I see the merits in this too:

ECU
Marshall
Memphis
UAB
USM
Tulane

Rice
UTEP
Tulsa
CSU
AFA
UNM

Wyoming
Utah State
Hawaii
UNLV
Nevada
Fresno State

3 divisions would mean a wild card team for a playoff. Still doable. Play your 5 division mates plus 2 crossover, then playoff week, then the championship game.

(01-21-2012 08:57 AM)PATiger Wrote:  Georgia State has a significantly smaller athletic budget than ODU, so I'd consider ODU much quicker than GSU.

That's true for now. Let's check back in 5-6 years and see then.

Quote:Plus, GSU has a lot more competition in their market than ODU does.

Yes, but it's not like either one will ever be better than #3 in their markets.

Quote:A nine game conference schedule is not balanced. There would be some teams with more home games than road games and others with more road games than home games.

I agree with this, but it is still a fact that the Pac-12 has made 9-game conference schedules "work" for a long, long time. Big Ten used to, as well.

Quote:Geography is less of an issue as teams will charter flights to games.

It's not THE make-or-break issue, but I still think it matters.

Quote: (Teams being considered for expansion) need to offer us a decent market in order to negotiate better television contracts and they need to have an adquate budget to compete in all sports in CUSA. If they don't have those two, I'd have to vote them down.

+1

(01-21-2012 11:42 AM)PATiger Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 11:35 AM)panama Wrote:  The USAToday numbers are 2 years old and incomplete guys. Get your numbers from the Gubment.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/

Our budget is $22.6 million

Even so, everyone else's budgets have gone up and your current numbers would put you near the bottom of CUSA's budgets from two years ago. ODU was at $29M two years ago, so I'd still have to take them over GSU.

Our budget has increased by an average of $2.3 million a year for the last 5 years. That is not going to stop. But ODU is very impressive as a program. They are leveraging their basketball success and copy and pasting onto football.

(01-21-2012 08:45 AM)ECUgradstudent Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 01:52 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  Just for reference, here are final 2011 records and average home attendance figures for various prospects:

Louisiana-Lafayette (9-4) - 29,171
Temple (9-4) - 28,060
Louisiana Tech (8-5) - 21,518
Arkansas State (10-3) - 21,257
Ohio (10-4) - 19,891
North Texas (5-7) - 18,864
Florida International (8-5) - 18,411

If the full merger occurs, do you think Hawaii will explore all sports membership since we would be looking at division set up?

Thanks for asking ECU. The answer is no. It's very unlikely Hawaii would consider an all-sports membership, even with no cross-division competition.

Most folks don't realize how truly far Honolulu is from the west coast. It's 2,600 miles, which is comparable to a coast-to-coast flight. As a result, travel in the WAC has been very difficult for our Olympic sports teams. Many of the road trips are 12-14 hours each way. It would be just as bad in the MWC or a merged MWC-CUSA.

By comparison the planned move of Hawaii's Olympic teams to the Big West will be a godsend. All trip durations will be reduced to about 6 hours. Also the Big West is stronger than the MWC in baseball and volleyball, which are money sports for Hawaii with high fan interest (we lead the country in women's volleyball attendance with over 6,500 per match). The only downside is that the Big West is weak in basketball, although SDSU's addition will help ameliorate that.

As a general matter split conference memberships are problematic, but given Hawaii's unique situation, football-only membership in the MWC or a merged MWC-CUSA is ideal for us.

(01-21-2012 12:08 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I am completely against GSU. I did not even know the university existed until the Blazers played a basketball game there... and I have lived in the Atlanta area for several years.

Sent from my EVO 3D using Tapatalk

Not sure if serious.

(01-21-2012 08:59 AM)PATiger Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 01:52 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  Just for reference, here are final 2011 records and average home attendance figures for various prospects:

Louisiana-Lafayette (9-4) - 29,171
Temple (9-4) - 28,060
Louisiana Tech (8-5) - 21,518
Arkansas State (10-3) - 21,257
Ohio (10-4) - 19,891
North Texas (5-7) - 18,864
Florida International (8-5) - 18,411

One year's record in football is less significant than a ten-year list of accomplishments. It avoids adding a team that had a fluke year.

Good point and I agree 100%. I just didn't have time to do the research.

I flew from Raleigh to Honolulu once. When we had our layover in San Francisco, we were not even halfway to Hawaii. So, yeah, it's quite a trip, even from the west coast.

Don't know how many of you have seen it but there's a pretty interesting expansion thread on the Utah State board:

http://www.usufans.com/Forums/viewtopic....be54c8152a

The UNLV and Fresno State ADs were quoted in radio interviews this week saying a full MWC-CUSA merger is in the works, that at least one more school will be added (probably in the east) to get to 18, that the lawyers are working out the details for the presidents to approve, and that the expected timeline is 60-90 days.

(01-21-2012 12:57 PM)Its The Talons Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 12:08 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  I am completely against GSU. I did not even know the university existed until the Blazers played a basketball game there... and I have lived in the Atlanta area for several years.

Sent from my EVO 3D using Tapatalk

Not sure if serious.

Really not sure if serious. We have been playing UAB in Olympic Sports for 30 years and we have 110k alumni in Atlanta. I mean, you WORK with at least one GSU grad.

