Does this conference need new leadership?
I've thought so for a long time. I believe the perception of CUSA has a lot to do with the leadership. What say you?

No, I think our leadership needs a new conference. Sounds cute, to turn around your statement, right? I'll punch myself in the nose on your behalf, and then explain:

Banowsky needs to go work for the AAC. Those are the schools that hired him. Those are the schools he helped. Banowsky is alergic to schools like USM. Deep down inside, he looks at us about like Marinatto (BE commish) looked at ECU.

USM's leadership needs to write off CUSA for good. There is no future, no happiness, and no glory remaining to be had here. I don't know if we're required to display the logo on our field, court, uniforms, etc. but if we don't have to, we shouldn't.

And Bennett, Billy Mc., etc. need to accept that our fans will never be happy in this conference again. Until that happens, I don't really care if Slive, Banowsky, Bozo The Clown, etc. is in the top job. It really doesn't matter.

Absolutely

(03-29-2014 11:06 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  No, I think our leadership needs a new conference. Sounds cute, to turn around your statement, right? I'll punch myself in the nose on your behalf, and then explain:

Banowsky needs to go work for the AAC. Those are the schools that hired him. Those are the schools he helped. Banowsky is alergic to schools like USM. Deep down inside, he looks at us about like Marinatto (BE commish) looked at ECU.

USM's leadership needs to write off CUSA for good. There is no future, no happiness, and no glory remaining to be had here. I don't know if we're required to display the logo on our field, court, uniforms, etc. but if we don't have to, we shouldn't.

And Bennett, Billy Mc., etc. need to accept that our fans will never be happy in this conference again. Until that happens, I don't really care if Slive, Banowsky, Bozo The Clown, etc. is in the top job. It really doesn't matter.

Where else are you going to go?

The Sun Belt is your only option and their leadership is far worse than ours.

Is it just USM fans that are fed up with BB talking our conference down? Every school presently here should be outraged. No sense in some of the crap he has said in the past. We should demand better. That is if we all want something better. Maybe some of the new adds feel we are a stepping stone conference as he does but the truth is not everyone will get a call to move up. Our commissioner should be moving our conference ahead and be a leader instead of a babysitter waiting for the next defection. His attitude is reflected in the very fan bases of the conference schools. We need better. All of us do.

What conference commissioner is actively running his conference solely as a stepping stone? MEAC? Sunbelt? Mountain West? Hell no. Just ours.

(03-29-2014 12:34 PM)mufanatehc Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 11:06 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  No, I think our leadership needs a new conference. Sounds cute, to turn around your statement, right? I'll punch myself in the nose on your behalf, and then explain:

Banowsky needs to go work for the AAC. Those are the schools that hired him. Those are the schools he helped. Banowsky is alergic to schools like USM. Deep down inside, he looks at us about like Marinatto (BE commish) looked at ECU.

USM's leadership needs to write off CUSA for good. There is no future, no happiness, and no glory remaining to be had here. I don't know if we're required to display the logo on our field, court, uniforms, etc. but if we don't have to, we shouldn't.

And Bennett, Billy Mc., etc. need to accept that our fans will never be happy in this conference again. Until that happens, I don't really care if Slive, Banowsky, Bozo The Clown, etc. is in the top job. It really doesn't matter.

Where else are you going to go?

The Sun Belt is your only option and their leadership is far worse than ours.

The Sun Belt, as a last resort, would be better for USM than what is now the Cbelt. ULL, ULM, Ark State, South Al, Troy, UAB, Tex State, Rice, USM and maybe McNeese or Lamar would make for a conference with teams as reputable as the current set up and reduce travel to a minimum. USM is on the way out of the current set up because, as stated, the current arrangement is unacceptable to our fans and staying would completely kill our program. Edit note: Distances from El Paso to Virginia to West Virginia, to Miami will never get shorter and that alone is enough to condemn this conference, just a matter of time.

