01-30-2004, 02:35 AM
I'm a new member on this board, but I've been a "lurker" for quite some time. In fact, I have spent an innordinate amount of time the last few months reading this board, CUSAbbs, the CUSA board on Killerfrogs and that parent board as well.
It started innocently enough - looking for information on TCU (as first the appropriate opponent for Miami in the GMAC and then to enjoy their squirming as they defended their chickening out) - but soon morphed into a voyeristic fascination with all the angst around confernce realignments. I liken it to passing the scene of a horrible auto accident - you don't really want to look, but you can't take your eyes off of it.
For a while this board was a refuge - alas that time appears to have ended. Sure, there was the expected "flaming" such as CONFDOA from the MAC loyalists and the "your going to lose half your programs" rants from the herdsters and kniggets. But, it was fairly low key and and, I feel, basically a sitution where most A) agreed to disagree and B) felt their team and conference was going to be better off.
Well since the conference angst has made it here I thought I would weigh in with a couple observations. First to qualify my bias - I'm a huge Miami fan and a MAC supporter. You might think that would be obvious since it is a MAC board, but looking at many of the posters lately it probably is important to note.
Observations on the CUSA, MWC and BE realignments:
1) The speculative arguments on potential members are an absolute waste of time. Besides everyone having their own personal opinion, each attempts to "represent' their intepretation of their schools best interests in making their arguments. I mean seriously, when you see a thread with over 50 posts arguing between LaTech, Toledo, Temple or NTSU being added to CUSA you have to ask yourself - are we really going to get a consensus here?
2) Fans of schools that have moved fall into two categories A) those with no regrets and B) those that are unsure if they made the right move. The first category is represented by UC, USF and UL. The second category is represented by Marshall and TCU. The difference is easy to spot by answering the following questions: Which teams message boards are full of realignment threads? Which teams said boards have thread after thread of their own fans arguing the pros and cons of the move? and most telling Which teams are spending time on other boards trying to convince people that their team made the right/wrong choice and BTW you should join us?
Yes, I did leave UCF out. Due to their newness and lack of tradition,movement is fairly irrelevant. They simply need to establish some roots. Plus, it will probably irritate The Knight Time - and that's a bonus.
3) The simple fact that you're on a confernce related message board indictes that you are a big fan of your team and in most cases support the conference your in or moving to. As fans we are all guilty of overrating the relative strengths of our own teams and the conference we're associated with, especially in comparison to other "like" teams and conferences. Again this begs a question - If I post a message on another conference board that suggests their conference isn't as good as ours am I going to convince anyone I'm right?
4) Many of the posts I have seen are from a very narrow perspective i.e. basketball only or football only. This again makes the whole excercise quite futile.
5) Many of the individuals postings represent schools that simply have no other options due to geography or politics. The MAC and CUSA are full of these schools, so I question the logic of debating this on a conference bulletin board. If you want to know what fans of a particular team think about a potential invite ask them on their own board.
Personally, I think that the changes are far from over, The current realignments, BCS issues, NCAA regulations and financial realities will precipitate another major wave in 3-5 years. I believe CUSA, the MAC, the BE and the MWC will all be affected by these changes. Really, only time will tell who was right and wrong - all esle is just speculation.
It started innocently enough - looking for information on TCU (as first the appropriate opponent for Miami in the GMAC and then to enjoy their squirming as they defended their chickening out) - but soon morphed into a voyeristic fascination with all the angst around confernce realignments. I liken it to passing the scene of a horrible auto accident - you don't really want to look, but you can't take your eyes off of it.
For a while this board was a refuge - alas that time appears to have ended. Sure, there was the expected "flaming" such as CONFDOA from the MAC loyalists and the "your going to lose half your programs" rants from the herdsters and kniggets. But, it was fairly low key and and, I feel, basically a sitution where most A) agreed to disagree and B) felt their team and conference was going to be better off.
Well since the conference angst has made it here I thought I would weigh in with a couple observations. First to qualify my bias - I'm a huge Miami fan and a MAC supporter. You might think that would be obvious since it is a MAC board, but looking at many of the posters lately it probably is important to note.
Observations on the CUSA, MWC and BE realignments:
1) The speculative arguments on potential members are an absolute waste of time. Besides everyone having their own personal opinion, each attempts to "represent' their intepretation of their schools best interests in making their arguments. I mean seriously, when you see a thread with over 50 posts arguing between LaTech, Toledo, Temple or NTSU being added to CUSA you have to ask yourself - are we really going to get a consensus here?
2) Fans of schools that have moved fall into two categories A) those with no regrets and B) those that are unsure if they made the right move. The first category is represented by UC, USF and UL. The second category is represented by Marshall and TCU. The difference is easy to spot by answering the following questions: Which teams message boards are full of realignment threads? Which teams said boards have thread after thread of their own fans arguing the pros and cons of the move? and most telling Which teams are spending time on other boards trying to convince people that their team made the right/wrong choice and BTW you should join us?
Yes, I did leave UCF out. Due to their newness and lack of tradition,movement is fairly irrelevant. They simply need to establish some roots. Plus, it will probably irritate The Knight Time - and that's a bonus.
3) The simple fact that you're on a confernce related message board indictes that you are a big fan of your team and in most cases support the conference your in or moving to. As fans we are all guilty of overrating the relative strengths of our own teams and the conference we're associated with, especially in comparison to other "like" teams and conferences. Again this begs a question - If I post a message on another conference board that suggests their conference isn't as good as ours am I going to convince anyone I'm right?
4) Many of the posts I have seen are from a very narrow perspective i.e. basketball only or football only. This again makes the whole excercise quite futile.
5) Many of the individuals postings represent schools that simply have no other options due to geography or politics. The MAC and CUSA are full of these schools, so I question the logic of debating this on a conference bulletin board. If you want to know what fans of a particular team think about a potential invite ask them on their own board.
Personally, I think that the changes are far from over, The current realignments, BCS issues, NCAA regulations and financial realities will precipitate another major wave in 3-5 years. I believe CUSA, the MAC, the BE and the MWC will all be affected by these changes. Really, only time will tell who was right and wrong - all esle is just speculation.