Realignment Round-Up for Upcoming season

[Muskie]

Link (http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/07/01/realignment-catchup-more-changes-coming-july-1/)

July 1, 2013 was a busy day on the college sports landscape (http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/01/a-complete-breakdown-of-conference-realignment-for-2013-2014/), with a “new” league (American Athletic Conference) coming into existence and some 46 schools moving from one conference to another. But while the major shifting took place on that day, today — July 1, 2014 — hasn’t lacked for moves, with the majority of those shifts coming at the mid-major level.

[X-band '01]

But it is a big day for Louisville (ACC) and Maryland/Rutgers (Big 10), though.

[Muskie]

I can't wait for those traditional Maryland/Nebraska Basketball tilts during rivalry week.

[xubrew]

So, instead of Nebraska, Kansas, K State and Missouri, and Maryland, Duke and Virginia, we get Nebraska v Maryland.

I just love what realignment has done to our traditional rivalries. And they wonder why attendance and ratings are declining.

Nebraska vs Maryland is now in the Big Ten foot print. I wonder what the ratings all throughout Michigan, Indiana and Illinois will be for that one. Don't forget about the Rutgers v Iowa series. That will be an absolute war.

[GoMuskies]

At least with Louisville in the ACC, I can't think of a single program (other than Clemson) that Louisville doesn't have some history with.

[xubrew]

It's a huge upgrade from the American, and it's a better football conference than the old Big East. I don't think it's as big of an upgrade from the old Big East as many are making it out to be, but I do believe that it is an upgrade.

When it comes to basketball, I think the Big East was arguably better before it fell apart.

[X-band '01]

Penn State does have some historical rivalries as it relates to Maryland and Rutgers, but nobody else in the Big 10 can make such a claim.

Nebraska-Iowa could become a nice rivalry if both programs become consistent enough.

[muskiefan82]

Penn State does have some historical rivalries as it relates to Maryland and Rutgers, but nobody else in the Big 10 can make such a claim.

Nebraska-Iowa could become a nice rivalry if both programs become consistent enough.

The Tornado Belt Tussle?

[xubrew]

I'm not a huge fan of pro sports. I don't have anything against them, although I do think it's nuts to play an 80 game season and eliminate about ten teams the way the NBA does. I just never became attached to them.

Having said that, if the NFL, or NBA, or MLB were in charge of aligning the conferences and making the schedules, things would look a whole lot different, and they'd probably look different for the better. They understand that having traditional and regional rivalries within divisions is a good thing. The NCAA is the only sports league in the world that I know of that appears to be eliminating their rivalries rather than embrace them. If the Bears and Packers or Yankees and Red Sox were colleges, they'd stop scheduling each other and insist that they have nothing to gain by continuing to play each other. No more Maryland v Duke or Maryland v Virginia. It's the latest to a long list of rivalries that are now gone.

[bleedXblue]

I'm not a huge fan of pro sports. I don't have anything against them, although I do think it's nuts to play an 80 game season and eliminate about ten teams the way the NBA does. I just never became attached to them.

Having said that, if the NFL, or NBA, or MLB were in charge of aligning the conferences and making the schedules, things would look a whole lot different, and they'd probably look different for the better. They understand that having traditional and regional rivalries within divisions is a good thing. The NCAA is the only sports league in the world that I know of that appears to be eliminating their rivalries rather than embrace them. If the Bears and Packers or Yankees and Red Sox were colleges, they'd stop scheduling each other and insist that they have nothing to gain by continuing to play each other. No more Maryland v Duke or Maryland v Virginia. It's the latest to a long list of rivalries that are now gone.

And to think that some really, really well educated and smart people made these decisions largely around one thing and one thing only.....$$$$$$$

[SM#24]

As a fan of pretty much all things CFB and CBB, the only game/rivalry I'll truly miss out of all this the last few years is the Texas-TexasA&M football game. I can't think of another CFB game I would look back on and say "boy, I sure wish they still played"

From a CBB standpoint, UMd-Duke, UMd-UVa is not really any more appealing to me than UMd-OhioSt or UMd-iowa. It will take some getting use to but the ACC UMd left, is not the same as the 8 team ACC we grew up on. Yes, UMd-Duke/UNC/UVa goes by the wayside, but so does UMd-BC/VaTech/FlaSt/Miami. Same goes for the Big East, that had not been the same conference for almost twenty years when they started bloating themselves with football schools.

