(01-02-2021 07:00 PM)balanced_view Wrote:  

(01-02-2021 06:03 PM)Oldyeller Wrote:  If CUSA continues down the road their on the negative effects will be felt by much of the G5 more specifically the Sun Belt when the smoke clears. THIS will be the cry that gets the attention of the rest of the league to step in and be part of the solution to fix the mess.

We have outliers in the Sun Belt that could care less for various reasons about the accomplishments of the Sun Belt and would just assume go another way if a decent pitch for change came their way. It only takes two or three in a conference of 10 to make a difference.

IF GS, App state, Ark state, Troy, USA, and CCU can stay together I honestly could care less what happens. No knock on the others just living in reality.

I don't expect you will get any decent pitches coming if CUSA continues down the path they're on. No outlier will move into a worst financial and perception situation. These universities are always selling themselves to their communities and prospective students and staff, my guess is the presidents care about all the accomplishments of the Sun Belt and are quick to promote them on a individual level.

CUSA Has a hard time feeding 14 mouths as it is. They are more likely to contract than expand...

(01-02-2021 04:48 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(01-02-2021 03:05 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(01-02-2021 02:48 PM)HTOWN_HERD Wrote:  

(01-02-2021 12:29 PM)FrankyP Wrote:  

(01-02-2021 12:13 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  Covid is always an excuse this year when things don’t turn out as planned.

Scapegoat’s dream.

Yep. I mean if you had as crappy a season as laturd and coosa you might try using covid as an excuse too. Too bad the trend of the last 3-4 years alone shoots that down, like every other school and conf weren’t faced with the same issues, but I doubt it will stop the irrational delusional spinning of these people.

You have to understand that most La Tech fans seem perfectly happy with CUSA, as does most of the Texas schools. So they will remain optimistic for as long as they can. I don’t see how using Covid as an excuse helps justify poor performance. Every team in the country was dealing with the same situation.

There is no good answer for fixing CUSA. The article does a good job outlining a lot of the problems from the start. The league is to big, period. But how do you shrink it? How can you legally kick out teams without it becoming a lawsuit? I think the only hope is a realignment after the 2024 season as one poster suggested, but if there is a split it still doesn’t help unless you only take programs that prioritize football and have actual fans. If you do that, then geography/travel cost is still a problem.

There is absolutely ZERO chance any Sun Belt teams would want to join a CUSAE split, so everyone on the CUSA end needs to get that through their heads. If I could make an executive decision to fix the conference I’d shrink it to the following teams, and when I say shrink I don’t mean geographically, just team wise. Cut some dead weight.

1) Marshall
2) Charlotte
3) FAU
3) UAB
4) Southern Miss
5) La Tech
6) WKU
7) UTEP
8) North Texas

Then hope to pick up James Madison and Liberty to get to 10.

The WAC restarting football will have a lot to say about what happens to the western schools in CUSA.

UTSA was already in the WAC in our 2nd season as a football program in 2012. The WAC was rated right behind the ACC in the Massey Composite that year. We had offers to join the MWC and C-USA the next year and chose C-USA because of the regional rivalries with fellow Texas schools, and can tell you we're not heading back.

UTEP, LA Tech, and Rice were also in the WAC before we ever joined and I can tell you they won't head back either. I also know UNT wouldn't head to the WAC, so I'm not sure how you think the WAC restarting football with FCS schools will have a lot to say about what happens with the western schools in C-USA.

It's a threat/plan to have Southern Utah (FCS) joining current transitioning members (from D2 to FCS) Dixie State and Tarleton State, plus Sam Houston State, Abilene Christian U, SF Austin, Lamar and it would seem one more unnamed FCS program (to have the minimum 6 current FCS teams to have auto bid to playoffs). This is an FCS league and is plausible but I don't see the WAC then going FBS for a minimum of 5 to 10 years under the best of circumstances.

Maybe if like 3 or 4 other current Sun Belt/ Conf USA decided to place their Oly sports in the WAC while these "FBS teams" compete as Indys for 3 to 4 years in football. However, none of these scenarios make any sense whatsoever. I don't buy it....an FBS path as being likely.

It's way more likely that the SLC ends up depleted enough that it gets gobbled up by FBS schools for its oly autobids than the WAC taking the Tx4 and moving to FBS with D2 trans teams in tow

CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

(01-03-2021 08:44 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

That’s right. I was thinking about voting but said renew. I’m fine with UALR and if they were to start football it would be perfect. Texas State and UTA could join the new conference in the southwest with a new name. If UALR didn’t want to add football that’s where USM comes into play. Perfect geographic fit. In regards to bowl games I figured the teams could negotiate some form of deal in the split. I’m not sure if that’s even possible though. I like the Sun Belt so I’m not trying to tamper with it too much.

