There’s a version of college expansion, a semi-probable version, in which Baylor and Texas Tech end up with Houston and Cincinnati and Memphis in a conference together, and whether that includes Oklahoma State and Iowa State and Kansas State and TCU or not, it has the makings of a strong men’s basketball league by the metric most used to gauge the strength of basketball leagues, which is how many teams they send to the NCAA Tournament.
Baylor, the reigning national champion, has made six of the last seven tournaments, and was on track to be a one-seed in the 2020 edition. Texas Tech has made four of the last five, and was on the right side of the bubble in 2020 when things ended. Houston has made the last four, and just played Baylor in the Final Four. Cincinnati had a rough go under John Brannen, but had made nine straight tournaments before he arrived. Memphis won the NIT this year, nearly won a national championship in 2008, and their tournament appearance success was not just a John Calipari thing—Josh Pastner succeeded there too.
It’s not inconceivable that a league with these five schools could find itself now and then with the third or fourth-most tournament teams in men’s college hoops, especially considering how many current conference counterparts have been postseason factors in recent memory. Oklahoma State was just a 4-seed. Iowa State made six straight tournaments within the last decade. TCU recently won an NIT. Kansas State went to the Elite Eight three years ago. Wichita State played in seven straight tournaments within the last decade and made a Final Four. UCF almost knocked off Duke in 2019 as a 9-seed. Temple’s less than fifteen years removed from a six-year tournament streak of its own. SMU’s grabbed a 6-seed twice in the last seven years.
Football is, of course, the biggest moneymaker, but each of these schools, with the exception of Wichita State, has a football program that’s been solid in recent memory as well, and we haven’t even mentioned West Virginia or Kansas, sometimes assigning them preemptively to the Big Ten and ACC in any scenario in which the Big 12 does blow up. It would be hard to shed the mid-major label on the football field, but with a 12-team playoff, it’s debatable how much that would matter, and on the basketball court, a few good years and some luck regarding the other power leagues could make it hard to refer to the New American Conference, or whatever it would be called, as anything but a high-major organization.
Geography and revenue and all sorts of things could get in the way and block or dilute or complicate this endeavor. But a two-division-in-football league with the following thirteen teams…
- Baylor (West)
- Texas Tech (West)
- Houston (West)
- Memphis (East)
- Cincinnati (East)
- Iowa State (East)
- TCU (West)
- Kansas State (East)
- Oklahoma State (West)
- UCF (East)
- Temple (East)
- SMU (West)
- Wichita State (basketball-only)
…could work. With basketball leading the way.
