Who are the two cross division rivals you would like to see.(quote)


Whomever is the weakest for that year. LOL

(11-11-2013 01:50 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 12:49 PM)blazerjay Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 10:47 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 10:23 AM)blazr Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 09:47 AM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  It might not be a bad idea to just have one protected crossover. I still like the idea of two though. Pros and cons either direction.

As cons go, every conference member not seeing 5 other schools - ever - is pretty high on the scale. Like, "worst case scenario from the 'I'm in New Orleans, I'm wasted, but I am rolling the dice on skirt contents of this hooker 'cause YOLO' choice"-level con.

There's no point to protected rivals in this conference. Cycle through everyone more regularly rather than trying to create something that isn't really there.

Move UAB west where they'll get to stay with Southern Miss. They're much closer to USM, La Tech, UNT and UTSA than either us or WKCC. Marshall is going to develop better rivalries with Western and MT than they had with UAB. MT and Western are also closer to Marshall and ODU than UAB as well.

This is a no brainer.

I'm not sure what you mean by closer to...certainly not by distance and of those four future Western Division teams, we only have a significant history with Southern Miss. As UAB was (one of) the main proponents of adding old Sun Belt basketball rivals, Charlotte, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky there is much more history for UAB on the Eastern side. While I haven't heard anything definitive, I think UAB is holding out on acquiescing to the move for either a cross division permanent Eastern Division football rival OR the assurance that basketball scheduling will not be in anyway tied to the football divisions.

I agree Jay. I don't mind heading west for football, but I don't want to miss playing all these eastern teams in basketball because of it. If the conference is not going to help UAB out here, then UAB should get the first say in which division it will be in. I don't care how much of a no brainer it is to an MTSU fan, because we were here first, and we should have more of a say in where we go at this point.

As far as the permanent cross-over games, I am 100% against them. Look at what it has done with the SEC. At least with the SEC it made some sense.(Bama-Ten and Aub-UGA are big rivalries) Outside of WKU-MTSU, and maybe UAB-USM, this conference doesn't have any big rivalries. There is no sense in trying to force them upon people.

There's no reason to have divisions in basketball and I don't think you're going to see it going forward. Divisions are for football only.

(11-11-2013 12:49 PM)blazerjay Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 10:47 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 10:23 AM)blazr Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 09:47 AM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 07:42 AM)Ragu Wrote:  The SEC only has 1 protected crossover opponent. They play 8 games total with 6 being in the division, 1 protected crossover and 1 random team from the other division. If they had 2 protected crossovers, they would never play 5 in the other division.

It might not be a bad idea to just have one protected crossover. I still like the idea of two though. Pros and cons either direction.

As cons go, every conference member not seeing 5 other schools - ever - is pretty high on the scale. Like, "worst case scenario from the 'I'm in New Orleans, I'm wasted, but I am rolling the dice on skirt contents of this hooker 'cause YOLO' choice"-level con.

There's no point to protected rivals in this conference. Cycle through everyone more regularly rather than trying to create something that isn't really there.

Move UAB west where they'll get to stay with Southern Miss. They're much closer to USM, La Tech, UNT and UTSA than either us or WKCC. Marshall is going to develop better rivalries with Western and MT than they had with UAB. MT and Western are also closer to Marshall and ODU than UAB as well.

This is a no brainer.

I'm not sure what you mean by closer to...certainly not by distance and of those four future Western Division teams, we only have a significant history with Southern Miss. As UAB was (one of) the main proponents of adding old Sun Belt basketball rivals, Charlotte, Old Dominion and Western Kentucky there is much more history for UAB on the Eastern side. While I haven't heard anything definitive, I think UAB is holding out on acquiescing to the move for either a cross division permanent Eastern Division football rival OR the assurance that basketball scheduling will not be in anyway tied to the football divisions.

Mileage is what I meant by closer. Mileage is higher for MT and Western than UAB to every western division school. There isn't a single team in the west that we can or would bus to. You guys can at least bus to USM and Tech. You also have a straight shot down I-20 to North Texas. Not sure if your teams will fly or bus to Denton, but you get the point. We don't have any if we're in the west.

Don't tell us we're a straight shot to North Texas, but you can't go to USM in the same breath. None of those bus rides are exactly convenient for UAB either.

Seems like things would have been a lot easier if there had not been the grab for both the south Florida schools. In addition to the 2 schools 30 miles apart issue, C-USA is having to rearrange things for the newbies at the expense of long time members. Seriously, I just don't get the move for both FIU/FAU. One school gets you the "much coveted market". Logically, it seems that there were better Sun Belt options in terms of program success, fan base and geography that would have worked better for the conference as a whole.

(11-11-2013 02:42 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Seems like things would have been a lot easier if there had not been the grab for both the south Florida schools. In addition to the 2 schools 30 miles apart issue, C-USA is having to rearrange things for the newbies at the expense of long time members. Seriously, I just don't get the move for both FIU/FAU. One school gets you the "much coveted market". Logically, it seems that there were better Sun Belt options in terms of program success, fan base and geography that would have worked better for the conference as a whole.

If they would have just taken us in the first place, we wouldn't have this problem. Ha.

For UAB, I'd like to have MT & WKU or Charlotte.

(11-11-2013 02:42 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Seems like things would have been a lot easier if there had not been the grab for both the south Florida schools. In addition to the 2 schools 30 miles apart issue, C-USA is having to rearrange things for the newbies at the expense of long time members. Seriously, I just don't get the move for both FIU/FAU. One school gets you the "much coveted market". Logically, it seems that there were better Sun Belt options in terms of program success, fan base and geography that would have worked better for the conference as a whole.

