(09-10-2019 02:24 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (09-10-2019 01:41 PM)Mav Wrote: I guess when you don't want to come out and admit your status as a SWAC school limits you to borderline D2 talent, you look for excuses. I know when I think of wealthy, spoiled football programs, Memphis isn't on that list. If throwing money at the problems you have is how you fix them, then why does Tennessee still suck?
First, I don't think the SU coach was begrudging Memphis. All of his comments about Memphis were of a complimentary nature. He wasn't asking for a handout, and expressed appreciation that the Memphis coaches had allowed him to see their facilities and pick their brains about building their program. He wasn't whining about them having more resources. He was just noting that they DO have more, and that SU needs to get to work on raising more themselves. As "Hornet" noted, the message aimed at SU boosters.
Beyond that, I wonder, would you feel the same about say a Louisiana-Monroe commenting about LSU? If a UL-Monroe coach mentioned all the advantages that LSU has, you'd say something like "I guess when you don't want to come out and admit your status as a G5/Sun Belt school limits you to borderline 2-star talent, you look for excuses."
Right?
I agree that the SU coach doesn't come off as begrudging what Memphis has but rather challenging the school and boosters to improve what they have.
AState just opened a new facility and it is gorgeous and there are 75 or so schools if they felt AState matched or exceeded their facility can pretty easily swing the cost of exceeding what AState has done.
AState's AD in his upgrade quest is never shy about saying X is as good or better than P5 school Y has but he also is very clear that we aren't really trying to chase P5 schools in capital projects. He has a list of schools he has mentioned publicly a few times as who we try to match. Depending on the day, that list is either 4-6 AAC schools or 3-4 AAC and 2-3 MWC.
We have talked the subject one-on-one several times and he's realistic. He can chase Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati on capital projects and in the process pass a P5 here and there but the P5 can money whip us any time they choose.
By the same token, Southland Conference member Central Arkansas would gladly trade facilities with us in most every sport except baseball and honestly if we start softball as expected, their facility would be a nice starting point for us. Until a couple years ago they would have turned down swapping soccer facilities as well.
I doubt UArk would trade us for any facility and the only sport we could match them in would be women's softball and then only if the city and university agreed to build a joint facility.
In AAC I like what Memphis has done in hoops. Tagging along with the Grizzlies gets them in a top-notch arena in a fan friendly environment even if it's not ideal for students and instead of investing huge money in an arena, they built a great campus practice facility and team meeting space that quite a few P5's would like to have. They've finally figured out to make lemonade out of the Liberty Bowl Stadium situation. Not their dream stadium but with the Mid-South Fair leaving the Liberty Bowl site they have been able to greatly improve the situation.