(01-03-2021 10:40 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 08:44 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

That’s right. I was thinking about voting but said renew. I’m fine with UALR and if they were to start football it would be perfect. Texas State and UTA could join the new conference in the southwest with a new name. If UALR didn’t want to add football that’s where USM comes into play. Perfect geographic fit. In regards to bowl games I figured the teams could negotiate some form of deal in the split. I’m not sure if that’s even possible though. I like the Sun Belt so I’m not trying to tamper with it too much.

Anything is possible, it just takes the parties involved to agree to it.

The 4 Texas FCS schools already have, or nearly have, FBS facilities. I think a couple stadiums lack about 3k seats, but that is easily remedied.

As far as UALR starting football, or UTA at this point, is slim. With the current economic situation brought on by COVID, I’m not sure anyone is expanding to football, might still see some more contraction before this is all over.

The SBC was smarter than the CUSA in having more schools in the same states. App State and Coastal are the only ones without another state member. App State has a history with GaSo and Coastal in close to GaSo to create a rivalry. Several CUSA school have no rival nor any real hope of creating one.

CUSA only has Florida and Texas with multiple members. Everyone seems to hate letting a new member be in close proximity but competition normally helps both schools. Feeling you are too good to play with another is not a good plan for long term growth.

Also having a tighter geography area cuts cost for media to cover the games and allow them to cover multiple teams who local viewers may have interest. Plus realize you are not the SEC and SBC has done a lot better job of this than CUSA.

(01-03-2021 11:10 AM)Usajags Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 10:40 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 08:44 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

That’s right. I was thinking about voting but said renew. I’m fine with UALR and if they were to start football it would be perfect. Texas State and UTA could join the new conference in the southwest with a new name. If UALR didn’t want to add football that’s where USM comes into play. Perfect geographic fit. In regards to bowl games I figured the teams could negotiate some form of deal in the split. I’m not sure if that’s even possible though. I like the Sun Belt so I’m not trying to tamper with it too much.

Anything is possible, it just takes the parties involved to agree to it.

The 4 Texas FCS schools already have, or nearly have, FBS facilities. I think a couple stadiums lack about 3k seats, but that is easily remedied.

As far as UALR starting football, or UTA at this point, is slim. With the current economic situation brought on by COVID, I’m not sure anyone is expanding to football, might still see some more contraction before this is all over.

Yeah that’s why I have mixed feelings with UALR. I like the idea of having only 10 full members for football, b-ball, and other olympic sports. This would be if Texas State & UTA left to join the other programs in Texas (not trying to just kick them out for kicking sake). I don’t want expansion in the Belt. We have a good thing going.

(01-03-2021 10:40 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 08:44 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

That’s right. I was thinking about voting but said renew. I’m fine with UALR and if they were to start football it would be perfect. Texas State and UTA could join the new conference in the southwest with a new name. If UALR didn’t want to add football that’s where USM comes into play. Perfect geographic fit. In regards to bowl games I figured the teams could negotiate some form of deal in the split. I’m not sure if that’s even possible though. I like the Sun Belt so I’m not trying to tamper with it too much.

I don't think you understand how LR's and UTA's membership works

LR and UTA are full members with voting privileges in the Sun Belt Conference. They have the exact same standing as Troy does. You don't renew their membership, it is guaranteed by the contract they signed with us many years ago. They can only be removed by a two/thirds vote of all other league schools for breaching things required of them as part of their conference membership.

Even if we decided as a league to require football be played, we would be required to give both schools time to begin the process of discerning whether they could sponsor football, and be required to accept them if they chose to do so. As it is, we're never going to require football of them because there no way a school like AState would want to voluntarily expand the number of FBS teams in Arkansas...

UALR has been in the conference for 30 years, they aren’t going anywhere unless they decide to move on.

(01-03-2021 11:57 AM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 10:40 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 08:44 AM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 12:45 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  CUSA West, minus UAB, should just form a small conference where they have 7-8 teams who play everyone but just don’t have a conference championship game.

UTEP, UTSA, Rice, North Texas, and Louisiana Tech as their base 5. Could invite Texas State & NMSU for football only to have 7. They can UTA so they have 7 in men’s and women’s b-ball as well. Maybe call up Sam Houston to be #8 or something.

So. Miss should join the Sun Belt West in Texas States place. The next question is what to do with Little Rock. My vote would be to not renew membership and have an amazing 10 conference.

UAB, the 7 CUSA East schools and maybe Liberty & JMU if they are interested could have a 10 team C-USA. Still have a championship game and similar set up like Sun Belt. They could focus on b-ball though and that’s that.

Im not sure what would happen with bowl games and ncaat bids but I’m not a fan of the conference so I don’t care. Make their champions compete for that one spot for all I care in basketball haha.

