A Yellow Wood

2012 WAC Football

In 2012, WAC football will consist of these teams:

Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, Utah State, Texas State, and UTSA.

These teams went 36 and 47 this year (against not great competition).

Texas State and UTSA won't be full FBS members until 2013. So, their games in 2012 won't count towards the 6 needed for a team to become bowl eligible.

UTSA has just played one football season. The Alamo Dome is the only good football facility UTSA has and that's downtown, many miles from campus. However, it'll probably be the best stadium in the WAC.

Idaho plays its games in a basketball gym.

The WAC lost its best programs in the realignment shuffle and LA Tech is rumored to be an attractive target if further conference shuffling occurs. Conference USA might need to pick up a few teams, for example.

Also, according to NCAA rules, football conferences must have at least 8 members. The WAC is getting by on an exemption. They need to add another team to get to 8. If one or more teams leave the conference (maybe LA Tech and New Mexico State), the WAC would need to add 3 teams. Where are those 1 to 3 teams coming from?

Things do not look good for football in the WAC.

Maybe the WAC needs to try to merge with another conference, but who would want the picked over teams the WAC has left?

There are only 11 FBS conferences. The 6 best/biggest conferences have no need to add any of the lowly schools left in the WAC. That leaves only the Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference, and the Sun Belt Conference.

The MAC is a stable, regional conference with a footprint in the northeastern United States. It would make zero sense for them to merge with the WAC or take any of the WAC teams. That leaves the CUSA, MWC, and the Sun Belt.

The CUSA and MWC have talked merger (at least in football but possibly in all sports). The MWC has 8 schools and the CUSA has 9. The plan seems to be to play a 7 or 8 game conference schedule and have the winner on each side play in a cross conference championship game. That would result in 17 schools under one championship game (which is nice). It seems likely that at least one of those 17 schools will get pinched.

The most likely outcome seems to be that the CUSA and MWC will merge and end up with 16 schools and 2 divisions with a football championship game. They will likely shuffle schools around in a way that makes the most geographic sense. Each division will play either a 7 or 9 game conference schedule. This combined conference will probably end up with all the best schools not in the top 6 conferences and the MAC. It would be a nice little conference.

So, what's left? The Sun Belt Conference. They have (or will have) 10 football playing schools. They seem to have a few schools that might be attractive to the CUSA or MWC if those conferences (or the combined conference they likely will become) needs teams. The most attractive school in that conference is probably North Texas since it is in a large media market and it has a rather large enrollment.

What if the WAC and the Sun Belt Conference combined? What would that look like?

The combined conference would have a sustainable number of teams (17 if nobody gets poached). It would have the 12 minimum schools needed to have a football championship game. It would have 3 teams in each of Texas and Louisiana, 2 teams in each of Florida and Arkansas, and 1 team in each of 7 other states. It would have schools in the major media markets of Miami, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Antonio, and San Jose. Travel requirements for the eastern conference would be very reasonable. Travel requirements for the western conference wouldn't be as good.

The eastern conference could be made up of UA of Little Rock, Arkansas State, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, UL of Lafayette, UL of Monroe, Middle Tennessee State, University of South Alabama, Troy University, and Western Kentucky. The western conference could be made up of Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Texas State, UTSA, Idaho, New Mexico State, San Jose State, and Utah State. The championship game could rotate between a handful of places people would like to travel to, maybe Cowboy Stadium in DFW, the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, the Superdome in New Orleans, and the Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

I think it would be a nice little conference. Maybe it could play conference games at odd times to get on ESPN and ESPN 2. Maybe it could stick to conference games only being within division so that teams could schedule 4 or 5 teams each year from the better conferences. It would always be the lowest rung on the conference ladder but it would be better than two even lower rungs and it would probably result in better overall TV contracts. Neither conference right now has enough teams for a conference championship game.

Here is a map of the proposed conference footprint:



A more likely outcome than the above is that the conference realignment shuffle will eventually result in WAC becoming a non-football conference. The WAC football schools would then either have to go independent, catch on with another conference, or move down to the FCS level (maybe that's where Idaho needs to be anyway).

