United States Conference
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 15-02-2012
2
A newly formed conference is still looking for a name. The present Mountain West Conference and Conference USA are combining. It will cover 5 time zones, stretching from North Carolina to Hawaii, truly a national conference and truly one that deserves the name of United States, from East Carolina heading west and ending up at the University of Hawaii and in-between, East Carolina, University of Alabama-Birmingham, Tulsa, Tulane, University of Texas-El Paso, Rice, Marshall, Southern Mississippi from the C-USA and from the Mountain West, Air Force, Colorado State, Fresno State, University of Nevada – Las Vegas, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Hawaii….They are saying the conference could go up to 24 teams. Looks to me like they will have to have regional play to cut down on some of the travel. However, I’ll bet most of them will want to play Hawaii at home pretty regular. The i’s have not yet been dotted and the t’s crossed, but it is a done deal. So they tell us to live with it. What’s a poor old Mountain West lover to do? Hope for the best, my friends, hope for the best……..
Yipes! This is not a conference. This is an association, another NCAA! That we don’t need. But I hope for the best. The aggregation into great numbers may, at last, allow the smaller, poorer schools to compete with the larger. richer ones, if the cost of travel does not go too high as the price of fuel skyrockets. This new “association” can always borrow part of the name from the NCAA and call themselves the NCAC. That way it may have sufficient enforcement power to be a law unto itself. That way it can cheat at will and really compete with the rich guys.
Yeah, I don’t know about cost, team travel, etc, but it has to be expensive. I don’t think all the changing of conferences is over yet. One day our colleges will go back to teaching and allow sports to fall by the wayside….well, maybe not, but they should as much as I like football and basketball.