The old name was not related to the Old South, but you gotta change that one. :^) Next the WAC should work on Austin Peay to change theirs. ** Edited by Truthahn at 12/12/2022, 12:57:25 PM

St. George Stake Academy to Dixie Academy in 1911 because it was located in "Utah's Dixie" region. It appears that Brigham Young and other local settlers started calling the region that name because it is the lower-elevation area of south-central Washington County in the southwestern portion of Utah. Since the winter is very mild compared to the rest of the state due to the northeastern edge of the Mojave Desert being located in the area, settlers were able to grow cotton, tobacco, and other temperate cash crops. While there is no evidence that slavery existed in that part of Utah, the area was settled by a number of former slave drivers and slave owners who still sympathized with the South.

Ya, that had to go. Utah Tech is a much better name, anyway.

None of these stated "reasons" is genuine. This is simply a grab at the new playoff payout. I suggest that they name their conference "The Opportunist League." G5 conferences will not openly welcome another cohort of schools feeding at their trough. Stunts like this will hasten the departure of P5's and like-minded G5's from the NCAA. It's going to happen anyway, but this makes it all the more urgent. If these schools wish to tag along, I think they wil be given a place in the new body, but they will have a lower rung position financially.

by the real "The Opportunist Leagues". If the P5 do split off, the FBS is the new FCS anyway. They don't want to be a step below that. I think they have a shot at pulling it off. Luckily for them, Liberty blazed the way. No one wanted to tell Liberty "no" for fear of religious discrimination lawsuits. Now the WAC can point to unequal treatment if they are denied. One big problem the WAC will have will be getting FBS home games while they transition. They can't get those by playing each other, so there is a chicken and egg problem. I think you cannot be FBS until you have four FBS home games per year. Liberty even played NM State home and away in a single year in order to get enough of those. Once a couple of them become FBS independents, they can do the home and away trick within the WAC to help pull the others up. Hopefully, the NCAA will give them a waiver, since they had been an FBS conference before and only lost that because other confs raided them to death. ** Edited by Truthahn at 12/12/2022, 12:54:01 PM

already? These discussions seem to only focus on the football/men's basketball angle and ignore the impact that decision would have on all the other sports. I get that football and men's basketball are the 2 sports that generate revenue for the schools. What isn't clear to me if the schools are only viewing the issue based on those 2 sports or based on all the sports they currently sponsor. If the schools are viewing the issue based on all the sports they currently sponsor, then that could explain why the schools may not be so quick to leave the NCAA until they figure out the impact it will have on the non-revenue sports or what to do with the non-revenue sports.

I think you are right that they haven't figured out how to make it work for all sports. There are hurdles they need to clear before they even get that far. 1. The NCAA has rights to March Madness through 2032. So if they leave before then, they must bring along enough schools to build a competing hoops tournament. 2. The two biggest players have differing visions of how the new setup would look. (warning: message board rumors and gossip) The SEC/ESPN want a pure semi-pro system with the athletics mostly divorced from the schools. The B1G/Fox want to keep the facade of the "student athlete". Seems like most observers think the huge dollar figures will tame the egos and cause a compromise. I'm not so sure. The current round of realignment and media contracts will be the stretch run to see if one or the other of the P2 can establish a dominant position and draw the other Div 1's into their camp. The "loser" would have to conform to the prevailing trend, or try to go renegade alone. If neither side can gain clear dominance then we likely end up with the same blended P2, M3, and many G's, just without The NCAA.