(07-02-2018 09:15 AM)Side Show Joe Wrote:  Reading these discussions about how the size of our universities and strength of our state and local economies, reminds me of the old debate about how C-USA chose to expand. Many laughed and complained about C-USA selecting large universities in major media markets, but I think we are now seeing the logic behind it.

FIU, UNT, and FAU are the three largest universities in C-USA, and because of their size and locations in states with strong economies, those three, along with MT, are investing in their athletics at a higher rate then all the other programs in C-USA, with the exception of ODU. In the past 10 years (2008-2017), North Texas has raised their athletic budget by $20,000,000. FIU has raised their budget by $18 million. And, FAU and MT have raised their budgets by $15 million. No other C-USA programs are even close. I believe this growing gap could eventually create competitive problems for some of the lower funded programs in our conference.

clt says you forgot Charlotte. In the past 10 years, we built a $60M football complex, sold seat lisences for that stadium, and are constantly improving facilities.

And now we have an AD that gets it, and we just hired the #2 from Syracuse for the same position. Charlotte just increased the new goal for the current funraising effort.