The PAC 10 expansion groundswell

[Hot Lunch]

Recruiting might be the only redeeming factor of Houston. You might get one or two kids up to BYU that you might not have gotten without the promise to play in Houston every other year. Other than that, you might be better off adding Rice just so you can say you have an academic powerhouse in the conference.

Houston is a great market, but it's dominated by aTm, UT, LSU, and Oklahoma fans. There's even a couple TTech and Baylor fans sprinkled around too.

It isn't just for BYU though. It is for the all the schools involved. Every team in the projected new conference wants to recruit down there.

[Hot Lunch]

The one thing I'd say is, relatively speaking, nobody in those conferences gets any more excited about playing Vanderbilt or Indiana than we get for Wyoming or CSU.

Yet we would be more excited to see our team play Indiana or Vandy than we would Wyoming or CSU.

[UtahDan]

You would not take Maryland and Virginia over New Mexico and CSU?

I find that hard to believe, other than the fact that you live in that are and you have possibly developed a hatred for their respective fan bases.

Maybe historically, but not over the last three years. Virginia has been run into the ground and Maryland has been pretty bad too. Both are better than CSU, though I would have picked UNM over either of them in most of the last few years. They have just been really bad. I don't hate either one, in fact, I go to a lot of UVA games.

[Hot Lunch]

I guess what I'm saying is, as far as pure competitiveness on the field, the gap from Florida to the bottom of the SEC, is just as big, or bigger than the gap from BYU/Utah/TCU to the bottom of the MWC.

You are right when you say this. You also need to add that the gap between the bottom of the SEC and the bottom of the Mtn. West is pretty big as well. Mississippi St. would have placed at least 4th in the MWC last year.

[shoganai]

Yet we would be more excited to see our team play Indiana or Vandy than we would Wyoming or CSU.

I think you might have missed my point. I'm not sure Wyoming or CSU would be all that different from Vanderbilt or Indiana if they had big-time BCS and TV money coming in every year.

If we believe it would improve our top schools, we have to conclude it would improve our basement dwellers as well. They might still suck, but it would be more of a Vanderbilt suck than a Colorado State-type suck.

[Moliere]

It isn't just for BYU though. It is for the all the schools involved. Every team in the projected new conference wants to recruit down there.

Yes, I'm aware of that. So if you have the option of UH or Rice, whcih do you take? Houston has some history, granted not much outside of Phi Slamma Jamma and Rice is a much better academic school (top 20 in the US). Both have about the same size fan base although Rice is a smaller private school.

[Hot Lunch]

I think you might have missed my point. I'm not sure Wyoming or CSU would be all that different from Vanderbilt or Indiana if they had big-time BCS and TV money coming in every year.

If we believe it would improve our schools, we have to conclude it would improve our basement dwellers as well. They might still suck, but it would be more of a Vanderbilt suck than a Colorado State-type suck.

I agree that it would improve our bottom teams as well. I don't know how much but it will. I see the new projected conference as being a tier 2 conference and I think it will not generate as much money as the conferences that Vandy and Indiana will be in.

The fact that I think we all can agree on is that in college sports, there is not nor will there ever be an even playing field for all schools.

[Hot Lunch]

Yes, I'm aware of that. So if you have the option of UH or Rice, whcih do you take? Houston has some history, granted not much outside of Phi Slamma Jamma and Rice is a much better academic school (top 20 in the US). Both have about the same size fan base although Rice is a smaller private school.

Expansion is all about sports and this new conference won't have there nose in the air like th Pac-10 does. Houston offers a much better product on the field. The football field that is. Baseball at Rice is money. So I would go Houston without a doubt.

[beefytee]

Yes, I'm aware of that. So if you have the option of UH or Rice, whcih do you take? Houston has some history, granted not much outside of Phi Slamma Jamma and Rice is a much better academic school (top 20 in the US). Both have about the same size fan base although Rice is a smaller private school.

Rice isn't even meeting the minimum requirement for DIV 1A.

2009 Attendance:

Houston: 25,242 Capacity:32,000

Rice: 13,552 Capacity:47,000

[Moliere]

Rice isn't even meeting the minimum requirement for DIV 1A.

2009 Attendance:

Houston: 25,242 Capacity:32,000

Rice: 13,552 Capacity:47,000

I should have checked my numbers. I work with more Rice graduates than I do UH grads, but that says more about my line of work than it does the size of the fan bases. Rice is a small private school so the fact they do well in some things is astounding. UH is a large public school that gets lost in the foray of the mightier schools that are favored in this area. I'd also probably take UH over Rice, but thought I'd run it up the flag pole for good measure. Every conference seems to have the standard one school that is academically superior but athletically inferior (football wise) (NW in the Big 10, Duke in the ACC, Vandy in the SEC) so I figured we could carry that trend into the new Big 12,14,16,whatever.

[cougjunkie]

Every conference seems to have the standard one school that is academically superior but athletically inferior (football wise) (NW in the Big 10, Duke in the ACC, Vandy in the SEC, BYU in the MWC) so I figured we could carry that trend into the new Big 12,14,16,whatever.

Fixed it.

[beefytee]

Fixed it.

Why do you think BYU is athletically inferior football-wise? Or academically superior for that matter?

[Coach McGuirk]

Some thoughts on MWC.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/undraftedf...rom=blog_last3

[Moliere]

Fixed it.

Ha, so we suck at football? Speak for your self.

I was going to put Stanford for the Pac 10 but figured Cal, USC, and UCLA are all there as well academically so it's as applicable. Not sure about the Big East (Rutgers?)

[Hot Lunch]

I think you are looking at it wrong, why would those 4 teams leave the Big 12? They have the Big 12 TV contracts, the big 12 championship game, and right now an automatic BCS berth (which according to contracts is in place until at least 2013.) So the MWC teams will be leaving to join the Big 12, not vice versa. That is why the Big 12 will start with the 4 remaining teams regardless and then add from there.

And because is exactly how it is and it will be the Big 12 or what is left of it handing out those invites, I can see them going after a school like Louisville. Louisville could be interested especially if some of the Big East teams are plucked out of there conference.