(10-22-2021 01:23 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 12:52 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 12:34 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  What are the exit fees from leaving CUSA, or will they matter?

I suppose COLA would be one way to look at it-but I don't think the other existing institutions receive the same "COLA raise" so we will draw closer to parity as time marches till 2031.

As for the exit fees-I think it's $3MM/school but I'd suppose that could be subject to revision if C-USA ceases to exist.

Those exit fees are looking more tenuous now: https://twitter.com/GabeMcDonald_/status/1451573270856208392

Southern Miss, Marshall, and ODU likely bound for the Sun Belt. Announcement expected next week. FCS James Madison (Colonial Athletic Association) will be the fourth addition to even the divisions.

Five left in the conference: WKU, MTSU, LaTech, UTEP, and FIU. If I'm FIU, I'd be on the phone with every football AD and president in the Atlantic Sun every day from last Sunday through however long it takes to get them to join C-USA. They're the only school that has no other conceivable options for continuing in a football conference.

(10-22-2021 03:22 PM)Houston Owl 2 Wrote:  What options does UTEP have? What are the good options for La. Tech?

(10-22-2021 04:33 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I am in favor of LaTech to the SEC.

(10-22-2021 04:12 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 01:23 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 12:52 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 12:34 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  What are the exit fees from leaving CUSA, or will they matter?

I suppose COLA would be one way to look at it-but I don't think the other existing institutions receive the same "COLA raise" so we will draw closer to parity as time marches till 2031.

As for the exit fees-I think it's $3MM/school but I'd suppose that could be subject to revision if C-USA ceases to exist.

Those exit fees are looking more tenuous now: https://twitter.com/GabeMcDonald_/status/1451573270856208392

Southern Miss, Marshall, and ODU likely bound for the Sun Belt. Announcement expected next week. FCS James Madison (Colonial Athletic Association) will be the fourth addition to even the divisions.

Five left in the conference: WKU, MTSU, LaTech, UTEP, and FIU. If I'm FIU, I'd be on the phone with every football AD and president in the Atlantic Sun every day from last Sunday through however long it takes to get them to join C-USA. They're the only school that has no other conceivable options for continuing in a football conference.

I suppose there are remaining credits due to CUSA members from tournament, etc... If the conference dissolves, do those go away, or do they get distributed to the last remaining members or something else?

As we are "gone", though still here, I'd guess we'd be ineligible for remaining conference credits, but as I can't see they'd be much, I figure we'd do better to avoid the fees altogether, does that sound correct?

I think we can see, with the schools leftover in CUSA at the moment, how dire the circumstances become for those in that position. I'm hoping that perhaps this, finally, is a wake-up call for the admin to do more, a LOT more out of its own resources to support athletics at a level competetive to where we were historically back in the day, and begin to work our way out of the mess e put ourselves into. I remain highly skeptical, and will respond in another thread where it was quoted to the letter from JK that adds to that skepticism by defending our recent past actions.

Imagine being left behind with the others in what's left of CUSA...what would Rice's response then be? Would we go along with trying to maintain CUSA by backfilling even more FCS, or would we be more likely to use it as the excuse to drop down to FCS, Div III or altogether? (McKinsey's conclusions about FCS not being viable might not hold the same truth since so much has changed since that now long-ago study of our options) Now, it's certainly disappointing some fo the directions college athletics has taken but the alternative is just as/more depressing for an institution with our storied (and more distant) history and longevity. The willful near-abdication of positive marketing possibilities by being a more normal participant at the highest levels commeasurate with our long history is certainly disappointing to have lived through these many decades.

More change is certain to come, will we be more proactive for a change or continue to seek to parasite off others for the forseeable future without contributiong more meaningful competition and participation?

• We shouldn't have to be looking at C-USA today to see the effect of getting left behind in the worst FBS conference. You don't have to be an old timer to remember the desperation that NMSU and Idaho felt as the castaways left behind in the WAC last time or that the Sun Belt felt when they desperately reached for those two football teams and a bunch of FCS schools in a last ditch effort to remain solvent. We were lucky that our past association with current AAC schools gave C-USA access to some spare cash that we could throw at a few Sun Belt schools to easily keep our conference together last time. If it takes any additional creativity to imagine being the counter-party to our own transaction, then we didn't negotiate well.
• If anything, I think FCS is even less sustainable today than it was when the McKinsey report was written. There are no local FCS conferences that are stable for the foreseeable future except the WAC which intends to move up to FBS.
  

• WAC: Not an option; moving up to FBS.
• Southland: Would we be happy with Incarnate Word, A&M-Commerce, and A&M-CC? That's the top of that conference.
• SWAC: Aren't many of the schools bordering on insolvency?
  

Quote:The Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) is a small college athletics conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Originally developed as a five-team conference of Oklahoma-based schools, the SAC now boasts 12 schools in a league that spans four states – Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

As of August 2021, SAC member institutions have collected 109 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) team championships – the most among NAIA conferences – since the league formed in 1978.

Throughout the league's history, the SAC continues to be known as the conference "Where Champions Play". Various institutions have competed under the SAC banner over the years. Today only the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma remains from the original group that was formed when Bethany Nazarene (now Southern Nazarene), Oklahoma Baptist, Oklahoma Christian and Phillips University withdrew from the Texoma Conference to form the SAC.

Membership has changed over the years with today's current members being admitted as follows:
Oklahoma City (1986),
Wayland Baptist (1994),
John Brown (1995),
Mid-America Christian (2007),
Southwestern Assemblies of God (2013),
Texas Wesleyan (2013),
Southwestern Christian (2013),
Bacone (2014),
Central Christian (2017),
Oklahoma Panhandle State (2017) and
North Texas–Dallas (2020).

