Mid-major realignment: Sun Belt making moves

Conference USA isn’t going to sit back and let realignment happen around them: they’re considering expanding to 16 teams in hopes of staying ahead of the curve, per league commissioner Britton Banowsky.

With Western Kentucky sliding in to fill in the spot created by Tulsa ditching for the nearly-as-patriotically-named American Athletic Conference, C-USA stays at 14 teams. But they’re looking at going bigger, per CBS:

Western Kentucky will be leaving the Sun Belt Conference to join Conference USA, effective July 1, 2014, according to Brett McMurphy of ESPN.

With Tulsa reportedly set to join the Big East, Western Kentucky will fill the void in Conference USA. Earlier this week, Western Kentucky denied reports that it would leave the Sun Belt, but it now becomes the fifth school to leave the Sun Belt in the last year, joining North Texas, Florida Atlantic, Florida International and Middle Tennessee State, all of which landed in C-USA as well.

Jason Kirk might be getting exclusionary, but the debate over whether FBS college football already has too many teams raises a much better question: what if we invited everyone to the party? We’re talking every football team in the world.

“IT’S GREAT TO BE BACK IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL,” said 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh, the former coach at Stanford. “I CAN’T WAIT TO PLAY THAT SCHOOL DOWN SOUTH AGAIN. THE SOUTHERN CAL ONE.”

Only 40 current FBS programs have ever claimed national championships at the highest level, and about that same number of programs has a realistic chance of winning one ever again.

But with Georgia State ascending after two straight FCS losing seasons and Appalachian State, Charlotte, Georgia Southern and Old Dominion joining over the next two years, plus possibly James Madison and others, we’ll be over 130 FBS teams in no time.

The Sun Belt has added four new football teams to the conference and will be splitting up into divisions, according to a press release.

More: Grading the Sun Belt’s expansion | Martin Rickman on the Moon Belt Conference

The Sun Belt Conference on Wednesday announced the addition of four new teams in football. Idaho,

Although it seems somewhat crazy that Idaho, essentially on the other side of the country from the geographic Sun Belt, would join a conference named after that region, but its a move that makes sense -- and its not the first time the Vandals have been in the league.

Western Kentucky sources have denied reports that WKU is soon to join Conference USA and fill the void reportedly left by Tulsa. Specifically, officials told SB Nation that none of its coaches have informed players that WKU would be leaving the Sun Belt following the 2013-‘14 season, as was reported by WBKO’s Jeff Woods.

A source at WKU also stated that the university has not engaged in any current communications regarding a move out of the Sun Belt, and has not been offered an invitation to C-USA at this time, confirming a report by the Bowling Green Daily News’ Chad Bishop.

It’s become an annual tradition for Boise State to travel a great distance in its non-conference schedule and meet a Big Ten, SEC, or ACC team in a hostile atmosphere in order to gain some credit with the BCS and pollsters. Those games have tended to come with no promise of a return, so Bronco Stadium was left to cupcakes, Mountain West rivals, and the occasional Beaver or Duck.

BSU’s 37,000-seat stadium doesn’t pull in the revenue it would typically take to draw a college football power, which can make far more money hosting an FCS school. But with the backing of a new ESPN deal that promises to televise all Boise State home games, the Broncos can attract BCS foes into Idaho.

PHOBOS – In an unprecedented move sure to shock the college football world, 10 of the Solar System’s finest universities have formed an all-sports athletics league to be named the Moon Belt Conference. Starting play in 2050, the Moon Belt Conference is taking the Sun Belt Conference’s lead and is expanding outward, or outofthisworldward, if you may.

Charter schools include Io State, Phoebe University, Kale Gulf Coast, Phobos Tech, Prospero State, Neso Institute of Technology, S/2004 S12 College, Aegir State, Ariel Academy and East Carolina University.

Any time a college conference picks up four schools in a single day, it would be ideal to give each addition a careful portion of consideration. But this shopping spree is basically two purchases, not four, so it makes sense to look at the foursome in pairs.

Considering the Sun Belt’s realistic prospects, this duo is as good as it gets. The two most successful programs in FCS history (nine combined national titles since 1985) offer perhaps the Sun Belt’s best rivalry from Day 1, legit football fan support all around (App State already outdraws the Sun Belt average, while Southern’s close to it with a stadium expansion on the way) and geographic fits that make future rivalries more likely and don’t create any travel strains.

The Sun Belt will be adding not only Georgia Southern and Appalachian State, but New Mexico State and Idaho as well, Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports reports. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are set to announce they are joining Wednesday, with New Mexico State and Idaho possibly announcing they’re joining as soon as Thursday, Dodd reports. The latter two schools will be football-only members.

SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey reported the departure of both Georgia Southern and Appalachian State from the FCS to the Sun Belt earlier this morning.

Two of the most prominent teams in the second tier of college football will be moving up, as Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are leaving the FCS’ Southern Conference for the Sun Belt of the FBS, a source tells SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey. Godfrey reports GSU will make the full move in 2015, with a transitional season in 2014 and no change to its 2013 schedule. [Update: CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reports Idaho and New Mexico State will also join, as football-only members, in 2014.]

The Sun Belt wanted to bring in existing rivals, and the relationship between App State and Southern intrigued the conference, according to a source.

