I rarely see any public discussion out of the Conference office on how to develop the brand, so I thought I'd start a discussion here on what it would take to improve the perceived reputation of C-USA. I think we all want our conference to improve and be recognized for being an important presence. But how do we do it?

BTW, I'm hoping this thread doesn't de-generate into a measuring "sticks" comparison with other conferences. Let's stick with a discussion on C-USA.

How do we develop our brand over the next 5 years and increase the public perception of our Conference?

As I see it, in no particular order:

1. Schedule and win OOC conference games in both football and basketball. Playing "paycheck" games that give us virtually no chance to win isn't going to help much.
2. Win other G5 games in all sports. Head to head comparisons will be important.
3. Winning bowl games in football
4. Multi-bids to NCAA tournaments in MBB, WBB and baseball.
5. Gaining ground in our television contract when next negotiated
6. Solid TV package for major sports
7. Maintaining a minimum of 5 bowl tie ins.
8. Being in the post-season discussion every year.
9. Improving the overall competition in all sports. All teams cycle through as winning teams with no long term bottom dwellers in any sport.
10. Building budgets for all sports and increasing attendance figures.

Thoughts on these, or add your own. What will it take?

"Aim High"

Starts with:

Just win, baby.

If we win enough, all else will follow.

(07-05-2014 07:49 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  I rarely see any public discussion out of the Conference office on how to develop the brand, so I thought I'd start a discussion here on what it would take to improve the perceived reputation of C-USA. I think we all want our conference to improve and be recognized for being an important presence. But how do we do it?

BTW, I'm hoping this thread doesn't de-generate into a measuring "sticks" comparison with other conferences. If you want to do that go to either the SBC or AAC boards...they have a corner on those markets right now. Let's stick with a discussion on C-USA.

How do we develop our brand over the next 5 years and increase the public perception of our Conference?

As I see it, in no particular order:

1. Schedule and win OOC conference games in both football and basketball. Playing "paycheck" games that give us virtually no chance to win isn't going to help much.
2. Win other G5 games in all sports. Head to head comparisons will be important.
3. Winning bowl games in football
4. Multi-bids to NCAA tournaments in MBB, WBB and baseball.
5. Gaining ground in our television contract when next negotiated
6. Solid TV package for major sports
7. Maintaining a minimum of 5 bowl tie ins.
8. Being in the post-season discussion every year.
9. Improving the overall competition in all sports. All teams cycle through as winning teams with no long term bottom dwellers in any sport.
10. Building budgets for all sports and increasing attendance figures.

Thoughts on these, or add your own. What will it take?

I think as a start all conferences need a very pro-active leader, someone willing to work 24/7 promoting the member schools' achievements and the league in general. I also think that the conference leader needs to be able to evaluate the strenghts and weaknesses of the conference as a whole and work with lagging members to do whatever is possible to raise their level of competition.

In my opinion, C-USA has the nucleus necessary to be a very exciting basketball conference. As evidenced by this past year's results though, the commissioner needs to do whatever possible to assure that the league is a multi-bid league in the NCAA's. That's tougher to do these days of course because the selection committees seem to rely heavily on RPI to make their choices. Perhaps a top-down push on all member schools to strengthen their OOC schedules would be a decent start?

In football, you guys are good with a slate of strong regional rivals, a decent TV contract, and sufficient bowl tie-ins to ensure deserving teams get a shot at a bowl game. This year's Marshall club is obviously poised to bring a lot of national attention to the league.

I don't really know enough about C-USA baseball to express an opinion other than to say that there too you've got a number of teams (Rice comes to mind with their national championship) who have traditionally done well in post-season.

All in all, I'd say C-USA has weathered the latest in round of realignment in very good shape.

Finally, and this is just a suggestion, if you don't want a thread marred by posters from others conferences saying negative things, don't start off your post saying negative things about them.

