The Sun Belt is focused on catching Conference USA and the Mountain West in the race to be the best of the rest among major college football conferences.

New Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson believes conference realignment and an evolving postseason format has widened the gap between the have and have-not conferences.

The 10-year-old Sun Belt has usually been the have-least league, but has taken small steps forward while its “peer conferences” — as Benson like to call them — have slid back.

WASHINGTON POST: Sun Belt trying to catch C-USA, MWC

By 'slid back' does he mean 'took some of our best programs'? Maybe he's talking about the fact that they have the 'Boise of the South'....

(08-27-2012 06:59 AM)Southern Miss Alum Wrote:  The Sun Belt is focused on catching Conference USA and the Mountain West in the race to be the best of the rest among major college football conferences.

New Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson believes conference realignment and an evolving postseason format has widened the gap between the have and have-not conferences.

The 10-year-old Sun Belt has usually been the have-least league, but has taken small steps forward while its “peer conferences” — as Benson like to call them — have slid back.

WASHINGTON POST: Sun Belt trying to catch C-USA, MWC

By 'peer conferences' I assume he means the WAC.

At one time I thought CUSA would eventually lose UTEP an Tulsa to the MWC --- that 'one time' was before the MWC's new TV deal. Now it makes no sense, money-wise, for UTEP and Tulsa to leave. IMO CUSA would be best served by inviting Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee. They are both programs in the rise and the loss of both weakens the SunBelt. Something CUSA might be interested in ---

I look at this just like I look at any claim that CUSA has caught up with the Big East: it can't happen. Teams know the pecking order, and will move up if given the opportunity. Unless Benson can engineer things such that teams leave CUSA for the SBC, CUSA is ahead of the SBC. And I really don't see how Benson and the SBC could do that. They just missed the opportunity to keep FIU, for example. What has changed since then?

Quote:“The population of the Sun Belt, and this has to do with the overall demographics of the southeast and Texas, the Sun Belt footprint is growing and I think the Sun Belt is prepared to take advantage of those changes in demographics,” Benson said.

I wonder if he realizes that CUSA & the SB share the same demographics...

(08-27-2012 06:59 AM)Southern Miss Alum Wrote:  The Sun Belt is focused on catching Conference USA and the Mountain West in the race to be the best of the rest among major college football conferences.

Although I disagree with Mr. Benson's assessment, I think that these are the types of things conference commissioners should say publicly, instead of just accepting one's place as a stepping-stone conference.

(08-27-2012 08:26 AM)AndreWhere Wrote:  I look at this just like I look at any claim that CUSA has caught up with the Big East: it can't happen. Teams know the pecking order, and will move up if given the opportunity. Unless Benson can engineer things such that teams leave CUSA for the SBC, CUSA is ahead of the SBC. And I really don't see how Benson and the SBC could do that. They just missed the opportunity to keep FIU, for example. What has changed since then?

Yeah that's pretty much the truth. Unless teams will turn down an invitation to a league that league is above it and will remain so.

Sigh, except rare circumstances (the WAC opposed to the Sun Belt and MAC), the pecking order doesn't change. Short of a minor FCS conference rising to D-1, the Sun Belt will be the worst conference in FBS.

Some here are upset at the damage the nBE has done to C-USA (and rightfully so) but C-USA can at any time poach the best of the Sun Belt.

(08-27-2012 08:56 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  Sigh, except rare circumstances (the WAC opposed to the Sun Belt and MAC), the pecking order doesn't change. Short of a minor FCS conference rising to D-1, the Sun Belt will be the worst conference in FBS.

Some here are upset at the damage the nBE has done to C-USA (and rightfully so) but C-USA can at any time poach the best of the Sun Belt.

Sweet, we can poach the best of a bigger pile of crap, my dreams have come true.

Well one way of looking at it is that you stand an extremely high percentage of poaching any team east of the Rockies not a in a major league. If Arkansas State walks the walk of the talk that they've been talking C-USA can grab them. Or maybe even NIU.