Little Rock is a permanent member. There isn’t a such thing as choosing to renew them or not like we did with our football only affiliates Idaho and NMSU. If you wanted them out the league would have to vote them out and that’s not likely to happen. If UTA left and we dipped to 11 there isn’t necessarily a need to do anything right away. We’d have 9 possible opponents in football and 10 in other sports.

As for the two CUSA conferences - only one of them would retain the CUSA name and keep the NCAA auto bid and CFP money. That’s what keeps them from breaking apart now. Forming a new conference is nice to think about, but without special provision from the NCAA and CFP they wouldn’t be included, which doesn’t make a news conference feasible.

That’s right. I was thinking about voting but said renew. I’m fine with UALR and if they were to start football it would be perfect. Texas State and UTA could join the new conference in the southwest with a new name. If UALR didn’t want to add football that’s where USM comes into play. Perfect geographic fit. In regards to bowl games I figured the teams could negotiate some form of deal in the split. I’m not sure if that’s even possible though. I like the Sun Belt so I’m not trying to tamper with it too much.

I don't think you understand how LR's and UTA's membership works

LR and UTA are full members with voting privileges in the Sun Belt Conference. They have the exact same standing as Troy does. You don't renew their membership, it is guaranteed by the contract they signed with us many years ago. They can only be removed by a two/thirds vote of all other league schools for breaching things required of them as part of their conference membership.

Even if we decided as a league to require football be played, we would be required to give both schools time to begin the process of discerning whether they could sponsor football, and be required to accept them if they chose to do so. As it is, we're never going to require football of them because there no way a school like AState would want to voluntarily expand the number of FBS teams in Arkansas...

Yeah I misspoke there and now I know. I was just trying to think what would happen if UTA and Texas State were lured away and if Little Rock refused to be the 10th team for football. That was my bad.

If TxSt were to leave, we go after Southern Miss and call it a day.

(01-03-2021 12:14 PM)Usajags Wrote:  If TxSt were to leave, we go after Southern Miss and call it a day.

Agreed.

(01-03-2021 12:14 PM)Usajags Wrote:  If TxSt were to leave, we go after Southern Miss and call it a day.

This is correct, likely because the only way Texas State goes involves an agreement with CUSA. No one is paying those exit fees right now.

One thing to take into consideration here is our travel partners. You bring any 1 new school in and you can basically kiss them goodbye.

If I counted right, we use travel partner scheduling (on normal years) for men's basketball, women's basketball, women's soccer, volleyball, and women's tennis. They basically save a trip from Georgia or the Carolinas to Texas or Arkansas (or vice versa) for all of those sports.

Karl Benson IIRC said this was something that really worked against inviting NMSU for all sports.

(01-03-2021 08:26 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  One thing to take into consideration here is our travel partners. You bring any 1 new school in and you can basically kiss them goodbye.

If I counted right, we use travel partner scheduling (on normal years) for men's basketball, women's basketball, women's soccer, volleyball, and women's tennis. They basically save a trip from Georgia or the Carolinas to Texas or Arkansas (or vice versa) for all of those sports.

Karl Benson IIRC said this was something that really worked against inviting NMSU for all sports.

If TxSt and UTA both left, we get USM and get UNO to rejoin the conference. These are easy fixes if we want to stay at 12 for oly sports.

(01-03-2021 08:53 PM)Usajags Wrote:  

(01-03-2021 08:26 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  One thing to take into consideration here is our travel partners. You bring any 1 new school in and you can basically kiss them goodbye.

If I counted right, we use travel partner scheduling (on normal years) for men's basketball, women's basketball, women's soccer, volleyball, and women's tennis. They basically save a trip from Georgia or the Carolinas to Texas or Arkansas (or vice versa) for all of those sports.

Karl Benson IIRC said this was something that really worked against inviting NMSU for all sports.

If TxSt and UTA both left, we get USM and get UNO to rejoin the conference. These are easy fixes if we want to stay at 12 for oly sports.

If that happens I like ULM/USM and ULL/UNO as travel pairs.

why do y'all do this to us? not the baseless speculation on realignment because this is a message board, but instead the low quality of replacements y'all discuss? now its UNO really? can y'all imagine a higher level add at least, they don't have to be reasonable adds, stop looking so ready to scrap the bottom of the barrel!

(01-03-2021 08:26 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  One thing to take into consideration here is our travel partners. You bring any 1 new school in and you can basically kiss them goodbye.

If I counted right, we use travel partner scheduling (on normal years) for men's basketball, women's basketball, women's soccer, volleyball, and women's tennis. They basically save a trip from Georgia or the Carolinas to Texas or Arkansas (or vice versa) for all of those sports.

Karl Benson IIRC said this was something that really worked against inviting NMSU for all sports.

A couple years back, NMSU offered the SBC over $500,000 in travel stipends in hopes the SBC would invite them. They even offered to move their basketball program and other sports from the WAC to the SBC.

Benson still didn't take it.