Everybody wants a new zip code. Nobody wants to fix the system.

On3's Brett McMurphy and Pete Nakos reported Friday morning that Miami (Ohio), James Madison and UConn have contacted the American Conference about joining the league. Miami (Ohio) reportedly offered between $30 million and $40 million. James Madison and Miami (Ohio) reportedly want full membership. UConn reportedly wants in for football only, keeping its Olympic sports in the Big East.

The American quickly responded with a statement: "The American is not proactively seeking additional members. We will continue to evaluate the changing landscape and opportunities that strengthen the conference and support our collective mission."

James Madison released a statement: "We strive every day for excellence and to best position our student-athletes and university. Our charge is to evaluate every opportunity to make JMU Athletics the best it can be now and moving forward."

UConn athletic director David Benedict went to Twitter to quote-tweet the On3 report: "Would be nice to be contacted about these kind of reports. Wasn't aware of this."

Nobody talked to me, either. But that's never stopped me before.

Usually, this kind of stuff blows up in the offseason. Conference realignment speculation is the fuel that bridges the gap between March Madness and football media days. The climate we're in now has turned it into a year-round cottage industry.

The Protect College Sports Act goes to a Senate vote Monday, where it's expected to clear and move to the House. We're still a long way from that becoming law, but the uncertainty of how things might land is triggering conversations everywhere — in boardrooms, in booster clubs and apparently in the offices of athletic directors who want a different mailing address.

I've covered these moves and the politics behind them for almost three decades. Every wave of realignment was fueled by an urgency that this might be the last lifeboat out. It wasn't true then. It's probably not true now. But it feels more like it than ever before.

Let's take them one at a time.

James Madison would be a great addition to the American from a competitive standpoint. The Dukes are 43-11 since moving from FCS to FBS in 2022. Three consecutive bowl trips. Last year, they became the first Sun Belt team to qualify for the College Football Playoff. If that's the direction JMU wants to go, the American would be getting a program that has done nothing but win since the day it arrived in FBS.

Miami (Ohio) is an ambition play. The RedHawks are investing in their program in a way that is outgrowing the MAC. Three consecutive MAC championship game appearances. A 32-2 basketball season with a perfect 18-0 conference record. A $242 million arena to replace Millett Hall, approved by the Board of Trustees in February. The donors pouring money into football and basketball aren't doing it to stay in the MAC. They're positioning for a jump. The $30-to-$40 million offer to the American is another signal.

UConn is a different animal. The Huskies were a member of the Big East when the Big East morphed into the American and the basketball schools split off. UConn stayed with the American because of football. The football program turned into a dumpster fire that was dragging basketball down with it, so they jumped to independent for football and rejoined the Big East. There were hard feelings over it. Basketball has restored its place at the top of the game. Football is finally gaining stability — back-to-back 9-4 seasons under Jim Mora before he left for Colorado State — but scheduling as an independent is a challenge.

Would the American welcome UConn back as a football-only member? There's probably merit to that discussion. If I'm the American, I'm at least getting UConn's basketball teams playing my top programs a couple of times a year as part of the entry fee.

It doesn't really matter whether these reports are true, false or somewhere in the middle. If nothing else, they probably represent the top three candidates (at least now) should there be movement higher up in the food chain. That's the way it works. Memphis, USF and others are throwing themselves at Power 4 leagues for the same reason.

At some point, the specific schools stop mattering. Miami (Ohio) today. Memphis proposing it pay $250 million in 2025 to join the Big 12. The Pac-12 collapse before that. Every cycle produces another set of programs convinced this is the last window to change addresses before the walls go up for good.

You know how this goes. Schools will use the opportunity to "move up" and the fear of "being left behind" to raise money, hire consultants, commission feasibility studies and retain lawyers who specialize in conference media rights. Boosters will write bigger checks because the pitch shifts from "support the program" to "save the program from being left behind." Fundraising off fear is the most reliable capital campaign in college sports.

Miami (Ohio) reportedly offered $30 to $40 million to join the American. The American's TV deal pays about $7 million a year per school. The MAC's pays less, but that gap doesn't explain a $30 million entry fee. What explains it is the label. The American has long been perceived as the best of the non-power leagues — the only G6 conference that has sent multiple teams to the College Football Playoff, with Cincinnati in 2021 and Tulane last season. Memphis, Tulane and USF are on the schedule. You recruit against different names. The perceived address changes.

We wrote about this in The Moat. Half of conference realignment has always been about the television money. The other half has been about the perceived zip code — being in the conference that makes your program feel like it has arrived, recruiting against names that signal you belong at the table you're sitting at. The programs just inside the walls need the programs outside to stay outside. The separation is the product.

Nobody is trying to fix the structure that makes this game necessary. West Virginia is in the Big 12. Cal is in the ACC. Oregon State and Washington State played each other twice in the same regular season because they couldn't fill a schedule. Rivalries that survived a century of everything else have been destroyed over television contracts. Programs that were financially stable have been gutted. The whole system is on fire. Everybody's fighting over which gated community to move into next.

Or we could get in the room and build something better. We've proposed one. We call it the Diehard League.