CSNbbs

Several years ago I was on the football staff at East Carolina. I was administrative, but I got to see a lot of things fans do not. While there, my head coach and good friend told me something I haven't forgotten. He said, "Football coaches don't win games. Programs win games". Basically, if you have the appropriate mix of facilities, finances, commitment from the academic administration, and winning tradition, you will attract recruits and coaches that will win ball games. For example, Cincy has been losing coaches regularly. But they keep on winning. That tells me they have made commitments to a winning program. They recently lost a coach and I expect another coach will step in and continue to win.

With that said, what is your perception of other programs in the nBE? Please exclude you own.

I'll start off with Tulane. The sports community had bludgeoned Tulane since its invite from the nBE. I disagree with the critics. Tulane hasn't been winning of late, but I believe they have made a new commitment to the program that will eventually bring them back. I have a prejudice for leather-helmet programs... schools that have been playing football long enough to once have worn leather helmets. Tulane was once playing big-time football in the SEC. Over 80,000 fans used to fill an on-campus Tulane Stadium. They are building a new stadium on campus and are making the commitment. They have NOLA and they apparently have a school president that is pushing athletics. That's worth tons. An AD once told me that is the No. 1 criteria for success. If the school President loathes athletics as a necessary evil, you are in trouble.

In a nutshell:
Memphis - see Tulane. Great town, now have a great coach. Improvement was obvious this year. They have a super stadium, but missing fan commitment. Why?

UCF - not a leather helmet team, but I got to hand it to them. Nice facilities, apparent strong commitment from administrators, passionate fans... not enough of them.

Cincy - after decades of malaise and no commitment, they have come roaring back with a great program. Good fans, nice football stadium but small; especially compared to in-state rival Ohio State. UC has a solid program.

Houston - tremendous tradition. Old member of the SWC conference when some of the nBE teams were playing D1AA or didn’t exist. Recent success is indicative of strong renewed commitment. Facility updates scheduled. Fertile recruiting area.

Navy - What can I say... everybody just stand now and salute! The "a" in the word tradition came from Navy. Tremendous facilities and paid players on the taxpayers dime. A waterfront practice facility... I mean WOW! It's an awesome sight just to see the military jet drop them off in your airport. The most frustrating offense in college football to defend against. Go ahead, laugh at us. Just wait until your spread offensive team tries to defend against them.

What's your perception of nBE teams you are familiar with?

My crack at this -- I'll just give my perception schools I'm most familiar with:

SMU - Was actually in a worse position than Tulane on-the-field at the time Katrina hit, but they had already made the facilities and institutional commitments that TU is starting to make now. The payoff has taken awhile, but they're on the way back up the ladder now. I think their largest problem is that their ceiling for fan support is kind of low. When Tulane wins we'll be in a better position to capitalize because we are integrated into the New Orleans better as an institution. SMU is in a tough, tough market sports wise. Its a big market, but can they ever break through the UT-OU-A&M-TCU-Tech-Baylor-OSU logjam to actually get 30k+ fans to watch THEM play (as opposed to the opponent)? This isn't attendance smack, its a real question as to their ceiling. I know, because Tulane will have the same issues even when we win.

Houston - Great commitment to sports. I understand the need for a new stadium, but filling it will be a challenge. They have to keep winning and do the other "little things" it takes to reach out to UH alumni that may or may not be UH fans. But they've done everything right so far, and I think are poised to be a great hoops school in the future. I actually think from a recruiting perspective, this is the school best poised to take advantage of the Big East in hoops.

UCF - This is really a great school on the rise. This ship has sailed, but from an athletics branding perspective, it'd have been better if the school had been called the "University of Orlando" all those years ago. Directional names DO hurt a university's perception more than they should. Anyway, this is truly a school that is improving across the board. They've made the institutional commitment to athletics in the past ten years and it is paying off. Just as importantly, this is a school that is really on the come up academically. I think they are a school that has unlimited potential, particularly as Miami's decline may continue.

Memphis - They're obviously well-positioned in hoops. If they can do the little things in football to improve, like Houston has done (coaching salaries, etc), they can be a consistent winner. My only question is recruiting. They will struggle to compete against UT in-state for recruits, and don't have as large a base of "second-tier" talent in Tennessee to compete. One of the things about Tulane in Louisiana that gives me hope is that if we can out-compete Ole Miss, Arkansas, Miss State, TCU, and now UH for the second-tier kids in Louisiana, we will compete for conference titles every year. Ditto for SMU/UH in Texas, which is even deeper. But Memphis needs to recruit Texas, needs to recruit Louisiana, and needs to recruit Arkansas and Mississippi. But they don't have an obvious route to a pipeline. All that said, they have a lot else going for them and have actually been able to get some good talent on the field. I also think the coaching has been great this fall.


DISCLAIMER: These are my objective views/perceptions -- I'm totally aware that Tulane struggles in a lot of areas, so I'm not talking smack here. We have further to go than anyone. I'm not looking to get into a flame war here, these are just my objective opinions of the programs.

What do you say about Steve Kragthorpe? Hahaha