(06-23-2014 09:43 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 08:16 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  

(06-22-2014 10:36 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  The merger that should have happened was the 4 leftover Big East schools (UConn, Cinci, USF, Temple) should have "merged" with the 4 remaining Non-AQ conferences.

This. Had the C-USA defectors shown some foresight and just sat still for a second, it would've forced UConn, Cinci, USF, and Temple to join C-USA. Thus, creating four conferences vying for the one Access Bowl spot instead of five and all the AAC teams would still be playing all the schools they're now playing anyway.

No.. It would have been all of us playing each other + the fat we trimmed

Is Temple really that much better than UAB or Rice?

(06-23-2014 09:43 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 08:16 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  

(06-22-2014 10:36 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  The merger that should have happened was the 4 leftover Big East schools (UConn, Cinci, USF, Temple) should have "merged" with the 4 remaining Non-AQ conferences.

This. Had the C-USA defectors shown some foresight and just sat still for a second, it would've forced UConn, Cinci, USF, and Temple to join C-USA. Thus, creating four conferences vying for the one Access Bowl spot instead of five and all the AAC teams would still be playing all the schools they're now playing anyway.

No.. It would have been all of us playing each other + the fat we trimmed

Having the same number of teams ranked in the bottom 45 as C-USA suggests differently.

(06-23-2014 08:41 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Well if Appalachian State is in the sticks what does that make La Tech?

Or Western Kentucky?

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Established FBS schools...

Also, WKU isn't really all that remote. Bowling Green has 60,000 people and is less than an hour from downtown Nashville and less than 40 mins from the edge of the Nashville urban area.

App St. on the other hand is a little more than 2 hrs from downtown Charlotte and about an hour and 40 mins from the Charlotte urban area.

(06-23-2014 09:50 AM)mufanatehc Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 09:43 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 08:16 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  

(06-22-2014 10:36 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  The merger that should have happened was the 4 leftover Big East schools (UConn, Cinci, USF, Temple) should have "merged" with the 4 remaining Non-AQ conferences.

This. Had the C-USA defectors shown some foresight and just sat still for a second, it would've forced UConn, Cinci, USF, and Temple to join C-USA. Thus, creating four conferences vying for the one Access Bowl spot instead of five and all the AAC teams would still be playing all the schools they're now playing anyway.

No.. It would have been all of us playing each other + the fat we trimmed

Is Temple really that much better than UAB or Rice?

Didn't Temple win a bowl 2 or 3 years ago? UAB hasn't sniffed a bowl in years. Rice has done well of late. I think Rice will be a major power in what CUSA has become.

it is a stupid idea to merge

1. in the sports besides football you get an auto qualifier for NCAA tournaments so the more teams you merge into a conference the more teams you have sharing that one AQ opportunity

true teams SHOULD be willing to go ahead and step up and EARN their opportunity by actually playing well against opponents and winning especially in the OOC, but these are generally bad teams with crappy budgets, fan and financial support so they should concentrate on just getting there first before proving they actually belong

2. once you are ready to prove that you belong there doing so by beating up on all of your conference mates just makes your conference look worse overall and it usually leads to one or two top teams and the rest struggling to catch up and the more teams you pile into a conference especially bad teams with poor fan and financial support the worse that problem becomes

3. some of these teams never should have moved up or been invited by a conference to be a member to move up so the more you associate yourself with them the more likely you are to be well......associated with them.....and when they crash you crash by association

4. allowing these teams to move up and join "your conference" was a MAJOR mistake by all the existing members in these conferences and it is a no win situation for those existing members

if they suck it just means you have a bunch of suck in your conference and if the have "success" and "deliver their market" the way that is it being sold when they are allowed to move up well what does that say about YOUR program.......you have been hanging around feeding at the bottom of D1-A and your conference is falling apart so your idea to save YOURSELF is to invite a bunch of D1-AA programs in the hopes they they "deliver their market" and make the conference you have been feeding at the bottom of relevant.....and then if they actually do that it really just shows that perhaps YOUR program is the one that does not belong in D1-A because you are still feeding at the bottom of that conference and not delivering your market

