(01-22-2013 05:50 PM)DaSaintFan Wrote:  1) As noted Schedules for this coming FB season will be announced.

2) I"m guessing that the PLANNED divisional lineups, following the upcoming departures occur, will be announced, so the schools know what to expect.

3) Status of the early arrivals (if any)

4) Bids for 2013-2014 basketball tourney site will start being accepted (or has been determined)

5) There will not be any mention of any future expansion candidates (as there's no need at the moment)

This is good news.

(01-22-2013 04:23 PM)FAUAEPi Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 04:14 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  If NMSU is added, does that mean that UTEP plans on committing to CUSA long-term? I can't imagine why NMSU would be added other than to give UTEP a close rival. Have any insight into this? My hope is that the "UTEP and Rice to the MWC" rumors are false and that both schools stay put in CUSA. I don't see the advantage of joining the MWC, especially for Rice.

UTEP wanting NMSU to be a geographically partner is like wanted UCF to be in the same conference as FAU so they can become partners, or Texas and UTSA, it wont happen. UTEP, UCF, and Texas will find it INSULTING that they will be level par with little ole NMSU, or FAU, or UTSA. If we give a bid to NMSU, why would UTEP want to stay if they think we've become desperate to add any team?

IF/IF/IF NMSU is truly being considered, I doubt it is to give UTEP a close rival, but more because the rest of the conference is asking for them to be added so when the olys have to travel out to El Paso they can get a two for 1 trip just like once FIU was added, FAU got added to help with travel (bonus that they actually wanted to play each other).

The NMSU football program has certainly been a bottom dwellar for a long time with attendance around 15K, which is a deal killer for some/most.

However, their basketball program has one of the top 100 average attendances in the country (would be 5th highest of 2015 CUSA members at 5,500 per game). Their average RPI over the last 5 years is below 100.

They are a top 200 (#189) rated national university per USNWR ranking, 18,000 students, $150mm endowment, $150mm in annual research funding (which is quite a bit), is a land grant and space grant university, and are located in the 199th rated metro area (Las Cruces 100k, 215k metro).

Their baseball team finished last season ranked 40th according to the NCAA site (http://www.ncaa.com/rankings/baseball/d1), which was 5 spots behind ECU, and ahead of teams like Louisville, Texas, Wichita St, Tulane, New Mexico, Southern Miss, LaTech, entire Sun Belt.

I am pretty neutral on them, but from a NON FOOTBALL standpoint, there are many positive aspects to them. I guess stranger things have happened.

IF/IF/IF NMSU is truly being considered, I doubt it is to give UTEP a close rival, but more because the rest of the conference is asking for them to be added so when the olys have to travel out to El Paso they can get a two for 1 trip just like once FIU was added, FAU got added to help with travel (bonus that they actually wanted to play each other). (quote from a Rice fan)

Ohhhhhh, why don't you just kill me now?

(01-22-2013 06:32 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  IF/IF/IF NMSU is truly being considered, I doubt it is to give UTEP a close rival, but more because the rest of the conference is asking for them to be added so when the olys have to travel out to El Paso they can get a two for 1 trip just like once FIU was added, FAU got added to help with travel (bonus that they actually wanted to play each other). (quote from a Rice fan)

Ohhhhhh, why don't you just kill me now?

If UTEP goes to MWC and you have chosen NMSU to save travel money...that will be a fail.

(01-22-2013 06:35 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 06:32 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  IF/IF/IF NMSU is truly being considered, I doubt it is to give UTEP a close rival, but more because the rest of the conference is asking for them to be added so when the olys have to travel out to El Paso they can get a two for 1 trip just like once FIU was added, FAU got added to help with travel (bonus that they actually wanted to play each other). (quote from a Rice fan)

Ohhhhhh, why don't you just kill me now?

If UTEP goes to MWC and you have chosen NMSU to save travel money...that will be a fail.

No doubt about it. You would have to have UTEP's blessing as well as assurances from UTEP plus solid confirmation from MWC that they are not a target. Seems like a lot of risk of getting stuck with an outlier when there are what seem like safer options that still provide a western division school (assuming a western school is what is being sought).

Any way there could be a clause in the contract that makes it painless to divorce if UTEP bolts? NMSU is probably desparate enough to sign something with a escape clause for the league if it buys them some time. I still think there are probably safer options.

(01-22-2013 06:35 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 06:32 PM)olliebaba Wrote:  IF/IF/IF NMSU is truly being considered, I doubt it is to give UTEP a close rival, but more because the rest of the conference is asking for them to be added so when the olys have to travel out to El Paso they can get a two for 1 trip just like once FIU was added, FAU got added to help with travel (bonus that they actually wanted to play each other). (quote from a Rice fan)

Ohhhhhh, why don't you just kill me now?

If UTEP goes to MWC and you have chosen NMSU to save travel money...that will be a fail.

Yupp. Which is why Texas State, A-State, or UL would be better adds in the west.

UTEP thinks they are above NMSU. Not sure if anyone in the conference is pushing for that add. The only benefit if we were to lose the miners would be a smaller geographic footprint. Why would we give that up just to get into New Mexico.

I am not looking forward to seeing ECU's schedule. Sucks that we are going into a lame duck year when the schedules are getting changed drastically. I'am sure we will be given last consideration (as we should, I'm not looking for sympathy). At least when Houston, SMU, UCF, and Memphis went into their lame duck year the schedule was already set.

Pretty sure we will be

@La Tech, @MTSU, @Marshall

Outside of that I don't know. We should be hosting UAB and USM but with the shake up I could see either of those games being on the road.

If our conference road games end up being La Tech, USM, MTSU, and Marshall that is going to be brutal.

