching at least one call, such as a catch that should've been ruled "incomplete", that was, instead, ruled a TD, and then didn't even review and call what was supposed to have been reviewed properly to the point that TerryMcAuley, himself, got to social-media and called it a bad call, because Tulsa's DavidWellsJr. went out-of-bounds and after going back inbounds, was the first to touch the ball, and was NOT pushed-out of bounds, negating that prohibition) to try and dub this budding rivalry as "The Flip Cup" (perhaps with a golden Solo cup as a trophy), not just because of the pre-game antics of ESPN's MattBerry and ChaseDaniel playing "Flip Cup" with the mascot, band, and cheerleaders, but because that referee had to have been drunk to make such a bad call (although this Verballer changed their "ReVerb" to make light of TyHildenbrandt's take that iced coffee at a job interview wasn't unprofessional, as DanRubestein said it was).

    IF ANYTHING, UNT's, current, main rival is UTSA, and for good reason: UTSA is a younger program that has leapfrogged UNT in the national spotlight, beat UNT in at least one CUSA CCG, lost to UNT in the rain after being undefeated and RANKED, and came over to The American with UNT. As much as UNT fans have wanted their rival to be SMU (which would be awesome), SMU and TCU want nothing to do with UNT, and hardly with one another outside of the "Skillet", but should have a budding rivalry with UTSA that could be fought over a trophy such as a "golden triangle", perhaps atop a road work cone, because JeffTraylor, UTSA HC, had a "triangle-of-toughness" gimmick a few years ago when they had a great team for a couple of years, and there's a "Golden Triangle Mall" in Denton, Texas, plus, many (for better and worse) say that UNT is a "music school". It'd be less obvious and more thought-provoking than a golden nest, being that both the Mean Green, formerly known as "The Eagles", have an eagle as a mascot, a bird, and UTSA's mascot is the "roadrunner", another bird.

    UNT also treats any and all in-state programs, "P4" or "P6" as "rivals", in-conference or OOC. IF this "pod" and "protected rivalry" format ever happens as theorized above, this user would suggest swapping-out Tulsa as a rival for UNT and replacing them with Memphis and/or Tulane. Rice probably stays, as much as it'd be nice to kick them out in favor of both MEM and TUL, because they're nothing and UNT typically beats them, too. Depends on if UNT and the conference prefer them to have such a "jobber" or opt for a higher profile from rubbing shoulders with the usually more successful MEM/TUL.

    Am just not a fan of the "pod" idea anyways, anywhere, and this notion of playing teams every 2-3 years that used to be played annually. Ideally, each team in a conference should have a budding rivalry that is cared about against each other team. It's part of what made CFB so fun to watch for years.

  • Am in-agreement on the take of wanting so-called "P4" teams to have more "P4" OOC games, such as against neighboring "P4" programs in adjacent conferences, instead of gerrymandering themselves into 2-3 veritable "bye-weeks" and still being dared to be called "National Champions"! A bye-week, FCS creampuff (that they can get away with scheduling, but so-called "G6" programs can't as easily explain away), and designated "jobber" programs already in-conference, such as the Kentuckys, MISSTs, Vanderbilts, sometimes Auburn, Northwestern, Rutgers, MINN, MICH ST sometimes, Maryland, Boston College, Wake Forest, etc., and the likes of Alabama, Michigan, and Miami can just be called "National Champions" after sleepwalking through between one-fourth and one-third of their schedule! That's not right! The likes of UT and LSU, for example, have only ever played one another a handful of times in a CENTURY!!! Austin and Baton Rouge are not so far away from one another that they can only play a handful of times in a century!!! That's B.S., and this user says this as a former Longhorn fan!

