(02-21-2013 11:50 PM)shere khan Wrote:  yeah, cusa is much much better off now and gonna makes tons more money without houston, ecu, memphis, smu, tulane, ecu, and ucf. yall are in the drivers seat now.

Nah. We're all on comparable footing. Not exact, but comparable.

Neither side should be standing on the top of the mound chest-thumping. Because that's exactly where we stand; on mounds of dirt. While the Big 5 stand on mountains of gold.

I don't feel any ill will to the schools leaving even though some posters here seem to either feel like a jilted lover, and others like they have moved to a new neighborhood so they go back to the old one, or in some cases wait to move to the new one and tries to showboat their "moving on up". I don't know if it is a move up or not, that will be determined in time, but I won't take glee in the move not working out for them either. I still feel good about C-USA and would not be that excited to see USM move to that conference, unless the guarantees are firmly in place and USM gains.

(02-21-2013 10:49 PM)Texas2Step Wrote:  The only rationalization I need is that U of Houston is building a brand new 40k seater that will shine above anything CUSA has to offer on a single campus, and we will continue to recruit and spend our way to the top of our conference. Southern Miss, a great program, is going to call CUSA home for the long run, so is Marshall unless they want back in the MAC. Nothing really wrong with that actually, but I'm secure in where my school stands, no need to really rationalize, but just responding to your own comments. CUSA fans seem to think that new Big East schools' fans should feel bad about their situation, while you almost never see anyone on the Big East forum talk about how bad CUSA schools should feel about theirs. And trust me, to any objective viewer, there's plenty to dig into CUSA fans about, especially the ones who are already there.

WooooooHooooo...You are actually going to play in a real college football stadium and not a stadium that was first built to play HS football in, welcome to the rest of us.

UH will still get whats left in TX that doesn't go to Texas, AM, TCU, Baylor and the rest of the SEC/B12.

(02-21-2013 11:50 PM)shere khan Wrote:  yeah, cusa is much much better off now and gonna makes tons more money without houston, ecu, memphis, smu, tulane, ecu, and ucf. yall are in the drivers seat now.

I would love for you to dig up one post that said we were going to make, "tons moz monies"

How can you post this, then look back and say, "Yeah, I am okay with being a dumass."? We didn't go to your bed to sleep in it. What is really funny is you don't know how to make it up. Just go back to the mirror where you can get Smalley treatment like this.....



....none of us care what you have to say and will dish it back as quickly as it is received.

Have a great day!

(02-21-2013 10:49 PM)Texas2Step Wrote:  The only rationalization I need is that U of Houston is building a brand new 40k seater that will shine above anything CUSA has to offer on a single campus, and we will continue to recruit and spend our way to the top of our conference. Southern Miss, a great program, is going to call CUSA home for the long run, so is Marshall unless they want back in the MAC. Nothing really wrong with that actually, but I'm secure in where my school stands, no need to really rationalize, but just responding to your own comments. CUSA fans seem to think that new Big East schools' fans should feel bad about their situation, while you almost never see anyone on the Big East forum talk about how bad CUSA schools should feel about theirs. And trust me, to any objective viewer, there's plenty to dig into CUSA fans about, especially the ones who are already there.

hope it turns out nice for you guys, but I'm biased, so I think UTEP has some of the best on campus facilities in the conference if not the nation

(02-21-2013 10:49 PM)Texas2Step Wrote:  The only rationalization I need is that U of Houston is building a brand new 40k seater

Welcome to 1991

(02-22-2013 12:10 AM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(02-21-2013 10:49 PM)Texas2Step Wrote:  The only rationalization I need is that U of Houston is building a brand new 40k seater that will shine above anything CUSA has to offer on a single campus, and we will continue to recruit and spend our way to the top of our conference. Southern Miss, a great program, is going to call CUSA home for the long run, so is Marshall unless they want back in the MAC. Nothing really wrong with that actually, but I'm secure in where my school stands, no need to really rationalize, but just responding to your own comments. CUSA fans seem to think that new Big East schools' fans should feel bad about their situation, while you almost never see anyone on the Big East forum talk about how bad CUSA schools should feel about theirs. And trust me, to any objective viewer, there's plenty to dig into CUSA fans about, especially the ones who are already there.

WooooooHooooo...You are actually going to play in a real college football stadium and not a stadium that was first built to play HS football in, welcome to the rest of us.

UH will still get whats left in TX that doesn't go to Texas, AM, TCU, Baylor and the rest of the SEC/B12.

We've beaten out a few Big12/SEC schools for plenty of recruits. Not all, but plenty.

(02-21-2013 05:12 PM)eagles09 Wrote:  I think my point is proven. I didn't even question anything and look at the response I got.

Where did you get a "throat jumping" response? In fact, many of us who are pro-AD have asked this out time and time again..

I would really like for someone to quote a stupid decision he has made based facts and not opinion.

That's the question the Anti-General people have given _one_ answer.

He told the press about the fact that we had financial issues.