Maybe the Sun Belt Conference will just add Texas State, UTSA, and Louisiana Tech and let the remaining WAC teams twist in the wind. Adding just those 3 teams would seems to be a great move for the Sun Belt. It would really open up Texas for recruiting for that conference while adding the media market of San Antonio.

Dan Gilbert's Latest Letter in Comic Sans

Comic sans totally makes whatever you are saying more credible and forceful, don't you think?

Abbreviations

Die Penny, Die!

I saw this because of SaraC and now I'm passing it on.

Lights, Camera, Disc Golf

The first set of lights for my backyard disc golf practice stadium came in today. Now, I'll be able to practice disc golf whenever I want, night will be no hindrance to me.

Woot!

Hilary Mason Comic

Latest Comic

Logging in the Red-Black Tree Forest

The Big 12 is Stupid

This is what the Big 12 should do and if it doesn't, it is stupid.

1. Let Missouri go. They don't want to be in the Big 12.
2. Grab the following schools: West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston, Tulane.
3. Bribe Arkansas with whatever money is necessary to pry them away from the SEC. Give them $30 or $40 million. Lock them into the conference for 10 years. That's only $3 or $4 million a year.
4. Bundle every school's Tier 3 rights into a set of regional TV networks. So, for example, something like this: A network for all Texas schools. A network for the Oklahoma schools, Kansas schools, Arkansas and Iowa State. A network for West Virginia, Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis, and Tulane. These networks would have both regional college and high school sports programming. The revenue from these networks would go into the conference "pot" and these networks would make a ton of money.
5. Go to unequal revenue sharing of conference money. The most important teams get shares of 3. The next tier get shares of 2. And the last tier gets shares of 1 (sorry Iowa State). In the scenario described above, the 3's would be Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The 1's would be Iowa State and Tulane. Everybody else would be 2's. This could be adjusted as need be. And, if Iowa State didn't like this, they could go find another conference.
6. Have a conference championship game in football. I don't care if Texas doesn't want one. It makes a lot of money and it's a big event. If a school wants to win the national title, win the games that are on the schedule. The winner of the Big 12 championship game would almost always have to be considered for the national title game.
7. Go to a "pod" based system for scheduling in football and other sports. So, for example, the four pods could be (West Virginia, Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati), (Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Arkansas), (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech, TCU), and (Texas, Baylor, Houston, Tulane). In football, all the teams in a pod would play each other each year. Each pod would play one other pod each year on a rotating basis. So, for example, Texas would play conference games against Baylor, Houston, and Tulane every year and they would play conference games against the teams in the other pods once every 3 years.
8. The pod scheduling system described above would result in 7 conference football games each year. That leaves 5 non-conference games for each team. That would allow teams to schedule their "natural rivals" every year. So, for example, Texas could schedule Oklahoma and Texas A&M every year for a non-conference game (if Texas and Oklahoma were not playing a conference game).
9. The pod system described above would allow the Big 12 to schedule aggressively outside of conference and the Big 12 should make a commitment to do just that. Imagine Notre Dame signing a contract to play 4 Big 12 teams a year for 8 years, each team in the conference gets a shot at Notre Dame at home and on the road during that time.
10. Also, under the pod system, the far-flung teams would always have 3 conference games with nearby opponents. So, if these far-flung teams scheduled nearby schools for their 5 non-conference games, they would have 8 nearby opponents every year (and 2 of the remaining 4 games would be at home). That would be very good for both the athletes, other students, and fans.
11. Also, under the pod system, the two divisions of the Big 12 would be different each year. Special names could be given to the different divisions. So, if Texas' pod was playing Oklahoma's pod, that division could be called "Rivals Division" or "Red River Division" or something and the other division in that scenario could be called the "Riverboat Division" or something.
12. The conference should drop the Big 12 name. The Big 16 is an option. However, I would go for a name that didn't include the number of schools in the conference (in case the Big 12 wanted to do something crazy like go to 20 teams). A lot of good names are already taken (like Conference USA and the Mid-America Conference). I'll leave the list of possible names for this conference as an exercise for the reader.

The above conference would be awesome and it would make a ton of money. It should happen tomorrow (if not sooner). If it doesn't, the Big 12 is stupid.