5. people fail to grasp the concept that with perhaps the exception of 1 or 2 major conferences (and even those are not really exceptions) a conference is going to have winners and losers and usually over time those winners and losers sift to a position that is hard to get out of especially the losers.......some of the top conferences have teams that are strong enough that they can rotate their winners especially and even their losers can step up and have some good years

weaker conferences generally get into the longer term trap of winners and losers......not understanding this simple and oft proven theory leads the desperate to conclude that by piling on more crap somehow a conference is stronger or more meaningful because it has a whole ton of really bad teams with poor budgets and fan support and a bunch of "markets" they do not deliver and then you further that failed idea with all playing each other MORE often because then "you have REALLY proven you deserved to win that conference"

congratulations on winning a conference most people thing would make a decent D1-AA conference and pretending that gives you and your 24,500 fans and your 7-5 or 8-4 record any real credibility

6. the answer of course is to break yourself into a SMALLER group of teams that you think can even remotely compete in D1-A and then play as few conference games as possible while playing as many OUT OF CONFERENCE games as possible and actually WINNING those games so that other conferences and their rag tag collecting of D1-AA move ups and consistent D1-A bottom feeders earns their reputation for never doing anything of significance or worse being a weigh station for a few programs that either move up and actually do OK or that finally find a home in a place that is weak enough they can have success and then they move on

7. it is the same theory with "we must protect this conference" so lets add 28 D1-AA programs and then no matter how many of those teams LEAVE to go elsewhere we bottom feeders can be happy that we are still mired in the worst conference in D1-A

which is diametrically opposite to the better concept of hey how about actually trying not to suck......not to suck as a program and not to suck as a conference and the way you don't suck as a conference is to actually stop beating up on everyone in your conference and go beat up on others in other conferences and then if you do that either your conference will look better overall, you will look better overall or both you and your conference will look better overall

and if you look better overall well when the next conference destruction comes about it is See You Latter McNeese State!!!!! instead of WELCOME TO THE CONFERENCE McNEESE STATE!!!!!! (shout out to George Jub Jub Dunham)

and if everyone else in your conference still sucks and did not take care of business well stop feeling bad for them and realize that is on them and they can enjoy McNeese State as their new conference member.......and if everyone in your conference improves greatly well there is a much better chance they will want to stay together and you can possibly not worry about adding or subtracting teams from your conference you can stay where you are and others can add McNeese State!

8. and lastly even if you add a ton of teams and play a few conference games and a lot more OOC games you are still going to be stuck with a lot of bad teams and splitting the money many more ways with teams that just are not going to get it done and there will be little chance you will ever elevate your conference overall

the sad thing is pretty much every G5 conference has already screwed the pooch and added way to many teams with the possible exception of the AAC and MWC and even then they should really try and figure out how to play 7 conference games and 5 OOC games and The Sunbelt and especially the garbage The Sunbelt has added recently seems intent on finding at least one more pile of garbage to heap on top and probably 3 more so they can "get to 14" and "protect this conference" when they had some programs that really would have been so much better off sticking with 8 teams and just not adding a single D1-A team

9. because the reality is even if you go down to 5 teams when some leave you can always add more hot garbage from D1-AA in a weeks time..........well not quite because the sad thing it is to the point now that some D1-AA teams are saying "we want to move up, but not to there" and others have actually realized they simply can't and won't compete and they have taken a pass on moving up.......but all the worse is the fact that means conferences just reach further to desperate programs that stand no chance of competing and those fools will probably accept

(06-23-2014 09:56 AM)mufanatehc Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 08:41 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  Well if Appalachian State is in the sticks what does that make La Tech?

Or Western Kentucky?

Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

Established FBS schools...

Also, WKU isn't really all that remote. Bowling Green has 60,000 people and is less than an hour from downtown Nashville and less than 40 mins from the edge of the Nashville urban area.