Grabbing FAU in addition to FIU was not the reason for the issues with divisional alignment. The reason we are discussing only one move is because USM agreed to move west. If USM hadn't agree to "take one" for the conference it would still be a discussion about which two goes west.

Secondly, FIU and FAU are in different markets.

Back to the OP, I would personally like for us to start playing UNT again. We have had two consecutive bad seasons since we stopped having them as a sure win.

(11-11-2013 02:42 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Seems like things would have been a lot easier if there had not been the grab for both the south Florida schools. In addition to the 2 schools 30 miles apart issue, C-USA is having to rearrange things for the newbies at the expense of long time members. Seriously, I just don't get the move for both FIU/FAU. One school gets you the "much coveted market". Logically, it seems that there were better Sun Belt options in terms of program success, fan base and geography that would have worked better for the conference as a whole.

C-USA may have just wanted a strong market presence in South Florida to have more people watching more C-USA games.

Good case in point: until my FAU Owls moved to C-USA, what reason would I have to watch a C-USA match? It makes commercial sense in addition to the adding the lucrative South Florida HS talent to the conference rosters.

In addition to that, FAU and FIU have outgrown the SunBelt. In fact, sizewise, the two schools are in top 4 in C-USA as well.

If moving west was such an obvious move for UAB as some claim, it would have already been determined by the CUSA office that this would be the case.

It may still happen (UAB moving west), but I don't think the decision is as easy as some folks here think.

(11-11-2013 02:38 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Don't tell us we're a straight shot to North Texas, but you can't go to USM in the same breath. None of those bus rides are exactly convenient for UAB either.

I didn't say we can't go to USM. I said we don't have any bus trips if we're in the west. And I acknowledged I don't know how you do things on whether you fly or bus to North Texas. I was just alluding to the fact that I-20 takes you 95% of the way there. Comprehension can be your friend.

I assume you fly, but not sure. Anything over five hrs we fly. Ruston and Hattiesburg are much more "convenient" for UAB than they are us.

Birmingham to Ruston-386 miles
Nashville to Hattiesburg-424 miles

So convenience is pretty much the same there for UAB and MTSU.

Not much of a difference there. I get why it makes sense for MTSU to be in the east, but UAB gets completely screwed going west too. I truly don't care as long as divisions don't exist for basketball. The minute UAB has to play UTSA twice instead of Charlotte or WKU or ODU in basketball is when UAB gets screwed in this deal.

I am pretty sure they (conference office) have learned to not have divisions in basketball and not to mimic football and basketball schedules. A good rival in one sport won't necessarily transfer to another sport, at least not right away. I think UAB heads west in football divisions, but I would rather not see divisions in any other sports.

Florida schools are taking a plane anywhere in CUSA. Put em both west and keep USM and UAB East.

(11-11-2013 03:31 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  Birmingham to Ruston-386 miles
Nashville to Hattiesburg-424 miles

So convenience is pretty much the same there for UAB and MTSU.

Not much of a difference there. I get why it makes sense for MTSU to be in the east, but UAB gets completely screwed going west too. I truly don't care as long as divisions don't exist for basketball. The minute UAB has to play UTSA twice instead of Charlotte or WKU or ODU in basketball is when UAB gets screwed in this deal.

It would seem that UAB gets most screwed in the scenario by MSTSU going west and UAB staying east.
I don't see the gain for MTSU - they lose WKU.
UAB going west would rejoin USM.
Given USM is going west, UAB should as well, barring any other issues of eastern preference.

(11-11-2013 06:06 PM)MUther Wrote:  Florida schools are taking a plane anywhere in CUSA. Put em both west and keep USM and UAB East.

Eastern teams lose trips to FL. You are one of the few Herd fans that seem to be in favor of no trips to FL.

(11-10-2013 08:10 PM)MUHERD76 Wrote:  Lets assume CUSA ends up with two 7 team divisions shown below.

East: Marshall, FAU, UAB, WKU, FIU, ODU, Charlotte

West: UTEP, Rice, UTSA, USM, La Tech, North Texas, MTSU

More than likely CUSA will take the approach like the SEC does and assign everyone two permanent cross division rivals. Who are the two cross division rivals you would like to see.

For Marshall......I will say Southern Miss and MTSU.

They should make basketball with three divisions.

Red Division
North Texas
Rice
UTEP
UTSA
La Tech

White Division
UAB
MTSU
USM
WKU

Blue Division
Charlotte
FAU
FIU
Marshall
ODU

Just joking. No divisions in basketball is how it should be.

We were thinking on the Rice board that it would be nice to play FAU every year. The Owls would be assured of at least one conference win every season (and a loss too I suppose).

(11-11-2013 07:39 AM)Fear The Beak Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 05:56 AM)ICB Wrote:  Unless we go to 9 games, there will probably only be 1 cross div game.

Bad math. 7 teams means 6 games, you don't play yourself.

I don't see ANY permanent cross-division rivals, much less two. Two would mean we'd never play 5 of the other teams

That's what I meant. No way we will play 2 crossover games and not play the other teams. The only way to play 2 crossover games is to have 9 Conf games and 6 div, 2 crossover, 1 rotate.

(11-11-2013 07:11 PM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(11-11-2013 06:06 PM)MUther Wrote:  Florida schools are taking a plane anywhere in CUSA. Put em both west and keep USM and UAB East.

Eastern teams lose trips to FL. You are one of the few Herd fans that seem to be in favor of no trips to FL.

We're gonna recruit Florida anyway. Even if both of you are in the west, we'd still be playing there at least once in any players career more likely twice. Keeping USM and UAB on our schedule >>>>> Florida presence, for me.