The World's Worst Disc Golf Video

Why upload this to YouTube?

Disc Golf Survey

The Pro Disc Golf Association recently surveyed over 4,000 disc golfers.

Here are the sometimes shocking results of that survey.

Highlights include:

1. 53 of the 4,000 disc golfers claimed to make over $250,000 per year.
2. Only 8.1% of respondents said they were unemployed.
3. The 3 most popular soft drinks among disc golfers are Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Mountain Dew. Only 16.4% said they consumed Pepsi most often.
4. Subway won in the fast food restaurant category with a whopping 51.5% of respondents saying they have eaten there most often.
5. In the mid-market chain restaurant category the amazing winner was Applebee's with a 28.0% response ratio.
6. Major League Baseball was the winner in the pro sport event attendance category with 49.7% of disc golfers saying they had been to a MLB game in 2010.
7. 331 disc golfers claim to have been playing the sport for more than 25 years.
8. 19.0% of respondents claimed to own over 200 discs.
9. 42% of respondents say they would pay $4 to $6 to play at a really nice pay to play disc golf course.
10. 86.6% of those surveyed own a computer.

This survey is likely to change the course of disc golf history for years to come (no exaggeration).

A Perfect Movie

I think I just saw a perfect movie. Surprisingly, this movie was made in 2011, in Hollywood and Owen Wilson was one of the costars. (I kid. Wilson has made a number of movies that I like.)

The movie was positive, end to end without being sappy or stupid. All the main characters spent the entire movie chasing and choosing among different values without sacrifice. Not a single despicable character haunted the screen. Not a single "message" was added for the audience's "education". The movie took no shortcuts. The movie had a plot that didn't feel contrived.

Anyway, I was shocked to see such a movie.

Oh, by the way, the movie was "The Big Year" and starred Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Owen Wilson.

Somehow the movie only got a 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. I guess critics are stupid (like arguing with people on the Internet).

For the Record: My Use of Blogs, Social Media, and My Personal Website

Twitter is fine for very short, quick messages. Anything even just slightly more substantial must be done elsewhere. My tweets are generally just random observations, updates, and pictures. I often tweet from my phone.

My personal website is where I put my most substantial content, content that I want to "endure". Having said that, I haven't added anything there recently and my personal website is in drastic need of a redesign, harsh editing, and more good content.

I use my blog to build my personal brand. If you want some "Greg Lange", that's where you need to go. My blog posts are essentially what you'd get if you had a conversation with me face to face (minus the hilarious homages I'm famous for).

I use Facebook mainly to keep up with friends and family. Also, anything I tweet gets posted to my wall over there. That's because a substantial number of people in my circle don't use Twitter but do use Facebook.

I like Google+ a lot. However, it is currently populated by "techies", social media "stars" (or "wannabes"), "hipsters", and "leftists". I don't really put much content up over there right now. I'd like to push my tweets over there easily but there doesn't seem to be a decent way to do that right now.

For The Record: Human Blood

Human blood is 92% water but it tastes nothing like water or tea.

Source:

http://www.waterinfo.org/resources/water-facts

Arguing With People on the Internet is Stupid

Arguing with people on the Internet is stupid. There are too many wrong people and too many people who are wrong by choice (in effect). You should just say what you think is right and move on. Maybe that's what a blog is for.

The Flat Tax is Stupid

Proponents of the flat tax say that it will simplify the tax code. However, the complicated part of the tax code is not the part which determines the rate at which taxpayers are taxed. The complicated parts of the tax code are the parts that deal with:

1. Deductions
2. Treating different types of income differently
3. Treating different taxpayers differently

Simplifying the tax code needs to focus on removing or refining those three areas.

A flat tax would simplify the least complicated part of the tax code.

This is How I Train For Disc Golf

Switcheroo

Utter UTSA Football Insanity

Read this.

If UTSA ends up in C-USA any time in the next 5 years (and if C-USA is essentially at the same level it is now), that would be insane.

UTSA had no football a year ago. Leaping over the Southland Conference and the WAC to C-USA in such a short time is mind boggling.

Maybe the article is just wishful thinking.