The Rust Belt Conference, Revisited

[DFW HOYA]

Are there now enough teams to give the Northeastern version of the Sun Belt some consideration, at least in football and perhaps as an emerging all-sports conference?

With the proliferation of forgettable bowl games that need teams to fill its 9:00 am Dec. 29 slot on ESPN2, what's to prevent these seven state schools from taking advantage?

Temple
Massachusetts
Buffalo
Marshall
Delaware
James Madison
Stony Brook

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Are there now enough teams to give the Northeastern version of the Sun Belt some consideration, at least in football and perhaps as an emerging all-sports conference?

With the proliferation of forgettable bowl games that need teams to fill its 9:00 am Dec. 29 slot on ESPN2, what's to prevent these seven state schools from taking advantage?

Temple
Massachusetts
Buffalo
Marshall
Delaware
James Madison
Stony Brook

Four former FCS champions in there. Maybe that could be used as its pitch to ESPN. "We used to compete for championships - now, we're competing for the Viagra Bowl in Gillette Stadium!" xlolx

[UNH_Alum_In_CT]

Are there now enough teams to give the Northeastern version of the Sun Belt some consideration, at least in football and perhaps as an emerging all-sports conference?

With the proliferation of forgettable bowl games that need teams to fill its 9:00 am Dec. 29 slot on ESPN2, what's to prevent these seven state schools from taking advantage?

Temple
Massachusetts
Buffalo
Marshall
Delaware
James Madison
Stony Brook

As long as the only way to FBS is to be accepted by an existing conference, why even talk about these ideas?

[Redwyn]

Are there now enough teams to give the Northeastern version of the Sun Belt some consideration, at least in football and perhaps as an emerging all-sports conference?

With the proliferation of forgettable bowl games that need teams to fill its 9:00 am Dec. 29 slot on ESPN2, what's to prevent these seven state schools from taking advantage?

Temple
Massachusetts
Buffalo
Marshall
Delaware
James Madison
Stony Brook

I wouldn't call it a blunt impossibility....Stony Brook is ramping up for big time football. We're not there yet, both in support and performance. A decade from now...I see a very different outlook for us.

[Sycamore51]

Why does everybody want to "move up?" Hell I'm just happy to be a fan of a team that has football. We play a few big games each year, open up with Penn St. this year, and a bunch of small schools like us the rest of the year. That's what we'd do FCS or FBS. I don't see everyone's desire to "move up"

[DFW HOYA]

Why does everybody want to "move up?" Hell I'm just happy to be a fan of a team that has football. We play a few big games each year, open up with Penn St. this year, and a bunch of small schools like us the rest of the year. That's what we'd do FCS or FBS. I don't see everyone's desire to "move up"

Hey, be happy you get Penn State. Georgetown gets to rally the faithful in its opener against... Davidson.

[aceinthehole]

I think a conference like this has potential, if you look at it this way:

Current FBS members
Buffalo (MAC)
UMass (MAC)
Temple (MAC)
Central Florida (C-USA)
East Carolina (C-USA)
Marshall (C-USA)
Memphis (C-USA)

Future FBS candidates
Charlotte (Indy)
Appalchian State (SoCon)
James Madison (CAA)
Old Dominion (CAA)

I'm sure Delaware, Georgia Southern, Stony Brook, and others might have an interest as well, but these schools seem like they would have the most history and similarities in profile to make this work. From NY to Florida, this would match up with the Big East/ACC footprint.

It would start out as the Sun Belt, but it might be able to evolve in the eastern version of the MWC over time.

[WildPard]

Hey, be happy you get Penn State. Georgetown gets to rally the faithful in its opener against... Davidson.

....and Davidson will bring a bigger crowd.

[ThompsonThe]

Four former FCS champions in there. Maybe that could be used as its pitch to ESPN. "We used to compete for championships - now, we're competing for the Viagra Bowl in Gillette Stadium!" xlolx

I am UP with the Viagra Bowl.

[DFW HOYA]

....and Davidson will bring a bigger crowd.

Only because of timing:
Terre Haute to State College: 570 miles for a likely 1:00 pm kickoff
Davidson to Washington: 400 miles for a 6:00 pm kickoff

[Seawolf97]

I think a conference like this has potential, if you look at it this way:

Current FBS members
Buffalo (MAC)
UMass (MAC)
Temple (MAC)
Central Florida (C-USA)
East Carolina (C-USA)
Marshall (C-USA)
Memphis (C-USA)

Future FBS candidates
Charlotte (Indy)
Appalchian State (SoCon)
James Madison (CAA)
Old Dominion (CAA)

I'm sure Delaware, Georgia Southern, Stony Brook, and others might have an interest as well, but these schools seem like they would have the most history and similarities in profile to make this work. From NY to Florida, this would match up with the Big East/ACC footprint.

It would start out as the Sun Belt, but it might be able to evolve in the eastern version of the MWC over time.

Not a bad mix. Maybe someday in the next decade. SBU has been open about ambitions beyond the Big South and AE .

[Redwyn]

Not a bad mix. Maybe someday in the next decade. SBU has been open about ambitions beyond the Big South and AE .

I still see our logical sitting point as the CAA for all sports. Just makes too much sense to not be our first priority. Until then nearly every sport we play in the AE is weighed down by the "RPI" anchor. Neither the conference nor many of its members seem to be prepared to change that if prior results are taken into consideration.

Examples:
SBU lacrosse torched Binghamton over the weekend. Reward? It fell from #13 to #14 because of Bing's putrid RPI. The same will happen against Albany and Vermont. The rivalry with Albany was wonderful, but its been a while since both programs were simultaneously on an upward trajectory (at least 5 years now). It also doesn't justify remaining in a conference, as it could just as easily be a yearly OOC game.

SBU baseball swept UMBC in a 3 game series, outscoring them by over 20 runs. Today it beat URI, a perennial top 50 RPI program. Reward? It fell 17 places in RPI because UMBC is in the bottom 10 programs in the US at the moment. Other AEC brethren joining it at the bottom include Binghamton and Hartford. Maine is the lone program that's respectable only because it lost to top tier programs. ESPN pointed out this issue as well http://espn.go.com/ncaa/notebook/_/page/week7preview/week-7

At the end of the day, Stony Brook is a 26-27K population school. Not much different from UConn. We're younger in D1 age clearly, and have a lot of growing to do. However, I think a lot of that growing will soon be hemmed and impeded the longer we maintain all-sport conference affiliation with the AEC - a conference predominately composed of smaller, lower funded/Ice Hockey centric schools. There's a good reason why much of the current CAA is composed of AEC defectors. Our turn.

[Sycamore51]

I had no clue Stony Brook was that big! I have been an avid sports guy my entire life and to be honest hadn't heard of SB until the past decade. I just assumed it was a small east coast private like the rest. It all makes a little more sense to me now.

[dbackjon]

No offrense, but that "Viagra Bowl" as you call it will still draw more fans than the FCS National Title game every time. The worst attended FBS bowl this past season (the Beef O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl between Louisville and Southern Miss) drew some 7,000 more fans to its game than the FCS Championship game.


So? It is still a National Championship - the only Division One Football Championship in existance. Far superior to any Toliet Bowl.