(07-05-2014 09:25 AM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  I think as a start all conferences need a very pro-active leader, someone willing to work 24/7 promoting the member schools' achievements and the league in general. I also think that the conference leader needs to be able to evaluate the strenghts and weaknesses of the conference as a whole and work with lagging members to do whatever is possible to raise their level of competition.

In my opinion, C-USA has the nucleus necessary to be a very exciting basketball conference. As evidenced by this past year's results though, the commissioner needs to do whatever possible to assure that the league is a multi-bid league in the NCAA's. That's tougher to do these days of course because the selection committees seem to rely heavily on RPI to make their choices. Perhaps a top-down push on all member schools to strengthen their OOC schedules would be a decent start?

In football, you guys are good with a slate of strong regional rivals, a decent TV contract, and sufficient bowl tie-ins to ensure deserving teams get a shot at a bowl game. This year's Marshall club is obviously poised to bring a lot of national attention to the league.

I don't really know enough about C-USA baseball to express an opinion other than to say that there too you've got a number of teams (Rice comes to mind with their national championship) who have traditionally done well in post-season.

All in all, I'd say C-USA has weathered the latest in round of realignment in very good shape.

Finally, and this is just a suggestion, if you don't want a thread marred by posters from others conferences saying negative things, don't start off your post saying negative things about them.

Good points, all, and good advice. I removed the potentially inflammatory language. Wasn't trying to be negative, but on a second read, can see where it might have been. Thanks.

We need our members to win - which hasn't been happening often enough.

Also I think we need a commissioner more like Aresco (I know you said no comparisons)...

By that I mean, we need a commissioner always on the go, who talks up the conference constantly and is media savvy appears on any tv and radio talk shows - by staying visible, it keeps the talking heads interested in our conference and what we are trying to do. I rarely see our commissioner on talk shows and I never see video feeds of him touring all the schools campus facilities with their athletes.

So we need to WIN and get a proactive commissioner who beats the conference drum!

IIRC, the tv contract is up after '15-'16 . Our teams need to win in FB & BB now. UTSA has games versus Houston & Arizona the first 2 wks of the upcoming season(both on national tv) that would not only help with UTSA's perception but would also be great for CUSA if they could pull out a win in both games. (unlikely but that's why they play the game)

People can come on here and bash our conference all they want, but I truly believe that CUSA could be the #1 G5 conference in 5 yrs. There are some good ADs & coaches in our conference and the future is really bright. But like some said earlier...WINNING is what it's all about. Win and everything else falls into place.

Start with a Commissioner who isn't an empty suit.

Commish can't win games, though, and when it gets right down to nut cutting time that's what it will take to turn the tide.

(07-05-2014 07:49 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  I rarely see any public discussion out of the Conference office on how to develop the brand, so I thought I'd start a discussion here on what it would take to improve the perceived reputation of C-USA. I think we all want our conference to improve and be recognized for being an important presence. But how do we do it?

BTW, I'm hoping this thread doesn't de-generate into a measuring "sticks" comparison with other conferences. Let's stick with a discussion on C-USA.

How do we develop our brand over the next 5 years and increase the public perception of our Conference?

As I see it, in no particular order:

1. Schedule and win OOC conference games in both football and basketball. Playing "paycheck" games that give us virtually no chance to win isn't going to help much.
2. Win other G5 games in all sports. Head to head comparisons will be important.
3. Winning bowl games in football
4. Multi-bids to NCAA tournaments in MBB, WBB and baseball.
5. Gaining ground in our television contract when next negotiated
6. Solid TV package for major sports
7. Maintaining a minimum of 5 bowl tie ins.
8. Being in the post-season discussion every year.
9. Improving the overall competition in all sports. All teams cycle through as winning teams with no long term bottom dwellers in any sport.
10. Building budgets for all sports and increasing attendance figures.

Thoughts on these, or add your own. What will it take?

I'm an AAC school fan, but this topic could apply to any G5 conference.

