Rank these soccer conferences, in terms of women's college soccer .......... (After conference expansion to super-conferences take place) -ACC- North Carolina Florida State Duke Virginia Maryland Boston College Wake Forest Clemson Virginia Tech Miami N.C. State Syracuse (expanded member) Pitt (expanded member) Connecticut (expanded member) Rutgers (expanded member) -BIG EAST- Marquette Georgetown Louisville West Virginia South Florida Villanova Cincinnati DePaul Providence St. Johns Seton Hall TCU (expanded member) -BIG TEN- (14 schools below are members in ten states, and Big Ten keeps their name) Penn State Ohio State Wisconsin Illinois Minnesota Michigan Michigan State Purdue Indiana Iowa Northwestern Nebraska (expanded member) Notre Dame (expanded member) Kansas (expanded member) -SEC- Florida South Carolina Tennessee Georgia Vanderbilt Kentucky LSU Alabama Auburn Arkansas Mississippi Mississippi State Texas A&M (expanded member) Missouri (expanded member) -PAC 16- UCLA USC Stanford Cal Arizona Arizona State Oregon Oregon State Washington Washington State Colorado (expanded member) Utah (expanded member) Texas (expanded member) Texas Tech (expanded member) Oklahoma (expanded member) Oklahoma State (expanded member) -West Coast Conference- Portland Santa Clara San Diego Pepperdine Gonzaga Loyola Marymount St. Mary's San Francisco BYU (expanded member) I would rank them: ACC - "A+" (the best conference just got richer by adding UCONN and Rutgers) Pac 16 - "A" (Adding Texas, Oklahoma, and Okie State, ensure them of being 2nd best to ACC) Big Ten - "A-" (Adding Notre Dame is huge. Big Ten was already growing in w-soccer) West Coast - "B+" (Top 5 teams are strong. Still a "meh" in depth compared to the above) SEC - "B-" (Adding A&M is crucial. Outside of them, Florida, and South Carolina, is "meh") Big East - "C" (Losing UCONN, Rutgers, & Notre Dame is tough, and only adding TCU to replace)
Whatever the discussion now, ask this question again at the end of the season. That also will be after some of the dust has settled and we have a better idea of how the realignments will end up. At that point, whatever the alignments we're looking at, I'll provide an average RPI per conference based on the 2007 through 2011 competition years and also an average for only 2011. (By the way, don't rule out further expansion by the West Coast Conference.)
Maybe off topic a tad, and if so, I apologize. I support SDSU, an MWC school. The MWC gets Boise State this year, and Fresno State next year,but does all this recent conference-switching madness affect the MWC at all further? Seems to be more the Eastern U.S. Just curious.
Unless Villanova has a BCS football team then they will not be getting in. Look for Connecticut and then Rutgers.
I've heard talk of Villanova exploring the move to the BCS, but I don't think it's officially happening yet. Even if it were, the move would take a few years to complete.
My two cents... UConn is desperate to join the ACC, but I'm not all that sure it makes sense for the conference. If I were the ACC I'd much rather take Nova as the last one in (assuming they take Rutgers). Rutgers and Cuse give them access to the NYC market. UConn just doesn't have the academic chops that the ACC prides itself on. Plus Nova balances the small private schools/large public universities.
UCONN turned the ACC down the last time - they're the FIRST school the ACC wants to add - academics, that's pretty funny . . .
Did I read somewhere that Denver is moving conferences? Middle Tennessee TRIED to give them a game on Friday....unsuccessfully.. and Western Kentucky couldn't even get a shot on goal against them. They looked pretty bad. Actually really bad. And those two Sunbelt teams beat the bottom half of the conference by blowout proportions. It could be a long and boring conference season and I hope DU doesn't diminish horribly through this.
Thanks Demetri. Not my choice of WCC but guess no one listened. There is not a lot of parity in the WAC either or so it seems. More lopsided games? Seattle should be good. Travel should be somewhat better. Any other benefits other than no matter who ranks conferences the Sunbelt is by far the worst I have ever seen so they escape that?
More conference money distributed from football & basketball, better TV money, a bit less travel since the Sun Belt has several Florida schools. Now instead of being the northwest outlier, Denver will be almost centrally located with the Texas schools coming in and LA Tech. There will be the alternate year Hawai'i trip, though. From a school perspective, you've certainly got a better group of peer institutions in the WAC (assuming there's not more movement, uhh . . .)
i believe the ncaa has a moratorium on BCS additions at the moment. may be another 4-5 years before more are added. it's the talk around Vandy at least.
I have heard there is a moratorium on D1 entry until 2012, which is obviously a bit porous, since new schools are gaining entry now. I have also heard the NCAA placed a moratorium on new BCS bowls. I'm trying to parse in my head what a moratorium on BCS entry would mean, since as far as I can tell, there is no legal BCS entity - no articles of incorporation, no legal officers- nothing. There are only agreements between the conferences and the TV networks for bowl games, and contracts between the bowls and the conferences for a set number of bowl appearances and locations. This is intentional to prevent congressional antitrust issues ( Google Orin Hatch BCS) and other oversight issues. The current conference shifts being what they are, I would think it would be impossible to enforce any such moratorium.