It's essentially a shot across the bow at espn and the SEC that they don't have the votes to dictate the future of college football. Even one of espn's own in-house conferences said "enough is enough!"

The poor South. They spend a hundred years trying to do through college football what they couldn't do on the battlefield only to have The Alliance Of The Potomac yank the football away at the last second just like Lucy.

Got to love this analogy . . . or is it really an allegory?

I just got back from a trip to Gettysburg. I asked the licensed battlefield guide who gave us a tour that emphasized the 1st WV Cavalry and the 7th WV Infantry what proportion of folks are now asking for Confederate- vs. Union-oriented tours. He said it was now 5 to 1 Union. This is a marked change in the past decade or so. Finally, it appears that the Lost Cause mythology is sinking slowing into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

I've actually thought of the analogy that you mention before, except I had a different take on it. It was my thinking that football was a much less violent way to let out regional aggression than that ill-conceived war. And now that the SEC is fully integrated there's a level of irony that it's the African American players who are giving the South these victories in the football wars. Now, perhaps, there will be further irony as you point out with the Alliance of the Potomac. This gives those of us so inclined yet another lens through which to view these current events.

Why was I asking for a tour emphasizing these two West Virginia regiments?

The first one is easy: I found I have an ancestor in the 7th WV Infantry -- Pvt. James Smith of Co. G.

The second one is more complex: I'm currently working with the mayor and the village council of Chauncey to put up an historical marker to honor three young men from that village who in the fall of 1861 went down to Parkersburg, VA., to enlist in what was then the 1st Virginia Cavalry (USA). These Union Virginia regiments were also called "Loyalist Regiments." None of these three men would live to see their 30th birthday. One -- Lt. Sydney Knowles -- died when a rebel bullet struck his head during Farnsworth's Charge at Gettysburg. Another -- Lt. Hiram Robinett -- was seriously injured in that same charge and had his lower arm amputated. The two who survived the war -- Robinett and a Pvt. Robert Edwards -- had interesting but short postwar careers before they both succumbed to what appears to have been TB. Robinett worked for the Freedmen's Burean in Washington, D.C. Edwards went to George Washington University Medical School and received an M.D. degree. He practiced in Zaleski for about 18 months before his death. He was Roman Catholic and is buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Athens. The other two are in Nye Cemetery in Chauncey. Robinett's obelisk marker was actually manufactured in Washington and paid for by donations from his co-workers at the Freedmen's Bureau. It was shipped to Athens by rail. This is a most interesting, compelling and sad story of three heroes whose names deserve to be remembered. They had been all but forgotten. We hope to rectify that error with this marker. The mayor and the village council are very excited about this project.


If you want to find out more about the Freedmen's Bureau, there's a brief summary here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedmen%27s_Bureau

I did not see the Alliance press conference. However, while on the road today I heard Bishop & Laurinaitis of the Fan (Columbus radio) in a state of utter dispair at the whole episode. Obviously they are Big Ten homers and James Laurinaitis is an employee of the Big Ten Network. In so many words they said they fed up with the ineptness of Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren. In addition it seems the ACC commissioner said there was no need for a signed agreement since they had "looked into each others eyes" and knew what was best for the Big 10, Pac 12 and ACC.

It appears there is nothing firm with scheduling only alliance members. From their telling of it, the press corps was left to wonder what they just witnessed. I don' know what this means for the MAC. Will we still see big time football paydays scheduling Power 5 schools, (which is essential for budgetary purposes?) The short answer is that no one knows. It appears the SEC is driving the train and lots of passengers (non-SEC schools) have no idea where they are going. There is a part of me that wonders if the SEC engine is headed for a resort, while they drop the rest of the train off at a Siberian siding. We shall see.

Hours after the Alliance non handshake agreement because as the ACC Commissioner stated "we looked into each other's eyes" and know we are all together nonsense, USC announces a game with LSU in Las Vegas. Apparently, the PAC 12 has been sending out feelers to certain Bis 12 schools who have some cache. Who that is remains a mystery, but the Alliance seems anything but. To continue on with the train analogy I used yesterday, it appears the train was barely out of the station before it pulled into a siding for repairs. Meanwhile the SEC Express is blowing by leaving everyone in the dust.

Apparently SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey modeled a lot of this on a book he read about the English Premier League. It seems he wanted the SEC to be forever in the First Division and from his strategy it would appear that he wants the other Power 5 schools in the Second Division. I hate to think where that puts us. Is there even a Third Division anymore in English soccer?

I would hope at least one commisioner among the non-Power 5 is talking with the other commissioners about us having some kind of a plan. To use the anaolgy from yesterday's post, I think we are stuck on that rail siding in Siberia. Does anyone have a plan?

I'm not sure how much longer there is going to be a "Big 12."

As far as I can tell, they need to immediately add two schools that are serious about sports and geographically make sense (Houston and Memphis)... not that those two are equal to Texas and Okie, but to show they are serious about sticking around.

There are currently 8 levels of soccer in England d that are involved in their promotion/relegation scheme:
1) Premier league
2) English football league championship
3) English football league One
4) English football league two
5) National League
6) American League (just seeing if you were paying attention, it’s actually National League North and National League South)
#s 7 and 8 appear to be regional feeder tiers for tier 6

Edited to add that the Pro/Rel tiers actually do on down lower than that, but it gets fairly Byzantine from that point and Wikipedia apparently didn’t feel like fleshing it all out (and neither do i)

There are still going to be plenty of games for the alliance teams to play SEC teams. It appears that the big 10 is going to follow the SEC lead for now and go from 9 to 8 conference games.

It appears to me but not certain that Pac 12 is either going to Add at least 2 teams or they are going to come up with a deal with two teams similar to what the ACC has with notre dame. The big 10 would form a association with one team maybe a west virginia maybe or a cincinnati.

This will allow the 3 conferences to have 8 conference games. Then like the big 10 teams would play one non conference with a ACC team or notre dame and one non conference against a pac 12 or pac 12 associated team. You would still have room for 1 buy game if you wanted and if you had a traditional rival or a SEC team.

Even if they play 9 conference games and 2 alliance games. you are still going to have a extra game.

If the three conferences don't all agree to play 8 in conference games...I don't see this scheduling agreement working.

If it does actually happen: I expect the MAC teams to be offered more guarantee games or 2 for 1s as their will be pressure to have 7 home games.

I really appreciate you finally telling us what you really feel. You've been keeping it bottled up far too long. It's nice to see that BA therapy works and helps folks talk about their deepest feelings that they've had trouble expressing before. We have such a loving and supportive environment here on BA that you can feel free to continue to come out of your shell and tell us your strongly held beliefs that we have only guessed at before. Way to go guy . . . keep it up . . . you are on the road to recovery.

You're on your way to 15,000 posts! Congratulations!

Here's an article about the ramfications for Mid-majors with the Alliance, even as the Alliance has become somewhat of a fiasco to say the least. Basketball gets a far amount of attention and the Bobcats are mentioned.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/college... /

And, I took the bait -- hook, line and sinker!