(02-12-2012 04:21 PM)War Torn Ruston Wrote: I am a BIG fan of MAC and Sunbelt football. I am glad ESPN has gave those conferences a spot on Tuesday. I honestly would watch some of those games before I would watch some of the top conferences.
I do not see any reason to have a merger. Most of the bowl games you all play against each other anyways.
Plus the MAC has a pretty long history playing each other and aside from a few adds has probably been the most stable of conferences. No reason to screw that up. Both the MAC and Sunbelt are about or as good as the WAC, C-USA, and the MWC now anyways.Just keep growing your own brand and you will be fine.
Not so sure about that one. More so CUSA and the MWC being in that statement. You guys would kill for our tv and bowl deals.
(02-12-2012 04:21 PM)War Torn Ruston Wrote: I am a BIG fan of MAC and Sunbelt football. I am glad ESPN has gave those conferences a spot on Tuesday. I honestly would watch some of those games before I would watch some of the top conferences.
I do not see any reason to have a merger. Most of the bowl games you all play against each other anyways.
Plus the MAC has a pretty long history playing each other and aside from a few adds has probably been the most stable of conferences. No reason to screw that up. Both the MAC and Sunbelt are about or as good as the WAC, C-USA, and the MWC now anyways.Just keep growing your own brand and you will be fine.
Not so sure about that one. More so CUSA and the MWC being in that statement. You guys would kill for our tv and bowl deals.
deals that will be drying up now that the best programs in the Conference have jumped ship. It's funny how some of the remaining C-USA fanbases don't see this. Yall are going to suffer like the WAC has.
(02-12-2012 04:32 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote: With C-USA in such turmoil we could find ourselves picking off their programs pretty soon. I suspect some Conference USA fans will mock that statement, but it makes sense. the Belt is very stable and geographically sound. If the AQ status dissapears and everyone moves to somewhat equal standing then all currently non-AQ leagues will be in a position to benefit. the SBC could add La Tech and Southern Miss and really take big steps.
Agreed, and have believed that for 3 years now. Was just hoping for ECU fans' sake that ECU would be one of the programs ripe for the picking.
With that kind of drivel you need to take that ECU player out of your avatar.
We all know his act, we know the harm he has tried to cause ECU, and not at all on a message board. I'm much prouder to have OTM as an ECU fan than this guy.
I don't know the guys past, but from the conversation he and I have had on here I havent seen him try to harm ECU at all. He seems to have a grasp on the fact that C-USA is unstable and could easily fall apart. He seems realistic to me and interested in the Sun Belt as a stable alternative for the program he loves.
I don't see how you get that he is trying to harm the program from that. Like I said, I don't know him beyond this conversation, but your comments about these instances being harmful come across as inaccurate IMHO.
(02-12-2012 07:58 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote: I don't know the guys past, but from the conversation he and I have had on here I havent seen him try to harm ECU at all. He seems to have a grasp on the fact that C-USA is unstable and could easily fall apart. He seems realistic to me and interested in the Sun Belt as a stable alternative for the program he loves.
I don't see how you get that he is trying to harm the program from that. Like I said, I don't know him beyond this conversation, but your comments about these instances being harmful come across as inaccurate IMHO.
Has nothing to do with any post he's made on this message board, and you can search back through the archives and find evidence here of what he did. To summarize he's a traitor to East Carolina, the Pirate Club, and should be ashamed of himself.
(02-12-2012 07:58 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote: I don't know the guys past, but from the conversation he and I have had on here I havent seen him try to harm ECU at all. He seems to have a grasp on the fact that C-USA is unstable and could easily fall apart. He seems realistic to me and interested in the Sun Belt as a stable alternative for the program he loves.
I don't see how you get that he is trying to harm the program from that. Like I said, I don't know him beyond this conversation, but your comments about these instances being harmful come across as inaccurate IMHO.
Has nothing to do with any post he's made on this message board, and you can search back through the archives and find evidence here of what he did. To summarize he's a traitor to East Carolina, the Pirate Club, and should be ashamed of himself.
OK, well I don't know the guy and I have no opinions on him as an individual. His posts concerning his interest in ECU joining the Sun Belt have been interesting to me, that's all.
(02-12-2012 07:58 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote: I don't know the guys past, but from the conversation he and I have had on here I havent seen him try to harm ECU at all. He seems to have a grasp on the fact that C-USA is unstable and could easily fall apart. He seems realistic to me and interested in the Sun Belt as a stable alternative for the program he loves.
I don't see how you get that he is trying to harm the program from that. Like I said, I don't know him beyond this conversation, but your comments about these instances being harmful come across as inaccurate IMHO.
