I Tell Ya' Herbie

     This edition of I Tell Ya' Herbie will stick with one topic.

I Tell Ya' Herbie: 

                                  The latest realignment news between the Mountain West, the resurgent Pac 12, and the American is enough to keep your head spinning.

It looked like the Pac-12 was about to raid the American for as many as four teams between Memphis, Tulane, UTSA, and South Florida, making the Pac-12 the deepest conference among the soon-to-be Group of Six.

The American fought back and attempted to add Air Force from the Mountain West.

The AAC kept their four but Air Force decided to stay in the Mountain West and things were swinging the MWC's way after their remaining eight schools all agreed to remain in the league.

Then the Pac 12 took over with the surprising announcement that Utah State was jumping to their side only to sway back to the Mountain West when UNLV and Air Force agreed to stay under conditions that would see those two schools receive a larger piece of the monetary pie.

This leaves each league with seven football schools (the Mountain West needs eight full-time schools as Hawaii is football only) and needs to add members to reach the NCAA's requirement of eight.

The best solution might be to just merge everyone into one league, which they could have done to start but it seems there are plenty of hard feelings, so it's unlikely.

If the movement between the leagues has ended (and it only takes one to jump) and the AAC has cemented its roster, who would be left to fill these three slots to maintain NCAA viability?

When you look around, two schools that have been traditionally shunned by the Mountain West might be the best candidates.

UTEP was an original member of the WAC but when most of the WAC spun off into the newly created Mountain West, the Miners were left behind.

New Mexico State has always wanted to be in the league but in-state rival New Mexico has always managed to rebuff the Aggies efforts, this time they may not have a choice.

The other possibilities could add a school that would move up from 1-AA.

North Dakota State and South Dakota have won six of the last seven national championships and they may bring their rivals (North Dakota and South Dakota State) if a league wants to be larger.

Montana, Montana State, and Idaho would be nice fits for the Pac-12 with proximity to Oregon State, Washington State, and Boise State

Sacramento State and UC-Davis aren't quite as strong as the aforementioned two but adding two California schools would appeal to the Mountain West with only San Jose State remaining in their league.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out and which of the two (and the AAC) proves to be the best of Group of Six.

It's pretty close at this time but I'd give the edge to the Pac-12 with Oregon State, Washington State, and Boise State at the top.

Oregon State and Washington State are still using players recruited as a Power Five school, can they sustain that recruiting at the G-6 level?

Still, this is far from the conference lineup that we will see for 2026, and short of an iron-clad contractual agreement, it could be completely different ten years from now.