(06-30-2013 04:58 AM)Cougar King Wrote: Quote:The conference realignment carousel has been spinning for years while FAU stood outside the fence without a ticket to the ride.
The Owls finally received their pass in November when Conference USA came calling. The offer was an easy to accept. C-USA member schools receive in the neighborhood of $2 million a year through TV contracts – which is almost $2 million more than Sun Belt schools make.
When the Owls first announced they said the move would happen no later than the 2014-15 season. Turns out FAU wasn't interested in waiting that long.
In January FAU announced the move would happen in July, meaning the Owls football team will play in C-USA for the upcoming season, with the other sports following.
Why it's important: The Sun Belt was a good starter conference for FAU football (and that's the sport that necessitated the move) but that conference is now in rapid decay. Sure, many of the Owls old SBC foes have or will make the move to C-USA too, but that doesn't diminish the move. At least FAU wasn't left behind to play FCS schools (They also never have to visit Troy or Louisiana-Monroe again – reasons in themselves to make the move).
http://www.fauowlaccess.com/articles/179...-year.aspx
Then its mutual. FAU is a dumpster fire of a football program with no upside in the near term
1) FAU's football program has fallen into hard times. They have fallen so far as to lose to South Alabama (!).
2) Their program is broke and their schedule is setup for them to continue to have losing non-conference records for years to come. My prediction of OOC schedule for FAU for the next two years 0-8 or 1-7 at the most. I predict they'll lose all 3 of their scheduled games for 2015 too. Good luck getting bowl eligible with that schedule.
3) Their program has very few fans. My guess is that they've been averaging 4-5k legitimate, non-band, butts in the stands attendance
4) Their 'market' is a myth. They'll never capture it because most people in Broward/WPB (and I had a home there for 10 years) are from elsewhere and either come from a non-college sports pedigree or retain their primary and secondary allegiances to schools back where they came from. They might be able to get a few bandwagon fans if they performed better, but see their OOC schedule.
FIU and FAU were outliers in the Sun Belt. Not because they were better programs with upside but because their support profile is abysmal. I say good riddance. The Belt doesn't need teams that are going to go 0-13 non-conference the next 3 years (ok - they may beat NMSU at home next year - but that's no guarantee - 1-12 tops for FAU). Prediction - Georgia State will win more OOC games than FAU between now and 2015. So will South Alabama. So will Appy. So will Georgia Southern. If you're so broke that you can't schedule properly, then what are you doing playing FBS football anyway?
Next year, FAU will go either 1-3 or 0-4 OOC. That means that FAU will have to go 5-3 at the least in CUSA to get bowl eligible. In 2014, they'll need to go at least 6-2 (they aren't winning ANY OOC games in 2014). In 2015, they only have 3 OOC games scheduled, and they will lose every single one of them, so they'll have to go 5-3 to get bowl eligible at a minimum. While CUSA will be worse than the Belt the next two years, FAU isn't likely to see a bowl game (even as a 6-6 team) for 4 years.
I'm glad I won't have to see F_U tarring our conference with a permanent residency in ESPN's bottom ten anymore.
The only thing the CUSA has over the belt in football is that Wright Waters signed an awful TV contract with ESPN. That's it.
Congrats on joining CUSA. I'm glad I won't have you guys starting off 0-5 while in our conference this year.
/
Article praises FAU; slams Sun Belt
