It's UH-mania here at RAWbservations, but it's been something I've been thinking about lately. To those of you uninterested, there'll be one more UH post after this and then you'll see more of the stuff you come here for, whatever in the world that is.

My recent post in regards to the Ten Percent Rule drew sime ire from the Cougfans.com message boards for crimes ranging from demonstrating insufficient school pride to a "pathetic" view on life.

While I was cruising around, though, I found a lot of great links regarding the conference realignment going on since the ACC swiped some teams from the Big East, leading the Big East to eye some of (UH's) Conference USA schools, leading the C*USA to eye some of the Western Athletic Conference schools.

Kevin posted on it last week and a bit ago, which initially got me thinking about it. The Cougfans board increased my interest with links like this one:

The round of conference reshuffling begun by the move of Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East to the ACC has pitted Conference USA and the Western Athletic Conference against one another in a power struggle for survival, and C-USA has a plan to gain an upper hand.

A source close to the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said inviting Southern Methodist, Rice and Tulsa, along with second-year MAC member Central Florida, seems to be the most viable option to keep C-USA afloat as a 12-team league and stay in the business of big-time college athletics.

I don't really have a dog in this hunt. My primary desire from this is to get the Texas teams together and my secondary desire is to be reasonably competitive. I realize that I'm the exception on this (CougFans are adament about the best possible conference and that's where Kevin seems to stand as well).

If Rice, UH, TCU, and SMU are together in the WAC, that's cool. If they're together in Conference USA, that's cool too. The Cougfans (who know a heck of a lot more about this than me) bemoan the additions of Rice and SMU to the conference because they're not competitive enough. They're much more hot on staying with the C*USA and pulling in Central Florida and another more competitive school.

I understand where they're coming from on that. My feeling on it is that I actually know people who go to Rice and SMU so the games will have more importance to me than a game against East Carolina or Central Florida, even though the latter will look better as far as rankings go. I'd also prefer to play teams in Louisiana and Oklahoma because I'd at least theoretically have a chance to make a road trip from Houston on an important game. Plus I'd rather have a 9-3 record in a less competitive conference than a 3-8 record in a more competitive one. Of course, I say all this and if somehow the SEC (better conference, few local universities)were to extend and invitation, I'd be hard-pressed to turn it down.

Not waiting on that invitation, though.

Of course, rankings do matter, which is why I don't list North Texas (which may not be so bad since they seem to be upwardly mobile, but I'm not excited at the prospect). Rankings (and publicity) matter for recruiting purposes and, almost as importantly, televised games. In that vein Doug's reconferencing scheme leaves me pretty cold. Sure, I like that we're in the same conference as Tulane right now, but ULLafayette or ULMonroe are not particularly attractive schools for conference-mates in his scenario that lumps most non-BCS schools together indiscriminately.

Anyhow, those are my thoughts on the subject.