Quote from: jeffconn on Yesterday at 01:24:17 PMQuote from: Pat Coleman on Yesterday at 11:39:30 AMThe UEC/CSAC merger was ahead of the curve on this, for sure.I'd toss in the USA South split and subsequent alliance with the Collegiate Conference of the South as being ahead of the curve too. The NCAA might have to revisit their ban on umbrella conferences like the Middle Atlantic Conferences.
The CSAC and UEC had almost identical footprints. The same footprint as the Atlantic East, Middle Atlantic, the Centennial, and the Landmark. There's a helluva lot of small colleges in eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey! The colleges in the South, on the other hand, are way more spread out geographically.
I appreciate your take on this, but I would argue that the USAC/CCS split was actually behind the curve. In my opinion, it took place too late to really maximize their AQ potential before the enrollment cliff. I suspect these conferences may each separately struggle to maintain their membership as time goes forward.
I also want to point out for the record here that I do understand the USAC split was delayed because of the pandemic. My understanding is that it was ready to go more than a year earlier than when it actually happened.