To be fair to Banowsky, when you don't have the bargaining chip of a BCS bid there is not much he could have done the last few raids. And at the point of the last change in CUSA membership, while there wasn't a a "BCS" per se' , the schools that believed they could do better had all their friends and peers outside the CUSA confines pulling them out of CUSA.

Now, if you look at what CUSA is right now, and considering the tv and bowl deals that have been obtained, you are still above a lot of other weaker competitors. I think what you guys should be most worried about is he gonna do to brand and strengthen what you do have now. Teams putting in the work for their own and the conferences infrastructure, growing rivalries, growing attendance and venues, and growing quality programs.

CUSA is a stepping stone. It has little inherent value outside that. The failure of USM's leadership to acknowledge that is embarrassing. It's like we've got toilet paper stuck on our shoe and everyone else is snickering at us.

It's not like anyone is going to read some statement by DonnieTyndall and decide we're better than the AAC or the A10 or something. That's preposterous. If Donnie wants to blow smoke, he should do it Fedora-style, i.e. it should be about USM itself, not our stupid revolving door conference.

There are always options. Like the Rush song says, "it's not as if this barricade / blocks the only road". Going to the Sun Belt is an option. An airport meeting is an option. Trying to revive the merger with a real conference is an option. Going independent is an option.

You say, "it's not going to work, and we're just obligated to stick around and be a dummy opponent for a bunch of colleges with real potential." No, **** that. We don't owe you anything. We're not some humptoy for you to amuse and promote yourselves with. I'd rather just drop football, and if I didn't know that we had bonds to pay off, I would have included that in my list of possibilities.

Finally, the status quo is not working. We need to do something creative. Better to try and fail than to suffer another season of misery and stagnation.

(03-29-2014 01:10 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  To be fair to Banowsky, when you don't have the bargaining chip of a BCS bid there is not much he could have done the last few raids. And at the point of the last change in CUSA membership, while there wasn't a a "BCS" per se' , the schools that believed they could do better had all their friends and peers outside the CUSA confines pulling them out of CUSA.

Now, if you look at what CUSA is right now, and considering the tv and bowl deals that have been obtained, you are still above a lot of other weaker competitors. I think what you guys should be most worried about is he gonna do to brand and strengthen what you do have now. Teams putting in the work for their own and the conferences infrastructure, growing rivalries, growing attendance and venues, and growing quality programs.

First he should have demanded schools in CUSA who wanted out stfu. They could have continued with their vision of moving up just do it in private. All of the blasting of this conference coming from its members and our idiot commissioner backing it up is one of the reason this conference gets no respect now. This is a decent conference now. To be honest it is not much less than before the AAC raided us this last time. The loss of UM basketball being the only real loss. But even with that we could have had three teams in the NCAA with a strong Commissioner. Think about that a minute.

(03-29-2014 01:43 PM)SoMs Eagle Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 01:10 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  To be fair to Banowsky, when you don't have the bargaining chip of a BCS bid there is not much he could have done the last few raids. And at the point of the last change in CUSA membership, while there wasn't a a "BCS" per se' , the schools that believed they could do better had all their friends and peers outside the CUSA confines pulling them out of CUSA.

Now, if you look at what CUSA is right now, and considering the tv and bowl deals that have been obtained, you are still above a lot of other weaker competitors. I think what you guys should be most worried about is he gonna do to brand and strengthen what you do have now. Teams putting in the work for their own and the conferences infrastructure, growing rivalries, growing attendance and venues, and growing quality programs.

First he should have demanded schools in CUSA who wanted out stfu. They could have continued with their vision of moving up just do it in private. All of the blasting of this conference coming from its members and our idiot commissioner backing it up is one of the reason this conference gets no respect now. This is a decent conference now. To be honest it is not much less than before the AAC raided us this last time. The loss of UM basketball being the only real loss. But even with that we could have had three teams in the NCAA with a strong Commissioner. Think about that a minute.

It wasn't an acceptable conference before, either. That's why everyone else left. Even if things are almost as good now, that's just "almost as good as not good enough."

Seriously, what do you want? A pat on the back and reassurance that CUSA is A-OK? If you want to escape reality, go smoke a joint or something. It's less embarrassing for those of us who don't sell USM short.