The league also includes associate members on a per-sport basis, with University of Houston-Victoria, University of the Southwest and University of St. Thomas being part of the SAC in women's golf since 2017. Lyon College has been an associate member for Women's Wrestling since 2019.

The SAC crowns league champions in 18 intercollegiate sports – nine for women and nine for men. Women's sports are basketball, softball, golf, tennis, cross country, soccer, volleyball, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, and wrestling. Men compete in football, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, cross country, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, soccer, and wrestling. The newest conference sport is women's wrestling, added for the 2019-20 season.

The conference is known for a rich basketball tradition. Member schools have won the men's NAIA tournament 12 times and women's NAIA tournament 16 times. SAC member schools also boast 14 NAIA national titles in men's golf, 12 in softball, 12 in women's indoor track and field, 10 in women's golf, 10 in men's cross country, 6 in men's tennis, 5 in women's outdoor track and field, 4 in men's outdoor track and field, 4 in men's indoor track and field, 2 in baseball, 1 in competitive cheer and 1 in men's soccer for a total of 109.

(10-22-2021 05:03 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  D-III: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: At least they're all private schools. Trinity and Southwestern would be good, I suppose. Maybe Colorado College, too. Nobody does research, though.

(10-22-2021 07:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  CBS Sports reports C-USA has talked to McNeese St. and Sam Houston St.

(10-22-2021 08:51 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 07:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  CBS Sports reports C-USA has talked to McNeese St. and Sam Houston St.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1451685076769587202

Pete Thamel names Sam Houston State, Tarleton State, and New Mexico State. I figured it'd be cheaper to consolidate within the main footprint than to reach west, especially with the apparent intent of anchoring UTEP.

(10-22-2021 08:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 08:51 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 07:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  CBS Sports reports C-USA has talked to McNeese St. and Sam Houston St.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1451685076769587202

Pete Thamel names Sam Houston State, Tarleton State, and New Mexico State. I figured it'd be cheaper to consolidate within the main footprint than to reach west, especially with the apparent intent of anchoring UTEP.

Maybe the WAC will swap SHS for UTEP?

(10-22-2021 09:03 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 08:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 08:51 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 07:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  CBS Sports reports C-USA has talked to McNeese St. and Sam Houston St.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1451685076769587202

Pete Thamel names Sam Houston State, Tarleton State, and New Mexico State. I figured it'd be cheaper to consolidate within the main footprint than to reach west, especially with the apparent intent of anchoring UTEP.

Maybe the WAC will swap SHS for UTEP?

C-USA is in such dire straits that they need to net gain at least 3 teams to remain solvent. I don't see where it would make sense to lose UTEP in a transaction that adds NMSU. All of the downsides of UTEP with less of the upsides of El Paso and the university system.

E: Also, I want to draw attention to the huge degree of schadenfreude the University of Louisiana system must feel watching LaTech go from haughtily refusing to play them or entertain sharing a conference again a few years ago to having to stoop down to ask McNeese if they want to join C-USA.

(10-22-2021 09:11 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 09:03 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 08:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 08:51 PM)franklyconfused Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 07:59 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  CBS Sports reports C-USA has talked to McNeese St. and Sam Houston St.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1451685076769587202

Pete Thamel names Sam Houston State, Tarleton State, and New Mexico State. I figured it'd be cheaper to consolidate within the main footprint than to reach west, especially with the apparent intent of anchoring UTEP.

Maybe the WAC will swap SHS for UTEP?

C-USA is in such dire straits that they need to net gain at least 3 teams to remain solvent. I don't see where it would make sense to lose UTEP in a transaction that adds NMSU. All of the downsides of UTEP with less of the upsides of El Paso and the university system.

E: Also, I want to draw attention to the huge degree of schadenfreude the University of Louisiana system must feel watching LaTech go from haughtily refusing to play them or entertain sharing a conference again a few years ago to having to stoop down to ask McNeese if they want to join C-USA.

I shouldn’t have used the word “swap”. Would UTEP go to the WAC if invited after C-USA adds SHS et. al.?

(10-22-2021 07:04 PM)Intellectual_Brutality Wrote:  It's absolutely surreal that we're among the haves here, watching the desperate situation of the have nots

(10-22-2021 09:34 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  When I was a Student, the band was always announced as “the largest per-capita band in the southwest”.

Maybe they can recapture that coveted title.

(10-22-2021 10:19 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 07:04 PM)Intellectual_Brutality Wrote:  It's absolutely surreal that we're among the haves here, watching the desperate situation of the have nots

Rice had better thank its lucky stars for landing this Hail Mary, and resolve to get beter in a hurry.

(10-22-2021 11:19 PM)Grungy Wrote:  What did we do with that huge MOB?
Hofheinz saved our UH show by stealing the script in the 'Dome (the rest of the show was "meh").
The UT show worked, in Austin.
The A&M "Secret Owl Band" show worked, at home.
The rest were fairly forgettable, except for the Arkansas game, where we were booed off the field, at home, in what I'll call "The Blue Pig Show".

(10-23-2021 06:52 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(10-22-2021 11:19 PM)Grungy Wrote:  What did we do with that huge MOB?
Hofheinz saved our UH show by stealing the script in the 'Dome (the rest of the show was "meh").
The UT show worked, in Austin.
The A&M "Secret Owl Band" show worked, at home.
The rest were fairly forgettable, except for the Arkansas game, where we were booed off the field, at home, in what I'll call "The Blue Pig Show".

Was there for all of them. That UT show remains one of my favorites, and I think one of the most underrated MOB shows ever. The start pissed the crowd off properly, and the way the boos turned to cheers as the show progressed was quite remarkable to see.