(09-11-2013 10:38 AM)Usajags Wrote: (09-11-2013 08:44 AM)Rik Flair Wrote: I remember playing USM in a home/home and in the New Orleans (Lafayette) bowl. They were the blue print football program for a small school. I used to wish we could be like Southern Miss. Crazy how things change so fast.
I'm sure Southern Miss looks around at the new CUSA and gets depressed. They used to play Louisville, Cinncinnati, Memphis, ECU, Tulane, Houston, Tulsa, . . . They are all gone. It's one thing to travel to Carolina to play ECU, but UNCC?
Once the $$ from the TV contract dries up and smaller conferences realize they can make more money from having good opponents, more regional conferences or divisions may come in vogue.
I figure USM fans would rather play UL, La Tech, ULM, USA, then F_U, UNCC, and ODU.
I don't think we will ever see CUSA schools come to the Belt, but I wouldn't be surprised if new conferences were formed in the next 5 years where teams from the East and Mid-South /South West splintered.
Exactly what I expect to see happen. They will leave the unsupported, unsuccessful programs behind and move towards a conference that people will actually care about.
I think there are five internal pressures on C-USA that will make it challenging to hold the league together.
1. Size. Keeping 14 presidents and 14 AD's and 14 football coaches and 14 basketball coaches happy is more challenging than 12 or 10.
2. UAB playing west. Forget the money, yeah a million bucks or so is nice but it isn't world changing. For schools like MTSU and WKU the patch and playing ODU, Charlotte and UAB is worth more than the distribution. UAB is playing football away from the schools it most wanted added to the league (MTSU, WKU, ODU, Charlotte). Those are the schools they will note in their basketball marketing but they will play them infrequently in football. Part of the benefit of a conference is having a basketball and football schedule that reinforce each other in marketing.
3. The Texas issue. As time wears on, I believe that you will see few championship events in Texas. Despite having UNT, UTSA, Rice, and UTEP the premier events (the basketball tournaments and baseball) aren't likely to be in DFW, Houston, and San Antonio. USM and UAB are unlikely to support any of those destinations over Nashville, Atlanta or Birmingham because those Texas locations are further away. La.Tech is the only non-Texas western division school that benefits geographically going to Texas (and then only Dallas is clearly closer, B'ham and Houston are about the same distance) and every public comment about C-USA, the folks in Ruston tend to invoke the name of USM, so they may be inclined to line up with USM on such votes.
4. The Bankowsky factor. He publicly endorsed going to 16. The leaks coming out of Irving indicated that he wanted two western members in order to permit UAB to go to its natural fit in the east. That move got hijacked by Wood Selig who wanted an east/west expansion and Bankowsky ended up with egg on his face. There is some speculation he wishes to retire. He has lost 16 members since taking the job in 2002. For comparison in the same time frame after taking the WAC commissioner position, Karl Benson saw 12 teams leave. There have also been rumors that he is being asked to consider relocating the league headquarters to either Atlanta, Nashville or Birmingham. If he leaves the selection of a replacement may pose some real challenges.
5. Television. The current deals expire with the 2016 season. If Fox successfully wins the Big 10 contract C-USA is of lesser importance. The caliber of their Saturday content will increase greatly. While Fox and CBS did not renegotiate the contract with the loss of Houston, SMU, Memphis, Tulsa, Tulane, UCF, ECU there are no assurances that a reduction in value won't happen in the next contract.
