Adding Wichita State to Conference USA would cause an instant jump in C-USA basketball standing. And even in baseball. The prize to convince WSU of a move to C-USA? Award the Conference USA basketball tournaments to the City of Wichita for two or three years. The Missouri Valley tournaments, at least the men's, are in St. Louis and that will likely never change. Hosting conference tournaments is something their fans and the City of Wichita would relish. And WSU has more in common with C-USA members. Travel may even be better. Plus, the Koch brothers spend much of their time in South Florida and they could follow the Shockers at FIU and Florida Atlantic. The commissioner should be pushing this plan. UAB should be pushing this plan.

The ACC added Notre Dame and reached 15 members without the Irish bringing their football program. Surely C-USA can be ACC like flexible if it is for its overall betterment. So it seems.

Why would Wichita State leave the MVC for CUSA? Not trolling, but what's in it for them? Is CUSA a better conference than the MVC? (probably not). Is the CUSA or the MVC more focused the sports that WSU plays? (MVC wins that one - CUSA is going to do what works for football first). Is travel better for WSU in the MVC or CUSA? (Without Tulsa, its probably a wash).

I suppose if WSU recruits Texas heavily, CUSA could make sense.

I don't think that WSU is upset about Arch Madness. It provides no one in the conference with an undue advantage (save perhaps SIU). Its reasonably well attended too so it doesn't lose money for anyone.

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I think WSU would jump to the Big East. I think they would think about jumping to the A-10. But I'd be surprised if they moved to CUSA. WSU = basketball first. CUSA = football first. If you could peel them off, it would probably help out the Belt. Missouri State would probably see no point in staying and jump to the Belt.

C-USA is just over the hybrid model. They've shown no interest in keeping or adding non-FB schools.

(04-08-2015 09:08 AM)Island Blazer Wrote:  Adding Wichita State to Conference USA would cause an instant jump in C-USA basketball standing. And even in baseball. The prize to convince WSU of a move to C-USA? Award the Conference USA basketball tournaments to the City of Wichita for two or three years. The Missouri Valley tournaments, at least the men's, are in St. Louis and that will likely never change. Hosting conference tournaments is something their fans and the City of Wichita would relish. And WSU has more in common with C-USA members. Travel may even be better. Plus, the Koch brothers spend much of their time in South Florida and they could follow the Shockers at FIU and Florida Atlantic. The commissioner should be pushing this plan. UAB should be pushing this plan.

The ACC added Notre Dame and reached 15 members without the Irish bringing their football program. Surely C-USA can be ACC like flexible if it is for its overall betterment. So it seems.

How long did it take you to really convince yourself that this make any sense?

The only thing I could see convincing WSU of a move like that is if CUSA gets a significantly better TV deal than the MVC. Otherwise, I'm not sure they stand to gain enough from a move to CUSA as much as that would be a huge coup for CUSA basketball with programs like Wichita St, UAB, UTEP, WKU, and ODU.

Makes more sense to amend the bylaws and add Georgia State. Thus, you can have a nice 3 pod system of 5

East: WKU, M Tn St, Marshall, ODU, Charlotte
Central: FA, FI, Ga State, UAB, S Miss
West: UTEP, UTSA, N texas, Rice, La tech

If Uab football comes back, add Ark State to get to 16.

I believe TV money will ultimately determine if UAB stays in CUSA for another season or until UAB finalize if football as returning or not. UAB recent success in the CUSA and NCAA tournaments brought some revenue and attention to CUSA. Revenue being the key word here. I suspect the CUSA network was happy with the turnout and the visuals of the event.
So right now, UAB basketball may save UAB chances of staying in CUSA because of TV appearances...

And by the way, Wichita State once had football. Plane crash. Much like Marshall. Much effort to bring back. So far, costs. Brother in a way. Marshall and UAB.

The Wichita State plane crash had nothing to do with discontinuing football. The crash was in 1970. They discontinued football in 1986.

That idea is so idiotic it almost deserves a negative rating

(04-08-2015 02:07 PM)bladhmadh Wrote:  That idea is so idiotic it almost deserves a negative rating

I say go for it...lol

The Missouri Valley losing Creighton and replacing the Bluejays with Loyola surely has Wichita State thinking about the future regarding conference affiliation. At least it should. And it should be causing UAB to pause before going all in on the MVC: How committed is Wichita State to the MVC? The Shockers have a rather large basketball budget and one that is continuing to grow having made the financial commitment to keep Gregg Marshall long-term. Conference USA should be open to the idea. Who knows what WSU could be thinking.

Northern Iowa and Illinois State could decide to move their successful FCS football program to FBS. The MAC would take them in a second. The MVC then has a vastly different look. To Wichita State and UAB.

Northwest - Wichita State*, Missouri State, Louisiana Tech, North Texas
Southwest - UTEP, UTSA, Rice, Southern Miss
Central - Marshall, UAB*, MTSU, WKU
Coastal - FAU, FIU, ODU, Charlotte

The two west quads become the West division in football, the two east quads become the East Division in football.