(01-16-2016 09:46 PM)EagleNationRising Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:36 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 08:27 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 06:06 PM)bullet Wrote:  Its still more money, more exposure, more prestige and a stronger conference in football and basketball. For the 4 western schools, its more regional rivals. For Troy, ULM, ULL and Arkansas St., it would be re-joining the teams they were with until two years ago.

Is it though?

1. More money: From where?
Next CUSA TV contract is a reduction, from around $1.2M per year per school to maybe $700,000. So let's say a $500,000/year difference from TV.
CUSA and Sun Belt are both one-bid basketball leagues. No difference there. (Memphis' credits will be gone soon enough.)
CUSA has 7 bowls for 14 schools, Sun Belt has 4 for 12, but that could soon be 4 for 10. I don't see any current listing of bowl payouts, but let's say $500,000 per school for the CUSA and Sun Belt bowls. CUSA $3.5M/14 = $250,000, SBC $2M / 12 = $166,667.
So the revenue difference between CUSA and the Sun Belt has to be less than $1M per year per school.

2. More exposure?
The Sun Belt-ESPN contract is pretty terrible--a floor of 7 football and 4 basketball games a year on ESPN/2/U, plus the finals of the basketball tournament.
But CUSA's coverage on FS1 and CBS-SN is pretty terrible, and likely to get worse.

3. More prestige? Maybe. Are ODU, FIU, FAU and Charlotte more prestigious than App State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Troy? Hell if I know.

4. Stronger conference in football--CUSA had 5/14 in the Sagarin top 100, Sun Belt had 3/11. In basketball, they're both one-bid, 14-seed leagues--and it doesn't matter if Louisiana Tech would have been a #11 seed. A one-bid league is a one-bid league.

5. Veteran Sun Belt members rejoining their old Sun Belt buddies. Okay.

Is all that worth a $2M exit fee and a $2M entry fee? I'd say that the gap between CUSA and the Sun Belt is a lot smaller than it used to be.

I don't think reality has hit CUSA fans yet. They are no longer competing with the AAC and MWC. They are now struggling to stay ahead of the Sun Belt.

Those conferences all know who they are.
MWC is the weakest part of the MWC + the WAC.
AAC is the old CUSA.
CUSA is the old Sun Belt.
Its just that the Sun Belt fans don't seem to realize they are mostly new move-ups from FCS. All but Troy, ULM, ULL and Arkansas St. That's 6 of the 10 full members are new.

I agree. However, two of the Sunbelt's call ups were, and based on history will continue to be successful. This alone can help the Sunbelt, as no one knows yet what these two program's ceilings are.

We also do not know the ceiling for some of the top FCS schools could do in FBS. They could be just like Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, and be winners.

(01-16-2016 08:56 PM)solohawks Wrote:  What i would like to see long term is a split between cusa east and west. CUSA East absorbs App, Coastal, Ga St, and Ga Southern along with UAB from CUSA West

The remaining 6 teams in CUSA west absorb ULL, ULM, Troy, USA, Texas st, and Ark St

It could be done very easily without losing any automatic bids

Imo, something like this makes the most sense for everybody.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

If the TV money decreases, to save money I could go with adding teams to save on travel. I think I could enjoy a 16 team CUSA if Marshall chose to go to the MAC and all central time zone teams were in the west with UTEP deciding to move to the Mountain West.

That could give the east Charlotte, FIU, FAU, App, Coastal, Georgia St, Georgia Southern & ODU. If The West kept UTEP the east could add Liberty for an 18 team conference giving Charlotte 5 schools closer to them than Marshall.

By Adding South Carolina & Georgia and Marshall deciding to move to the MAC it would give the east teams a 13 million population increase

However I would not be in favor of forcing any team out of CUSA including Marshall & UTEP.

I wonder if Marshall would consider the MAC again.

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

You and David St are my idols.... Cheers!

Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You're telling me that hiring a new AD, a new President, a new football HC, and a few new facilities in the past 2 years does not constitute as definite change?

You and GW16 just post without thinking sometimes.

(01-17-2016 01:15 AM)oliveandblue Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

You and David St are my idols.... Cheers!

Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You're telling me that hiring a new AD, a new President, a new football HC, and a few new facilities in the past 2 years does not constitute as definite change?

You and GW16 just post without thinking sometimes.

That is why Tulane are not in any talks for expansions. They are way behind the eight ball from the other AAC right now. They should have start doing the changes when they went unbeaten that one year, but they let things go. Sorry, but Tulane is not P5 worthy yet. They are still more at the C-USA level.

(01-17-2016 02:38 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 01:15 AM)oliveandblue Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

You and David St are my idols.... Cheers!

Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You're telling me that hiring a new AD, a new President, a new football HC, and a few new facilities in the past 2 years does not constitute as definite change?