App St. on the other hand is a little more than 2 hrs from downtown Charlotte and about an hour and 40 mins from the Charlotte urban area.

Yeah, that's the reasoning App was trying to make with regards to CUSA taking Charlotte versus App. Somehow App was supposed to be in Charlotte's TV market. We all see how that worked out for App.

Well for all the BS to the contrary I know more believe that fans in Virginia give two craps about playing schools in Texas or that schools in Texas care about playing teams in Florida (go search the archives at the UNT board when they were Sun Belt to see their complaints about playing Florida schools when they wore Sun Belt patches. If their opinion changes they are stupid enough to think the patch makes those teams better and are really sad folks).

The Sun Belt and CUSA have some nice clusters that make sense but as an overall association don't make a vast amount of sense and there aren't many signs that look favorable toward CUSA's next TV deal being a good one (CBSS isn't even taking all the content they are authorized and Fox's interest is likely dependent on how the Big 10 talks go).

I don't expect any moment of clarity clearing up the situation because we are no longer in the realm of associations based on competitive ability or in the case of CUSA and SBC, associations based on max revenue. Now it is about who isn't in your club.

(06-23-2014 10:07 AM)TodgeRodge Wrote:  it is a stupid idea to merge

1. in the sports besides football you get an auto qualifier for NCAA tournaments so the more teams you merge into a conference the more teams you have sharing that one AQ opportunity

true teams SHOULD be willing to go ahead and step up and EARN their opportunity by actually playing well against opponents and winning especially in the OOC, but these are generally bad teams with crappy budgets, fan and financial support so they should concentrate on just getting there first before proving they actually belong

2. once you are ready to prove that you belong there doing so by beating up on all of your conference mates just makes your conference look worse overall and it usually leads to one or two top teams and the rest struggling to catch up and the more teams you pile into a conference especially bad teams with poor fan and financial support the worse that problem becomes

3. some of these teams never should have moved up or been invited by a conference to be a member to move up so the more you associate yourself with them the more likely you are to be well......associated with them.....and when they crash you crash by association

4. allowing these teams to move up and join "your conference" was a MAJOR mistake by all the existing members in these conferences and it is a no win situation for those existing members

if they suck it just means you have a bunch of suck in your conference and if the have "success" and "deliver their market" the way that is it being sold when they are allowed to move up well what does that say about YOUR program.......you have been hanging around feeding at the bottom of D1-A and your conference is falling apart so your idea to save YOURSELF is to invite a bunch of D1-AA programs in the hopes they they "deliver their market" and make the conference you have been feeding at the bottom of relevant.....and then if they actually do that it really just shows that perhaps YOUR program is the one that does not belong in D1-A because you are still feeding at the bottom of that conference and not delivering your market

5. people fail to grasp the concept that with perhaps the exception of 1 or 2 major conferences (and even those are not really exceptions) a conference is going to have winners and losers and usually over time those winners and losers sift to a position that is hard to get out of especially the losers.......some of the top conferences have teams that are strong enough that they can rotate their winners especially and even their losers can step up and have some good years

weaker conferences generally get into the longer term trap of winners and losers......not understanding this simple and oft proven theory leads the desperate to conclude that by piling on more crap somehow a conference is stronger or more meaningful because it has a whole ton of really bad teams with poor budgets and fan support and a bunch of "markets" they do not deliver and then you further that failed idea with all playing each other MORE often because then "you have REALLY proven you deserved to win that conference"

congratulations on winning a conference most people thing would make a decent D1-AA conference and pretending that gives you and your 24,500 fans and your 7-5 or 8-4 record any real credibility

6. the answer of course is to break yourself into a SMALLER group of teams that you think can even remotely compete in D1-A and then play as few conference games as possible while playing as many OUT OF CONFERENCE games as possible and actually WINNING those games so that other conferences and their rag tag collecting of D1-AA move ups and consistent D1-A bottom feeders earns their reputation for never doing anything of significance or worse being a weigh station for a few programs that either move up and actually do OK or that finally find a home in a place that is weak enough they can have success and then they move on