  • @Dan NW-IL-MI This user agrees with the second part of the reply, about keeping 9+ in-conference games to preserve historical rivalries that help make the sport worth watching, and none of this waiting 2-3+ years to play who was once a big rival, themselves, but disagrees with the capitulating to referees' alleged wishes to work local stadiums, because money talks and they already can't be trusted not to gerrymander an in-conference team over another, as what likely happened in this past postseason's American CCG between UNT and Tulane, when even the announcers said, through the commercial break, that Tulane was gifted two scores that they should NOT have had, and changed the game from a 10-14+ UNT victory to a one-score Tulane "victory"! THAT Mean Green team had a better chance of knocking-off Ole Miss than Tulane didn't have, and this user will go to their grave believing that! It looked as if the conference, or someone, bought those referees and gave the "Montreal Screwjob" to UNT. Of course, not much has changed, if anyone saw the recent UNT-Tulsa game that, thankfully, UNT won by a point in OT, but it should've been a ~17-point victory, in-regulation, if not for a referee, drunk, incompetent, or bought-and-paid-for making a bad call on a DavidWellsJr. TD that even TerryMcAuley, himself, took to social-media to call-out as bad!

    Not many people like UNT, perhaps even their own conference, historically, and it's not the first time that they've been screwed-over: look at the '88 game at UT, when a Longhorn player did not appear to make a TD catch in-bounds, but was ruled a TD and the refs just ended the game. Texas-based teams tend to get screwed-over a lot, from the Houston Texans having been designated "jobbers" to the likes of New England for years and years, to the Dallas Cowboys having been screwed-over in the 2014 playoffs at Green Bay (only for them to ADMIT it WAS A CATCH made by DezBryant, but does that matter, now? Do they get back together and face-off against that New England team for their rings on-the-line?

    The NFL is a private (quote-unquote) company, so, it's more so expected of New York to screw them, but in CFB, that oil money and political pull of UT and comparable coffers of SMU can talk their way into victories and "stature" from realignment or otherwise, but for most-any other Texas-based team? They're behind the eight-ball in and out of their own state!

  • All non-conference games - both regular season and postseason, should have whole crews from conferences not involved in the game.

    A huge reason for this is that Western Michigan was barely denied its first ever victory over Michigan in school history because the Big Ten crew gave Michigan one extra second that many people thought they did not deserve.

  • Also, I shouldn't have to count on bowl season to produce the desired OOC matchups among P4 teams I want to see. For instance, Kentucky and North Carolina have only ever met once in a bowl game, the 1976 Peach Bowl. There was an attempt to create such a matchup in the 2009 Music City Bowl, but several bowls above it all passed on Clemson, who lost the ACC title game that year. Under ACC rules of the time, the ACC title game loser could not go lower than the Music City Bowl, so that bowl had to select Clemson, whose men's basketball program isn't nearly as notable as that of North Carolina.

  • Am in total-agreement that WMU got SCREWED (the North Texas treatment) by Big 10 officials when, because one team was OOC, that should've been an OOC crew not affiliated with either WMU's conference or MICH's conference. Were they Big 10 referees? Why? That's exactly what happened! Intra-conference referees already screw over their own conference members in and out of championship games, AT LEAST let non-conference crews work OOC games, regular- or post-season! That should be a mandatory rule! So, is it only for "P4" vs. "P4" OOC games, but not "P4" vs. "P6" OOC games? That's not right!

  • Am in-agreement that there are too many bowl games and most are meaningless to where (and this user can speak on this as a UNT fan who saw it happen) some are produced out of thin-air at the last minute. Winning only six games, or half of one's schedule, should not let a program make a bowl game with prizes to teammates. That rewards mediocrity and lessens ambition. They should, at least, have to win 7-or-8 (of a 12-or-13 game schedule) to qualify. And, please, just make it an 8-and-8 CFP format, with ALL "FBS" champions getting an automatic berth with 8 at-large across all eight conferences! Less than 16 is collusion, and more than 16 is dilution. Either way, so-called "G6" teams are kept-out, or behind a greater eight-ball by having to win at least one more game in the postseason!

• Along with losing Sam Houston to the Sun Belt, I've also proposed a move of another CUSA member, New Mexico State, to the MW, where they could play regional rivals New Mexico and UTEP on an annual basis.

