Besides nothing and another far flung school to travel to?

Tulsa brings a good football program which gives the new conference more cred, a solid basketball program that has history and tradition, a new recruiting area and excellent academics.

It gets them a conference championship game. Realistically, if you've decided to go to 12, who else are you looking at? Maybe Southern Miss, otherwise the list is full of new FBS programs who exist because they're in a big city like San Antonio or Charlotte or hope to tap into a big city like Boston.

And for Houston, SMU, Tulane and Memphis, it's not that far-flung. For everybody else, it's no more far flung than Houston or SMU.

(03-27-2013 06:17 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  Besides nothing and another far flung school to travel to?

Stop whining. Eight of the 12 teams are located in the east. Give it break. When we go to divisions you'll travel west once or twice a year for football and four times a year for basketball. We probably will go to divisonal play for a lot of the non-revenue sports to reduce costs. It's just not going to be a big deal. Truth be told, the real travel burden is on the western schools.

I would have preferred Southern Miss for geographic reasons and because they have an existing rivalry with Memphis.

Tulsa is a good program, but the addition does not do a whole lot for me..but neither did Memphis or Tulane. Nothing wrong with either school, but I am apathetic about going to watch them at Nippert.

As a Memphis fan, I can't argue football-wise. We have been horrendous for 5 years now. But, we have hope in our new coach Fuente. We finished last year strong and I am confident he is laying a foundation for success. We have to get our football house in order or we will continue to get left behind.

As a Cincinnati fan they give us another opponent that has been good the last decade. None of the teams in the conference our huge names, but that doesn't matter to me as I will be at Nippert rain or shine.

(03-27-2013 08:19 PM)Mothball Wrote:  As a Memphis fan, I can't argue football-wise. We have been horrendous for 5 years now. But, we have hope in our new coach Fuente. We finished last year strong and I am confident he is laying a foundation for success. We have to get our football house in order or we will continue to get left behind.

Hurry up and get it in order so you all can get a Big 12 invite

(03-27-2013 06:44 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Stop whining. Eight of the 12 teams are located in the east. ...

OK, SMU, Houston, Tulsa ... wait, are you putting Tulane in the East, or are you placing Memphis in the East?

(03-27-2013 06:17 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  Besides nothing and another far flung school to travel to?

A Conference Championship Game, with the better chance of getting the Big TBA Conference Champion in the "Contract" Bowls (once known as BCS Bowls) that goes along with it, and a football program that has shown enough success in the next conference down to justify promoting it.

The other most widely floated name was UMass, with a recently promoted FBS program "so strong" that its only football win in the MAC was against Akron, which is so far down even in the MAC that its only win was against an FCS school. And that is a conference that as a football competition is a step down from the Conference USA that Tulsa performed so strongly in.

(03-27-2013 09:37 PM)Theodoresdaddy Wrote:  

(03-27-2013 08:19 PM)Mothball Wrote:  As a Memphis fan, I can't argue football-wise. We have been horrendous for 5 years now. But, we have hope in our new coach Fuente. We finished last year strong and I am confident he is laying a foundation for success. We have to get our football house in order or we will continue to get left behind.

Hurry up and get it in order so you all can get a Big 12 invite

Dude, most of the Memphis fan base wants to be in the Big 12 more than anywhere else (other than the SEC, and that will NEVER happen). I know we don't deserve it now. But if we could put together a few years of football success on the field, maybe we could make you guys take a long hard look. Football has been a noose around our necks for far too long. Football is the only reason we aren't in a better conference now. But one thing is for sure. Our hoops support is at an elite level (16,000+ per game for years now) and if football is successful, we have shown we can support it too. During the Deangelo Williams years we averaged 40,000+ and that is playing CUSA opponents. If we were a 6 or 7 win team in the Big 12, we could easily average 50,000.

Tulsa has a solid all round athletics program and is a respected academic institution. They also have some nice facilities.

Tulsa gets us Tallgrass

Plus some of the best musicians in of the last half century. That's reason enough. :>)

(03-27-2013 09:57 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  Tulsa gets us Tallgrass

There's that.......

