The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(02-23-2018 05:04 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(02-23-2018 04:48 PM)Monarch Homselr Wrote:  CUSA will never be a good basketball conference. Yes, WKU, MT, UAB and Marshall and ODU may be good to very good. La Tech and El Paso my improve but the other teams are and will forever be RPI killers. Plus I do not want to be in a conference where two thirds of the teams are in another time zone. One is in a two hour different one!!

If I were in charge of the world we'd be out of CUSA tomorrow! I'd even go back to FBS and the CAA. It sure feels like we are in a Div 1A scenario anyway. We will never, ever go to a big time bowl. Wouldn't surprise me if the P5 get their way and only P5 teams will go to the Big Dance and a different bowl system is created that will make we poor hangers-on, red haired step-children fight for the even more meager bowl crumbs.

Give me a TRUE playoff/championship football system! Much better than scrambling to find reasonably priced lodging and transportation at the last minute plus being at the most expensive time of the year to fly just to go to a third or fourth rate bowl game against MAC team!

ODU has had football at any level for less than 10 years and has been in CUSA for five. It's way too soon to be throwing words like never around as if ODU's fates are settled science.

How long is it supposed to take for a start-up program to reach a major bowl? Did ODU already blow deadline? Sure, neither they nor anyone in CUSA are especially likely to make a big bowl without a ton of breaks going their way, but if Western Michigan and Northern Illinois can do it from the MAC, then why can't ODU or anyone else do it from CUSA?

As for "CUSA will never be a good basketball conference": Why on Earth would they not? ODU, WKU, Middle Tennessee, UAB, Marshall and Louisiana Tech are generally consistent programs. Charlotte and UTEP are in the dumps but have a heritage and that loads the dice in their favor if they get the rights pieces of the puzzle placed. Southern Miss has been good before and can be good again. North Texas is showing signs. Even UTSA and their high-school gym are competitive. There is absolutely no reason that CUSA can't be a regular multi-bid conference with the programs they have, and there's absolutely no reason they can't be better than the CAA as a matter of course.

Sure, ODU could drop back to FCS and the CAA. But just remember that for every game against JMU and Richmond football, there's going to be three against Maine, Rhode Island and Elon. Trade in those Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky basketball games for, among others, Elon and Drexel. And you think CUSA's TV contract is bad? CAA games might as well be available exclusively on VHS at Blockbuster.

Unless the CAA can provide ODU with a time machine with their membership, a diamond-plated pass on going back.

Someone thinks ODU needs a new stadium before there will be any continued growth in football, regardless of conference.