(12-22-2014 05:04 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 04:52 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 12:07 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 11:11 AM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 10:11 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  To follow back up on 16.

16 for order and neatness is a message board and media meme.

A conference is going to pursue the path that 75% of the members believe is in their best interest. If a significant number believe the conference no longer fills their need they will break away (see formation of: MWC, SEC, ACC, Big 8/12, WAC)

I personally think the practical maximum for a conference (without approval or two tier conference championship playoff which isn't close to being on the table) is 18. Beyond that tension over teams not meeting to determine divisional titles is too strong.

Today, CUSA is the only league that has the framework to get to 16 or 18 with any semblance of stability. The only school in the league that would seem to have strong affinity for cross-over games (regardless of division) would USM. I don't believe WKU/MTSU, FAU/FIU, ODU/Marshall, Charlotte lose any sleep if the league adopts a bigger division format that cuts them off from UNT/Rice, UTSA/UTEP, La.Tech. Some of the easterns probably want to play USM but the remaining five could fall off their schedule and they don't care and those five could give up the eastern seven and never care.

The difference in playoff money between 14 and 16 is $107,142.86 per school, also known as rounding error for Texas. That amounts to less than one-half of one percent of revenue for CUSA schools and easily recovered in travel savings and branding for the home ticket sales being built around the division.

From a TV standpoint, CUSA to ESPN seems unlikely. That means CUSA has an important niche IF Fox is looking to exploit it the way ESPN does and so far we don't have sufficient evidence of Fox moves to truly discern their path.

If Fox wants more regional content for their RSN's, more weeknight FS1 content, more college football content for FS2, and more digital delivery content, then they need a larger CUSA with more inventory.

If Fox merely grabbed CUSA because at the time they had no other FBS content they could distribute nationally (which was the circumstance) and they don't intend to invest heavily in weeknights, and prefer getting more people in the habit of viewing FS1 to building out FS2 and online content then CUSA isn't a significant part of their plan and won't get any help growing the amount of available content.

I don't believe a 16 or 18 team conference is very stable. If it were, the P5s would already be doing it. The old WAC gave it a shot, and it lead to the split that created the MWC.

Fox doesn't need more content from C-USA. In Texas, Fox Sports Southwest features our games on a weekly basis. C-USA already enjoys weekday and weekend games on Fox Sports 1. C-USA had extra content last season, that's why the conference signed on with the American Sports Network. I'm sure if Fox wanted those games they could have had them. These Texas games are gaining more interest and developing into good rivalries. This new Texas alignment in C-USA is very different from C-USA 2.0. 3 of the 4 Texas programs are now large public universities. I think Fox has shown a strong interest in developing these match-ups.

C-USA doesn't need to expand. The conference needs to focus on developing it's current football and basketball programs. The conference should adopt a scheduling formula and policy for both football and basketball.

-All C-USA football programs should only be allowed to schedule 1 FCS team per season. Each C-USA team should play a P5 every season. All P5s must be scheduled for home and home series. If a P5 won't agree to a home and home, than they can't be scheduled. There are plenty of P5s that will agree to home and home series. Each C-USA football team should schedule 2 games against a season against either the MWC, MAC, or Sun Belt.

-On the basketball side, teams need to schedule tougher non conference games, and if legal, the conference should sponsor a preseason basketball tournament featuring the top 2 C-USA teams against 6 quality teams from the top basketball conferences.

I believe this is a better path for C-USA.

ESPN showed 74 games with G5 schools with no P5 opponent across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNnews

FS1, FS2 showed 5.

So I think we know what Fox has in mind.

Those G5 only games appeared almost exclusively during weeknights. While those same G5 conferences saw their weekend games relegated to ESPN3. No thank you. I much prefer C-USA play fewer games on Fox Sports 1 during weeknights and continue to watch our Saturday games featured on multiple Fox regional channels. I remember when North Texas was in the Belt and had to log in to ESPN3. I hated it.

CUSA played more week night games than the Sun Belt.

I'm sure you will decline the AAC or MWC invite since they play a lot of weeknight games that are seen by 4X to 10X as many people as watch CUSA.

75k watched UNT play at 9pm Dallas time, less than half of the number who watched AState at TXST (up against NFL, ACC, Big XII).

If a tree falls in the forest...

That viewership for the UNT at UTEP is very low but there were a number of games thru the season with lower numbers from the MWC and AAC and even one controlled by the SBC that involved Navy. Platform, starting time and competition for viewers have to be considered and this particular game had much more competition than your example of ASU and TSU. A bunch of heavyweight college games were on that evening.

(12-23-2014 10:13 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 05:04 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 04:52 PM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 12:07 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-22-2014 11:11 AM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  I don't believe a 16 or 18 team conference is very stable. If it were, the P5s would already be doing it. The old WAC gave it a shot, and it lead to the split that created the MWC.

Fox doesn't need more content from C-USA. In Texas, Fox Sports Southwest features our games on a weekly basis. C-USA already enjoys weekday and weekend games on Fox Sports 1. C-USA had extra content last season, that's why the conference signed on with the American Sports Network. I'm sure if Fox wanted those games they could have had them. These Texas games are gaining more interest and developing into good rivalries. This new Texas alignment in C-USA is very different from C-USA 2.0. 3 of the 4 Texas programs are now large public universities. I think Fox has shown a strong interest in developing these match-ups.

C-USA doesn't need to expand. The conference needs to focus on developing it's current football and basketball programs. The conference should adopt a scheduling formula and policy for both football and basketball.

-All C-USA football programs should only be allowed to schedule 1 FCS team per season. Each C-USA team should play a P5 every season. All P5s must be scheduled for home and home series. If a P5 won't agree to a home and home, than they can't be scheduled. There are plenty of P5s that will agree to home and home series. Each C-USA football team should schedule 2 games against a season against either the MWC, MAC, or Sun Belt.

-On the basketball side, teams need to schedule tougher non conference games, and if legal, the conference should sponsor a preseason basketball tournament featuring the top 2 C-USA teams against 6 quality teams from the top basketball conferences.

I believe this is a better path for C-USA.

ESPN showed 74 games with G5 schools with no P5 opponent across ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNnews

FS1, FS2 showed 5.

So I think we know what Fox has in mind.

Those G5 only games appeared almost exclusively during weeknights. While those same G5 conferences saw their weekend games relegated to ESPN3. No thank you. I much prefer C-USA play fewer games on Fox Sports 1 during weeknights and continue to watch our Saturday games featured on multiple Fox regional channels. I remember when North Texas was in the Belt and had to log in to ESPN3. I hated it.

CUSA played more week night games than the Sun Belt.

I'm sure you will decline the AAC or MWC invite since they play a lot of weeknight games that are seen by 4X to 10X as many people as watch CUSA.

75k watched UNT play at 9pm Dallas time, less than half of the number who watched AState at TXST (up against NFL, ACC, Big XII).

If a tree falls in the forest...

That viewership for the UNT at UTEP is very low but there were a number of games thru the season with lower numbers from the MWC and AAC and even one controlled by the SBC that involved Navy. Platform, starting time and competition for viewers have to be considered and this particular game had much more competition than your example of ASU and TSU. A bunch of heavyweight college games were on that evening.

And right now the Fox platform does not draw eyeballs well even for P5 games in comparison to ESPN/ESPN2 games.