7. it is the same theory with "we must protect this conference" so lets add 28 D1-AA programs and then no matter how many of those teams LEAVE to go elsewhere we bottom feeders can be happy that we are still mired in the worst conference in D1-A

which is diametrically opposite to the better concept of hey how about actually trying not to suck......not to suck as a program and not to suck as a conference and the way you don't suck as a conference is to actually stop beating up on everyone in your conference and go beat up on others in other conferences and then if you do that either your conference will look better overall, you will look better overall or both you and your conference will look better overall

and if you look better overall well when the next conference destruction comes about it is See You Latter McNeese State!!!!! instead of WELCOME TO THE CONFERENCE McNEESE STATE!!!!!! (shout out to George Jub Jub Dunham)

and if everyone else in your conference still sucks and did not take care of business well stop feeling bad for them and realize that is on them and they can enjoy McNeese State as their new conference member.......and if everyone in your conference improves greatly well there is a much better chance they will want to stay together and you can possibly not worry about adding or subtracting teams from your conference you can stay where you are and others can add McNeese State!

8. and lastly even if you add a ton of teams and play a few conference games and a lot more OOC games you are still going to be stuck with a lot of bad teams and splitting the money many more ways with teams that just are not going to get it done and there will be little chance you will ever elevate your conference overall

the sad thing is pretty much every G5 conference has already screwed the pooch and added way to many teams with the possible exception of the AAC and MWC and even then they should really try and figure out how to play 7 conference games and 5 OOC games and The Sunbelt and especially the garbage The Sunbelt has added recently seems intent on finding at least one more pile of garbage to heap on top and probably 3 more so they can "get to 14" and "protect this conference" when they had some programs that really would have been so much better off sticking with 8 teams and just not adding a single D1-A team

9. because the reality is even if you go down to 5 teams when some leave you can always add more hot garbage from D1-AA in a weeks time..........well not quite because the sad thing it is to the point now that some D1-AA teams are saying "we want to move up, but not to there" and others have actually realized they simply can't and won't compete and they have taken a pass on moving up.......but all the worse is the fact that means conferences just reach further to desperate programs that stand no chance of competing and those fools will probably accept

#6 is not going to happen as any new conference would have NO NCAA autobids for 7 years. I dont think a merger is the best idea. First, unless the changes occur to the media contracts of CUSA and the Sunbelt occur to makes earnings between the two groups roughly equal--nothing will happen. If earning DO become similar, then a reorganization into 2 more regional conferences with less overlap might be a sound strategy to cut travel costs and to increase attendance via the creation of closer fanbases (should set up cheaper more convenient travel to more away games--thus increasing ticket sales).

(06-23-2014 10:34 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  Well for all the BS to the contrary I know more believe that fans in Virginia give two craps about playing schools in Texas or that schools in Texas care about playing teams in Florida (go search the archives at the UNT board when they were Sun Belt to see their complaints about playing Florida schools when they wore Sun Belt patches. If their opinion changes they are stupid enough to think the patch makes those teams better and are really sad folks).

The Sun Belt and CUSA have some nice clusters that make sense but as an overall association don't make a vast amount of sense and there aren't many signs that look favorable toward CUSA's next TV deal being a good one (CBSS isn't even taking all the content they are authorized and Fox's interest is likely dependent on how the Big 10 talks go).