(03-27-2013 09:38 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(03-27-2013 06:44 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Stop whining. Eight of the 12 teams are located in the east. ...

OK, SMU, Houston, Tulsa ... wait, are you putting Tulane in the East, or are you placing Memphis in the East?

(03-27-2013 06:17 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  Besides nothing and another far flung school to travel to?

A Conference Championship Game, with the better chance of getting the Big TBA Conference Champion in the "Contract" Bowls (once known as BCS Bowls) that goes along with it, and a football program that has shown enough success in the next conference down to justify promoting it.

The other most widely floated name was UMass, with a recently promoted FBS program "so strong" that its only football win in the MAC was against Akron, which is so far down even in the MAC that its only win was against an FCS school. And that is a conference that as a football competition is a step down from the Conference USA that Tulsa performed so strongly in.

The MAC wasn't a step down from CUSA in 2012 and that was the only year that UMass was in the MAC. UMass is certainly weak right now but don't fling daggers around where they don't belong.

(03-27-2013 08:09 PM)bearcat29 Wrote:  Tulsa is a good program, but the addition does not do a whole lot for me..but neither did Memphis or Tulane. Nothing wrong with either school, but I am apathetic about going to watch them at Nippert.

That may change if they beat you a couple of times at Nippert. Tulsa is a very solid program... better than most fans outside CUSA realize.

(03-28-2013 12:33 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(03-27-2013 08:09 PM)bearcat29 Wrote:  Tulsa is a good program, but the addition does not do a whole lot for me..but neither did Memphis or Tulane. Nothing wrong with either school, but I am apathetic about going to watch them at Nippert.

That may change if they beat you a couple of times at Nippert. Tulsa is a very solid program... better than most fans outside CUSA realize.

Isn't that the problem.

(03-28-2013 08:26 AM)ULdave Wrote:  

(03-28-2013 12:33 AM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  

(03-27-2013 08:09 PM)bearcat29 Wrote:  Tulsa is a good program, but the addition does not do a whole lot for me..but neither did Memphis or Tulane. Nothing wrong with either school, but I am apathetic about going to watch them at Nippert.

That may change if they beat you a couple of times at Nippert. Tulsa is a very solid program... better than most fans outside CUSA realize.

Isn't that the problem.

Start naming available programs that are better. I was all for staying at 10 if Navy didn't come, but Navy is coming so someone had to be added and unless Army is interested I don't see anyone current better to add than Tulsa.

Adding Tulsa is a terrible decision. Short term success in football is not a good reason to add a program. The elite conferences plan long term and don't worry about recent success, i.e. Rutgers & Maryland to the B1G, Missouri to the SEC, Colorado to the Pac 12.

Tulsa simply reinforces the identity of this conference as a southern based reincarnation of CUSA. It extends the lineup of second tier schools who play in the shadow of power conferences. It adds a school from a small/medium state that already has 2 other major player in college sports. Being #3 in a state of 4 million is really bad planning for the long term success of the conference. Tulsa is no TCU or Boise State whose success & emerging national reputations made it easy to overlook other considerations of market + other related factors.

If there was no program ready to step up that enhanced the profile of the conference and improved its long term prospects, then it made no sense to add #12 just of the sake of getting to a certain number.

Tulsa's had some very good years lately. They're coming off a CUSA championship, their 2nd in the past decade and their 8th bowl (5 wins) in the past decade. That's a very good record. But these things run in cycles. Everyone can't win every year. Immediately prior to this past decade, they went 16 straight seasons without a winning record. So, one has to ask the question: what does Tulsa bring to the party when they're in a down cycle?

They don't bring strong attendance. Even with all that success, they've been averaging 20,000+ in recent years. They aren't ECU with 50,000 in the stands. They aren't Memphis with a highly competitive basketball program.
They aren't Houston bringing the conference into a major market. They aren't UCF bringing an enrollment of 50,000. (Tulas is a small school with an undergrad enrollment of 3000+).

Tulsa moves the program south and west. Away from the markets that actually have growth potential. This was a very short sighted decision that does nothing to help the conference build for the long term.