Lots of talk on Twitter (no credence).

[CajunNation]

Tulane
SMU
Liberty
Will never be a cultural fit. Period. How have people not understood what the SBC did? They built a league composed of like minded universities IOT increase stability.

Private and huge metro programs do not, will not fit in the SBC...

You completely misunderstand reality. The SBC has flourished because we have added schools that are serious about athletics. The size of the market had nothing to do with it. SMU, Memphis and Tulane are serious about athletics.

This cultural fit mantra is meaningless.

We have stabilized the SBC. We are growing the SBC. We are at a point now to where if we want to take the next step on the conference ladder we need to bring in schools that can move that needle. We need schools that have recently been in a Cotton Bowl, played for a National Championship in basketball and actually commands a market share in one of the largest markets in the country.

There are no more Apps to add. It's time to grow up.

[Boomer]

You completely misunderstand reality. The SBC has flourished because we have added schools that are serious about athletics. The size of the market had nothing to do with it. SMU, Memphis and Tulane are serious about athletics.

This cultural fit mantra is meaningless.

We have stabilized the SBC. We are growing the SBC. We are at a point now to where if we want to take the next step on the conference ladder we need to bring in schools that can move that needle. We need schools that have recently been in a Cotton Bowl, played for a National Championship in basketball and actually commands a market share in one of the largest markets in the country.

There are no more Apps to add. It's time to grow up.

….I guess/think/ am afraid of all the East teams starting a more geographically conference …..,we need a Lafayette almost centered conference which would be great…..Troy, USA, SOUTH MISS, TULANE, LTUR or ULM, ARK ST, MIDD TENN, WKU, SMU, RICE, UTSA, N TEX, TEX ST, TULSA and ??????

[RedTails]

….I guess/think/ am afraid of all the East teams starting a more geographically conference …..,we need a Lafayette almost centered conference which would be great…..Troy, USA, SOUTH MISS, TULANE, LTUR or ULM, ARK ST, MIDD TENN, WKU, SMU, RICE, UTSA, N TEX, TEX ST, TULSA and ??????

Yea, I've seen quite a few conference-mates on the SBC board identify as SBC East rather than SBC. Even beat their chest about how much better the East is than the West (even though West won head-to-head last year).

So it wouldn't surprise me that some fans of those schools would like to create an ACC-lite conference. But then being hyper-regionalized, you miss out on exposure outside of your own region and time zone. So I think the SBC has a great balance right now that would be hard to walk away from.

[CajunNation]

….I guess/think/ am afraid of all the East teams starting a more geographically conference …..,we need a Lafayette almost centered conference which would be great…..Troy, USA, SOUTH MISS, TULANE, LTUR or ULM, ARK ST, MIDD TENN, WKU, SMU, RICE, UTSA, N TEX, TEX ST, TULSA and ??????

Creating new conferences is virtually impossible now. What we can do, however, is create the regional alignment we all want in the SBC West Division.

Currently, we are on the western edge of a 14 school conference. We HAVE TO direct the next expansion our way. If we can't, we may be better off in another conference with more regional schools, like the AAC.

I think that after the dust settles with the whole Big10/PAC/Big12 realignment coming, there will be movement one way or the other, either AAC to SBC or SBC to AAC.

Either schools like UTSA, SMU, Memphis or Tulane will be added to the SBC or schools like US will be added to the AAC. In a perfect world, SMU, Memphis and Tulane will be added here. The SBC West would look like this:

SMU
Texas State
Louisiana
Tulane
ULM
Arkansas State
Memphis
Southern Miss
South Alabama

Troy would move to the East along with them adding East Carolina. This would create a conference that would remain as the Top G5 league for a long time and a 2 top quality, stable, regional Divisions