(03-29-2014 01:43 PM)SoMs Eagle Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 01:10 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  To be fair to Banowsky, when you don't have the bargaining chip of a BCS bid there is not much he could have done the last few raids. And at the point of the last change in CUSA membership, while there wasn't a a "BCS" per se' , the schools that believed they could do better had all their friends and peers outside the CUSA confines pulling them out of CUSA.

Now, if you look at what CUSA is right now, and considering the tv and bowl deals that have been obtained, you are still above a lot of other weaker competitors. I think what you guys should be most worried about is he gonna do to brand and strengthen what you do have now. Teams putting in the work for their own and the conferences infrastructure, growing rivalries, growing attendance and venues, and growing quality programs.

First he should have demanded schools in CUSA who wanted out stfu. They could have continued with their vision of moving up just do it in private. All of the blasting of this conference coming from its members and our idiot commissioner backing it up is one of the reason this conference gets no respect now. This is a decent conference now. To be honest it is not much less than before the AAC raided us this last time. The loss of UM basketball being the only real loss. But even with that we could have had three teams in the NCAA with a strong Commissioner. Think about that a minute.

How could a strong comish have gotten three schools into the NCAA? Any school that is loyal to Conf USA should find different leadership. Conf USA is a stepping stone, nothing more nothing less. If the conference wants respect it has to earn it. Right now the market does not value this conference nor the majority of teams n it. If teams want this to change they have to have a compelling story to get noticed by ESPN or some other entity that matters. Someone has to start getting big tine wins, someone needs to impress with great and large support, someone has to have a niche to make waves. BB has no power to change the perception that Conf USA is not a competitive league, teams have to do this. The Southern Miss AD complaining about BB gets nowhere. If Southern Miss had won games against teams that were good, they would have been in the NCAA. Having said all of this, this conference is not doomed to stay down like it is now, but someone has to start winning in a big way.

We need to quit bitching about the conference and just start beating the sh!t out of everyone in sight. It is what it is. It's unseemly to gripe about the conference when our once proud football program is so badly upside down.

. . . Although we are on a winning streak.

(03-29-2014 02:36 PM)EagleX Wrote:  We need to quit bitching about the conference and just start beating the sh!t out of everyone in sight. It is what it is. It's unseemly to gripe about the conference when our once proud football program is so badly upside down.

. . . Although we are on a winning streak.

IMO, Southern Miss is the most important school left in Conf USA. How Southern Miss goes, will be how the conference goes.

(03-29-2014 02:36 PM)EagleX Wrote:  We need to quit bitching about the conference and just start beating the sh!t out of everyone in sight. It is what it is. It's unseemly to gripe about the conference when our once proud football program is so badly upside down.

. . . Although we are on a winning streak.

It is what it is, but it WILL BE what we make it. I hope we make it to someplace where we can really hold our heads up high and compete nationally. It's one of the last few things I want to see before I die. Others have done it and there's no reason we can't.

CUSA is masturbation. It's not the real thing... at best, it's practice for getting to do the real thing some day.

(03-29-2014 03:21 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 02:36 PM)EagleX Wrote:  We need to quit bitching about the conference and just start beating the sh!t out of everyone in sight. It is what it is. It's unseemly to gripe about the conference when our once proud football program is so badly upside down.

. . . Although we are on a winning streak.

It is what it is, but it WILL BE what we make it. I hope we make it to someplace where we can really hold our heads up high and compete nationally. It's one of the last few things I want to see before I die. Others have done it and there's no reason we can't.

CUSA is masturbation. It's not the real thing... at best, it's practice for getting to do the real thing some day.

I have come full circle on the conference thing. If you aren't one of the top 3 (I don't really even believe that 2 of the top 5 "power" conferences are really all that "powerful") conferences, you may as well be any of the remaining 6 or 7. It's just not all that big of a deal after that.

this past basketball season is a decent example. We wrung our hands in existential angst over not getting a bid to the ncaa tourney because the conference is weak, or underrated, or because no one will play us . . . When, in reality, it wouldn't have been a conversation if we hadn't choked down the stretch against uab and middle.

