(01-20-2012 09:59 AM)ECUgradstudent Wrote:  From the ECU perspective, if you are going to move up a DIA team, there are pros and cons for both ODU and GSU. They share alot of the same pros and cons. I guess it comes down to ODU being close can be both good and bad for ECU so we just have decide if their closeness produces more good or more bad. I think it would produce more bad and I doubt our teams would even bus up there so why not go with GSU then?

Any truth to what was posted in the other thread (in smackboard now) that Temple might joing the merger if Ohio came with them? If Ohio is in a different tv market than Marshall (like Columbus), I could see that happening and would give ECU 3 teams in the eastern time zone (4 including ECU for the merger in eastern time zone).

If you are talking about the post I think you are talking about I would mostly disregard it. It comes from a poster from the MAC boards that is well known for throwing everything and anything out there without regard to likelihood (using multiple different names to post under and I am not entirely sure why). I don't hate the guy like many MAC posters seem to but I can see why they can get annoyed since he posts realignment stuff (really random alignment stuff) all the time.

I for one would say Temple cares little about Ohio or any other MAC football school in particular. What Temple likely cares about is money and the critical mass of all sorts of factors that contribute to the MAC being a good fit currently for them (Ohio is a part of that but only with the other MAC schools with them). These are the things that I think need to happen to make Temple go to a conference like CUSA (these are just my educated opinions and I am making no claims at being infallible and they are heavily based on what Temple fans seem to think).

1. The offer needs to be football only. A-10 basketball is too good with too much history for them to move without making a for sure significant jump up and CUSA does not provide that. Further the A-10 is good for their Olympic sports since they don't need to ship them too far too often apparently. This is a big reason why they do not join the MAC.

2. Temple has to pay millions to leave the MAC. The only school that can help with that is UMASS since those are the only two schools that have that special deal (IF they both leave the second team pays a much smaller buyout so you can spread the damage between the two and they would each pay less than what they would have to pay to leave alone). In addition they have to pay a lot of money to join CUSA and it would cost more to play there in general. This means it is going to take a while to recoup the money lost especially as a football only. In this case I do not see them leaving the MAC unless they have given up on the BE entirely since CUSA really will benefit them only as a long term solution. If they still think they are going to the BE soon then there is more of a benefit to stay in the MAC.

You could list many smaller reasons (such as they are more likely to have an additional win or so in the MAC which helps to keep them looking better) but those are the big reasons as I see them.