Here's a link to this morning's article.
<a href='http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/7778576.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/7778576.htm</a>
Here's a couple of choice quotes from the article.
"TCU officials are also concerned about the attendance of the schools recently added to Conference USA."
"TCU officials have contacted ESPN and learned that Conference USA's next TV contract will be a "drop in the bucket" compared with its current deal."
Well, well, well. Some things for Marshall and UCF fans to think about. That brings up to 8 the number of teams leaving C-USA.
"Look before you leap!"
Geesh, this just parrots what folks on this board have been saying for months. Maybe some of us aren't so dumn after all...
I have to agree with Schadenfreude's comments on this matter............despite all this, it still doesn't mean that Marshall necessarily made the wrong decision............let's face it, they really wanted to be in a more "southern" oriented conference. I do think that they "talked themselves into" it being a good financial deal, and it made it much easier with donors putting up all the upfront cash.
Also, you might argue that with TCU gone, although C-USA will be diminished even further in football, Marshall should quickly be the marquee football program in that conference.
Question:
If TCU leaves CUSA, can they get together with UC, UL, SLU, Army, DePaul, Marquette, UNCC, and USF and dissolve the conference? Isn
Santa Fe Falcon Wrote:Here's a link to this morning's article.
<a href='http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/7778576.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/7778576.htm</a>
Here's a couple of choice quotes from the article.
"TCU officials are also concerned about the attendance of the schools recently added to Conference USA."
"TCU officials have contacted ESPN and learned that Conference USA's next TV contract will be a "drop in the bucket" compared with its current deal."
Well, well, well. Some things for Marshall and UCF fans to think about. That brings up to 8 the number of teams leaving C-USA.
"Look before you leap!"
We knew this was happening a long time ago. TCU really wasn't that big of a factor for us. Nice try, though.
exCincy Kid Wrote:Also, you might argue that with TCU gone, although C-USA will be diminished even further in football, Marshall should quickly be the marquee football program in that conference.
I've seen that marquee...it used to read
"Puppet Show and
Spinal Tap"
The Knight Time Wrote:We knew this was happening a long time ago. TCU really wasn't that big of a factor for us. Nice try, though.
You continue to misunderstand. UCF's move makes sense. I just think it's poorly timed, and if UCF had been patient, they would get an Big East invite.
Marshall's move makes poor financial sense. If they want a southern league for sentimental sake, so be it. Just stop flooding this board w/ pleas for teams to join them in their folly.
Even more than that, Marshall is not a "conference" school in that they really aspire to outgrow CUSA/MAC. They want to be, essentially, a BCS football team and are taking steps, however wisely or foolishly, to make progress towards that goal. They don't want to be flirting with the top 25, they want to be a national power. They won't have an ounce of loyalty to CUSA when an opportunity arises to further their greater goal comes along, if it should. They are rolling the dice in the CUSA move and hope that there will be more movement nationwide in conferences that will allow them to someday get an invite to the big party. I don't begrudge them that. But it is a strategy that has nothing to do with my school or the MAC
The MAC, almost be definition will always be a sub-Big Ten league. It has too many Ohio teams to be otherwise. The market will not bear more than a handful of successful teams in any region and in Ohio, competing with the Buckeyes in football is a losing proposition--especially, NOW with their 2 seasons they are riding. No MAC school is going to be covered more prominently in this state. All the Ohio MAC schools together cannot match the Buckeye fan base. For every 100,000 crowd in their stadium, there are millions more fervently following them on TV, radio, and in print.
Marshall fans have complained that we are too content too settle for this situation. I understand why they would feel that way, but it doesn't change the situation, which is why they have to go the lone wolf path here. Who, among Memphis, Marshall, UCF etc. is not going to jump at what is perceived as the next best offer to leave CUSA? It's probably going to be a transient league if the conference shakedowns continue.
THe MAC will more or less remain one of the more stable conferences through all of this, or at least that is probably the plan of the league office to provide ocnditions that will keep things stable.
axme is right. Marshall has to be looking at USF and Cincy and thinking "if we were in CUSA, we'd be moving to the Big East too".
The issue of the Big East's long-term BCS staus is open to debate
Flipper Wrote:axme is right. Marshall has to be looking at USF and Cincy and thinking "if we were in CUSA, we'd be moving to the Big East too".
