Agreed! I'd much rather make the roadie from Vegas to San Diego rather than to Provo. I was personally hoping that UNLV would get the full sports invite, but knowing that football is driving this move, there's no way that that glorified D3 team would get a sniff at an AQ conference. Imagine adding UNLV basketball to the BE mix. lol...I HATE THE UTAH JAZZ!!!!
kbohls kbohls A Big 12 school official told me Texas A&M's exit fee is $22 million; Aggies dispute that amount.
I'm of the opinion that after the latest round of shake ups and reshuffling, it's time to relegate the remainder of C-USA, Mt West, Sun Belt, Mid-American, and even WAC to IAA. Maybe let Hawaii jump ship to PAC. There's no reasonable argument for them to be in the same division anymore.
They'd probably disagree with you...especially when you consider all the time, money, and effort it takes to get from FCS to FBS (just ask Texas State).
And there we have it, this was the goal of the BCS and its supporters all along. And at the rate things are going, I'd say mission accomplished.
Those conferences cover something like 40-50 schools and lost a grand total of about 6? I don't see why that would change anything. Sure, they lost the big name ones like TCU, Utah, and Bosie. But that just opens the door for new big name schools in those conferences. It's not like any of these schools were any good a decade ago either.
That's my point. Why have them in the same division when they aren't remotely in the same class, ever have been, or ever will be? The ones that left, left because they were good enough to pass muster and gt invited into a real conference. Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, Middle Tenn, Idaho and all the rest belong with Delaware, William & Mary, Appalachian St, etc.
But 10 or 15 years ago, Boise State and TCU were no different than UAB or Tulsa or Nevada. They, along with UH and Utah, did prove themselves to be able to rise up and get in the same class as the big boys and got themselves invited to the BCS conferences. There's no reason to think the remaining schools can't do it again now that those schools are out of their conferences.
Well the settlement is in for Texas A&M's exit fees, and just like I predicted, the buyout is nowhere near the original numbers that were floated (i.e. $30MM) http://www.big12sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=10410&ATCLID=205388761 .. And this tweet from Jason Cook gives the end result. Didn't pay much more than Nebraska if at all (can't remember their exact number) Hard to believe that WVU had to pay $20MM to the Big East. What a leadership failure in the Big 12.
So how much money is A&M in the hole now? And what if they don't make a bowl game their first year in the SEC? This is quite the risky game that A&M is playing. I hope it works out for them.
Considering the SEC is expecting A&M to get 10-15MM more than they got in the big 12, money is certainly not the issue The issue is how long will it take us to compete, which is a very fair question