  I've proposed the following schools join CUSA: Nicholls, Southern Illinois, Tarleton, and Western Carolina.

  With these additions, I've also proposed a return of football divisions to CUSA:

  East:
  Delaware
  FIU
  Jacksonville State
  Kennesaw State
  Liberty
  Western Carolina

  West:
  Middle Tennessee
  Missouri State
  Nicholls
  Southern Illinois
  Tarleton
  Western Kentucky

  And these as the Thanksgiving weekend games for the conference:

  Delaware-Liberty
  FIU-Jacksonville State
  Kennesaw State-Western Carolina
  Middle Tennessee-Western Kentucky
  Missouri State-Southern Illinois
  Nicholls-Tarleton

  All but Delaware-Liberty would be bordering state battles, but Delaware and Liberty are both located in states that border Maryland (Delaware and Virginia, respectively).

  • Famously NMSU will never be allowed to join the Mountain West because New Mexico always throws a hissy fit.

  • Pardon me Z-Man. College football DOES NOT need divisions what ruined it.

  • That is unless there were a state law requiring UNM and NMSU to be together, and in a conference and not as independents.

  • Z-Man, New Mexico & New Mexico State do not need state laws plus this college athletics NOT politics.

  • It's nice to think of NM, NMST, and UTEP as having a rivalry, even in-conference, at that, but the problem with such theory-crafting, even if in-agreement with at least some of it, is the real-life political whining and gerrymandering that comes with such institutions within close proximity of one another not wanting to "double-or-triple-dipping" into the same market-share for views and talent on and off the field. Otherwise, such realignments never would've happened in the first place, going back to NEB, MIZZ, and A&M having enough of UT's gerrymandering in The Big 12 and leaving for The Big 10 and SEC. Money talks in this world. Historical rivalries are second-fiddle to survival and thriving in some environment, old or new. On that note, some of what is factored into realignment additions is the cost of travel to and from far-off conference opponents: see, back in the day, these conferences, originally, started due to the relative proximity of institutions mainly stemming from having railroad-lines between their respective states, with stops along the way that were nearby said institutions. For example: Texas-Missouri-and-Kansas had a railroad-line, therefore, it made sense for when they got off the train to say at bars that their college could beat that college, so, UT, MIZZ, and KU began their rivalries with one another, becoming almost "package deals".

    However, in this largely post-railway, shrinking world, proximity takes a backseat to money, which, as far as the USD and other fiat, petrodollar linen-bills printed on poisonous ink by nefarious, Evil-alien-descended-Rothschild-Central-Bankers, is ever-inflating and being concentrated into the hands of monopolies in-bed with their respective States in a "Great Consolidation" (a more accurate or at least, less-flagged, term than "Reset", IMHO) to keep down competition from mom-and-pop firms and corporations currently without a "seat-at-the-table", locally and foreign, as disruptive technologies that could level playing-fields continue to emerge at a rapid-rate, such as cryptocurrencies and AI, therefore scaring said monopolists that do not deserve their market-leadership to lobby for regulation with fear-tactics in order to try and retain their monopolies in their respective industries. In an alternative-Universe, or better current one, once the "new world order' is defeated, such old school alignments could return as the market self-corrects itself after the introduction and widespread adoption of "sound money" (perhaps such as artificially-scarce, anonymous-by-default cryptocurrencies with networks powered by the likes of make-shift solar-sails in outer-space and/or mountain ranges covered in self-cleaning, terraforming solar-panels, such as in China, in-turn, protected by private security firm space forces competing in a truly free-market)!

    P.S.