Has nothing to do with any post he's made on this message board, and you can search back through the archives and find evidence here of what he did. To summarize he's a traitor to East Carolina, the Pirate Club, and should be ashamed of himself.
If you want to take a trip down the rabbit hole Burn the Horse you might check out ECU's forum here...its a easy to find thread at the moment BUT have some time on your hands to read the whole thing.
(02-12-2012 04:21 PM)War Torn Ruston Wrote: I am a BIG fan of MAC and Sunbelt football. I am glad ESPN has gave those conferences a spot on Tuesday. I honestly would watch some of those games before I would watch some of the top conferences.
I do not see any reason to have a merger. Most of the bowl games you all play against each other anyways.
Plus the MAC has a pretty long history playing each other and aside from a few adds has probably been the most stable of conferences. No reason to screw that up. Both the MAC and Sunbelt are about or as good as the WAC, C-USA, and the MWC now anyways.Just keep growing your own brand and you will be fine.
Not so sure about that one. More so CUSA and the MWC being in that statement. You guys would kill for our tv and bowl deals.
deals that will be drying up now that the best programs in the Conference have jumped ship. It's funny how some of the remaining C-USA fanbases don't see this. Yall are going to suffer like the WAC has.
The only bowl we WILL lose will most likely be the Liberty Bowl. Which was lost anyway when the decided to become the SEC's b*. That said they most likely transition to BE vs. SEC bowl. Doubt but not sure that the Beef O'Brady's would follow UCF as they aren't "that" closely tied together.
The bowls the MWC and CUSA had otherwise would still keep us. The only one that would change in an alliance is the Hawaii Bowl would have to do something as it is currently MWC and CUSA.
I expect the Sun Belt to secure one other bowl soon, giving us three auto and two secondary. If we were to bring in Southern Miss and Tech I think we'd get a 4th.
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2012 08:53 PM by Burn the Horse.)
It annoys me when fellow non-AQ fans disrespect the entire Sun Belt Conference just because. I can understand if you single out a program who simply isn't good, but to diss the entire league seems ignorent. We have several very good programs, heck C-USA is talking about trying to bring some of them in to fill the holes.
Troy, MTSU, FIU, stAte, Louisiana, and WKU are all very good programs. We all have atleast two of the three major sports that are respectable.
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2012 08:56 PM by Burn the Horse.)
(02-12-2012 08:56 PM)Burn the Horse Wrote: It annoys me when fellow non-AQ fans disrespect the entire Sun Belt Conference just because. I can understand if you single out a program who simply isn't good, but to diss the entire league seems ignorent. We have several very good programs, heck C-USA is talking about trying to bring some of them in to fill the holes.
Troy, MTSU, FIU, stAte, Louisiana, and WKU are all very good programs. We all have atleast two of the three major sports that are respectable.
If 2/3 is the criteria, you have to put USA on that list too. Fallen from grace recently but so has some of your list. USA has a good deal of NCAA tourney appearances in baseball and basketball. Unless being 2/2 is a disqualification!
(This post was last modified: 02-12-2012 09:17 PM by Tiguar.)
not sure the mac or sun belt need to merge as both have plenty of teams - even with a defection or two (the mac obviously can absorb more attrition than the sun belt due to size). sure they could schedule each other more - but a merger seems too drastic when they aren't really threatened.
i suppose the sunbelt could lose multiple teams to the alliance (if it actually happens) - but short of that - I don't see either needing to merge. if the aliance doesn't happen, i'm not sure how much expanding cusa might do - take la tech perhaps, or la tech and the texas schools that are set to join the wac.of the sun belt schools, i can't see cusa interested in any - other than the florida ones or north texas.
if cusa was going to raid the sun belt, the eastern cusa schools could easily make a better conference from scrap in the east than the cusa nub could build by adding a few schools.
Now that Temple may leave the MAC with 13 football members, how about the MAC expands with 3 current FCS schools that have attendance numbers and athletic budgets more similar to lower level FBS schools? Appalachian State, Delaware, James Madison, and/or Old Dominion?
Appalachian State has been more vocal about a move to FBS but Delaware may seem like a better geographic fit and would provide a larger market.
MAC
East: Akron, Buffalo, Delaware, Kent State, James Madison, Massachusetts, Ohio, Old Dominion
West: Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Miami (OH), Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan
(02-13-2012 03:28 PM)e-bethMSU Wrote: if you want to add 3 - add 3 north eastern schools and build a link to umass. not sure what they would be - but that's where you want them to be.
New Hampshire would be a school to look at. A natural UMass rival and their football program is fairly strong for the FCS. There aren't really any other strong New England options. Delaware and James Madison would be two strong mid-Atlantic options that the MAC should be looking at.
