Over the last few years, a handful of schools have made the jump from Group of 5 to Power 5. Louisville and Rutgers were the first of the schools to do so in 2013 when the ACC and Big Ten expanded to 14 schools, and TCU made the jump from the Mountain West to the Big 12. Just a few short years ago, realignment brought new schools into the fold with BYU, Houston, Cincinnati, and UCF joining the Big 12, and not long after that, SMU joining the ACC. Depending on your view of the new Pac 12, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State, and San Diego State will become the newest members of the Power 5 when they join in a few seasons.
But one school that has been on the outside looking in for the last 30 years has been the Memphis Tigers. The Tigers have watched as their rivals in Louisville and Cincinnati left to join the bigger fish, and have been just left on the cutting room floor on at least four different occasions. They have a great basketball program, a great football stadium in the Liberty Bowl, and a sports-crazed city, but something has been keeping them out of the power conferences. The question is---what is it?
Why does nobody want Memphis?