Saw somewhere on here a suggestion of making a conference using the best G5s. If you had to make a 10-14 team (including BYU) conference using only non P5 schools (no using Notre Dame) who would it include?
Mine (w/ justification):
BYU
USF - Strong football as of late, Florida market
Cincinnati - Great basketball history, usually has a competitive football team, Ohio market
UCONN - Rich basketball history
Houston - Houston market, strong football team
Memphis - Solid football and basketball teams
Boise State - Best G5 football team in the past 20 years
San Diego State - Solid football and basketball teams
UNLV - Strong basketball history, Vegas market
Colorado State - Better then average football program
Navy - (See Colorado State)
UCF - Orlando market, large alumni base
Divisions:
East - USF, UCONN, UCF, Navy, Cincinnati, Memphis
West - BYU, Houston, Boise State, Colorado State, UNLV, San Diego State
Obviously this isn't going to happen. It probably wouldn't work, due to travel costs ect, fees to leave current conferences, but I'd still prefer it over any G5 conference. If for nothing else it would be fun to watch the AAC and MWC dissolve.
Note: I realize most these schools aren't dominating their markets, but they still do play a role
Where each school's market ranks (Wikipedia):
USF - Tampa #11
UCONN - Hartford #30
UCF - Orlando #18
Navy - Baltimore #26
Cincinnati - Cincinnati #36
Memphis - Memphis #51
BYU - Salt Lake City #34
Houston - Houston #8
Boise State - Boise #106
Colorado State - Denver #17
UNLV - Las Vegas #40
San Diego State - San Diego #28
An average of 34, which isn't great, but that is 12 different markets where in the Pac 12 you have SLC, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and a couple of California markets, but only like 6 markets in al