(05-02-2012 08:13 PM)ValleyBoy Wrote:  What I get is that Benson under the authority of the Sunbelt members who he works for, had given their blessing to add Texas State and Georgia State to get to 12 football playing members. Everyone knows that UNT & FIU are leaving but it has not been officially announced & each could still change their minds and stay in the SunBelt. We all know this is not going to happen but it could. None of us know what directives Benson has been given by his bosses other that to add Texas State & Georgia State.

Decision will be made by the member schools whether they want to stay at 10 after the lose of UNT & FIU, or do they still want to go to 12. These decision might have already been made but then again no decision might have been made only Benson and the member schools know that answer to this question and they will not speak until they have all there ducks in a row.

The membership of the SBC will become much clearer on Friday after the decisions of UNT and FIU become public and official.

(05-02-2012 05:37 PM)TroyMan88 Wrote:  Gahhh...sounds like he's more for NMSU and Idaho then he is App. State and Georgia Southern..

Nooooo!!!!!!

I hate the Big 12!!!!

More directly, I hate the University of Texas!!!

All of this mess is their fault!!!

(05-02-2012 08:41 PM)Usajags Wrote:  I hate the Big 12!!!!

More directly, I hate the University of Texas!!!

All of this mess is their fault!!!

The antichrist is now known.

(05-02-2012 05:47 PM)Klak Wrote:  I listened to it but didn't get the feeling that he was preferring NMSU/Idaho over GS/App. It seemed like he was trying to deflect all those questions, but unprompted name-dropping of Georgia Southern, App State, and Old Dominion (in that order) was pretty telling. He called out Libery/Jax State/etc to cover his tracks.

Agreed.

(05-02-2012 06:31 PM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  You know, the Commissioner did say what he said about NMSU and Idaho.

But if you concentrated on that, you missed what he meant.

If the CEO's insist on having 12 football schools, then yes, UI and NMSU for football only would be better than going to 14 teams total and adding FOUR FBS startup programs instead of two.

But he said at the beginning of the interview he's tempered his original statements of wanting 12 for football, given the current landscape.

Translation: UTSA and Louisiana Tech weren't available, so he'd rather stay at 10/12 for now.

I don't believe we're going to make any more moves unless the Presidents want to go to 12/14.

And, I don't think they do.

What this man (or woman) said right here.

Recap of the interview:
http://espn1420.com/benson-tempering-tal...irds-nest/

Highlights/Analysis on interview:

Quote:In the later interview, Benson made it pretty obvious UTA would be a great addition to the league. The addition of UTA would bring the Sun Belt to twelve schools, ten of which play football. And, Benson spoke of how much better it is to schedule when you have twelve schools. He specifically spoke of a compact Western Division including Texas State, UTA, Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe.

He did NOT sound like a Commissioner who couldn’t wait to add more schools.

Benson, when reminded of his original presser when he said he’d like to see the league with twelve football schools and a conference championship game, today said he’s “tempering” those remarks, given the landscape of college athletics and where schools are being slotted.

I took that to mean there’s no one else Benson really feels adds anything to the league, at least for right now.

Benson mentioned other schools that would like to make the move to the FBS. He specifically mentioned Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, Liberty and Jacksonville State to the east and Lamar and Sam Houston State to the west.

He also said, if the CEO’s want to get to twelve football schools, New Mexico State and Idaho, both about to be FBS orphans, could be considered as “football-only” members, even though they are outside of the Sun Belt geographical footprint, which runs from Texas to the east coast, and as far north as Kentucky.

But, we all need to remember Benson is the commissioner of the league. He works at the behest of the CEO’s, who have the final call when it comes to membership.