(01-21-2012 01:04 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  Don't know how many of you have seen it but there's a pretty interesting expansion thread on the Utah State board:

http://www.usufans.com/Forums/viewtopic....be54c8152a

The UNLV and Fresno State ADs were quoted in radio interviews this week saying a full MWC-CUSA merger is in the works, that at least one more school will be added (probably in the east) to get to 18, that the lawyers are working out the details for the presidents to approve, and that the expected timeline is 60-90 days.

Probably closer to 90 days. This may drag into May/June

(01-21-2012 12:34 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

Quote:Plus, GSU has a lot more competition in their market than ODU does.

Yes, but it's not like either one will ever be better than #3 in their markets.

I'm not so sure I believe that. If ODU moves up I could actually see them giving VT and UVA a strong run in Norfolk. They have what I'd call 20K die hard fans AT LEAST and there's literally a waiting list for season tickets there. The locals really seem to be getting behind their team. They just need another 10-15K seats.

My preferred expansion candidates in order:

1. FIU
2. Temple
3. Ohio
4. LaTech
5. ODU

(01-21-2012 01:18 PM)NoQuarter08 Wrote:  

(01-21-2012 12:34 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  

Quote:Plus, GSU has a lot more competition in their market than ODU does.

Yes, but it's not like either one will ever be better than #3 in their markets.

I'm not so sure I believe that. If ODU moves up I could actually see them giving VT and UVA a strong run in Norfolk. They have what I'd call 20K die hard fans AT LEAST and there's literally a waiting list for season tickets there. The locals really seem to be getting behind their team. They just need another 10-15K seats.

And that's the point of big markets. You dont have to beat the flagship. You just have to carve out enough of a niche to get 35k to 40k to your games. ODU is well on their way to that.

(01-21-2012 01:19 PM)Beagleagle23 Wrote:  My preferred expansion candidates in order:

1. FIU
2. Temple
3. Ohio
4. LaTech
5. ODU

There's no way I'd even consider Ohio or La Tech. Both would be at the very bottom of CUSA in market size. Ohio would be near the bottom in athletic buget and La Tech would be dead last by a significant margin. Ohio only sponsors 6 men's varsity teams, compared to the 10 CUSA sponsors. La Tech's only claim to fame was women's basketball and they've dropped off the map.

No on both.

That's what I'm saying panama. Statewide, sure VT wins hands down. But IN NORFOLK I honestly believe ODU can generate enough interest to get to 40K fairly quickly if they can expand. The problem is the stadium is an odd shape and basically a historical landmark. ODU had a football program a LONG time ago, not sure when they quit. I hope GSU can do the same in terms of support. I honestly have no idea what kind of support you guys have.

If you're going into Ohio, you're better off getting Toledo. They have a solid program the past 10 years. 8 wins or more 6 of the last 10 years (even a couple top 25 finishes) and a much bigger market. Athens, Ohio (Ohio U location) is a whopping 20K people. Toledo is nearly 300K city proper. I'd also be interested in Northern Illinois to get into Chicago. A true northern expansion like that would be good but probably only realistic for CUSA as a separate league.

(01-21-2012 01:37 PM)NoQuarter08 Wrote:  That's what I'm saying panama. Statewide, sure VT wins hands down. But IN NORFOLK I honestly believe ODU can generate enough interest to get to 40K fairly quickly if they can expand. The problem is the stadium is an odd shape and basically a historical landmark. ODU had a football program a LONG time ago, not sure when they quit. I hope GSU can do the same in terms of support. I honestly have no idea what kind of support you guys have.

We have a tougher row to hoe in FCS than ODU. We get about 14k to 17k per game and the reality is you cannot expect much more than 20k per game for FCS in a big market. But with 6 million people and 110k local alumni we have room to grow. But I am thinking that if the merger only adds a couple they will go Utah State, FIU, UNT

(01-21-2012 11:57 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  As I have made clear I am completely on the ODU bandwagon. They only have 2 issues, the fact that they are FCS, and that they need to expand their football stadium. Everything else about them is at or above most of the league, and their attendance in football even with their small stadium is impressive. If they expand and move up they could easily fill 35k immediately. I know attendance doesn't matter to most, but they also have the largest market without a pro-sports team and are so far removed from the other state schools that they would really be the biggest thing going in the area.

Agree 100% as I am also on the ODU bandwagon.

ODU is a sleeping giant. If they move up to FBS and expand their stadium, they could be pretty good quickly.

Between Toledo and NIU, I'd lean towards NIU although I think there are a few better options out there.

(01-21-2012 02:01 PM)PATiger Wrote:  ODU is a sleeping giant. If they move up to FBS and expand their stadium, they could be pretty good quickly.

Between Toledo and NIU, I'd lean towards NIU although I think there are a few better options out there.

I was thinking bringing BOTH would be great for the CUSA side later IF the merger is temporary. Also bring in WKU to bridge the gap a little to the north. I just wish there were enough schools ready right now and spread out just enough to expand CUSA to 16.

Future lineup could bring in GSU, ODU, NIU, WKU, Toledo, FIU and La Tech to go with the 9 we have right now.

Just brainstorming a few future possiblities here.