I don't expect any moment of clarity clearing up the situation because we are no longer in the realm of associations based on competitive ability or in the case of CUSA and SBC, associations based on max revenue. Now it is about who isn't in your club.

north Texas state fans are the worst to try and base anything logical or sensible on

they talk all about their "market" and "potential", but they still wish that FIU and FAU were not in CUSA because "they suck" never mind that they have all the same "market and potential" that north Texas state has, but then north Texas state fans will say that the people in those areas do not care about those schools and never will........as if the DFW metroplex has ever cared about north Texas state winning or losing (a lot more losing)

they had their best years in decades in The Sunbelt, but they had no plans on how to capitalize on them, improve budgets or facilities or how to keep assistant coaches from being hired away....much less horrible administration at the top of the university and so when they fell off completely suddenly it was the fault of The Sunbelt and "no Texas teams"

and sure they had their mega huge break out season for the ages last year in CUSA, but it was with a senior laden team and their overall schedule totally sucked and if you look at their strength of schedule for the coming season it is one of the lowest that is even listed......not to mention that Louisiana and stAte are doing just fine for multiple seasons in a row in The Sunbelt because they made the decision to improve themselves rather than letting a conference do the work for them

(06-23-2014 09:50 AM)mufanatehc Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 09:43 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 08:16 AM)MUsince96 Wrote:  

(06-22-2014 10:36 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  The merger that should have happened was the 4 leftover Big East schools (UConn, Cinci, USF, Temple) should have "merged" with the 4 remaining Non-AQ conferences.

This. Had the C-USA defectors shown some foresight and just sat still for a second, it would've forced UConn, Cinci, USF, and Temple to join C-USA. Thus, creating four conferences vying for the one Access Bowl spot instead of five and all the AAC teams would still be playing all the schools they're now playing anyway.

No.. It would have been all of us playing each other + the fat we trimmed

Is Temple really that much better than UAB or Rice?

Yes

I think CUSA East and CUSA West have turned into very nice geographical friendly divisions, minus UAB in CUSA West.

The odd thing is those two geographic divisions are very distinct and have little in common and the entire Sunbelt conference is smack dab in the middle of CUSA East and West.

Therefore if financials and exposure are a wash, why not realign and save on travel?

If I were CUSA schools I would want my interdivisional games to be in Georgia instead of Texas.

CUSA is trending down in the long run. The geographical distances between many of the schools means that even the miniscule number of fans that go to these games is made just that much smaller. That disconnect will show up over the long run in that the there will be no expansion in the connection between fans and school. The fact that 90% of the kids that go to these schools are fans of the big programs in their respective states can't be changed when kids cant even go to many of the games. They sure as hell wont travel across the country to watch their 2-10 teams.

A merger of the Sun Belt and CUSA is probably off of the table but a realignment that will be a more tight geographic fit would be a major boost to all of these programs. Hatred and a close fit mean these schools can develop and for a deeper connection with their respective communities. This whole swinging way above your weight adventure in CUSA is doomed to failure. You simply don't make fans by traveling 1200 miles and getting beaten by 24 points.

(06-23-2014 07:29 AM)mufanatehc Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 12:50 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  What was CUSA thinking by adding Charlotte over Appalachian State?

Charlotte, on the other hand, is in one of the largest cities in the south, has a prior relationship with the conference, has better Olympic sports including basketball, and has greater financial resources at its disposal.

Let us not forget, Charlotte was a founding member of Conference USA. They were only asked to leave after DePaul and Maruqette left because they (And Saint Louis) were the only programs that did not have a football team

(06-23-2014 10:42 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  #6 is not going to happen as any new conference would have NO NCAA autobids for 7 years. I on think a merger is nit the best idea. First, unless the changes occur to the media contracts of CUSA and the Sunbelt occur to makes earnings between the two groups roughly equal--nothing will happen. If earning DO become similar, then a reorganization into 2 more regional conferences with less overlap might be a sound strategy to cut travel costs and to increase attendance via the creation of closer fanbases (should set up cheaper more convenient travel to more away games--thus increasing ticket sales).

