(01-15-2016 02:42 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  Serious question...does this mess up UAB's return? A $500k athletic budget cut is a real easy scapegoat for the FB program to shut down for good.

Been wondering the same. Easy way to move the target shrug your shoulders say hate that it didn't work out but appreciate y'all trying.

UAB needs a divorce from Alabama to become University of Birmingham. So what if Alabama loses their medical school. Try to screw another University, you are playing with fire.

(01-12-2016 02:13 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 02:08 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  FWIW, any AAC fans who are prone to gloat over this better buckle their seatbelts... Because similar news likely awaits the AAC; their media deal will likely either remain the same or correspondingly decrease as well.

I dont think anyone is gloating, but the reality is the CUSA situation is very different from the AAC situation. CUSA is going from a contract based on largely on former members to a contract based completely on current members. The current AAC contract is based on the current membership, with Navy addition being the only change since it was signed. Overall, the performance of the league on the field and in the ratings has far exceeded its original expectations.

You are correct about the difference in situations between the AAC and CUSA with regards to membership.

But, there is one disturbing similarity: CUSA backfilled using essentially the AAC model, picking teams from large markets in the hope that merely being in a market makes a team valuable. That obviously has proven to be untrue.

Also, I am not sure in what sense the AAC has out-performed expectations on the TV stations or on the field. I'd say football ratings have been about what we'd expect for high-tier G5 teams playing on wide-exposure ESPN channels.

As for on the field, we've only had two real years, 2014 and 2015. Hard to judge 2013 because we were still a Power conference, with AQ status, something not representative of our current situation. Also, Louisville was a big part of our success that year and they were exiting the conference. If we subtract UofL from that year, it was mediocre, with UCF surprisingly winning the Fiesta Bowl and ended up with a high ranking, but otherwise the conference's OOC results were negative, we went 7-14 vs other AQ conferences. Two of our five bowl-eligible teams were teams that were exiting the conference.

2014 was an absolutely awful year, while 2015 was a stellar year - until bowl season, where we crapped the bed.

Overall, football results have probably shaded more to the negative than the positive. But middling/mediocre is fair.

(01-12-2016 02:01 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 01:46 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  A 500K drop would basically put the deal on par with the MAC's. MAC gets more per team, but they have fewer teams than CUSA.

True but only for the 2016/2017 season when the MAC is making somewhere around $600k-$670k per team per year (that figure was with UMASS in the conference) off of the old contract which was upped. Starting the 2017/2018 season that the MAC TV money from ESPN goes up to $10mil per year so, $800k-$833k per team per year, depending on what a reporters "source" says.

http://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/8/19/6045...pn-tv-deal

But the MAC plays all kinds of weeknight games, particularly in November, to make that happen. I suspect CUSA and the Sun Belt will soon be partaking in a high dose of weeknight games as well. If they are willing to I think the money will be there. I know I watched nearly all the #MACtion games last year.

(01-15-2016 05:51 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  I know UTEP does not want to be in the same conference with New Mexico State.

UTEP
West Texas A&M
North Texas
Texas State
Rice
Sam Houston State
SFA
Lamar
Arkansas State
La. Tech
La.-Monroe
La-Lafayette
Missouri State

Sam Houston State did a feasibility study to go to FBS. SFA also announced a few years later to do the exact same thing.

Haaaahahahahahahahahahahahaha

The MidSouth Conference - you take the best of CUSA and Sun Belt.

EAST

Marshall
Georgia Southern
Western Kentucky
UAB
Middle Tennessee

WEST

Southern Miss
Louisiana Tech
Arkansas State
Rice
Louisiana-Lafayette

10 team, 2 division league. With the recent NCAA ruling on the Big 12, you could have a title game.

(01-16-2016 09:47 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 02:13 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 02:08 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  FWIW, any AAC fans who are prone to gloat over this better buckle their seatbelts... Because similar news likely awaits the AAC; their media deal will likely either remain the same or correspondingly decrease as well.

I dont think anyone is gloating, but the reality is the CUSA situation is very different from the AAC situation. CUSA is going from a contract based on largely on former members to a contract based completely on current members. The current AAC contract is based on the current membership, with Navy addition being the only change since it was signed. Overall, the performance of the league on the field and in the ratings has far exceeded its original expectations.

You are correct about the difference in situations between the AAC and CUSA with regards to membership.

But, there is one disturbing similarity: CUSA backfilled using essentially the AAC model, picking teams from large markets in the hope that merely being in a market makes a team valuable. That obviously has proven to be untrue.

Also, I am not sure in what sense the AAC has out-performed expectations on the TV stations or on the field. I'd say football ratings have been about what we'd expect for high-tier G5 teams playing on wide-exposure ESPN channels.

As for on the field, we've only had two real years, 2014 and 2015. Hard to judge 2013 because we were still a Power conference, with AQ status, something not representative of our current situation. Also, Louisville was a big part of our success that year and they were exiting the conference. If we subtract UofL from that year, it was mediocre, with UCF surprisingly winning the Fiesta Bowl and ended up with a high ranking, but otherwise the conference's OOC results were negative, we went 7-14 vs other AQ conferences. Two of our five bowl-eligible teams were teams that were exiting the conference.

2014 was an absolutely awful year, while 2015 was a stellar year - until bowl season, where we crapped the bed.

Overall, football results have probably shaded more to the negative than the positive. But middling/mediocre is fair.

All the stuff you mentioned--the back filling, the football performance---all the negative points you mention as well as some negative influences not mentioned (league collapse, a P5 breakaway, a collapse in basketball performance, G5 marginalization due to the new CFP, etc) were all cooked into that incredibly low 2 million dollar price in 2013 (hell, even McMurphy, who had the most bearish experts giving him AAC value estimates thought the value would be between 30-60 million). The fact that the AAC can now point to some of the best football in the G5, multiple CFP/BCS victories, better than expected ratings, a basketball championship, and continued investment in member athletic programs, greater stability--its completely reasonable to expect that the distressed AAC valuation of 2013 would see a significant increase. The fact is, the AAC already had thier CUSA moment in 2013. The only difference is our 2013 valuation was based on a worst case theoretical scenario with no real track record to support it on while the CUSA valuation was based on a 3 year track record (2013-2015).

(01-17-2016 03:02 PM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 02:01 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(01-12-2016 01:46 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  A 500K drop would basically put the deal on par with the MAC's. MAC gets more per team, but they have fewer teams than CUSA.

True but only for the 2016/2017 season when the MAC is making somewhere around $600k-$670k per team per year (that figure was with UMASS in the conference) off of the old contract which was upped. Starting the 2017/2018 season that the MAC TV money from ESPN goes up to $10mil per year so, $800k-$833k per team per year, depending on what a reporters "source" says.

http://www.hustlebelt.com/2014/8/19/6045...pn-tv-deal

But the MAC plays all kinds of weeknight games, particularly in November, to make that happen. I suspect CUSA and the Sun Belt will soon be partaking in a high dose of weeknight games as well. If they are willing to I think the money will be there. I know I watched nearly all the #MACtion games last year.

You are definitely the exception not the norm, if you watched nearly all the MAC weeknight games.

I like the idea of a South 12 Conference.

East - Marshall, Old Dominion, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Southern Miss.

West- Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, Texas State, UTEP, New Mexico State.

Nice sounding state schools some good programs and a simple conference name. Divisions have alot of potential for regional rivalries. People like that sort of thing.