BYU:
@ Virginia--All White, awful hot and humid in Virginia in August.
Texas--Regular home uniform blue shirt, white pants.
Utah--"Old School" Royal Blue...the last time BYU beat Utah, it was with this uniform combination.
Middle Tennessee--Black-out game
@Utah State--Regular white top with blue pants.
Georgia Tech--All blue for homecoming.
@Houston--Depends on where the game is played, if Reliant Stadium, regular road uniform. If BBVA, all whites.
Boise State--Regular home uniform with pink accents for Breast Cancer Awareness.
@ Wisconsin--Regular road uniform
Idaho State--To honor veterans, wear a camouflage home uniform.
@ Notre Dame--All White
@ Nevada--Regular road uniform
Utah:
Utah State--Regular home uniform, red shirt, white pants.
Weber State--Honor Utah's first responders. Utah wears all crimson to honor all of the firefighters in the state. Weber State wears their black and purple uniforms to honor all of the police officers in the state. I will write more about this suggestion in a later post.
Oregon State--Pink accents for breast cancer awareness
@BYU--All Crimson
UCLA--Black Out
Stanford--Homecoming, All Crimson
@Arizona--All white
@USC--Black Helmets/Black Pants
Arizona State--Military uniform to honor veterans
@Oregon--Regular road uniform
@Washington State--Regular road uniform
Colorado--Regular home uniform
Utah State
@Utah--Regular road uniform
Weber State--Regular home uniform
@USC--All White, with blue helmet
BYU--All blue
--(MWC Schedule not known)
@Air Force--Regular Road Uniform
@New Mexico--Regular Road Uniform
@San Jose State--All White
@UNLV--All White
Boise State--All Blue
Colorado State--Blue with white pants and white helmet
Hawaii--Regular home
Wyoming--Regular home
However, consider a military style if a home game is played close to veterans day.
Weber State--see above.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Just when you thought you have it all firgured out.
The Sun Belt Conference has added New Mexico State and Idaho in 2014 as football only members and will add Georgia Southern and Appalachian State as all sports members beginning in 2015. This also means that there will be a conference championship game in 2015. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will be eligible to play in the Conference Championship game, but will not be bowl eligible until 2016.
Here is the alignment of the Sun Belt Conference...
Arkansas State
Arkansas Little Rock (Non football)
Appalachian State
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Idaho (Football Only-Big Sky)
New Mexico State (Football Only-WAC)
South Alabama
Texas State
Troy
UL Lafayette
UL Monroe
Western Kentucky
Here is the alignment of the Sun Belt Conference...
Arkansas State
Arkansas Little Rock (Non football)
Appalachian State
Georgia State
Georgia Southern
Idaho (Football Only-Big Sky)
New Mexico State (Football Only-WAC)
South Alabama
Texas State
Troy
UL Lafayette
UL Monroe
Western Kentucky
Monday, March 18, 2013
Is Conference Expansion Finished?
Updated 3/28
I've stayed away from speculation for a while. But obviously, the question is no. But seeing what has happened the last 3 years has revealed a pattern. It's not really expansion, it's consolidation. Basically, the stronger big conferences have be taking out the weaker big conferences. In all of the conference expansion that has happened over the past 4 years, only 2 schools have been added to the ranks of the elite conferences. There will probably only be one more. These big conferences are really looking at garnering all of the TV money they can. They also want to be the only schools that elite athletes will consider. They are trying to use elite athletics status to gain big research money, even though none of the dollars slated for athletics go to academics or research. If you are not in a big conference now, there is really little hope of getting in.
There are a couple of caveats to this theory. First, the ACC probably will not go quietly. If the Big 12 makes a serious move for the likes of Florida State, there will be an aggressive counter-offer. Same for the Big 12. The Big 12 will take whatever steps necessary to protect their existence. One of the other is going to lose it's elite status and both will fight it vigorously. I expect the Big 12 will win.
I expect BYU to get to the Big 12, but because there are not a lot of better options for that conference. It will be BYU or an ACC school that rocks the hardwood but not the gridiron. In Texas and Oklahoma, football rules. BYU is a better option than Duke or NC State right now.
B1G Ten
The Big 10 will add 2 more to reach 16 and that will begin the downfall of the ACC.
Big 12
There will be pressure for the Big 12 to expand to 16 to "Keep up with the Jonses" They will help carve up the ACC if they become the stronger conference. The Big 12 also has the name Big 16 reserved.
Pac-12 (Will remain at 12)
Even though there will be pressure to expand to 16, the Big 12 is now too strong to carve up. There will be no place for the PAC-12 to go unless they are will to consider Cal-State schools, UNLV and Boise State. That would take a major loss of ego to do that.