    There is the "DEL-MAR-VA" peninsula that all three states share, but it's just more of a stretch to think that Delaware and Liberty would/could/should have a rivalry in the same conference as one another, as it makes more sense for either or both of those to have a rivalry with ODU and/or JMU, but ODU has stagnated into relative obscurity outside of the TaylorHeinecke years, with JMU leapfrogging many from the FCS ranks in that time and Liberty, being a religious institution, would present similar challenges as other religious institutions, elsewhere, and might behoove them to remain the veritable "top-dog-by-default" in the likes of CUSA, at least until radical realignment happens. That said, institutions within relative proximity of one another are both not only, typically (unless there's a famous, longstanding rivalry, but even then, it's not a guarantee, as what happened with A&M leaving UT for the SEC, years ago) do not want to "double-or-triple-dip" into the same region/conference talent recruitment pool, and conferences don't typically want that, either, when they could expand their respective footprint elsewhere in the country. Why get two "scrubs" instead of one scrub and a big name or two big names? Again, money and fame talk, proximity takes a backseat to that, at least in this day-and-age. It's about survival and maybe thriving over rivalry.

• Brian Wilmer, please correct the story to read "The Dukes will become the 14th full member and 15th football-playing member of the American". The real question is if the American is adding schools, that appears to be a preemptive move in the event some schools exit. Memphis would love to become a P4 school as would USF and Tulane. I'm not sure any current P4 conference is ready to take them so perhaps a new nationwide P5 conference can be originated from current G6 conferences.

  • That's what the current conspiracy-theory is that's been around since shortly after The American lost some to The Big 12 and The ACC and brought-up he likes of CUSA teams to backfill. The likes of MEM and/or TUL and/or USF (perhaps with UTSA on the bubble, just not making the cut) being, potentially, shopped to the likes of The ACC (and/or Big 12; MEM has been trying to get in the Big 12 for years, but they never took them and the other two would be a better fit for this "ACC" no longer bound to the Atlantic Ocean) might have signaled that they're leaving and will be accepted elsewhere, and this addition of JMU could be a signal of that being all but set in stone. Now, if it's not....that's a HUGE win for The American, but can still be even if it is true. Time will tell if this is a pre-emptive move to not compete with three other "G6" conferences and only two others, for all intents and purposes, for the same CFP spot (if getting more than one "G6" team in is ever harder to do), and is, thus, a win-win for both JMU and The American, or a proactive move to "backfill" before MEM and/or TUL and/or USF leave.

    Honestly, though, MEM and Tulane, and perhaps USF, had their "heyday" to strike oil in a "P4" conference at several points in history over the past....fifteen-or-so years, among other "giant-slayers", but all three have "cooled-off" (Tulane and USF more so than MEM) as of at least this past year from their "glory days", and may not fare well in their "greener pastures", but, as a UNT fan, seeing them go, when they were such difficult hurdles over the years, at least in recent years, only makes UNT (and perhaps UTSA) that much more likely to win American Conference Championships, whether against JMU or an academy or maybe ECU or FAU, as their only remaining "competition"! Those four teams, who are likely to stay in The American, for various reasons (as nice as it would be to see a North Texas in The Big 12 and rebuild the old Southwest Conference, only this time with UNT not screwed-out of it by SMU and UT), are the main beneficiaries of their top competition in MEM/TUL/USF leaving. Period. Even if Miami (OH) and/or UConn come over as other successors, they're nary better than Rice, Tulsa, Temple, and FIU! That's one, two, three, four, five, SIX "jobbers" for the top programs to eat their way to a CFP berth!

• Good for JMU, well deserved.
  The question is, who will the Sun Belt add?
  Perhaps former member WKU, who unfairly got left behind in C-USA a few years back.
  Or maybe Liberty, a school with a large endowment, and would nicely replace JMU's spot as a Virginia school.

  • WKU and MTSU are a package-deal, which factored into the last round of realignment, so, whether they stay put or go elsewhere, that will have to be a factor in the decision.

    Liberty could opt to stay in the CUSA to all-but-guarantee themselves CUSA championship after championship, to try and compete for a CFP spot against The American Champion, or a second spot against the "nu-PAC" and MAC, instead of getting lost in the shuffle of a more difficult deck, at least as long as there is an "FBS" with "G6" programs having the same shot at a Natty as "P4" teams. Also, Liberty is a religious institution, and that comes with scheduling headaches that are not easily swallowed by a given conference.