(04-23-2017 11:42 PM)Ourland Wrote:  Playing crossover football games in CUSA does nothing for anyone's exposure. Our games aren't watched by many fans. Our best exposure as a conference is in September and during bowl season. Since no one is watching nationally, I'd at least capitalize on what interest can be created regionally. Rice would make more money from scheduling Texas Southern and Sam Houston State than it would by hosting MTSU and FIU. Any two area opponents are going to draw more fans than any two from CUSA East.

indeed. exactly my point.

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

its all hard for you to understand, bc you are La Tech. yall were bouncing off the walls to come to CUSA. as of now...it is La Techs mountain top. therefore, you are more than content with the status quo and apparently the 17,000 fans for home games. therefore, it seems yall are the ones that have given up. im hoping for change. hence, the thread.

(04-23-2017 11:48 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:34 PM)Lizard Breath Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:28 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:17 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:15 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  we have Kentucky & Southern at home and TN & ULM away in 2017. Not thrilled about Southern. i would prefer a MS SWAC school rather than Southern. It would be better for attendance.

we have Jackson State & ULM at home and at App St & Auburn in 2018.

we have future games at Auburn and Bama lined up and 4 games split with tulane.

its not the OOC games that are the issue. the premise, is that the CUSA games draw little fan interest and revenue for the most part. especially in comparison to who we could replace 2 CUSA games with, imo.

So for 2017, if you dropped Marshall and Charlotte, who would you want to replace them with?

Marshall is one of the few CUSA teams that draws decent interest for us actually. I'd prefer to drop Charlotte, or North Texas or even UTSA for 2 of these;

Cincinnati
East Carolina
Houston
Memphis
SMU
Florida St.
Louisville
N.C. State
Georgia Tech
Miami (FL)
N. Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Nebraska
Baylor
Iowa St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia
Marshall
Middle Tenn. St.
Louisiana Tech
UAB
Arkansas St.
La Lafayette
South Alabama
Troy
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Missouri
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi St.
Texas A&M

Drop Jackson St or whatever and ULM, or Southern then. Or do you still plan to have those? That is a waste if all you're doing is deleting conference games & still keeping those.

we cant drop any game over night. none of those teams you mentioned are long term opponents. we may not have to drop any games that are already on future schedules.

nonetheless, bringing Jackson St (or even ULM), would draw more attendance, interest and revenue (and that's what this is all about) than Nrth Texas, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Old Dominion, UTSA and Western Kentucky. note that JSU is a MS school and obviously ULM is a state over. thats why i say it would help in attendance, interest and revenue. certainly, id prefer memphis, ECU or Houston though (for example).

. I think this might work for your school but not many others. I know this can't be done overnight and either can any of what you're saying.

Even if Jackson St draws more it's not a good look to play them. You'd be better off playing a better team. It wouldn't look right to drop conference games so you guys can play Jackson St to increase your attendance by a few thousand. Just won't work. If you're not replacing games with good teams & recognizable teams then don't bother, which in turn could have you taking a loss as opposed to playing someone in your current conference and getting a W.

(04-23-2017 11:53 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

its all hard for you to understand, bc you are La Tech. yall were bouncing off the walls to come to CUSA. as of now...it is La Techs mountain top. therefore, you are more than content with the status quo and apparently the 17,000 fans for home games. therefore, it seems yall are the ones that have given up. im hoping for change. hence, the thread.

Do you guys have any chance at ever moving to a better conference? I know you've been around a while. But I'm not too familiar with your history. What's your end game? Or do you think you've reached your ceiling and looking outside of the box?

(04-23-2017 11:56 PM)Lizard Breath Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:48 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:34 PM)Lizard Breath Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:28 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:17 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  So for 2017, if you dropped Marshall and Charlotte, who would you want to replace them with?

