With all of these realignment going on. Should the Sunbelt try and expand? In my opinion the belt should try and lure Memphis and Southern Miss.

I'm not all that sure how hog fans manage to make it through the day without doing permanent harm to themselves.

Problem is the sunbelt has made a bad name for itself mainly because we had a idiot comish! Things are looking much better lately for the sunbelt but I think a team like memphis thinks to much of itself and has to much pride to ever join the belt.

(11-03-2011 08:45 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  With all of these realignment going on. Should the Sunbelt try and expand? In my opinion the belt should try and lure Memphis and Southern Miss.

USM would be great. Maybe grab Memphis for basketball only?

Invite Memphis, UTEP, USM and ECU and go to 7 team divisions and ay the championship game in the Superdome.

No. No. No. No. No.

I'm happy with the teams we have.

(11-03-2011 09:27 PM)wkuhilltopperfan Wrote:  Problem is the sunbelt has made a bad name for itself mainly because we had a idiot comish! Things are looking much better lately for the sunbelt but I think a team like memphis thinks to much of itself and has to much pride to ever join the belt.

The Sun Belt is a nice conference. BUT, unfortunatley, the Sun Belt name has a stench to it that it may never overcome. It will not be able to attract teams like USM or Memphis because it is perceived as the worst of the worst conferences in the country, even though ESPN says it is better than the MAC and WAC and only slightly below C-USA. It will be difficult to ever overcome the name. Perhaps renaming the Sun Belt might be a good thing.

(11-03-2011 08:45 PM)hawghiggs Wrote:  With all of these realignment going on. Should the Sunbelt try and expand? In my opinion the belt should try and lure Memphis and Southern Miss.

When you are at the bottom of the food chain it is probably better to stand still and hope you do not attract attention to yourself. The SBC is where you go when you have no other options.

The Sun Belt Conference is thriving. Look at the standings this year. Teams that have been under the radar in the past have started to rise (UL, WKU, FIU, NT). We have less teams on ESPN's Bottom 10 list. We have two bowl eligible teams thus far and they became bowl eligible before any of the WAC and MAC teams. ESPN has been ranking us ahead of both the WAC and MAC almost every week this season. Aside from a few venues SBC facilities are far superior to MAC and WAC facilities. Once TROY opens the new Trojan Arena and ULM/ASU/UL update their stadiums we will be ahead of them in all facilities. GO SBC!!!!

(11-04-2011 10:25 AM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  The Sun Belt Conference is thriving. Look at the standings this year. Teams that have been under the radar in the past have started to rise (UL, WKU, FIU, NT). We have less teams on ESPN's Bottom 10 list. We have two bowl eligible teams thus far and they became bowl eligible before any of the WAC and MAC teams. ESPN has been ranking us ahead of both the WAC and MAC almost every week this season. Aside from a few venues SBC facilities are far superior to MAC and WAC facilities. Once TROY opens the new Trojan Arena and ULM/ASU/UL update their stadiums we will be ahead of them in all facilities. GO SBC!!!!

Exactly.....

(11-04-2011 10:25 AM)troy4ever21 Wrote:  The Sun Belt Conference is thriving. Look at the standings this year. Teams that have been under the radar in the past have started to rise (UL, WKU, FIU, NT). We have less teams on ESPN's Bottom 10 list. We have two bowl eligible teams thus far and they became bowl eligible before any of the WAC and MAC teams. ESPN has been ranking us ahead of both the WAC and MAC almost every week this season. Aside from a few venues SBC facilities are far superior to MAC and WAC facilities. Once TROY opens the new Trojan Arena and ULM/ASU/UL update their stadiums we will be ahead of them in all facilities. GO SBC!!!!

There we go attracting attention!

I don't think the commissioner caused one of our contenders this year to get blown out vs. an FCS, nor a bottom of the standings team to win our basketball and baseball tournaments. Surely wasn't the reason Arkansas State beat TAMU and then dropped two league games with two score leads in the fourth denying automatically triggering a bowl bid.

The commissioner does get the blame for insisting that the tiebreakers be honored in 2001 sending a losing team to a bowl, but then do you really want someone who just changes the rules mid-stream to suit the day?

Everything that has given the conference a black eye has come from campuses, not the league office. Until we grow up as institutions and fix our problems rather than blaming our problems on the league office, the weather, hunting season, or whatever else, we are stuck with the reputation we've earned.

How many of us have looked on incredulously as a school has kept a bad coach for one more year because they coach is a good man or good woman, or the school "ain't got the money" to do anything about it? That's where the trouble lies.

CUSA won't fix that for anyone either. Most states prohibit using university funds for buyouts. $3 million more in conference money is money that can't buy-out a salary and can't be used to pay salary supplements to attract good coaches.

(11-04-2011 10:42 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  I don't think the commissioner caused one of our contenders this year to get blown out vs. an FCS, nor a bottom of the standings team to win our basketball and baseball tournaments. Surely wasn't the reason Arkansas State beat TAMU and then dropped two league games with two score leads in the fourth denying automatically triggering a bowl bid.

