Aside from the DeAngelo Williams years, Memphis has been pretty ineffective in FB, and this ineffectiveness spans decades upon decades. Would Memphis be better served by dropping FB to the FCS and concentrating much more on building it's BB brand? If the BE ever split apart, would Memphis come out better in the long run if it would side with Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, etc and creating a new BB centric conference (yes, most likely these schools retain the BE Conf name)? Thoughts?

No, they just need to invest more into their facilites and find a good coach. UT is the only major Football university in Tennesse which is a fairly large state. They have potential to grow. I just don't feel as though they invest and take football as seriously as Basketball (aka Duke)

I have often wondered if they should drop football. When the last football coach left he said if they did not increase support for the football program, they might as well drop football.

I think Memphis could be good in football if they made the committemnt. But I have suspicioned for a long time now that maybe, just maybe the basketball powers that be at Memphis do not want a football program to compete with the basketball team for the same resources.

Since Memphis does not have a stadium it would not be walking away from a lot to drop football.

IMHO they need to make a much stronger committement to football or just become a basketball only school

I suspect that Memphis does not see FB as a strategic asset like they do with BB. Despite the built in advantages that Memphis has, it chooses to relegate FB as a second class sport. It clearly points out that this is more than mere incompetence. To me it shows that they view FB as nothing more than a prop for the BB program. At some point the farce needs to stop and Memphis should embrace what they really care about.

The interesting point here is why doesn't Memphis just drop football all together?

The Liberty Bowl is aging and off campus. Memphis has a huge distance between it and its competitors yet there is little interest in the football program.

Memphis could then get into the A10 or even the MVC to go along with St. Louis saving travel costs.

Things were a little different for basketball schools like Louisville and UConn because not only did they have Big East football potential, down the road SEC or ACC would have some real interest.

Is Memphis ever going to get into the SEC or ACC? At best Memphis would be lucky to get into the Big East. By the time Memphis gets into the Big East it may no longer be a BCS conference.

Well, I'll bet this thread ends up as a pissing contest before the end of the day.

Sure why not. As much trash as West and togc have hurled at ECU fans, lets see how it feels to have your school trashed and told they are aren't worthy a BCS conference becuase UM football is horrible and they are in a market where no one cares about UM.

:kneelsucka:




Edit: I'm not being serious, just having a little fun with certain Memphis fans.

Memphis (and Tulane, UAB, Rice) would all just drop football completely rather than move to FCS. The minimal support those football Programs get today as FBS-members would flatline to absolute Zero if they tried to go FCS.

These next few seasons I think will become very telling of the willingness of the Tigers AD and athletic department to support their program. Nobody thinks college football and ever thinks of Memphis. They need to change that perception, and they must do it by going to bowl games on a regular basis.

Since the 1978 split of D1 football, only a few schools decided to drop from 1-A to 1-AA very early on. All other 1-A schools that exited 1-A since ('Nova, Wichita St, Pacifc, LBSU, Cal St-Fullerton) just dropped football altogether. Nowadays, dropping is more palatable than 'downgrading'. If you are going to admit failure, may as well admit total failure. And I wouldn't say Memphis FB is anywhere close to that designation.

(06-04-2011 03:17 PM)RecoveringHillbilly Wrote:  Since the 1978 split of D1 football, only a few schools decided to drop from 1-A to 1-AA very early on. All other 1-A schools that exited 1-A since ('Nova, Wichita St, Pacifc, LBSU, Cal St-Fullerton) just dropped football altogether. Nowadays, dropping is more palatable than 'downgrading'. If you are going to admit failure, may as well admit total failure. And I wouldn't say Memphis FB is anywhere close to that designation.

Yeah, as much as I slam Memphis, dropping down, or dropping football altogether, would be a gigantic mistake.

They need to suck it up, and build a program people will support. Which starts with a core group of supporters who won't accept the status quo.




.

(06-04-2011 03:17 PM)RecoveringHillbilly Wrote:  Since the 1978 split of D1 football, only a few schools decided to drop from 1-A to 1-AA very early on. All other 1-A schools that exited 1-A since ('Nova, Wichita St, Pacifc, LBSU, Cal St-Fullerton) just dropped football altogether. Nowadays, dropping is more palatable than 'downgrading'. If you are going to admit failure, may as well admit total failure. And I wouldn't say Memphis FB is anywhere close to that designation.

Wait Villanova still has football at the FCS level or is this some other Nova team?

EDIT: Oh I see there was a temporary dropping of the team but it was brought back.

(06-04-2011 03:26 PM)Pervis_Griffith Wrote:  

(06-04-2011 03:17 PM)RecoveringHillbilly Wrote:  Since the 1978 split of D1 football, only a few schools decided to drop from 1-A to 1-AA very early on. All other 1-A schools that exited 1-A since ('Nova, Wichita St, Pacifc, LBSU, Cal St-Fullerton) just dropped football altogether. Nowadays, dropping is more palatable than 'downgrading'. If you are going to admit failure, may as well admit total failure. And I wouldn't say Memphis FB is anywhere close to that designation.