(01-22-2013 07:41 PM)TheEastisPurple Wrote:  I am not looking forward to seeing ECU's schedule. Sucks that we are going into a lame duck year when the schedules are getting changed drastically. I'am sure we will be given last consideration (as we should, I'm not looking for sympathy). At least when Houston, SMU, UCF, and Memphis went into their lame duck year the schedule was already set.

Pretty sure we will be

@La Tech, @MTSU, @Marshall

Outside of that I don't know. We should be hosting UAB and USM but with the shake up I could see either of those games being on the road.

If our conference road games end up being La Tech, USM, MTSU, and Marshall that is going to be brutal.

8 C-USA road games! I kid, I kid!

Ha. They will get 4 at home and 4 on the road. ECU will have a good time in El Paso.

(01-22-2013 07:59 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  Ha. They will get 4 at home and 4 on the road. ECU will have a good time in El Paso.

It's possible but I doubt it. I guess it depends if La Tech is East or West (I was guessing West) but that would give us 4 home divisional games and only 2 on the road. I would think the conference would want to make it 3 home and 3 road in the division and then 1 and 1 in the other division.

I would think @LT @Marshall @MTSU and then @ one of USM, UAB, FIU, FAU (FIU or FAU if the conference wants to keep going with alternating years of divisional games, or UAB or USM if the conference wants to give that advantage to a long time/continuing conference member).

Then the home games will be 3 of those 4 teams listed and then one of the west teams (probably not UTEP or Tulane as we just finished the second year of our 1 and 1s with them),

So home schedule would be:

3 of UAB, USM, FIU, FAU
1 of Tulsa, Rice, UTSA, NT


Of course all of this is just an educated guess, the conference can literally do whatever they want at this point with the amount of shake up there has been.

From Twitter

Harry Minium ‏@Harry_MiniumVP
Conference USA athletic directors vote to make Old Dominion eligible for the 2014 football championship. http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/conferen...ball-title …

(01-22-2013 09:17 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  From Twitter

Harry Minium ‏@Harry_MiniumVP
Conference USA athletic directors vote to make Old Dominion eligible for the 2014 football championship. http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/conferen...ball-title …

That's actually pretty stupid since they won't be bowl eligible even at 13-0. I BELIEVE NCAA rules dictate on that one and I don't think there's anything that can be done to change it.

The C-USA title game would be their "bowl" if they made it.

There is the slim chance they could be bowl eligible if not enough teams qualify.

(01-22-2013 05:34 PM)AtlantaEagle Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 05:01 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 04:38 PM)AtlantaEagle Wrote:  Has Banowsky not learned anything about the lessons learned from the WAC & large numbers of conference members?
Even the MWC is stopping at 12.
He's setting ourselves up to be a permanent NCAA sub-classification.
He really doesn't care long term, as long as he's pulling down his 825K per year as Commissioner.

If that salary is even close to accurate, it's too high. Maybe when we were higher up the totem pole...

My bad, he makes almost 900K. According to USAToday, Banowsky makes more than the BE & MWC commish's, & almost as much as Slive at the SEC.
Totally ridiculous.
Check this out...
"Among commissioners outside the power conferences, Conference USA's Britton Banowsky earned nearly $900,000 ($410,000 in base pay and $370,000 in other reportable compensation not further detailed on the tax return); the Mountain West's Craig Thompson a little more than $600,000 ($370,000 in base pay)."

Overpaid Banowsky

Thats as close to welfare as you can get right there

(01-22-2013 09:40 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  The C-USA title game would be their "bowl" if they made it.

There is the slim chance they could be bowl eligible if not enough teams qualify.

Same with UTSA in the WAC this year, but it does help later on down the road.

I honestly think UTEP will be in the MWC after 2013-2014 year. I also think UTEP is playing this very close to the vest an not letting anything out until around this time next year. The reason is to protect the CUSA basketball tournament from being moved out of El Paso after UTEP announces it will be leaving. Just look at the Tulsa situation this year. They are speculated to be leaving but nothing is announced. If they announced now it would be really difficult to find a new host city for the basketball tournament on such short notice. I would be looking for BYU, UTEP, UTSA and Rice to move to the MWC for 2014.

(01-22-2013 09:39 PM)WinOrLoseEAGLE Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 09:17 PM)DaBigBlue Wrote:  From Twitter

Harry Minium ‏@Harry_MiniumVP
Conference USA athletic directors vote to make Old Dominion eligible for the 2014 football championship. http://hamptonroads.com/2013/01/conferen...ball-title …

That's actually pretty stupid since they won't be bowl eligible even at 13-0. I BELIEVE NCAA rules dictate on that one and I don't think there's anything that can be done to change it.

If there are not enough bowl eligible teams ODU will be allowed to participate in a bowl provided they have 6 wins per the NCAA. They also can appeal if they were to win the conference much like Georgia tech did. yes ODU can technically go to a bowl in 2014.

(01-22-2013 10:04 PM)tigtoodawg Wrote:  

(01-22-2013 09:40 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  The C-USA title game would be their "bowl" if they made it.

There is the slim chance they could be bowl eligible if not enough teams qualify.

Same with UTSA in the WAC this year, but it does help later on down the road.

Nobody in their right mind believes ODU has a prayer of playing for the conference championship in their 2nd transition year. However, being eligible does two things. First, it gives the players something to play for other than pride. Second, and most importantly, it helps in recruiting JUCO players.

Our beat writer reported that the ODU coaches have encountered some resistance from JUCO's they were recruiting to balance scholarship classes. It seems other schools have been using the "you won't be able to compete for a title during your tenure" card on recruits. Being eligible for the CUSA title eliminates that objection.

Eastern division is Marshall & The Alphabets. ODU winning with Heinicke wouldn't be the craziest thing to ever happen in sports.