The only reason sixteen schools are agreeing to an arrangement by which East Carolina and Hawaii will play in a conference so spread out geographically that describing it as sprawling doesn’t do it justice is the futile hope that somehow what they’ve cobbled together will become worthy of getting the AQ seal of approval from the BCS.
The irony is that it’s likely one of the soon-to-be BCS “reforms” will be the outright ditching of AQ conferences.
That sound you hear is Jim Delany laughing his ass off.
Get The Picture 
this view is probably because Tech is in the ACC and I love reminding their fans that they are middle tier in the bar none worst football BCS conference but i always felt the Big East was underrated and the ACC overrated. Especially if you look at BCS games not just this year but the entirety of the BCS the BE has more of an argument to be an AQ than the ACC.
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I can see it now – Tulsa vs San Diego St for the MNC on January 9th (or 11th or 14th or whenever)!!! Must see TV! It might be the first time in my life I coudn’t tell you either conference that both MNC “contenders” hail from – ha!
Well, that is unless Boise and San Diego St battle it out until the end during the regular season and SDS wins by a fg in overtime on Boise’s home blue-turf. Then, we can just let them play each other again for the MNC because they’ll deserve it – right?
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Was Melbourne (Australia) Techincal College not available for a slot in this mega-marvel of a conference?
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ECU is closer to Paris than Hilo.
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Didn’t the Mountain West split off to begin with because the 16-team WAC was too spread out. How will adding dregs of C-USA (another popular landing spot for former WAC teams) make things any better? Or maybe they’re just getting the band back together?
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“The presidents and chancellors will have follow-up meetings over the next six months to fully develop the operational issues essential to the formation of the association” and find the pony
http://tulane.edu/news/releases/pr_021312_b.cfm
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The sun never sets on the Mountain Conference West USA Empire.
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The MCWUSA Empire: Where the International Date Line never fouls up the schedule.
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Someone thinks the odds are not good:
“As for the viability of garnering an automatic BCS berth for football, Cowen said the new association should prove attractive — if the automatic qualification exists after BCS meetings take place this spring.”
“We feel … given the size and the talents in a particular conference, especially given some of the other conferences that have automatic qualification that we certainly should be eligible for automatic qualification,” Cowen said. “But in all honesty I don’t see there is a high probability that the automatic qualifier status should or will be kept after this round of contract is expired.”
http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/2012/02/tulane_to_join_new-look_confer.html
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How about the ETC?
List of AQ conferences: SEC, B1G, Big12, ACC, ETC…
Or ETAL?
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Don’t know about yall, but I’m gonna buy stock in the airline that lands that conference’s contract. Sure money and long hauls have always appealed to investors. Then again, maybe I should invest in the fuel company that gets the long-haul contracts. And the companies furnishing the pilots. And the companies refurbishing the aircraft for sleeping room and exercise facilities on the EC-Hawaii hauls. And masseure’s contracts to keep the player’s muscles in shape to deplane without falling down. Insurance anyone?
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Oops! I’ll have to get rid of that pesky “c”.
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Excellent idea. That conference amalgamation will cover 13 of the 57 states.
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