You and GW16 just post without thinking sometimes.

That is why Tulane are not in any talks for expansions. They are way behind the eight ball from the other AAC right now. They should have start doing the changes when they went unbeaten that one year, but they let things go. Sorry, but Tulane is not P5 worthy yet. They are still more at the C-USA level.

How are we way behind? Our market and academics alone puts us ahead of most if not all AAC schools for expansion. C-USA level? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, the only thing we would ever have in common with any of those schools is that we all have athletic teams in this country. Other then that, there is not one school in that conference that can even hold a candle to Tulane.

(01-16-2016 04:10 PM)Artifice Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 03:18 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Option One.


Members need to improve themselves.Conference should mandate a few changes to get schools to go in the right direction.

We have exceptional schools and an excellent framework.Invest.Work.Improve.

This. However, this requires Charlotte AD-for-Life Judy Rose to step down and let someone who actually has some ambition and vision for the program run the show.

She'd happily nest the 49ers in the Big South if she could get away with it. She's done a very good job of making the program perform like a Big South also ran. Niner athletics are at an all time low since she took over July 1st, 1990. She is, I believe, the 2nd longest serving AD in the country, despite a very poor track record for the last 10+ years. No other AD would still have their job, but the Chancellor will not fire her and she appears to be hell bent on never stepping down.

Until Judy Rose steps down, Charlotte will be a underperforming door mat propped up by a couple of rich donors she has become best buddies with. It's a real shame too, because, all subjectivity aside, despite being in a state already loaded with big time D1 programs, it still has a lot to offer and could be great with the right leadership.

This is an interesting take. I don't know her entire body of work enough, but she got the school a football team and placed them right into one of the better mid-majors out there. You can't fault her for what happened above CUSA; the CUSA Charlotte talked with still had Houston, Tulsa, ECU, Tulane, and UCF in it before they joined one that then became a modified SBC. The ability to retain something like a "legacy" spot to the conference, which was different enough even then from the one they left before, that's respectable.

None of that is her?

I shrug when I think about their A10 basketball visit. They never delivered within it, while their replacement instantly contributed to it. Context might, and probably will, diminish the loss of Charlotte in that conference; people might get fuzzy on dates and think the A10 had them during those robust years. All the A10 lost was a program from North Carolina.

I suspect it takes more than we'll ever know to make a football program at a school, and to put it straight to FBS...other programs in the department would obviously suffer. There's a lot that happened in her time. On the surface, she seems very praiseworthy for it all. I guess one should look more at the work to see what there really is, though?

(01-17-2016 04:11 AM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 02:38 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 01:15 AM)oliveandblue Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  You and David St are my idols.... Cheers!

Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You're telling me that hiring a new AD, a new President, a new football HC, and a few new facilities in the past 2 years does not constitute as definite change?

You and GW16 just post without thinking sometimes.

That is why Tulane are not in any talks for expansions. They are way behind the eight ball from the other AAC right now. They should have start doing the changes when they went unbeaten that one year, but they let things go. Sorry, but Tulane is not P5 worthy yet. They are still more at the C-USA level.

How are we way behind? Our market and academics alone puts us ahead of most if not all AAC schools for expansion. C-USA level? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, the only thing we would ever have in common with any of those schools is that we all have athletic teams in this country. Other then that, there is not one school in that conference that can even hold a candle to Tulane.

The hurricane did not helped you guys out. The schools in New Orleans lost a lot of students and all that after the disaster. Plus between the time of the hurricane to 2010, there were talks of football being dropped. The whole athletic department is or was in a deep hole money wise. Changing conferences does not help that. No, they did not lose the AAU status. Tulane needs to help rebuild their community and their campus after the hurricane. As it is, many of the New Orleans residents have not gone back to New Orleans. The numbers for the population is over stated because it is numbers before the hurricane. As for sure, we still have many New Orleans still here in my area, and in other areas of the country. It could be politics or something. But, we need to face the realizations that Tulane needs to rebuild still, and placing them in a P5 conference right now does not help them. They may need be in a conference like the SBC to help rebuild. The downfall is that other conferences may not want to touch Tulane like they don't want to touch UAB for right now. The fear is that both UAB and Tulane could drop football. It is nothing against the school really. It is just that Tulane needs more work to turn the ship around.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/co...tics_x.htm

The link above is from 2003 about Tulane thinking of dropping football.

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 09:27 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

You and David St are my idols.... Cheers!

Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You are clueless to Tulane and what they have done. Tulane has been playing FBS football for 100 yrs and will be doing it for 100 more. Athletic department has turned over FYI. And New Preaident is in office. FYI.