The issue of the Big East's long-term BCS staus is open to debate
of course axeme is right. most of us have no great animosity toward the mac at all. some of the older guys do but for the rest of us the post by axeme nails it. we just aspire to bigger and better things than what the mac has to offer. it was a good starter home for us in 1A.
HerdKixButt Wrote:most of us have no great animosity toward the mac at all. some of the older guys do but for the rest of us the post by axeme nails it. we just aspire to bigger and better things than what the mac has to offer. it was a good starter home for us in 1A.
Statements like these feed the animosity many MAC loyalists feel toward Marshall.
Schadenfreude Wrote:HerdKixButt Wrote:most of us have no great animosity toward the mac at all. some of the older guys do but for the rest of us the post by axeme nails it. we just aspire to bigger and better things than what the mac has to offer. it was a good starter home for us in 1A.
Statements like these feed the animosity many MAC loyalists feel toward Marshall.
well, I guess you guys need to give some of your animosity to axe then since that statement is pretty much just a summation of what his post said.
Also, aspiring to something and being able to make it happen are two very different things.
I think Marshall has gone to a conference that will be more fluid and may allow them to move up. It is not a move upward in itself, but perhaps allows them a greater possibility of moving on later. CUSA in its new form is a lateral move at best if you were talking aobut a permanent move. The attendance comparisons are laughable: two conferences pissing about one averaging 25k per game and the other averaging 18 k per game. How come nobody sees how ludicrous this is? If you aren't in the top half of D1 in attendance, you are in the bottom half arguing about which scraps you get. And like clockwork someone will say "Well, I'd rather have 20k attendance than 10K!" Yeah, and I'd rather have 20 bucks than 10 bucks but neither one really means a whole hell of a lot in the long run. It's chicken feed in the big scheme of college football.
You're acting like this is bad for C-USA.
Why would anyone want to keep TCU after this season?
Gee, I don't know, maybe because they were the 2nd-best drawing team in the remainder of the league, were ranked in the top ten for a good portion of the season, and got more press for C-USA than the rest of the league combined in '03?
This is a huge loss for C-USA, and you know it.
Papa Lou BSU Wrote:This is a huge loss for C-USA, and you know it.
This is a pretty big short-term loss. But so far, TCU can be clasified as little more than a flash in the pan. It wasn't too long ago that they were 0-11...and they could very easily slip there again!
In fact, I would say that they're likely to have to replace a coach pretty soon and unless they find another gem, they're not a safe bet.
99Tiger Wrote:Papa Lou BSU Wrote:This is a huge loss for C-USA, and you know it.
This is a pretty big short-term loss. But so far, TCU can be clasified as little more than a flash in the pan. It wasn't too long ago that they were 0-11...and they could very easily slip there again!
In fact, I would say that they're likely to have to replace a coach pretty soon and unless they find another gem, they're not a safe bet.
I have to agree with this.
But, it's a black-eye on the conference, mainly due to perception.
If TCU does slip back to mediocrity or worse, the percpetion will be that CUSA was easy.
That's why the MAC waited to boot Marshall...after they had to follow the same rules as the rest of the MAC and proved they couldn't compete.
DrTorch Wrote:That's why the MAC waited to boot Marshall...after they had to follow the same rules as the rest of the MAC and proved they couldn't compete.
Well, I'm not sure about the waiting to boot them out part, but the timing sure worked to our advantage. They are, indeed, having a tough time competing on a level playing field, particularly at a time when other MAC teams are surging past them in talent and coaching.
OTOH, if they hadn't cheated for all of those years, the MAC wouldn't be what it is today. The rest of the MAC had to step it up to compete with the unfair advantage that Marshall enjoyed. Because the rest of the teams did it correctly and within the rules, the foundation has been laid to take this conference to even higher levels. In this regards, Marshall did us a huge favor...both by entering the conference and "raising the bar" and then leaving before causing us further embarrassment when Pruett inevitibly gets caught again.
99Tiger Wrote:Papa Lou BSU Wrote:This is a huge loss for C-USA, and you know it.
This is a pretty big short-term loss. But so far, TCU can be clasified as little more than a flash in the pan. It wasn't too long ago that they were 0-11...and they could very easily slip there again!
In fact, I would say that they're likely to have to replace a coach pretty soon and unless they find another gem, they're not a safe bet.
I don't see a team in CUSA that this
doesn't apply to. It could easily be argued that by adding Marshall CUSA is getting the closest thing to a sure bet that it's ever had, and that's based on only 7 years of 1A competition.