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Hypothetical Division Alignment Question

P

parialex

Member
Hello all, I'm a Houston alum (writing from Montana) and I would appreciate y'all's perspective on something. In the event that BYU stays and that UH receives an invite, would you see the divisions aligning east-west or pseudo-north-south? The former would be the front range and Texas schools in the east and the rest in the west and the latter would be the Texas, Nevada, and California schools ending up together.

I'm hoping for east-west for a variety of reasons, but I sort of get the impression that the historical WAC/MWC would all really want to be in the same division. On the other hand, I know that some of the front range schools do recruit from Texas, so I'm not sure. What do you think?

I live in Montana and so being in the north would keep things closer. Plus, we've actually looked at relocating to Laramie (my wife is a rural-medicine physician) and it would be a blast to be in the same division with you. I also don't like the idea of 4 of our 5 divisional opponents being two timezones away. This is all, of course, very hypothetical and I have no idea if UH-to-MWC is in the cards (BYU seems likely to insist on USU), but I'm really curious about what eastern MWC schools think. Thanks for your time.
 
I'm hoping you get the invite and BYU commits long term, I doubt the latter will happen but who knows.

In the event of that, I think most WYO fans would prefer a north-south split to keep intact most old rivalries, but I think it would work better for the conference to have an east west split.
 
If BYU stays I see an East West split:

AFA
CSU
Wyo
Houston
TCU
UNM

BYU
Boise
SDSU
Fresno
UNLV
Nevada

It keeps the front range schools together in the East division and decreases travel costs for Texas teams. It also allows the Wac three to continue playing together and encourages the development of a Boise/BYU rivalry.

That split definitely makes the most sense. If you put the Texas teams in a division with California, TCU isn't going to like it at all.
 
My feeling about all of this is this.......

As long as Air Force, Colorado State, & Wyoming are in the same division, I have no problem with any divisional alignment idea.
 
Cowboy Junky said:
If BYU stays I see an East West split:

AFA
CSU
Wyo
Houston
TCU
UNM

BYU
Boise
SDSU
Fresno
UNLV
Nevada

It keeps the front range schools together in the East division and decreases travel costs for Texas teams. It also allows the Wac three to continue playing together and encourages the development of a Boise/BYU rivalry.

That split definitely makes the most sense. If you put the Texas teams in a division with California, TCU isn't going to like it at all.
Click to expand...


This split makes the most sense for travel purposes. I really don't think a North/South split could work, the schools are just too spread out East to West.
 
Agreed, that division split makes the most sense.....and Houston makes the most sense as a 12th member. Sure hope it happens.
 
East schools get a trip to Texas every year and a trip to CA every other year. West schools get a trip to CA every year and TX every other year. Everyone wins with recruiting.
 
East/West sounds fine by me. And I do hope that Houston is invited and that BYnerU stays (yes, but only because I want the roles to go back to how it was -pre Lavell-Edwards, where Wyoming dominated).
 
I can't tell you all how glad I am that y'all feel that way. I was afraid that there would be a consensus the other way because of the history involved. I was gung-ho about the MWC until I realized that it might result in our being in the same division as the CA and NV (nothing against them at all... just geography), which really put a damper on things for me. So now I'm all gung ho again.

I just can't wait for BYU to make their decision so that we can get on with things. It's like there are two parallel realities wherein those closest to BYU say that their departure is imminent and those closer to the member schools say that they've more-or-less got BYU to swallow their hubris.

In the event that they do stay, I am feeling a lot better about our odds than I did last week when USU was all the rage. I figure if BYU goes you guys stay at 10.
 
Cowboy Junky said:
If BYU stays I see an East West split:

AFA
CSU
Wyo
Houston
TCU
UNM

BYU
Boise
SDSU
Fresno
UNLV
Nevada

It keeps the front range schools together in the East division and decreases travel costs for Texas teams. It also allows the Wac three to continue playing together and encourages the development of a Boise/BYU rivalry.

That split definitely makes the most sense. If you put the Texas teams in a division with California, TCU isn't going to like it at all.
Click to expand...

This is the way I would like to see the Conference divided. It would keep most rivalries together and both divisions would be very similar in strength. It would also keep travel expenses down for games within the divisions. I also think the Championship game would be a barn burner!
 
I understand that the divisions will be aligned for equality in Football. Let's look at the alignment for basketball. UNM is the only power in the East with Houston and WYO (most years) being also rans. Compare that to the West with BYU, UNLV, San Deigo St., Nevada, and even Fresno.
 
Wyokie said:
My feeling about all of this is this.......

As long as Air Force, Colorado State, & Wyoming are in the same division, I have no problem with any divisional alignment idea.
Click to expand...

That basically sums it up for me as well. :thumb:
 
Peanuts the Bulldog said:
I understand that the divisions will be aligned for equality in Football. Let's look at the alignment for basketball. UNM is the only power in the East with Houston and WYO (most years) being also rans. Compare that to the West with BYU, UNLV, San Deigo St., Nevada, and even Fresno.
Click to expand...

Very good point. I'm not even certain how conferences with 2 divisions do a basketball tournament. Would the regular season become irrelevant once the tournament began, assuming that both divisions would play in the same tournament? I really don't think it will be likely that we can come up with 2 divisions that would be evenly matched in both football and basketball though. I would like to hear more on this from those who are knowledgeable about the subject.

The following is the average ranking by RPI of the members of each (proposed) division over the past 3 seasons:
07-08
East 169
West 93

08-09
East 153
West 91

09-10
East 150
West 93

It amazes me how consistent the 2 divisions were over the past 3 seasons.
 
Cowboy Junky said:
If BYU stays I see an East West split:

AFA
CSU
Wyo
Houston
TCU
UNM

BYU
Boise
SDSU
Fresno
UNLV
Nevada
Click to expand...

This may sound stupid to some, but I just noticed that Cowboy Junky's proposed conference layout is divided perfectly by the Continental Divide. If that isn't an omen for a conference called "The Mountain West Conference" then I don't know what is! :thumb:
 
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