My biggest problem with this list is they are results oriented goals and not action goals. Everyone can say win all games and increase attendance and TV viewership is the goal results, but how do you do that?

Only #1 has an actionable goal: Schedule winnable OOC games especially against the P5 and don't schedule paycheck games.

So what are the actions that can be taken to increase wins?
Schedule weaker?
Higher better coaches?
Better training facilities?
Improve recruiting? (That may require more action plans)

And what actions can be taken to increase attendance/TV viewership?
Schedule big name opponents? (Might contradict weaker schedule above)
Schedule other local teams? (Might help attendance but might not improve TV viewership)
Marketing? (Attendance only)
Local business tie ins? (Attendance only)
Winning? (see above)

I'm not trying to denigrate your list because those are the end results you want to achieve, but I think you need something more practical to actually achieve those goals.

Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

There is no possibility of improving perception of CUSA to the point where we're perceived as better than the MWC or AAC. No conference has ever leapfrogged another in perception, except that the WAC basically died.

Banowsky knows this fact, and that's why no one involved with CUSA will ever devote any energy, time, or money to what you're suggesting. CUSA is at best a marriage of convenience, with little value beyond enabling some very unattractive schools to fill their schedules. It is the roach motel / bottle of cheap port of amateur athletics.

(07-05-2014 04:40 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

Probably the same reason some of your fans are on the AAC board?

(07-05-2014 05:52 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  There is no possibility of improving perception of CUSA to the point where we're perceived as better than the MWC or AAC. No conference has ever leapfrogged another in perception, except that the WAC basically died.

Banowsky knows this fact, and that's why no one involved with CUSA will ever devote any energy, time, or money to what you're suggesting. CUSA is at best a marriage of convenience, with little value beyond enabling some very unattractive schools to fill their schedules. It is the roach motel / bottle of cheap port of amateur athletics.

Your constant schtick of attacking the conference is beyond old and tired.

(07-05-2014 08:02 PM)topper1296 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 05:52 PM)AndreWhere Wrote:  There is no possibility of improving perception of CUSA to the point where we're perceived as better than the MWC or AAC. No conference has ever leapfrogged another in perception, except that the WAC basically died.

Banowsky knows this fact, and that's why no one involved with CUSA will ever devote any energy, time, or money to what you're suggesting. CUSA is at best a marriage of convenience, with little value beyond enabling some very unattractive schools to fill their schedules. It is the roach motel / bottle of cheap port of amateur athletics.

Your consent schtick is beyond old and tired.

It is, but he's probably right in this case.

Even if we got one program that was competing on a national level and in the rankings every year, people would just associate that school with individual success. When Boise was at the peak of their run, I didn't know if they were in the MWC or the WAC. I just knew they were good.

(07-05-2014 04:40 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

Why don't you answer the OP question like I did?

(07-05-2014 06:56 PM)pcm0103 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:40 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

Probably the same reason some of your fans are on the AAC board?

Still didn't answer the question.

(07-05-2014 09:00 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:40 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

Why don't you answer the OP question like I did?

I did. 2nd response. Now how about answering my question.

(07-05-2014 09:15 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 09:00 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:40 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  

(07-05-2014 04:11 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Winning games

If you are hoping on Banowski to do some branding for CUSA.... I hope you aren't holding your breath.... he really hasn't tried to advance the CUSA brand. He did get some good bowl for the conference and he did manage to keep the conference from totally deteriorating from reallignment losses but he has not advanced the brand.

And, I'd say, also getting your fans to the games that they play. TV coverage or not, having a good crowd at your games shows fans are buying into what you are selling and also it looks better for the PR of the conference to show full stadiums/arenas.

Why do ECU fans still post here when most of you couldn't wait for your program to get out of this suck azz conference y'all continually whined about?

Why don't you answer the OP question like I did?

I did. 2nd response. Now how about answering my question.

Fun with Charlie Sheen pics? lol.

I can post in any forum I want to here. And I offered a opinion/answer to the OP question.