The commissioner does get the blame for insisting that the tiebreakers be honored in 2001 sending a losing team to a bowl, but then do you really want someone who just changes the rules mid-stream to suit the day?

Everything that has given the conference a black eye has come from campuses, not the league office. Until we grow up as institutions and fix our problems rather than blaming our problems on the league office, the weather, hunting season, or whatever else, we are stuck with the reputation we've earned.

How many of us have looked on incredulously as a school has kept a bad coach for one more year because they coach is a good man or good woman, or the school "ain't got the money" to do anything about it? That's where the trouble lies.

CUSA won't fix that for anyone either. Most states prohibit using university funds for buyouts. $3 million more in conference money is money that can't buy-out a salary and can't be used to pay salary supplements to attract good coaches.

Best post of the day.

In a few years this conference is going to be pretty strong. With the round robin schedule we should begin seeing at least 2-3 teams make a bowl every year. I think the best thing for the conference would be to put more emphasis on other sports.

Basketball - We have some great facilities and decent programs.

Baseball - Very underrated conference and definitely our best sport right now. Troy & FIU have got some absolutely loaded teams that should win 40+ games, Troy was in the top 25 most the season having a 30-5 home record and FIU snuck up and was ranked in the ending weeks after a win streak then beating ranked opposition.

Football - Just imagine how good this conference would be if you had the old North Texas and the Troy from 2005 to 2010 and the top teams right now.

Other sports - No one really cares but we have some good golf teams I think.

Should the Sun Belt choose to back fill any exiting members, I'm sure Texas State will once again be on the market for a conference. We can keep baseball competitive if FIU is taken!

I was never an opponent of the WAC, but this uncertainty is killing me.

Who would be better..... Texas State or UT-SA ?

I have no clue, although MT had played Southwest Texas in some sports in the past. Always thought they were a decent overall program.

Never really heard much about UT-SA until recently, except for their basketball was played on a stage ? Or was that UT-Arlington ?

I never had a problem with the way WW handled football. I felt like he didn't do much to emphasis other sports though. No offense to the glorious city of Hot Springs, but that is a terrible site for the conference basketball tournament. I think we should have pushed for a conference tournament in Birmingham every year and link that to a BBVA bowl guarantee every year. Birmingham is about as centrally located as it gets in the belt and doesn't offer any one school a tremendous home field advantage. A third bowl guarantee in the same town as the bball tourney would help establish a presence as well.

(11-04-2011 02:45 PM)freshtop Wrote:  I never had a problem with the way WW handled football. I felt like he didn't do much to emphasis other sports though. No offense to the glorious city of Hot Springs, but that is a terrible site for the conference basketball tournament. I think we should have pushed for a conference tournament in Birmingham every year and link that to a BBVA bowl guarantee every year. Birmingham is about as centrally located as it gets in the belt and doesn't offer any one school a tremendous home field advantage. A third bowl guarantee in the same town as the bball tourney would help establish a presence as well.

I thought Hot Springs was OK, but it's kind of getting old now (we've been every year). I won't be going this year (for other reasons-- child due in mid-March), but I always thought that the best traveling hoops fans were WKU and MT. I think that SBC realized that WKU and MT would travel regardless of where the tourney was located and that maybe we were "punished" because of it. In other words, UALR/etc fans won't drive East.

Would love to see it closer to the two biggest hoops fanbases in the future. We drew almost 3,000 for our women's exhibition vs. The Sisters of the Blind the other night.

(11-04-2011 02:44 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Who would be better..... Texas State or UT-SA ?
Never really heard much about UT-SA until recently, except for their basketball was played on a stage ? Or was that UT-Arlington ?

Pretty sure you are thinking about UT-Arlington. UTSA plays on campus in their Convocation Center. It's an OK arena for basketball. Holds around 4-5000 max. Not as nice as a lot of SunBelt arenas; but would be OK. I know they have a master plan for an athletic complex a couple miles from the main campus. Don't recall if a new basketball arena is part of it. Would have to double-check.

I agree the hoops championship should be in Birmingham. It's 2.5 hours from Troy, 5 hours from south, 5ish from Middle Tenn, and has a international airport/greyhound downtown so teams like the Florida schools, North Texas, and the Arkansas schools could easily just fly or ride a bus for 40$.

You would be almost guaranteed to have at least a crowd of 10k or more every tournament in the 17k venue in Birmingham.

(11-04-2011 03:13 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  I agree the hoops championship should be in Birmingham. It's 2.5 hours from Troy, 5 hours from south, 5ish from Middle Tenn, and has a international airport/greyhound downtown so teams like the Florida schools, North Texas, and the Arkansas schools could easily just fly or ride a bus for 40$.

You would be almost guaranteed to have at least a crowd of 10k or more every tournament in the 17k venue in Birmingham.

2.5-3 hours from Murfreesboro. The I-840 interstate to I-65 has cut about 30 minutes off the trip to my home.