Marshall is one of the few CUSA teams that draws decent interest for us actually. I'd prefer to drop Charlotte, or North Texas or even UTSA for 2 of these;

Cincinnati
East Carolina
Houston
Memphis
SMU
Florida St.
Louisville
N.C. State
Georgia Tech
Miami (FL)
N. Carolina
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Nebraska
Baylor
Iowa St.
Kansas
Kansas St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
TCU
Texas
Texas Tech
West Virginia
Marshall
Middle Tenn. St.
Louisiana Tech
UAB
Arkansas St.
La Lafayette
South Alabama
Troy
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Missouri
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi St.
Texas A&M

Drop Jackson St or whatever and ULM, or Southern then. Or do you still plan to have those? That is a waste if all you're doing is deleting conference games & still keeping those.

we cant drop any game over night. none of those teams you mentioned are long term opponents. we may not have to drop any games that are already on future schedules.

nonetheless, bringing Jackson St (or even ULM), would draw more attendance, interest and revenue (and that's what this is all about) than Nrth Texas, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Old Dominion, UTSA and Western Kentucky. note that JSU is a MS school and obviously ULM is a state over. thats why i say it would help in attendance, interest and revenue. certainly, id prefer memphis, ECU or Houston though (for example).

. I think this might work for your school but not many others. I know this can't be done overnight and either can any of what you're saying.

Even if Jackson St draws more it's not a good look to play them. You'd be better off playing a better team. It wouldn't look right to drop conference games so you guys can play Jackson St to increase your attendance by a few thousand. Just won't work. If you're not replacing games with good teams & recognizable teams then don't bother, which in turn could have you taking a loss as opposed to playing someone in your current conference and getting a W.

I hear ya. But the idea isnt to drop cusa for jackson state. Trust me. I was just mentioning how they would draw more attendance, sadly.

(04-23-2017 11:59 PM)Lizard Breath Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:53 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

its all hard for you to understand, bc you are La Tech. yall were bouncing off the walls to come to CUSA. as of now...it is La Techs mountain top. therefore, you are more than content with the status quo and apparently the 17,000 fans for home games. therefore, it seems yall are the ones that have given up. im hoping for change. hence, the thread.

Do you guys have any chance at ever moving to a better conference? I know you've been around a while. But I'm not too familiar with your history. What's your end game? Or do you think you've reached your ceiling and looking outside of the box?

We thought we had a chance for the aac. Thats looking bleak now. So yeah, looking outside the box thinking. At least i am. Lol.

(04-24-2017 12:06 AM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:59 PM)Lizard Breath Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:53 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

its all hard for you to understand, bc you are La Tech. yall were bouncing off the walls to come to CUSA. as of now...it is La Techs mountain top. therefore, you are more than content with the status quo and apparently the 17,000 fans for home games. therefore, it seems yall are the ones that have given up. im hoping for change. hence, the thread.

Do you guys have any chance at ever moving to a better conference? I know you've been around a while. But I'm not too familiar with your history. What's your end game? Or do you think you've reached your ceiling and looking outside of the box?

We thought we had a chance for the aac. Thats looking bleak now. So yeah, looking outside the box thinking. At least i am. Lol.

Gotcha.

(04-23-2017 11:53 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

its all hard for you to understand, bc you are La Tech. yall were bouncing off the walls to come to CUSA. as of now...it is La Techs mountain top. therefore, you are more than content with the status quo and apparently the 17,000 fans for home games. therefore, it seems yall are the ones that have given up. im hoping for change. hence, the thread.

Not a single word you just said is true. By no means is C-USA our "mountain top." It's just another rung on the ladder. I am absolutely not satisfied with the status quo, but I don't see how reducing our conference games does anything besides make us look bush league. It shows we'd rather play other conferences than our own, which makes us look like a joke.

I'm in favor of things that either A) make our conference look better or B) gets us into a better one. Giving up games against, say, WKU to play teams that are closer makes it harder. Sure, maybe we'd have a larger crowd for a game against ULM than against WKU. But playing and beating WKU does a hell of a lot more for our program than ULM.

