(07-05-2014 07:49 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote: I rarely see any public discussion out of the Conference office on how to develop the brand, so I thought I'd start a discussion here on what it would take to improve the perceived reputation of C-USA. I think we all want our conference to improve and be recognized for being an important presence. But how do we do it?
BTW, I'm hoping this thread doesn't de-generate into a measuring "sticks" comparison with other conferences. Let's stick with a discussion on C-USA.
How do we develop our brand over the next 5 years and increase the public perception of our Conference?
As I see it, in no particular order:
1. Schedule and win OOC conference games in both football and basketball. Playing "paycheck" games that give us virtually no chance to win isn't going to help much.
2. Win other G5 games in all sports. Head to head comparisons will be important.
3. Winning bowl games in football
4. Multi-bids to NCAA tournaments in MBB, WBB and baseball.
5. Gaining ground in our television contract when next negotiated
6. Solid TV package for major sports
7. Maintaining a minimum of 5 bowl tie ins.
8. Being in the post-season discussion every year.
9. Improving the overall competition in all sports. All teams cycle through as winning teams with no long term bottom dwellers in any sport.
10. Building budgets for all sports and increasing attendance figures.
Thoughts on these, or add your own. What will it take?
I'm an AAC school fan, but this topic could apply to any G5 conference.
My biggest problem with this list is they are results oriented goals and not action goals. Everyone can say win all games and increase attendance and TV viewership is the goal results, but how do you do that?
Only #1 has an actionable goal: Schedule winnable OOC games especially against the P5 and don't schedule paycheck games.
So what are the actions that can be taken to increase wins?
Schedule weaker?
Higher better coaches?
Better training facilities?
Improve recruiting? (That may require more action plans)
And what actions can be taken to increase attendance/TV viewership?
Schedule big name opponents? (Might contradict weaker schedule above)
Schedule other local teams? (Might help attendance but might not improve TV viewership)
Marketing? (Attendance only)
Local business tie ins? (Attendance only)
Winning? (see above)
I'm not trying to denigrate your list because those are the end results you want to achieve, but I think you need something more practical to actually achieve those goals.