SEC
The SEC will continue to the carve up of the ACC.
Middle Tier, the tier where those busting into the BCS playoffs from the outside will come from 9 out of every 10 years.
ACC
What will be left of the ACC will be a pretty good basketball conference, but in football, they will be so weakened that they will not longer be considered and elite football conference. This conference, even though only 10 strong, would get as many as 6 NCAA tournament bids every season. Adding UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis and Temple will be a must, and the focus will turn to basketball. You may see them hack up what I now call, the America 12 conference.
America 12
What was the former football Big East will eventually be made of up mostly former C-USA members. I put MTSU and UTSA here because of their proximity to larger TV markets.
Mountain West
The MWC is considered a conference that is still not quite strong enough to be considered elite. I do not see the conference expanding to 14 unless they can break into elite status or if BYU changes it's mind on independence and does not get into an elite conference. They may expand if again if the PAC-12 decides to become 16 and they are the only conference the PAC-12 can raid. If I were Idaho, however, I would not hold my breath waiting for this any of this to happen. If the MWC were to expand or get replacements, I would think that they would go to Texas (SMU, Houston, UTEP, Rice) before they would consider Idaho or New Mexico State. I also think that Portland State, UC Davis, Cal Poly and even Sacramento State would be considered before Idaho, because these schools have better facilities, are in larger markets and are closer to recruiting hotbeds.
I don't believe the MWC will or should look for a non-football school to replace Hawaii and even out their basketball membership, but will instead attempt to get Hawaii to come into the conference for all sports. Of course, they will probably need a good TV deal to get that, and they may have to slit into divisions in non-football sports. The division split would mean that Hawaii, for non-football sports, would only travel to half of the conference schools east of Las Vegas in any given year instead of all of them. That will save their travel budget.
Lower Tier
Conference USA
I want to spell this Conference-USA with lower-case letters ie...c-usa. It's just not what it once was. Hopefully, this line-up will produce stable membership. No serious chance for a BCS-playoff buster until the membership becomes stable. Out of the teams that are not currently in c-usa? They will have to raid the Sun Belt for more members.
MAC
The MAC will remain stable and relatively untouched. If Conference-USA were more stable, the MAC would be more unstable as some of the southern MAC members may find C-USA more attractive, but not c-usa. I do not believe that c-usa will be attractive to any current member of the MAC.
Sun Belt
This will continue to the the primary conference that FCS schools in the south and the east will look to when looking to move up to the FBS. This conference has just announced expansion to 12 for football with the addition of Appalachian State, and Georgia Southern with Idaho and New Mexico State as football-only members. This is likely not the final makeup as members may end up in other conferences. Perhaps, the Sun Bel will eventually get a football-only western division with Cal Poly and UC Davis and possible some other schools from the Big Sky Conference.
I've stayed away from speculation for a while. But obviously, the question is no. But seeing what has happened the last 3 years has revealed a pattern. It's not really expansion, it's consolidation. Basically, the stronger big conferences have be taking out the weaker big conferences. In all of the conference expansion that has happened over the past 4 years, only 2 schools have been added to the ranks of the elite conferences. There will probably only be one more. These big conferences are really looking at garnering all of the TV money they can. They also want to be the only schools that elite athletes will consider. They are trying to use elite athletics status to gain big research money, even though none of the dollars slated for athletics go to academics or research. If you are not in a big conference now, there is really little hope of getting in.
There are a couple of caveats to this theory. First, the ACC probably will not go quietly. If the Big 12 makes a serious move for the likes of Florida State, there will be an aggressive counter-offer. Same for the Big 12. The Big 12 will take whatever steps necessary to protect their existence. One of the other is going to lose it's elite status and both will fight it vigorously. I expect the Big 12 will win.
I expect BYU to get to the Big 12, but because there are not a lot of better options for that conference. It will be BYU or an ACC school that rocks the hardwood but not the gridiron. In Texas and Oklahoma, football rules. BYU is a better option than Duke or NC State right now.
B1G Ten
The Big 10 will add 2 more to reach 16 and that will begin the downfall of the ACC.
| Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Maryland |
| Michigan | Michigan State | Minnesota | Nebraska |
| North Carolina | Northwestern | Ohio State | Penn State |
| Purdue | Rutgers | Virginia | Wisconsin |
Big 12
There will be pressure for the Big 12 to expand to 16 to "Keep up with the Jonses" They will help carve up the ACC if they become the stronger conference. The Big 12 also has the name Big 16 reserved.
| Baylor | Brigham Young | Georgia Tech | Florida State |
| Iowa State | Kansas | Kansas State | Louisville |
| Miami | Notre Dame | Oklahoma | Oklahoma State |
| Texas | Texas Tech | Texas Christian | West Virginia |
Pac-12 (Will remain at 12)
Even though there will be pressure to expand to 16, the Big 12 is now too strong to carve up. There will be no place for the PAC-12 to go unless they are will to consider Cal-State schools, UNLV and Boise State. That would take a major loss of ego to do that.