On the surface, it might not make much sense for ESPN to sign a deal to become the secondary rights holder for a college conference. However, the details in this agreement make things seem like another massive victory for the Worldwide Leader.

According to press releases sent out by the network and the Mountain West, ESPN and the conference have agreed “in principle” to a rights deal for select football and basketball games. The deal begins with the upcoming 2013 football season and lasts through the 2019-20 academic year. The key point to the deal, however, is that ESPN has won exclusive rights to Boise State football home games. It essentially has with the Broncos what NBC has with Notre Dame.

The Mountain West Conference has experienced something of a rebirth over the past month or so, as Boise State and San Diego State have elected to stay home rather than go to the Big East. With the conference ranks back up to 12 teams, it was time to split into two divisions.

However, rather than go with the simple and efficient North/South/East/West, the MWC took a page from the Big Ten and ACC’s playbook:

The Mountain West will stand at 12 schools with the addition of San Diego State, giving the conference the necessary number of schools required for a conference championship as well as further prestige as one of the best mid-major conferences. The MWC might be interested in Tulsa, although it’s probably not quite as pressing as before now that the Aztecs and Boise State are staying.

This could mean Tulsa ends up in the Big East over the Mountain West, joining multiple other Conference USA schools like UCF, Houston, Memphis and SMU (who are leaving this year) as well as East Carolina and Tulane (leaving in 2014).

San Diego State will remain a member of the Mountain West Conference, according to Brett McMurphy. The Aztecs were pegged for a move to the Big East, but the league continues to lose schools seemingly on a daily basis.

When SDSU committed to joining the Big East, it was going to line up with Boise State, Rutgers, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse to give the league some semblance of respectability. All four of those schools have since backed out of joining or left. Boise State will be staying in the Mountain West with San Diego State.

The UT-San Antonio Roadrunners recently have been mentioned in conference realignment rumors suggesting that they might be discussing a move to the Mountain West. Roadrunners athletics director Lynn Hickey denied any contact between her school and the MWC.

“We have not had any conversations, and I have not had a call, nothing,” Hickey said.

San Diego State is reconsidering its decision to move from the Mountain West Conference to the Big East. According to Big East commissioner Mike Aresco, the Aztecs’ current preference would be to stay in the Big East.

“Every indication is they want to stay,” Aresco said. “Whether they will or not we still don’t know. We’re still talking.”

The Mountain West Conference and San Diego State are expected to come to a deal sometime this week, according to CBSSports.com’s Jeremy Fowler. San Diego State and Boise State were scheduled to join the Big East in 2013, Louisville’s departure for the ACC and Boise’s decision to remain in the Mountain West has caused Aztec officials to reconsider their move.

Since San Diego State no longer has a west coast partner in the Big East, they do not have to pay the Big East a buyout to get out of the conference. San Diego State has until January 31 to make their decision on remaining in the Mountain West, which is dictated by Boise’s deal to remain with the conference. Most think that with Boise remaining in the Mountain West, San Diego State are heavy favorites to stay as well.

News leaked early on Friday that BYU was close to coming back to the Mountain West Conference after a brief foray into independence. However, according to Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman, the school that’s the closest to coming back into the Mountain West is actually San Diego State, not BYU. Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson wasn’t 100 percent on the Aztecs remaining with them, but said that they’re still working on it:

San Diego State was scheduled to leave the Mountain West for the Big East next season, but Louisville’s move to the ACC and Boise State’s decision to stay in the Mountain West have many of the future Big East teams reconsidering their plans. San Diego State has until the end of January to be readmitted into the conference.

Well, we almost made it to the end of 2012 without any more conference realignment blockbusters. Even though this one was anticipated, it’s still a very big deal. The Big East is now the seventh-best football conference moving forward.

With the disintegrating Big East roster and its dwindling chances of a good television deal making a conference switch look less appealing, Boise State will reportedly stick with the Mountain West. That the coming college football playoff system also affords the MWC exactly as much access as it does the Big East likely helped the decision as well -- as likely did, you know, geography.

Boise State and San Diego State did not join the Big East because they like its history and tradition. They did not do it because they wanted to see the world. There is nothing special about the Big East’s culture and virtue that lured Boise State and San Diego State.

At the time, the Big East was more likely to offer them BCS bowl access and more money. That has changed.

The Vandals were a charter member of the conference in 1963 and remained with the conference until leaving after the 1995-96 season. They most recently joined the Western Athletic Conference before the 2005-06 season, but will leave that conference in fewer than two years.

The rest of the school’s sports, though, will compete as member No. 12 of the Big Sky that features Idaho’s in-state rival, the Idaho State Bengals. The Big Sky has had recent changes, as North Dakota and Southern Utah are each in their first season with the conference, while UC Davis and Cal Poly are in their first seasons as football-affiliate members.

The Idaho Vandals -- yes, that’s a real college football team -- have been trying to secure a spot in pretty much any conference that will take them. Unfortunately, nobody wants the Vandals, who will be one of only two teams left in the zombified WAC after this season. That’s probably still no excuse for head coach Robb Akey to resort to name-calling.

The Associated Press reports that Akey made the following comments on Thursday:

We knew this was coming, but still. :(

↵