School switches conference-how does it happen?

[pantherclaw]

okay, i don't post here much, but I do check out the site, and i have a question for the more knowledgabel people. when a school changes conferences how does it happen. Does the conference come to the school and say we will give you, booze, cars, and women if you join our conference? hypothetical i.e. the MVC wanted to sponser football and besides getting WSU to sponser if, they go to WKU and say hey if you come to our conference, we'll not make you pay league fees and give you a certain amoutn of money to be in our conference something like that? OR does the conference appraoach the school and say hey we got a sweet conference our teams have done all this great stuff come join us?

OR

Does a school announce, hey we wanna move conferences, and then goes out and searches for the best one?

I know its alot but im Just curious. Kinda wondering who make the first move on conference switching.

[lambertjr]

A little of both but it all comes down to money.

[PantherRob82]

we need to boot evansville from the mvc and add wku! :hurray:

[DFW HOYA]

Generally speaking, the expansion conference takes a vote on expansion, then creates a committee to visit the school(s) it is seeking, not the other way around. A school might put out informal PR that it might be a candidate, but a school would never apply before the conference is ready to extend an offer.


Kicking a team out of a conference is very rare. An associate member may go elsewhere (Temple football in the Big East, for example), but I can think of only one modern example where a full member was expelled from its conference-it was UT-Pan American from the Sun Belt. Are there any others?

[carney2]

Rarely do the truly important details get into the public domain, so we are left with rumors, opinion and undocumented "inside information" for past events. I'm betting however, that it's a case by case situation with no two switches following a set pattern. On the one side you have a school that is, for one reason or another, dissatisfied with its current conference affiliation knocking on the back door of a selected conference bigwig and stating that "We might be interested if you ever feel like expanding." Then there's the conference that wants/needs to get bigger or "reconfigured" putting out the word to selected schools that "If you're ever interested..."

I don't pay enough attention to what's going on in other conferences to give any decent examples, but here are some "switches" that took place in my home, the Patriot League:

Fordham decided that they are a basketball school. They switched everything but football to the A-10 to get involved in schollie basketball.

Georgetown needed a home for their football program. They were not impressed with the level of play in conferences populated by other Roman Catholic institutions in the east. They joined the Patriot League as a football affiliate.

Towson State parked their football program in the Patriot League for a few years while they evaluated their options. They are now in the A-10.

The Patriot League now has a widely publicized, if not formal, policy that it is looking for full, all sports members in any future expansion.

[greenG]

Generally speaking, the expansion conference takes a vote on expansion, then creates a committee to visit the school(s) it is seeking, not the other way around. A school might put out informal PR that it might be a candidate, but a school would never apply before the conference is ready to extend an offer.


Kicking a team out of a conference is very rare. An associate member may go elsewhere (Temple football in the Big East, for example), but I can think of only one modern example where a full member was expelled from its conference-it was UT-Pan American from the Sun Belt. Are there any others?

Marshall was booted from the MAC in the `70s for numerous infractions. Chicago State's recent departure from the Mid-Con was said to be at the conference's behest.