(09-21-2017 08:53 PM)Blue Raider Dave Wrote: Don't think you're going to find a lot of enthusiasm by Middle Tennessee fans for hooking back up with Sun Belt teams. Just my opinion.
Or Topper fans. UAB USM and Latech are far superior to ULL, USA and Troy in terms of perceived prestige/recognition and commitment to both sports, sorry guys. We all fought tooth and nail to get out of the Belt. It's no coincidence that GaSo and App are on more wishlists here than arkst.
you just touched on the major reason this is all fantasy realignment. egos are hard to change/adjust, given that the majority of the conversation ( on the record) has come from c-usa leaders/media, about the stated problems and unstable conditions of c-usa. either the conference members keep what you already have, or you lower your perceived wall of superiority and change.
(09-22-2017 10:20 AM)SouthernMiss3613 Wrote: This would be a great regional conference. I would have added UAB, but they don't have an on-campus stadium.
1. Arkansas State
2. Tech
3. ULM
4. Louisiana
5. South Alabama
6. Troy
7. MTSU
8 Appalachian State
9. USM
10. Marshall
11. WKU
12. ODU
I think LaTech fans would rather end their athletic program than be in the same conference with ULM. USA also doesn't have its own on campus stadium.
(09-21-2017 08:53 PM)Blue Raider Dave Wrote: Don't think you're going to find a lot of enthusiasm by Middle Tennessee fans for hooking back up with Sun Belt teams. Just my opinion.
Or Topper fans. UAB USM and Latech are far superior to ULL, USA and Troy in terms of perceived prestige/recognition and commitment to both sports, sorry guys. We all fought tooth and nail to get out of the Belt. It's no coincidence that GaSo and App are on more wishlists here than arkst.
It's also no coincidence that AState/App/GS have each other on their own wish lists.
The point of all of this is that it's unlikely to happen unless teams change their attitude towards others. If we're really going to play the superiority game, than realignment will never happen and both leagues will end up struggling.
(09-21-2017 08:53 PM)Blue Raider Dave Wrote: Don't think you're going to find a lot of enthusiasm by Middle Tennessee fans for hooking back up with Sun Belt teams. Just my opinion.
Or Topper fans. UAB USM and Latech are far superior to ULL, USA and Troy in terms of perceived prestige/recognition and commitment to both sports, sorry guys. We all fought tooth and nail to get out of the Belt. It's no coincidence that GaSo and App are on more wishlists here than arkst.
It's also no coincidence that AState/App/GS have each other on their own wish lists.
The point of all of this is that it's unlikely to happen unless teams change their attitude towards others. If we're really going to play the superiority game, than realignment will never happen and both leagues will end up struggling.
Exactly. From the general feeling I get from each school, StAte, GS, App, and Troy are more interested in staying together than they are to join up with a random assortment of CUSA schools. App and GS are for the most part tied together unless one of us gets a call from the AAC.
Like them or not, Ark State out performs and out spends 75% of CUSA. I don't understand any realignment scenario that does not involve y'all even if their team recently left the Sun Belt.
(09-22-2017 10:47 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote: Like them or not, Ark State out performs and out spends 75% of CUSA. I don't understand any realignment scenario that does not involve y'all even if their team recently left the Sun Belt.
Arkansas State Athletic budget: 29.2 million with 48% subsidy
GA Southern Athletic budget: 27.5 million with 76% subsidy
Appy State Athletic budget: 30.6 million with 65% subsidy
Neither GA Southern or Appy State couldn't afford to be IA if they didn't piggy back off of student fees and other subsidies.
(This post was last modified: 09-22-2017 11:56 AM by HerdZoned.)
(09-21-2017 08:53 PM)Blue Raider Dave Wrote: Don't think you're going to find a lot of enthusiasm by Middle Tennessee fans for hooking back up with Sun Belt teams. Just my opinion.
Or Topper fans. UAB USM and Latech are far superior to ULL, USA and Troy in terms of perceived prestige/recognition and commitment to both sports, sorry guys. We all fought tooth and nail to get out of the Belt. It's no coincidence that GaSo and App are on more wishlists here than arkst.
It's also no coincidence that AState/App/GS have each other on their own wish lists.
The point of all of this is that it's unlikely to happen unless teams change their attitude towards others. If we're really going to play the superiority game, than realignment will never happen and both leagues will end up struggling.
(09-22-2017 10:20 AM)SouthernMiss3613 Wrote: This would be a great regional conference. I would have added UAB, but they don't have an on-campus stadium.
1. Arkansas State
2. Tech
3. ULM
4. Louisiana
5. South Alabama
6. Troy
7. MTSU
8 Appalachian State
9. USM
10. Marshall
11. WKU
12. ODU
I think LaTech fans would rather end their athletic program than be in the same conference with ULM. USA also doesn't have its own on campus stadium.
True, but USA's only holds 40k compared to 71k. UAB needs a nice 25k stadium on campus. I think Georgia Southern would be a nice fit these regional conference ideas too. Y'all would culturally fit in nicely with these other southern teams.
(09-22-2017 10:47 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote: Like them or not, Ark State out performs and out spends 75% of CUSA. I don't understand any realignment scenario that does not involve y'all even if their team recently left the Sun Belt.