| Arizona | Arizona State | California | Colorado |
| Oregon | Oregon State | Stanford | UCLA |
| USC | Utah | Washington | Washington State |
SEC
The SEC will continue to the carve up of the ACC.
| Alabama | Arkansas | Auburn | Clemson |
| Florida | Georgia | Kentucky | Louisiana State |
| Missouri | Mississippi | Mississippi State | South Carolina |
| Tennessee | Texas A&M | Vanderbilt | Virginia Tech |
Middle Tier, the tier where those busting into the BCS playoffs from the outside will come from 9 out of every 10 years.
ACC
What will be left of the ACC will be a pretty good basketball conference, but in football, they will be so weakened that they will not longer be considered and elite football conference. This conference, even though only 10 strong, would get as many as 6 NCAA tournament bids every season. Adding UConn, Cincinnati, Memphis and Temple will be a must, and the focus will turn to basketball. You may see them hack up what I now call, the America 12 conference.
| Boston College | Connecticut | Cincinnati | Duke |
| Memphis | North Carolina State | Pittsburgh | Temple |
| Syracuse | Wake Forest |
What was the former football Big East will eventually be made of up mostly former C-USA members. I put MTSU and UTSA here because of their proximity to larger TV markets.
| Army | Central Florida | Houston | Middle Tennessee |
| Navy | Rice | South Florida | Southern Methodist |
| Southern Mississippi | UTSA | Tulsa | Tulane |
Mountain West
The MWC is considered a conference that is still not quite strong enough to be considered elite. I do not see the conference expanding to 14 unless they can break into elite status or if BYU changes it's mind on independence and does not get into an elite conference. They may expand if again if the PAC-12 decides to become 16 and they are the only conference the PAC-12 can raid. If I were Idaho, however, I would not hold my breath waiting for this any of this to happen. If the MWC were to expand or get replacements, I would think that they would go to Texas (SMU, Houston, UTEP, Rice) before they would consider Idaho or New Mexico State. I also think that Portland State, UC Davis, Cal Poly and even Sacramento State would be considered before Idaho, because these schools have better facilities, are in larger markets and are closer to recruiting hotbeds.
I don't believe the MWC will or should look for a non-football school to replace Hawaii and even out their basketball membership, but will instead attempt to get Hawaii to come into the conference for all sports. Of course, they will probably need a good TV deal to get that, and they may have to slit into divisions in non-football sports. The division split would mean that Hawaii, for non-football sports, would only travel to half of the conference schools east of Las Vegas in any given year instead of all of them. That will save their travel budget.
| Air Force | Boise State | Colorado State | Fresno State |
| Hawaii (Football Only) | Nevada | UNLV | New Mexico |
| San Diego State | San Jose State | Utah State | Wyoming |
Lower Tier
Conference USA
I want to spell this Conference-USA with lower-case letters ie...c-usa. It's just not what it once was. Hopefully, this line-up will produce stable membership. No serious chance for a BCS-playoff buster until the membership becomes stable. Out of the teams that are not currently in c-usa? They will have to raid the Sun Belt for more members.
| Alabama Birmingham | UNC Charlotte | Florida Atlantic | Florida International |
| Louisiana Tech | North Texas | Marshall | Old Dominion |
| UTEP | Western Kentucky |
The MAC will remain stable and relatively untouched. If Conference-USA were more stable, the MAC would be more unstable as some of the southern MAC members may find C-USA more attractive, but not c-usa. I do not believe that c-usa will be attractive to any current member of the MAC.
| Akron | Ball State | Bowling Green | Buffalo |
| Central Michigan | Eastern Michigan | Kent | Miami (Ohio) |
| Massachusetts | Northern Illinois | Ohio | Toledo |
| Western Michigan |
Sun Belt
This will continue to the the primary conference that FCS schools in the south and the east will look to when looking to move up to the FBS. This conference has just announced expansion to 12 for football with the addition of Appalachian State, and Georgia Southern with Idaho and New Mexico State as football-only members. This is likely not the final makeup as members may end up in other conferences. Perhaps, the Sun Bel will eventually get a football-only western division with Cal Poly and UC Davis and possible some other schools from the Big Sky Conference.
| Arkansas State | Arkansas Little Rock (Non football) | Appalachian State | Georgia State |
| Georgia Southern | Idaho (Football Only-Big Sky) | New Mexico State (Football Only-WAC) | South Alabama |
| Texas State | Troy | UL Lafayette | UL Monroe |
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