(08-27-2012 09:03 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  Well one way of looking at it is that you stand an extremely high percentage of poaching any team east of the Rockies not a in a major league. If Arkansas State walks the walk of the talk that they've been talking C-USA can grab them. Or maybe even NIU.

So like I said we can poach any team available... that no one really wants. Sounds spectacular I expect the brinks truck to be arriving at the C-USA offices at any moment.

(08-27-2012 08:47 AM)Chappy Wrote:  Although I disagree with Mr. Benson's assessment, I think that these are the types of things conference commissioners should say publicly, instead of just accepting one's place as a stepping-stone conference.

Yup, it's his job to try and elevate the confrence, and he cant do that by saying negative things.

SBC is still the last confrence of those that will survive (we are better then the WAC this year for sure) but we are RIGHT behind the MAC and I think we made up some ground on CUSA. CUSA got dinged hard IMHO while the SBC got dinged just a little.

Now it has to be done on the field by those SBC teams who have a shot to make noise (Cajuns, stAte, and FIU)

Wishing you and your programs a healthy winning season! (Except of course when you play SBC programs, then I hope you choke and go down in flames. )

(08-27-2012 09:05 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(08-27-2012 09:03 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  Well one way of looking at it is that you stand an extremely high percentage of poaching any team east of the Rockies not a in a major league. If Arkansas State walks the walk of the talk that they've been talking C-USA can grab them. Or maybe even NIU.

So like I said we can poach any team available... that no one really wants. Sounds spectacular I expect the brinks truck to be arriving at the C-USA offices at any moment.

You need a dose of this.

I doubt your opinion would be much different that mine if you were stuck in this turd of a league most likely forever.

(08-27-2012 09:52 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  I doubt your opinion would be much different that mine if you were stuck in this turd of a league most likely forever.

We understand your upset that ECU go left in cusa, but please do us all a favor and take your bitching and moaning elsewhere.

Yeah, I don't envy ECU especially when there are schools that haven't earned it as an athletic program (**cough** SMU and Memphis football **cough**) pass you by but I at least wouldn't dwell on it forever and would want my school to make the most of it.

While we did occasionally bring it, we didn't complain every day about having a historic athletic program that did very well in the SWC only to be dropped into college sports oblivion and treated as a non-important entity by schools that have less history than us. Life isn't fair and you have a right to be upset but jeez, what is all this whining gonna do to change it?

(08-27-2012 10:06 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  Yeah, I don't envy ECU especially when there are schools that haven't earned it as an athletic program (**cough** SMU and Memphis football **cough**) pass you by but I at least wouldn't dwell on it forever and would want my school to make the most of it.

While we did occasionally bring it, we didn't complain every day about having a historic athletic program that did very well in the SWC only to be dropped into college sports oblivion and treated as a non-important entity by schools that have less history than us. Life isn't fair and you have a right to be upset but jeez, what is all this whining gonna do to change it?

I dunno what will pretending this as a decent home going to do? Won't change the fact that it isn't. Ok fine I'll just go with crazy talk. Boy this league is spectacular. We added some of the finest football programs in the country. Forget the Big East we left them in the dust with these moves and are now chasing down the ACC and the other power conferences. The world is ours.

(08-27-2012 08:56 AM)Caltex2 Wrote:  Sigh, except rare circumstances (the WAC opposed to the Sun Belt and MAC), the pecking order doesn't change. Short of a minor FCS conference rising to D-1, the Sun Belt will be the worst conference in FBS.

Some here are upset at the damage the nBE has done to C-USA (and rightfully so) but C-USA can at any time poach the best of the Sun Belt.

The WAC does seem to have a sort of downward mobility that defies the overall trend. I perceive this to be part of a general Eastern bias that has crept into CFB as ESPN has become more important. When CUSA was formed, one big question was "how does it compare to the WAC?" Then, when the MWC was formed, the obvious question was "how does it compare to CUSA?" Both of these questions seem to have been answered in CUSA's favor, and this relates to the shift in thinking that's occured with respect to geography. About 18 years ago, Wyoming was threatening to snatch Jeff Bower away from us, and this would have been perceived as USM losing out to a bigger program. Now, the tables seem to have turned.