And for the record, 17K? we brought 22-23k fans on a given Saturday last year. In 2016, the attendance for SC State was reported low because of a 4-hour weather delay, and WKU was a Thursday night. UTEP, UTSA, and Rice saw 22-23. As for 2017, I fully expect 27-28k for our opener, and 26k+ for our second game. Those numbers are based on what we drew the last time we hosted NSU and MSST and the fact that our typical crowd has grown since. We win both of those games and attendance should do well the rest of the year given we don't fall off a cliff. *knocks on wood*

And before you bring up the USM game in 2015, that was during fall break when students were at home and it was raining (for the 3rd straight home game). That crowd is not representative of what we normally draw.

(04-23-2017 11:46 PM)techdawg28 Wrote:  Y'all sound like you've given up. Like you've resigned yourselves to the idea that your programs will never be anything more than what they are right now.

Dropping crossover games for games against nearby opponents simply looks more exciting to me. I'd have more fun. It would lend itself to a better gameday atmosphere, and the economics of a revamped scheduling model would benefit the university. Rice always plays great competition in it's OOC schdule. It plays the big boys and gets national exposure. Playing CUSA East schools is the antithesis of that. There's no money and no exposure in it. That being said, I have nothing personally against CUSA East. It is what it is.

Thinking outside the box is always a good thing, but I don't like this idea. If playing these games were really that important for the schools involved, they should've given that more consideration during the realignment process. I'm sure there are schools in our conference that don't move the dial for a lot of people, but playing as many OOC games as conference games to compensate is like slapping your own conference in the face. It's like a guy getting married, but spending just as much time with the lady he used to date as he does with his wife just because he misses her.

I've said from the outset that this conference is just too big. No conference should have more than 12 member schools, and 10 is ideal. Besides, if we did this by division as someone suggested, the West would only play 5 games, which would mean we'd have 7 OOC games. That's ridiculous. Might as well just be independent.

If you want a great way for this conference to fall apart, you've found it. I can understand how people can miss old rivalries they've had, but if your rivals miss those matchups as much as you do, you already have 4 games to work with right now. If they're not willing, they probably don't miss you as much as you do them. But playing a plethora of OOC games isn't how you develop those new rivalries with your new conference mates. It's basically just giving up and saying, "Here, let's do this until we can all get out of this conference and into something better".

(04-23-2017 11:49 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:42 PM)Ourland Wrote:  Playing crossover football games in CUSA does nothing for anyone's exposure. Our games aren't watched by many fans. Our best exposure as a conference is in September and during bowl season. Since no one is watching nationally, I'd at least capitalize on what interest can be created regionally. Rice would make more money from scheduling Texas Southern and Sam Houston State than it would by hosting MTSU and FIU. Any two area opponents are going to draw more fans than any two from CUSA East.

indeed. exactly my point.

It's almost as if we have...


I've already showed that West vs east is only make believe for this one Rice fan. Well I did when he was listing FAU and Western. Now it's Middle and FIU, two schools Rice never played at least not @Rice. Now I guess we need to put facts with the S. Miss fan.

Honestly, is it too hard to look at attendance numbers if you are going to base a whole argument on them? The games in bold are vs east teams and the games underline are schools the eastern game beat on attendance.

Again at least make a effort to put a little facts into something. Opinions are usually wrong.

I'm rounding...
2016
S.Miss vs Savannah St. 29k
S.Miss vs Troy 28k
S. Miss vs Rice 28k
S. Miss vs Marshall 31kEAST
S. Miss vs UNCC 29K EAST
S. Miss vs Tech 26k


2105
S. Miss vs A. Peay 23k
s. MISS vs Miss 36K
S. MISS vs ODU 30k EAST
S. Miss vs UNT 26K
S. Miss vs UTSA 29K
S. Miss vs UTEP 26K

Lets go back to 2014

vs Alcorn St. 26k
vs App 22k
vs Rice 25k
vs Tech 23K
vs Marshall 23
vs UAB 17K


The grass is always greener on the other side...till you get there. That long list of schools Reggie Favre made is a pipe dream...most of those schools, actually just about all (guess 98%) that's not a SBC school will not be beating down the door to sign a home and home with S. Miss (most of us). So if you can't beat up on CUSA at home...

