Notre Dame Moves to ACC, Except in Football

Notre Dame will shift all of its non-football sports from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference, while remaining independent with the pigskin. However, the Fighting Irish will play five football games a year against ACC schools.

Geography would have suggested Notre Dame join the Big Ten. Plus, the Irish has long played several football games a year against Big Ten schools, such as Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, and Northwestern. In this new era of conference realignment, however, geographic compactness has gone out the window.

Florida State Memo on Possible Conference Shifting

Here's the memo by Florida State University president Eric Barron on his view of the pros and cons of the Seminoles leaving the ACC for the Big 12. The main FSU grievances with the ACC, as Barron perceives them, revolve around the ACC being too basketball/North Carolina focused, whereas FSU's football emphasis matches that of the Big 12. The major arguments against FSU leaving the ACC have to do with any increased revenues from joining the Big 12 likely being negated by the ACC exit fee, increased travel expenses, and the expectation that some Big 12 schools would not be big attendance draws in Tallahassee.

Conference USA Expansion

Conference USA has just announced the addition of five new member schools (news release). As shown in the screen-capture below, the new members are: UNC Charlotte, Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, and Texas-San Antonio (I have added circles around these schools). With slight exception, "Each new member will join the league in all sports for 2013."

The home to a dozen schools this past season, C-USA first lost Houston, SMU, and Central Florida, and later Memphis, all to the Big East. Conference USA thus has 13 members at the moment, eight holdovers and the five newcomers. I've always been a fan of geographic compactness, which C-USA's new addition of the five schools clearly promotes

As we previously noted here, Conference USA had agreed to merge with the Mountain West Conference. According to today's C-USA news release:

Conference USA and the Mountain West will continue to discuss a future affiliation that could begin as early as 2013. Both Conferences agreed that adding membership at this time was important and have carefully coordinated new membership plans. Additional expansion remains a possibility. 

Temple to Big East

Temple University will join the Big East in all sports, immediately for football and for the 2013-14 season in all other sports. With Memphis also joining the Big East (in all sports, in 2013-14), the conference will regain some strength in men's basketball, after its loss of Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC and West Virginia to the Big 12.

Conference USA, Mountain West to Merge

The progression to mega-conferences continues, with Conference USA and the Mountain West announcing they will merge and perhaps bring in additional schools. According to this article, "The newly named league would have a membership in 2013-14 that includes at minumum UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado State, Air Force, Hawaii (in football only), Southern Miss, Tulsa, Marshall, Rice, UTEP, UAB, Tulane, East Carolina, Nevada and Fresno State."

Memphis to Big East

Memphis will be joining the Big East in all sports for the 2013-14 academic year. I created a geographic map in a previous posting, to illustrate the member schools (current and future) as of December 8, 2011. Two weeks ago (January 24, 2012), it was announced that Navy would join the Big East for football starting in 2015.

San Diego State Non-Football Sports to Big West

Following up on San Diego State's becoming a football-only member of the Big East (see below), the school announced that most of its other sports teams will compete in the Big West conference. What does it say about what's happening in collegiate sports that a school can (depending on the sport) belong to both the Big East and Big West?