Arkansas State Athletic budget: 29.2 million with 48% subsidy GA Southern Athletic budget: 27.5 million with 76% subsidy
Appy State Athletic budget: 30.6 million with 65% subsidy
Neither GA Southern or Appy State couldn't afford to be IA if they didn't piggy back off of student fees and other subsidies.
That's Georgia State. GS's budget is 30M with a 60% subsidy. According to USA Today Marshall has the same budget with a 45% subsidy. Not much difference.
(This post was last modified: 09-22-2017 02:00 PM by TrueBlueDrew.)
(09-22-2017 02:17 PM)MTowho Wrote: It's MT/WKU/UAB/ODU/Marshall/Tech/USM and we can hold a beer olympics with fans for the rest of the teams in CUSA/SBC for the last two slots.
So if GaSo and App are joined together at the hip like one poster stated then use the above scenario to make it
Marshall/ODU/UNCC/MT/WKU/UAB/USM/LT/GaSo/App. Heck, I'd be fine with that and if we got UMass in even better. The hard part would be convincing the other conference into taking the texas schools and the FUs. We might be stuck taking in Coastal in order to get them to take the FUs. For you old timers... how did it happen when the Metro disbanded. Basically the Metro kicked out VCU and VT and became CUSA. Were they able to keep the autobid from the Metro? Could we simply change the name of the conference and kick out the dregs, and keep the autobid?
(This post was last modified: 09-22-2017 03:54 PM by monarx.)
(09-22-2017 03:53 PM)monarx Wrote: So if GaSo and App are joined together at the hip like one poster stated then use the above scenario to make it
Marshall/ODU/UNCC/MT/WKU/UAB/USM/LT/GaSo/App. Heck, I'd be fine with that and if we got UMass in even better. The hard part would be convincing the other conference into taking the texas schools and the FUs. We might be stuck taking in Coastal in order to get them to take the FUs. For you old timers... how did it happen when the Metro disbanded. Basically the Metro kicked out VCU and VT and became CUSA. Were they able to keep the autobid from the Metro? Could we simply change the name of the conference and kick out the dregs, and keep the autobid?
Metro just folded. Same with Great Midwest. CUSA was a new conference and didn't have an automatic bid for a few years.
(09-22-2017 03:53 PM)monarx Wrote: So if GaSo and App are joined together at the hip like one poster stated then use the above scenario to make it
Marshall/ODU/UNCC/MT/WKU/UAB/USM/LT/GaSo/App. Heck, I'd be fine with that and if we got UMass in even better. The hard part would be convincing the other conference into taking the texas schools and the FUs. We might be stuck taking in Coastal in order to get them to take the FUs. For you old timers... how did it happen when the Metro disbanded. Basically the Metro kicked out VCU and VT and became CUSA. Were they able to keep the autobid from the Metro? Could we simply change the name of the conference and kick out the dregs, and keep the autobid?
Wait, grouping us with Texas schools? Do you think that could work? I mean if you guys go regional, perhaps you have a different definition of the word "region"...
If we were talking alignments, i would like to see a conference sharing a footprint with the ACC. Something like FAU, FIU, GaSo, GaState, ODU, CCU, UNCC, Appy State and two of the Troy/USA/UAB. Maybe even JMU.
(This post was last modified: 09-22-2017 11:26 PM by goliath74.)
(09-22-2017 03:53 PM)monarx Wrote: So if GaSo and App are joined together at the hip like one poster stated then use the above scenario to make it
Marshall/ODU/UNCC/MT/WKU/UAB/USM/LT/GaSo/App. Heck, I'd be fine with that and if we got UMass in even better. The hard part would be convincing the other conference into taking the texas schools and the FUs. We might be stuck taking in Coastal in order to get them to take the FUs. For you old timers... how did it happen when the Metro disbanded. Basically the Metro kicked out VCU and VT and became CUSA. Were they able to keep the autobid from the Metro? Could we simply change the name of the conference and kick out the dregs, and keep the autobid?
Wait, grouping us with Texas schools? Do you think that could work? I mean if you guys go regional, perhaps you have a different definition of the word "region"...
Basically there are two different classifications Sun Belt/CUSA schools fall into:
Former FCS Elites: GS, App, Marshall, MT, ODU, Ark State, USM, Troy, La Tech, WKU, ULM, TXST
Larger City and Startups: GAST, Coastal, FAU, FIU, Charlotte, UAB, USA, UTSA, UTEP, UNT, ULL, Rice
Each group of schools has more in common with eachother than they do with some of the schools they might share a conference with. Realignment - if it does happen - will be driven by this. Most of the schools in the former FCS group exist within a relatively tight footprint so if those schools decide to split in favor of a conference with eachother, and the other group could have a nice east/west split that would make the Florida schools and the Texas schools being in the same conference more bearable.
Excuse me, but Marshall is in the former FBS Elite, what with Heisman candidates, the NCAA's highest bowl and home winning percentages, Top 25 finishes nearly 20% of the time in 2 decades, conference titles 33% of that time... there's no active culture of FCS around here.