I guess you like losing?

The Rice fan keeps repeating this bull...like if he repeats it enough, it's true. It's almost like he closes his eyes and go....I don't see it I don't see it. Well, repeat it all you want and close your eyes to the below but the fact are still what they are. Playing eastern schools have not been a attendance killer for Rice. And it especially hasn't been a drain on what Rice makes off those attending the games. Just as it hasn't for S. Miss

2015 Rice home games
VS Western Attendance: 20,124
vs S. miss Attendance: 18,656
vs Tech Attendance: 18,010
vs Army Attendance: 24,409
vs UNCC Attendance: 16,539

2016
VS UNT Attendance: 20,792
VS UTSA Attendance: 20,134
VS UTEP Attendance: 19,148
VS FAU Attendance: 19,892
VS Baylor Attendance: 27,047

If anything WKUYG, you're really just making my argument for me. In 2015 you guys had the best team in the conference, but that game still only sold about 20k tickets. I'm sure you'd agree that there weren't 20k actual fans in attendance. Your photos of the bleachers from that day, that you so vindictively display, clearly show that. The count of actual butts in seats was far less. I was there too, and I promise you there weren't 15k in the stadium that day, and that was against the best team in CUSA. Granted, Rice was pathetic that season, but the best team in the conference couldn't attract any interest in Houston. Why? Because no one here cares about Western Kentucky. No one here cares about any eastern school unless it's p5.

What I'm talking aboout doing is playing regional opponents who people care something about, and whose fans will actually put butts in seats. I'm talking about schools that are so close that they have alumni in the greater Houston area. That's what builds interest and drives ticket sales. We need fans excitedly driving to road games in good number. That will happen if we're playing g5 schools that are within a 500 mile radius. The USM AD admittedly scheduled Tulane for exactly that reason.

I've noticed you like posting attendance figures and pictures of poorly attended games. How about Westerns? Show me some numbers. How about some photos? Lets fact check together.

You're saying that we should play closer teams to get larger crowds. He's pointing out that in practice, it hasn't really made a difference.

And here's my thing. Yes, we all would like to get a nice crowd and sell tickets. But what's more important? The crowd, or the quality of competition? Tech could join the Sun Belt and have great crowds against ULM and ULL every year. But we know that if we want to build our brand and our program, we have to move forward, not backward. Giving up games against WKU, MTSU, ODU, etc to play ULM is a major downgrade to our strength of schedule. If we want to take this program places, we have to play better competition, not just closer. Sure, USM could play USA every year. But wouldn't USM rather play Marshall or WKU? Much better competition means a better perception of your program, and that's how you go places.

And lastly, you know what helps put butts in seats? Winning. And the better the competition you're winning against, the more butts get put in seats.

(04-24-2017 03:38 AM)techdawg28 Wrote:  You're saying that we should play closer teams to get larger crowds. He's pointing out that in practice, it hasn't really made a difference.

And here's my thing. Yes, we all would like to get a nice crowd and sell tickets. But what's more important? The crowd, or the quality of competition? Tech could join the Sun Belt and have great crowds against ULM and ULL every year. But we know that if we want to build our brand and our program, we have to move forward, not backward. Giving up games against WKU, MTSU, ODU, etc to play ULM is a major downgrade to our strength of schedule. If we want to take this program places, we have to play better competition, not just closer. Sure, USM could play USA every year. But wouldn't USM rather play Marshall or WKU? Much better competition means a better perception of your program, and that's how you go places.

And lastly, you know what helps put butts in seats? Winning. And the better the competition you're winning against, the more butts get put in seats.