Yeah, as much as I slam Memphis, dropping down, or dropping football altogether, would be a gigantic mistake.

They need to suck it up, and build a program people will support. Which starts with a core group of supporters who won't accept the status quo.




.

Except the school admins over the last decades refuse to make serious changes to make FB a going concern. I don't think there is any support for Memphis football period. For the school to continue on at its current level of football support is irresponsibility at the highest levels of leadership. They would be much better served reallocating the money to something they truly support instead of throwing it down a rat hole like they are currently doing today.

Seriously, how can Memphis fans and the school admins believe they deserve to be invited into a BCS conference when they neglect football to the extent that they do? I don't get it.

miko33 Wrote:Seriously, how can Memphis fans and the school admins believe they deserve to be invited into a BCS conference when they neglect football to the extent that they do? I don't get it.

Never underestimate the power of a sense of entitlement.

(06-04-2011 03:17 PM)RecoveringHillbilly Wrote:  Since the 1978 split of D1 football, only a few schools decided to drop from 1-A to 1-AA very early on. All other 1-A schools that exited 1-A since ('Nova, Wichita St, Pacifc, LBSU, Cal St-Fullerton) just dropped football altogether.

Some exceptions to that rule:

1. Ivy League. Four schools (Yale, Penn, Harvard, Cornell) had the attendance base to stay but chose to drop down in 1982.
2. Holy Cross. Dropped to I-AA in 1986 after passing on the Big East; did not drop sport.
3. Colgate. Dropped down circa 1982; did not drop sport.
4. North Texas. Was an I-A Independent in 1978, dropped to Southland in the 1980's, then moved back up again.
5. VMI and the Citadel
6. Richmond and William & Mary.

There may be others.

(06-04-2011 10:55 AM)miko33 Wrote:  Aside from the DeAngelo Williams years, Memphis has been pretty ineffective in FB, and this ineffectiveness spans decades upon decades. Would Memphis be better served by dropping FB to the FCS and concentrating much more on building it's BB brand? If the BE ever split apart, would Memphis come out better in the long run if it would side with Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, etc and creating a new BB centric conference (yes, most likely these schools retain the BE Conf name)? Thoughts?

Thoughts? You are just here LOL!

Plenty of schools worse off than Memphis, you just picking fights here

(06-04-2011 04:36 PM)dgrace4cards Wrote:  

(06-04-2011 10:55 AM)miko33 Wrote:  Aside from the DeAngelo Williams years, Memphis has been pretty ineffective in FB, and this ineffectiveness spans decades upon decades. Would Memphis be better served by dropping FB to the FCS and concentrating much more on building it's BB brand? If the BE ever split apart, would Memphis come out better in the long run if it would side with Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, etc and creating a new BB centric conference (yes, most likely these schools retain the BE Conf name)? Thoughts?

Thoughts? You are just here LOL!

Plenty of schools worse off than Memphis, you just picking fights here

No, I am expressing my opinion on Memphis and possible conference realignment. There may be worse schools (I'm assuming west of the Mississippi?), but considering the lions share of discussions on BE expansion center around a handful of schools that include Memphis, I thought I'd put some thoughts in a thread about them specifically. I've put other threads out for other schools too.

There are plenty of worse d1 football programs than memphis. What makes them so bad is 1) they're not AQ and 2) they have name recognition. They're basically Duke and Wake Forest minus a BCS bid. Everyone knows them because of BB and they're a pretty well known athletic program because of BB but it blows everyone's minds that a school so well known can suck so hard in football.

It's like the girl you see out that's a 10 and then when you wake up with her the next morning and the make up is off she's a 7. You're like holy crap she's ugly. But reality is if she wasn't a 10 with make up on but rather an 8 you would say "she looks pretty good even without make up on". It's the drastic gap between the 10 and the 7 that makes the 7 look so bad.

(06-04-2011 05:04 PM)krux Wrote:  There are plenty of worse d1 football programs than memphis. What makes them so bad is 1) they're not AQ and 2) they have name recognition. They're basically Duke and Wake Forest minus a BCS bid. Everyone knows them because of BB and they're a pretty well known athletic program because of BB but it blows everyone's minds that a school so well known can suck so hard in football.

It's like the girl you see out that's a 10 and then when you wake up with her the next morning and the make up is off she's a 7. You're like holy crap she's ugly. But reality is if she wasn't a 10 with make up on but rather an 8 you would say "she looks pretty good even without make up on". It's the drastic gap between the 10 and the 7 that makes the 7 look so bad.

Wake forest has not done too bad recently.....didn't they go to a major bowl... BCS bowl?

Also at least Wake and Duke have a football stadium

No