Beat the crap out of everyone around you, and they will notice. It has happened before.

I saw on the local news this past week from Tyndall's interview that he said that the A10 CONFERENCE got 6 bids into the dance. He said the reason is because they promote their conference. Tyndall said he believed our teams were just as strong or stronger than them. But we are only a one bid league because BB doesn't do anything about it. I agree with this conclusion and that is why the USM leadership is outraged... And me for that matter.

SMTTT

(03-29-2014 03:40 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  I saw on the local news this past week from Tyndall's interview that he said that the A10 CONFERENCE got 6 bids into the dance. He said the reason is because they promote their conference. Tyndall said he believed our teams were just as strong or stronger than them. But we are only a one bid league because BB doesn't do anything about it. I agree with this conclusion and that is why the USM leadership is outraged... And me for that matter.

SMTTT

I think that's pretty accurate. It's all about perception. We have a great group of schools with good athletic programs and our basketball league is just as good as some of the major leagues. Sure we might not have a Top 10 team but we sure as heck have some that could easily compete with those in the Top 25. USM was great this year, so was UTEP, La Tech, and MT in addition to our auto Tulsa. Match up those schools with Dayton, St Louis, VCU, etc... and we'd stack up well. Perception is not so great for us right now, it's something they need to work hard to improve (as I hope they are now).

(03-29-2014 03:50 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 03:40 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  I saw on the local news this past week from Tyndall's interview that he said that the A10 CONFERENCE got 6 bids into the dance. He said the reason is because they promote their conference. Tyndall said he believed our teams were just as strong or stronger than them. But we are only a one bid league because BB doesn't do anything about it. I agree with this conclusion and that is why the USM leadership is outraged... And me for that matter.

SMTTT

I think that's pretty accurate. It's all about perception. We have a great group of schools with good athletic programs and our basketball league is just as good as some of the major leagues. Sure we might not have a Top 10 team but we sure as heck have some that could easily compete with those in the Top 25. USM was great this year, so was UTEP, La Tech, and MT in addition to our auto Tulsa. Match up those schools with Dayton, St Louis, VCU, etc... and we'd stack up well. Perception is not so great for us right now, it's something they need to work hard to improve (as I hope they are now).

It's not accurate at all. The A10 all had way better resumes than our teams. The A10 got 6 teams in the dance because they deserved to get 6 teams in the dance. How they did in the NCAA tourney itself had nothing to do with how much they deserved it. And regardless, they still got one team to the elite 8.

CUSA:
Top 6 RPI: 84
CUSA top 6 vs top 25: 0-7 (0.0%)
CUSA top 6 vs 26-50: 6-7 (46.2%)
CUSA top 6 vs 51-100: 12-28 (30.0%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 30.0%

A10:
Top 6 RPI: 28
A10 top 6 vs top 25: 12-11 (52.2%)
A10 top 6 vs 26-50: 18-18 (50.0%)
A10 top 6 vs 51-100: 34-13 (72.3%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 60.4%

It is really no comparison. Even if our teams would match up well, it really doesn't look like it on paper and we didn't prove that during the regular season at all.

(03-29-2014 04:11 PM)Shrack Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 03:50 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 03:40 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  I saw on the local news this past week from Tyndall's interview that he said that the A10 CONFERENCE got 6 bids into the dance. He said the reason is because they promote their conference. Tyndall said he believed our teams were just as strong or stronger than them. But we are only a one bid league because BB doesn't do anything about it. I agree with this conclusion and that is why the USM leadership is outraged... And me for that matter.

SMTTT

I think that's pretty accurate. It's all about perception. We have a great group of schools with good athletic programs and our basketball league is just as good as some of the major leagues. Sure we might not have a Top 10 team but we sure as heck have some that could easily compete with those in the Top 25. USM was great this year, so was UTEP, La Tech, and MT in addition to our auto Tulsa. Match up those schools with Dayton, St Louis, VCU, etc... and we'd stack up well. Perception is not so great for us right now, it's something they need to work hard to improve (as I hope they are now).