Winning helps tremendously, but we aren't going to agree on anything else, and that's okay. ULL, Arkansas State, South Alabama, App State, Troy and Georgia Southern could compete with anyone in CUSA tomorrow. ULM and Coastal Carolina belong in FCS. The majority of the Sun Belt isn't a step down in competition, and most of those programs are making big investments in athletics infrastructure right now. Real big investments.

(04-24-2017 03:55 AM)Ourland Wrote:  

(04-24-2017 03:38 AM)techdawg28 Wrote:  You're saying that we should play closer teams to get larger crowds. He's pointing out that in practice, it hasn't really made a difference.

And here's my thing. Yes, we all would like to get a nice crowd and sell tickets. But what's more important? The crowd, or the quality of competition? Tech could join the Sun Belt and have great crowds against ULM and ULL every year. But we know that if we want to build our brand and our program, we have to move forward, not backward. Giving up games against WKU, MTSU, ODU, etc to play ULM is a major downgrade to our strength of schedule. If we want to take this program places, we have to play better competition, not just closer. Sure, USM could play USA every year. But wouldn't USM rather play Marshall or WKU? Much better competition means a better perception of your program, and that's how you go places.

And lastly, you know what helps put butts in seats? Winning. And the better the competition you're winning against, the more butts get put in seats.

Winning helps tremendously, but we aren't going to agree on anything else, and that's okay. ULL, Arkansas State, South Alabama, App State, Troy and Georgia Southern could compete with anyone in CUSA tomorrow. ULM and Coastal Carolina belong in FCS. The majority of the Sun Belt isn't a step down in competition, and most of those programs are making big investments in athletics infrastructure right now. Real big investments.

There you go again. They might be able to compete with S. Miss but don't go throwing everyone in that group. Especially Western and you can add Tech to Western.

The last couple years all of those schools would have been a 3+ td loser, to Western, just like most CUSA teams. No bragging....

just the facts

Other than a few in the SBC they needed upgrades. Texas St has the best stadium in either conference. And for a hole in the ground stadium, Troy's isn't bad. Haven't seen App, but Southern's is nothing to write home about. Ark St is not a good stadium. Their additions might be good. But the hole in the ground stadium isn't. Night games, you get damp air drifting down on you from the wide open fields. ULL had a nice addition to their locker rooms and weight room but the stadium is nothing special.

My personally opinion...state and ULL should have addressed other concerns on their stadium than feildhouses and press box. Yes those look nice....

but the stadium is junk. As for USA I don't recall any new upgrades...they play in a city owned stadium. For me personally, I liked it. Even the rundown neighborhood it's in wasn't a problem for me.

Western Kentucky averaged 17,705 fans per home game last season according to NCAA records. The stadium holds slightly more than 22,500.

(04-24-2017 01:02 AM)Volkmar Wrote:  But playing a plethora of OOC games isn't how you develop those new rivalries with your new conference mates. It's basically just giving up and saying, "Here, let's do this until we can all get out of this conference and into something better".

Your thought process is understandable, but it isn't realistic. Let me tell you why. Again, UTSA football has only been around a handful of years. You apparently aren't familiar with the history of CUSA. The PROBLEM, is that it has been impossible to develop rivalries with conference mates, bc soon as they begin to develop, the conference members change. So yes, I am exactly saying, "Here, let's do this until we can all get out of this conference and into something better". Screw CUSA, its crap and since its inception, it has done nothing to demonstrate that I'm wrong about that. I've been keeping up with it for over 20 years (not 6) and seen it all.

(04-23-2017 07:42 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 07:34 PM)Hood-rich Wrote:  sounds ok but how do you plan on getting more P5 games? most aren't coming to G5s

Sent from my SM-J700T using CSNbbs mobile app

You dont necessarily have to get P5s for your home game replacement. You could go there and get paid to do so if possible. For the home game replacement, you could get a more regional / historical opponent from the G5. Not knocking Florida International, but im sure Louisiana-Lafayette would bring more fans to our stadium (more ULL AND USM fans), for instance. We have history and its a couple hours away.

