(02-21-2012 12:38 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote: (02-21-2012 12:34 PM)arkstfan Wrote: (02-21-2012 11:05 AM)MeanGreenFan123 Wrote: I always felt that UNT's closest Sun Belt rival (back in the day) was NMSU. I'd be happy to have them on board.
But ULM, La.Tech, Louisiana, ASU, UALR, and South Alabama are all closer. MTSU and Troy are a half hour further.
If UNT fans aren't going to those places why would they go to Las Cruces. More importantly why would ULM, Louisiana, ASU, UALR, USA, MTSU, and WKU support adding a school that is twice the distance of going to UNT the current western outlier?
What I've been saying all along. And who is NMSU's travel partner?
It's nothing against the Aggies, but expanding the footprint 700 miles westward for one school makes no sense.
They wouldn't be a terrible addition, but there are plenty of other options that make much more sense. If they had much better football or were still playing basketball at an extremely high level, perhaps things would be different, but if that were the case, the Alliance would probably want them.
If you look at the league, there are nine schools that are in a pretty good spot.
FIU and FAU are on an island, but they are on it together.
WKU and MTSU are a short drive from each other.
Louisiana and ULM while not next door they have the in-state thing going for them.
Troy has a rivalry with MTSU but in-state with USA that now expands into football. The addition of USA football three hours away helps strengthen that rivalry.
UALR has ASU in-state and a short hop to ULM.
ASU is basically on an island in football but has UALR for other sports.
UNT is on an island.
With the exception of ASU football and all sports at UNT everyone has an easy drive to someone in the league.
That's why UTSA or Texas State makes sense. San Antonio to Denton or San Marcos to Denton isn't a quick hop but the in-state element and closer opponent presents an important opportunity.
New Mexico State is just a long, long, long way out there. Until the WAC re-entered Texas, NMSU was the closest WAC school to La.Tech but Tech was the second closest school in the WAC to NMSU because Logan, UT is only a few miles closer than Ruston.
People really have a hard time grasping the distances involved.
When I was in DC for an extended period people were talking about taking weekend trips to Pennsylvania and Ohio and I was stunned until I got a map out saw just how close they were. NMSU is just off the Texas border but a long long way from Denton. You can drive Jonesboro, to Murfreesboro, and back in less time than Denton to Las Cruces. Murfreesboro to Orlando is shorter than Denton to Las Cruces. Troy to FIU is 50 miles closer than Denton to Las Cruces.