the best idea would have been to just not add more D1-AA teams

here look at The Sunbelt last year

Louisiana-Lafayette 5-2 9-4
Arkansas State 5-2 8-5
Western Kentucky 4-3 8-4
Louisiana-Monroe 4-3 6-6
South Alabama 4-3 6-6
Troy 4-3 6-6
Texas State 2-5 6-6
Georgia State 0-7 0-12

perfect example of what I am saying they played 7 conference games and 5 OOC games and 7 out of the 8 teams had 6 wins to be bowl eligible

sure they did not have enough bowl games to go around, but they make a new bowl game every week and the reality is if the conference could keep something like that up the bowl games would be coming to them

even Texas State at 2-5 in conference won 4 OOC games to get to 6-6.....that is how you keep the bottom of your conference from being total garbage

and yes they lose WKU, but they only needed to add ONE team not FOUR

compare this to CUSA with 14 teams VS the 8 for The Sunbelt

Marshall 7-1 10-4
East Carolina 6-2 10-3
Middle Tennessee 6-2 8-5
Florida Atlantic 4-4 6-6
UAB 1-7 2-10
Florida International 1-7 1-11
Southern Miss 1-7 1-11
WEST CONF OVERALL
Rice 7-1 10-4
UTSA 6-2 7-5
North Texas 6-2 9-4
Tulane 5-3 7-6
Louisiana Tech 3-5 4-8
Tulsa 2-6 3-9
UTEP 1-7 2-10

so CUSA with 75% more teams had only one more bowl eligible team with 8 teams with records 6-6 or above

so The Sunbelt had 7 teams 6-6 or better and one worse while CUSA was 8 above 6 below......that is a lot of garbage at the bottom dragging your down

and for The Sunbelt 1 bowl team leaves while for CUSA 2 bowl teams leave and one non-bowl team

The Sunbelt should have never touched Georgia State, Appy State or Georgia Southern and they should have just reached out to NMSU and Idaho that were already in D1-A and then they could have 8 members, keep the 7 conference game format and do some odd scheduling arrangement where teams miss playing Idaho and NMSU in the same season

instead they are going to go to an 8 game conference schedule, adding 3 D1-AA move ups plus more guaranteed losses to the conference and they will most likely have 4+ teams at the bottom of the conference not bowl eligible instead of one or two which of course just makes the conference weaker overall

look at the strength of schedule last year

http://www.teamrankings.com/college-foot...le-by-team

you have FIVE CUSA teams below the lowest Sunbelt school because CUSA has a lot of garbage and they play 1 more conference game in that garbage

harder to improve your conference strength of schedule when you beat yourself up and when you are playing the teams that you beat up

after Texas State the lowest Sunbelt team you have 2 more CUSA before the next Sunbelt school and then 2 more before you get to more Sunbelt schools


81 Rice
84 LA Monroe
85 Tulane
86 TX-San Ant
87 Georgia State
89 Tulsa
91 Troy
93 S Alabama
94 Arkansas St
95 LA Lafayette
96 Marshall
101 North Texas
103 Middle Tenn
104 W Kentucky
106 E Carolina
108 Fla Atlantic
111 Texas State
114 TX El Paso
115 UAB
116 Florida Intl
117 S Mississippi
119 LA Tech

ALL of that is hardly a bastion of schedule strength, but when you consider that The Sunbelt is losing WKU, but CUSA is losing ECU, Tulsa and Tulane their schedule strength looks terrible and sure I just said add Idaho and NMSU that would be at the bottom, but where in the hell are Georgia Southern, Georgia State and Appy State going to be.....well at the bottom as well because again that is strength of teams YOU play not how strong YOU ARE

here is how 2014 is shaping up

http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2014/20...-schedule/


17 FIU
39 Louisiana Tech
51 Southern Miss
54 Florida Atlantic
72 Georgia St
76 UTEP
88 WKU
90 South Alabama
98 UTSA
103 Louisiana
105 UAB
107 Old Dominion
108 Idaho
111 New Mexico St
111 Appalachian St
114 Arkansas St
116 Rice
118 ULM
119 Troy
122 Marshall
123 Texas St
124 Middle Tennessee
127 North Texas
128 Georgia Southern