A few points,

1) USM has played FIU once, FAU once in 6 years we have shared a conference.
2) USM AD reported 2nd year of growth in attendance at the end of 2016. VS eastern team Marshall _ 31k, and home opener of 29k vs Savannah state, a local program only 9 hours and two states away to the EAST.
3) club sports already does tight geography.

http://www.southernmiss.com/sports/m-foo...16aab.html

(04-24-2017 05:02 AM)Ourland Wrote:  Western Kentucky averaged 17,705 fans per home game last season according to NCAA records. The stadium holds slightly more than 22,500.

OK, what does that have to do with anything I said? The stadium is still better than all but Texas St.

It's obvious you don't get out much.

(04-24-2017 01:06 AM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:49 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(04-23-2017 11:42 PM)Ourland Wrote:  Playing crossover football games in CUSA does nothing for anyone's exposure. Our games aren't watched by many fans. Our best exposure as a conference is in September and during bowl season. Since no one is watching nationally, I'd at least capitalize on what interest can be created regionally. Rice would make more money from scheduling Texas Southern and Sam Houston State than it would by hosting MTSU and FIU. Any two area opponents are going to draw more fans than any two from CUSA East.

indeed. exactly my point.

Honestly, is it too hard to look at attendance numbers if you are going to base a whole argument on them? The games in bold are vs east teams and the games underline are schools the eastern game beat on attendance.

Again at least make a effort to put a little facts into something. Opinions are usually wrong.

I'm rounding...
2016
S.Miss vs Savannah St. 29k
S.Miss vs Troy 28k
S. Miss vs Rice 28k
S. Miss vs Marshall 31kEAST
S. Miss vs UNCC 29K EAST
S. Miss vs Tech 26k


2105
S. Miss vs A. Peay 23k
s. MISS vs Miss 36K
S. MISS vs ODU 30k EAST
S. Miss vs UNT 26K
S. Miss vs UTSA 29K
S. Miss vs UTEP 26K

Lets go back to 2014

vs Alcorn St. 26k
vs App 22k
vs Rice 25k
vs Tech 23K
vs Marshall 23
vs UAB 17K


The grass is always greener on the other side...till you get there. That long list of schools Reggie Favre made is a pipe dream...most of those schools, actually just about all (guess 98%) that's not a SBC school will not be beating down the door to sign a home and home with S. Miss (most of us). So if you can't beat up on CUSA at home...

I guess you like losing?

First, the whole argument isn't based around attendance. You pick and choose whatever you think fits your talking points. It's about economics and fan interest. As I've stated from the beginning, one of the 2 games could be a " money game". That means, we can play an SEC-type school at their place for $1.5-3 million dollars. We are getting $200k a year right now for the CUSA TV contract. You seem to like numbers...do the math on that, even if we didn't get a " money game" every year.

I also stated that Marshall is one of the few CUSA teams that interest USM fans at all. Thanks for proving my point.

The figures from 2014 are terrible bc we suffered our worst season in history the year before that (we went from 12-2, to 0-12 - that's a diff story altogether) and it continued into 2014. Notice the Alcorn State game (SWAC School), had the highest figures - that's another local / Mississippi school. Again, proving my point - thanks. UNCC drew the same amount of people as Savannah State and essentially the same as Troy and Rice. Please do not tell me what teams USM cares about. I'm not going to pretend to understand what goes through WKU fans heads (for crying out loud...yall have 17k people at your games while being at the top of your game).

Again, USM fans don't care about most of the teams in CUSA. We would rather see other regional competition than have to play most any team you listed. Comparing ODU and Charlotte to UTEP, UNT and UTSA is like comparing a mound of turds to diarrhea as far as USM fans are concerned (sorry for the comparison). At the same time, don't get me wrong... I can see UTSA or some other "new" CUSA team leap frogging USM to bigger and better things (see every other school that use to be in CUSA - despite USM dominating them on the playing field). Therefore, USM needs to do something for USM, not CUSA. Every school in CUSA should (and does) think that way.