(01-17-2016 06:56 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 04:11 AM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 02:38 AM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(01-17-2016 01:15 AM)oliveandblue Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 10:26 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Yeah, but Tulane was thinking of shutting the football program down not too long ago. That is why Tulane can't say much on this issue until they make a complete change in their Athletic Department.

You're telling me that hiring a new AD, a new President, a new football HC, and a few new facilities in the past 2 years does not constitute as definite change?

You and GW16 just post without thinking sometimes.

That is why Tulane are not in any talks for expansions. They are way behind the eight ball from the other AAC right now. They should have start doing the changes when they went unbeaten that one year, but they let things go. Sorry, but Tulane is not P5 worthy yet. They are still more at the C-USA level.

How are we way behind? Our market and academics alone puts us ahead of most if not all AAC schools for expansion. C-USA level? That's the funniest thing I've ever heard, the only thing we would ever have in common with any of those schools is that we all have athletic teams in this country. Other then that, there is not one school in that conference that can even hold a candle to Tulane.

The hurricane did not helped you guys out. The schools in New Orleans lost a lot of students and all that after the disaster. Plus between the time of the hurricane to 2010, there were talks of football being dropped. The whole athletic department is or was in a deep hole money wise. Changing conferences does not help that. No, they did not lose the AAU status. Tulane needs to help rebuild their community and their campus after the hurricane. As it is, many of the New Orleans residents have not gone back to New Orleans. The numbers for the population is over stated because it is numbers before the hurricane. As for sure, we still have many New Orleans still here in my area, and in other areas of the country. It could be politics or something. But, we need to face the realizations that Tulane needs to rebuild still, and placing them in a P5 conference right now does not help them. They may need be in a conference like the SBC to help rebuild. The downfall is that other conferences may not want to touch Tulane like they don't want to touch UAB for right now. The fear is that both UAB and Tulane could drop football. It is nothing against the school really. It is just that Tulane needs more work to turn the ship around.

Wrong. You are reading dated material. We do not talk Katrina in NOLA anymore.

Tulane also could have dropped to D3 as well according to some news articles back in 2003.

I still would not rule out C-USA losing one or two more schools to the AAC. The Big 12 may not have to expand to hold a championship game again, but it may find that the 10 teams/no divisions setup comes back to bite them more often than not. The gap between West Virginia and Iowa State is also still very real.

The irony is that the recent decision would actually allow the Big 12 to expand to 11 with divisions "as equally balanced as possible", meaning one division with six members and the other with five members:

North - West Virginia, Cincinnati, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State
South - Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU

The South Division would play five division games plus three opponents from the North Division for a total of eight games. The North Division would have four division games plus either 3 or 4 games against the North Division. The two North Division schools who are short a conference game could designate a non-conference game to count in the conference standings - sounds like a good setup for BYU to get 2 games late in the year.

If just Cincinnati leaves the American may wind up taking UMass, but a C-USA school may be more likely.

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

...said the AAC welfare queen.

(01-17-2016 12:56 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

...said the AAC welfare queen.

Vandy of the AAC. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

(01-17-2016 12:56 PM)Smaug Wrote:  

(01-16-2016 05:30 PM)GreenWave16 Wrote:  There's another option...drop the whole confrerence down to FCS where you all belong anyways.

...said the AAC welfare queen.

It's worse than that. Tulane is so horrible that the big east disintegrated after they joined. just a few days after tulane was invited, the big east literally comitted suicide rather than exist in the same conference. and there's not a current member of that conference that wouldn't evict Tulane if they could.

if I was tulane, I'd keep my pie hole shut.

(01-16-2016 11:53 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  I wonder if Marshall would consider the MAC again.

hmmmm...Marshall and UMass to the MAC...MAC passes Sun Belt and CUSA in "the order of things"

Interesting...

Tulane has a ton going for it...outside of athletics.

I'll take option 5.

We simply win our ooc games against the P5. This tv deal will be a short term contract. Four or five years the most. If we pull out some victories and start making a name for ourselves again we can go back up to 1 million per school. In the meantime since everyone is moaning about travel cost we should break off into 3 pods of 5 schools. One pod will only have four schools. Pod 1 all Texas schools. Pod 2: La Tech, USM, UAB, FAU, FIU Pod 3: WK, MT, Charlotte, ODU and Marshall. We can play around with the Pods until everyone is comfortable. We set up a scheduling agreement so the teams can play the schools closest to them and make cross country trips limited. There is still a lot of potential in this league. FAU and NT have newer nice stadiums. UAB and ODU will soon be getting new stadiums. UTEP has big plans to upgrade the Sun Bowl. (Details coming soon). Ten of our universities are in a top 100 tv market with eight in the top 50. We helped (not us UTEP) but CUSA helped every former member get to where they are at now. There is no reason we can't rebuild and do it again.