and remember that this is based on who you play not how strong you are so adding all that garbage to The Sunbelt really dropped down the strength of schedule along with an additional conference game within that mess and sure some of those new teams might be playing a decent OOC, but how likely are they to do well.....not very which hits you again the next year on strength of schedule

if The Sunbelt had held fast and only added the bare min of both Idaho and NMSU, but kept the 7 conference 5 OOC schedule and scheduled as well or better than average conference strength teams they would be a lot better off than they are now especially considering there are no appreciable new number of bowl games for The Sunbelt relative to last year or the number of teams they added

they could have held fast and had 8 teams 6 of which were 6-6 or better than last year and added two teams that had at least been in D1-A for a long time and had at least sniffed a bowl game in the last decade for Idaho instead of the mess they made now

knee jerk reactions to "saving a conference" instead of hey lets just get better as we are and they would have done all of D1-A a favor by keeping 2 less teams out

(06-23-2014 11:47 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  CUSA is trending down in the long run. The geographical distances between many of the schools means that even the miniscule number of fans that go to these games is made just that much smaller. That disconnect will show up over the long run in that the there will be no expansion in the connection between fans and school. The fact that 90% of the kids that go to these schools are fans of the big programs in their respective states can't be changed when kids cant even go to many of the games. They sure as hell wont travel across the country to watch their 2-10 teams.

A merger of the Sun Belt and CUSA is probably off of the table but a realignment that will be a more tight geographic fit would be a major boost to all of these programs. Hatred and a close fit mean these schools can develop and for a deeper connection with their respective communities. This whole swinging way above your weight adventure in CUSA is doomed to failure. You simply don't make fans by traveling 1200 miles and getting beaten by 24 points.

That post may have made sense about C-USA 2.0, but the divisions in 3.0 are tighter than they've ever been. Lots of easy drives in the new C-USA. Only 2 cross divisonal games starting next year. I'm looking forward to new rivalries developing with more visiting fans in each stadium due to the closer proximity to divisonal opponents. The league hasn't grown further apart in the least.

(06-23-2014 12:01 PM)MUsince96 Wrote:  

(06-23-2014 11:47 AM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  CUSA is trending down in the long run. The geographical distances between many of the schools means that even the miniscule number of fans that go to these games is made just that much smaller. That disconnect will show up over the long run in that the there will be no expansion in the connection between fans and school. The fact that 90% of the kids that go to these schools are fans of the big programs in their respective states can't be changed when kids cant even go to many of the games. They sure as hell wont travel across the country to watch their 2-10 teams.

A merger of the Sun Belt and CUSA is probably off of the table but a realignment that will be a more tight geographic fit would be a major boost to all of these programs. Hatred and a close fit mean these schools can develop and for a deeper connection with their respective communities. This whole swinging way above your weight adventure in CUSA is doomed to failure. You simply don't make fans by traveling 1200 miles and getting beaten by 24 points.

That post may have made sense about C-USA 2.0, but the divisions in 3.0 are tighter than they've ever been. Lots of easy drives in the new C-USA. Only 2 cross divisonal games starting next year. I'm looking forward to new rivalries developing in C-USA due to the closer proximity to divison teams, not further.

Would more or less Marshal fans drive to Florida, Mississippi, or Alabama than they would to Ohio, based on pure proximity? CUSA's footprint is already too large and very few travel those distances.

What I said applies to the MAC as well. I should point that out.

To make it worse Southern Miss isn't even in the same division as its closer schools, La Tech and Tulane.

Fan support is lower and the distances between schools are greater than in the SEC, or other major conferences. It is doomed to failure.

That isn't even an up to date map, smh.

(06-23-2014 12:09 PM)MUsince96 Wrote:  That isn't even an up to date map, smh.

They move UTSA or Charlotte a few hundred miles?

Three teams on the map not in C-USA anymore, one not on there that will be this season. ---So so troll. 5/10.

Compare a map of C-USA 2.0 to C-USA 3.0. The league is MUCH more fan friendly.