It's not accurate at all. The A10 all had way better resumes than our teams. The A10 got 6 teams in the dance because they deserved to get 6 teams in the dance. How they did in the NCAA tourney itself had nothing to do with how much they deserved it. And regardless, they still got one team to the elite 8.

CUSA:
Top 6 RPI: 84
CUSA top 6 vs top 25: 0-7 (0.0%)
CUSA top 6 vs 26-50: 6-7 (46.2%)
CUSA top 6 vs 51-100: 12-28 (30.0%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 30.0%

A10:
Top 6 RPI: 28
A10 top 6 vs top 25: 12-11 (52.2%)
A10 top 6 vs 26-50: 18-18 (50.0%)
A10 top 6 vs 51-100: 34-13 (72.3%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 60.4%

It is really no comparison. Even if our teams would match up well, it really doesn't look like it on paper and we didn't prove that during the regular season at all.

Wow, when you examine the evidence it's crystal clear. Great info Shrack

USM fans pull your heads out of the sand. Your leadership is completely misleading you and deflecting the blame they deserve. Your Athletic Department completely failed at constructing a scheduling worthy of the team that took the court this season. It has nothing to do with the conference office efforts or lack there of. Perception isn't worth a crap when others have results.

Only a poor craftsman blames a tool.

(03-29-2014 05:24 PM)monarchoptimist Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 04:11 PM)Shrack Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 03:50 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  

(03-29-2014 03:40 PM)SethManKA1 Wrote:  I saw on the local news this past week from Tyndall's interview that he said that the A10 CONFERENCE got 6 bids into the dance. He said the reason is because they promote their conference. Tyndall said he believed our teams were just as strong or stronger than them. But we are only a one bid league because BB doesn't do anything about it. I agree with this conclusion and that is why the USM leadership is outraged... And me for that matter.

SMTTT

I think that's pretty accurate. It's all about perception. We have a great group of schools with good athletic programs and our basketball league is just as good as some of the major leagues. Sure we might not have a Top 10 team but we sure as heck have some that could easily compete with those in the Top 25. USM was great this year, so was UTEP, La Tech, and MT in addition to our auto Tulsa. Match up those schools with Dayton, St Louis, VCU, etc... and we'd stack up well. Perception is not so great for us right now, it's something they need to work hard to improve (as I hope they are now).

It's not accurate at all. The A10 all had way better resumes than our teams. The A10 got 6 teams in the dance because they deserved to get 6 teams in the dance. How they did in the NCAA tourney itself had nothing to do with how much they deserved it. And regardless, they still got one team to the elite 8.

CUSA:
Top 6 RPI: 84
CUSA top 6 vs top 25: 0-7 (0.0%)
CUSA top 6 vs 26-50: 6-7 (46.2%)
CUSA top 6 vs 51-100: 12-28 (30.0%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 30.0%

A10:
Top 6 RPI: 28
A10 top 6 vs top 25: 12-11 (52.2%)
A10 top 6 vs 26-50: 18-18 (50.0%)
A10 top 6 vs 51-100: 34-13 (72.3%)

Average win ratio vs top 100: 60.4%

It is really no comparison. Even if our teams would match up well, it really doesn't look like it on paper and we didn't prove that during the regular season at all.

Wow, when you examine the evidence it's crystal clear. Great info Shrack

USM fans pull your heads out of the sand. Your leadership is completely misleading you and deflecting the blame they deserve. Your Athletic Department completely failed at constructing a scheduling worthy of the team that took the court this season. It has nothing to do with the conference office efforts or lack there of. Perception isn't worth a crap when others have results.

Only a poor craftsman blames a tool.

Bingo...and I would extend what you said about deflecting blame a bit further than just one year's NCAA selection process. It's quite possible that some influential donor is out for blood and Banowsky is being set up to be the scapegoat.

I continue to wait for any USM AD or President to present a plan for the future that doesn't involve CUSA suddenly mattering.