That's it.. that's the only thing they've been able to answer with. And I'll GLADLY debate anyone on why I think that was the right move by the AD.

But now.. I'm going to jump down a response....

Quote:First, before he even had the job, he was running down his predecessor in an effort to get the job. That would be a huge red flag for me.

See the above about our financial situation. Hell, if I ran a company, and i had a person who let things go to the crapper, and I get someone who's going to say "That guy I had before screwed up completely? If he can tell me what he's going to do differently, and he says it's gonig to work.. then I'm bringing him ... until it's shown he can't make it work".

Quote:Then, he created acrimony by trying to hector his employees into joining the EagleClub. Is that bad? If you're so ham-handed about it that the school gets sued, then yes, it's bad.

He's been ACCUSED of this by one employee (who *EGADS*! Went to the press, which you just said the General shouldn't have done, but hey, when it's another employee of USM, that's just fine?) and has as of yet to have been proven

Quote:And then there's the fact that he's alienated big donors. I appreciate what Hammond was trying to do (rationalize our overall relationship with entities that buy ads AND donate)... but here's a life lesson for you: you don't get points for being "right." If Hammond's run off Southern Bone and Joint, who's the replacement?

No, the donors were against him from the get-go, because they were losing their inside source.

Quote:Finally, I disagree with almost everything Hammond has ever said about money. He's fixated on a $1 million shortfall spread over a bunch of miscellaneous accounts, while I'm worried about how to grow the bottom line from $20 million annually to $30 million so we can get better opponents than the Who's Who of Division Two that we get this Fall.

EVERYTHING? I want to know specifics you have an issue with? Go look at the fiasco with the Coke Contract... Go look at the fiasco with the Washers... Go look at the fiasco that our track coach had with trying to get RG to do anything about our track facilities. That million dollar shortfall? Was more than enough to cover the track replacement that was requested. It might not have been enough to get the turf at the Rock replaced, but it would have been a start.

Now I have a bigger problem with the part I bolded in your statement Andre... this is the problem i have with some fans.. You just insulted EVERY conference member we have in our conference. Congratulations.. I never thought I'd see a fanbase that would look down their noses at our competition... When did we f'ing become the SEC schools who are above playing anyone?

Hammond has the mentality of a $50,000 per year bean counter, not a chief executive. [/quote]


(and I apologize for the thread jack, but this was one set of responses I had to respond to).

My personal favorite line from Andre in this thread was when he said Hammond had better be quick on his feet when he talked to him about the budget and conference alignment.

But yet.. The thing I love about our fanbase, we all know what to do to make our situation better, but yet none of us are the AD, qualify to be the AD, or even have a lick of experience to be the AD.

Quote:we all know what to do to make our situation better

I just vote for getting rid of "sweetheart contracts" and make everyone bid for it.. that'd be my ONE suggestion if I were allowed to make any suggestion to the General.

DaSaintFan, USM accomplished a lot under Giannini. He didn't run anything into the ground. He certainly didn't "screw up completely." We finished in the final AP football poll at least three times, went to the College World Series and the NCAA tournament, expanded our stadium, restarted softball and built it a stadium, won two Liberty Bowls, etc., and Richard was actually willing to talk about getting into a better conference and had relationships with decent opponents.

If our donors were against Jeff from the start, that should have been a red flag.

It was an exaggeration to say that I disagree with "everything Hammond has ever said about money." I'm sure he has made statements about money that are true. I do think he should focus on growing the bottom line instead of balancing the budget. We cannot cost cut our way to prosperity. Right now, teams are jockeying for position in a realignment war whose implications are much, much bigger than Hammond's little shortfall.

As for insulting expansion teams, I have every right to. This is not a sewing circle. Besides that, I was talking about our overall schedule : Texas State; two money games; not a single home opponent that was FBS even five years ago. I don't mind playing MTSU or whoever from time to time if it makes sense, but I object strongly to our 2013 schedule. Not all of it was Hammond's doing, but it is he who will have to steer us out of this mess.

The man can only do so much.. If he looks at the cost of us leaving C-USA to go to the BE and sees that it'll put us in a financial bind for the next few years until the BE's TV contract runs out then who knows, is that even feasible? Why should USM dig it's hole financially deeper if it's not going to pay off by going to another conference that does not get us a leg up on anything.

I'm sure Hammond and others in the University that make these decisions are looking at every option out there. Do I think we have a shot at joining a conference better than C-USA or the Big East, I would like to think so, but these other conferences are going to take a hard look at everything we offer. EVERYTHING. Besides as far as I know Hammond is still the interim AD.

(02-21-2013 11:25 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(02-21-2013 10:52 PM)shere khan Wrote:  nah jesco, we are just paying a bunch of money not to have to play in huntington

Besides Beale Street and a couple of toursty places, Memphis is one of the dirstiest cities in the US. Not to mention the Liberty Bowl is in the dirty part. Also you do not even own your own facilities in the 2 biggest sports.

I still say the only thing CUSA loses is Memphis basketball and they cheated to get it back.

Yeah, but they have Rendezvous!