(12-30-2016 05:24 PM)WMTribe90 Wrote: Writing off half your conference as "really bad" doesn't really help your argument. I would disagree that this year and moving forward the "top half" of CUSA is better than the "top half" of CAA.
Middle Tennessee and UAB are usually strong programs and both have NCAA wins in the past two seasons. Marshall has gotten a lot better. Rice has a lot of potential with their coach and Evans. Western Kentucky is going to be a lot better quickly. Charlotte under Mark Price should continue to improve. UTEP and Southern Miss are in a nightmare spiral but nothing that new coaches and new attitudes can't turn around. Even conceding the RPI advantage, I'd contend that it's harder to win the CUSA tournament because you have to beat anywhere from 2 to 4 of those teams.
Quote:Good to know on the mid-major poll. Have to admit I thought it odd no CUSA teams didn't at least garner votes. Makes no sense whatsoever the CUSA is not considered a mid-major conference.
Probably because CUSA had those AAC teams in it when they last thought about the makeup of the poll. Certainly if the Missouri Valley, WCC and MAC are in it, CUSA should be too. My guess is at some point, they will be.
Quote:When you say WM and JMU are the only teams that would move fan interest at ODU, is that not two more than currently move the needle from CUSA. Who is you big CUSA rival? I know you quickly ceded what a geographical nightmare CUSA is for ODU and moved on, but this is no small point IMO. Having two in-state rivals and a handful of opponents that are easy bus games is a big deal. Rivals are born of two things primarily, proximity and/or competitiveness. All the CAA schools you dismissed as not moving the needle are as good or better than most (if not all) your CUSA brethren on both counts.
As I was telling the other W&M poster, ODU can and does play plenty of former CAA rivals every season. This year it was six (VCU, Richmond, W&M, JMU, Towson, Georgia State). George Mason is often scheduled, and I think UNCW has been as well. Ever since moving to CUSA, local/regional has been the focus of OOC scheduling. So in that regard, ODU doesn't have to be in the CAA to maintain whatever rivalries exist.
When you don't have regional ties, in-conference rivalries take a little time to develop. I know Middle Tennessee is a big deal to a lot of people here (mostly because ODU never beats them
). Louisiana Tech does as well to a degree. Old school ODU folks still remember Charlotte, UAB and WKU from the Sun Belt days. Regional rivalries was definitely one of those things that ODU sacrificed in leaving the CAA, but that would have been the case with any move to an FBS conference (presuming that there's no chance the AAC takes an FCS moveup). And CUSA has better potential for rivalries than the Sun Belt and MAC.
Quote:You can opine about which "core" you prefer, but the conference RPIs speak for themselves. At least for this year, and I believe most years going forward, CAA is a better basketball conference.
People get caught up in conference RPIs, but that doesn't speak to the difficulty of winning the conference. CUSA's top eight teams would themselves make a pretty good conference, and to win the CUSA title you'd have to beat 2 to 4 of those teams, depending. The thing that hurts CUSA are those awful teams on the bottom, which the CAA (outside JMU) lacks. But being the 25th ranked conference doesn't mean it's going to be one of the easiest conferences to win. Beating, say, Louisiana Tech, UAB and Middle Tennessee on successive days is probably harder than any trio of CAA teams.
Quote:GMU lost to Towson and managed to beat the absolute worse team in the CAA by 3 points in OT. They're middle of the pack CAA.
The Towson game was at the beginning of the season. They've beaten Northern Iowa, Penn State and Kent State, and held their own against VCU last night. As an ODU/VCU guy, Mason is one of the few schools that I can make fun of on behalf of both, but I think their new coach has got them in the right direction, and if you plopped them into the CAA now, they'd be among the teams fighting for second behind UNCW.
Quote:I'll take you at your word that you'd decline CAA basketball-only membership. That's fine, but your mindset is stuck on the hallowed-out league ODU left and not the rebuilt league that currently sits #11 in RPI. Last season the CAA finished #9 to CUSA #21. I see two leagues moving in opposite directions. Why wouldn't you want (theoretically) the more competitive league that offers in-state rivals, a logical footprint, reduced costs, and a basketball first mentality.
Good luck to ODU the rest of the way.
ODU can cherry pick the regional rivalries it wants to continue in OOC scheduling. CUSA isn't great right now but they've got enough quality programs that I don't see that lasting. And if ODU wanted to put its other sports somewhere else, it'd have to go independent in football, because nobody wants a football-only member unless they're Navy or maybe Army. Even if the CAA ends up being better long-term than CUSA, is it enough of a improvement to justify making the football team navigate the waters of independence? Almost certainly not. The A-10 would, but that's a moot point because they won't add programs that have FBS football, and they'll lose UMass to an all-sports league someday.