I like rivalries and long-standing ones at that, but really at the end of the day, through all this changing, how many of the truly great rivalries have been lost ? Just a small handful I think.

[GoMuskies]

Oklahoma/Nebraska was a huge loss. KU/Mizzou is a loss, though much smaller. XU/Dayton....just kidding.

[xubrew]

And to think that some really, really well educated and smart people made these decisions largely around one thing and one thing only.....$$$$$$$

Yes, which they'll get in the short term, but not in the long term. The ratings have been down, so they shouldn't expect these big time TV deals the next time around after the current ones expire.

[xubrew]

Oklahoma/Nebraska was a huge loss. KU/Mizzou is a loss, though much smaller. XU/Dayton....just kidding.

There was a time when Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska and Iowa State all played each other twice a year every year, and were in the conference tournament after that. We have Rivalry Week now, and even that has lost its luster. It used to be that seemingly every week was Rivalry Week. You get those six teams into one building for a conference tournament every year, and it was war.

It wasn't the only league that boiled over with intensity. They used to pretty much all be like that. But, not anymore. And they wonder why ticket sales and ratings are down.

[SM#24]

Oklahoma/Nebraska was a huge loss. KU/Mizzou is a loss, though much smaller. XU/Dayton....just kidding.

Oklahoma-Nebraska died before Neb. went to the Big 10. That died when they went into separate divisions when Big 8 went to Big 12 and they stopped playing every year.

[GoMuskies]

I agree with you there, but it still makes it a victim of realignment. It was idiotic to put those two in separate divisions (or at least to not have them play every year - Switzer and Osborne would have rolled over in their respective graves had they been dead).

[SM#24]

I agree on NU-OU being a big loss. I grew up on that game in the early 70s, but once the Texas teams came aboard, the big Big XII rivalry was OU-Texas.

This is just me, but I think there's a huge difference between a rivalry and a team you play every year (no matter how long it's been going on). Other than Kansas, what truly great rival has Missouri foregone ? Mizzou-KSt/OkSt/IowaSt/TexasTech is not a big loss for anyone.

Like I said previsouly, I'm not going to find myself yearning for many of the "old" matchups other than Texas-TexasAM football. I'll be as interested in a Mizzou-Tenn BB game as I was in a Mizzou-OU game.

[xubrew]

Mizzou's attendance in basketball has dropped 23% since they joined the SEC. Some of that is due to the team not being as good, and some of it is due to crappy tip times against crappy SEC teams. But, no small part of it is due to the fact that their traditional opponents are off the schedule. If they were playing Kansas, K State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Nebraska and Texas, they would have been packed out every night. Instead, they're playing Vandy, Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia.

[xubrew]

Oklahoma/Nebraska was a huge loss. KU/Mizzou is a loss, though much smaller. XU/Dayton....just kidding.

I think Kansas v Missouri is a huge loss. That was such a great rivalry. I may overvalue it a little too much, but the idea that it dates back to 1891, and that the two schools' mascots are named after militias that fought each other (even though they were technically both on the union's side) just 25 years earlier, was pretty awesome. Those two had a very special kind of hatred for each other. I really do miss that one.

Texas v TAMU

West Virginia v Pitt

Syracuse v Georgetown (although they'll continue to play OOC, it's still not the same)

Syracuse v UConn

Maryland v Duke and Virginia

If you look at the old ACC and Big Eight (and to a degree the Big Twelve), it's cliche to say, but it's true. Every game was a war. At the very least, conference games had a level of intensity that most of them don't have anymore. Mizzou v Vandy doesn't even feel like a conference game.

[paulxu]

If Mick the Dick had his way, another great rivalry would be dead today.