(10-12-2016 03:52 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  I don't see how the timeline makes much of a difference, but yours isn't right. C-USA expanded to 14 the first time and UTSA was with La Tech when the WAC folded.
But, their strategy only seemed to change when WKU was added.
Like then, I still don't see what C-USA was working toward. The market strategy seemed to be the only thing, but going to 14 was going to dilute the product and competitiveness, and everyone knew the G5 payouts were going to reward the group with the highest rankings.

I know you're reading the wiki official time-line but before any real announcement, it was 2 that were known and then 4 and then things really started to move fast and C-USA tried to get out in front of the next realignment and went to six, I guess there was already back-room discussions about the BigEast/AAC split and future raid. The $1MM/school CFP pay-out, up to a max of 12 schools had not been adopted or talked about beyond a very tight group, because I'm sure there would have been no appetite from the current C-USA members to expand that far if they had known this.

Remember, realignment was happening in the SEC and Big 10 months and months before things trickled all the way down to C-USA, the WAC and the Sun Belt. Everybody could see the writing on the wall though no official announcement had been made. I didn't particularly care for the move to 14 but UTSA brought more Texas and ODU and Charlotte supposedly brought some hoops cache to a conference that just lost Memphis.

Hard for me to imagine a more smug line on a message board than the first one you typed. I have been following realignment to an almost compulsive level for a decade and a half with spreadsheets and other data sets that take it to near insane proportions.

C-USA looked at the available teams, didn't see name-brand teams like they had with Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston or SMU and decided that they would pursue the media market strategy in an attempt to sell eyeball potential in a school's market. They also went with more teams (14) than they previously had to both A) protect against future raids and B) increase the number of home-market eyeballs. When the last teams left, they started to see the writing on the wall and went with MTSU and FAU and a few days later WKU, with only the FAU being a market team. But their addition was more to cushion costs for traveling to FIU.

(10-14-2016 03:41 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Hard for me to imagine a more smug line on a message board than the first one you typed. I have been following realignment to an almost compulsive level for a decade and a half with spreadsheets and other data sets that take it to near insane proportions.

C-USA looked at the available teams, didn't see name-brand teams like they had with Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston or SMU and decided that they would pursue the media market strategy in an attempt to sell eyeball potential in a school's market. They also went with more teams (14) than they previously had to both A) protect against future raids and B) increase the number of home-market eyeballs. When the last teams left, they started to see the writing on the wall and went with MTSU and FAU and a few days later WKU, with only the FAU being a market team. But their addition was more to cushion costs for traveling to FIU.

MTSU and WKU were good gets for CUSA. .. . tough losses for The Belt . . . The Belt did well replacing them with App and GS . . . The F_U's appear to be no great loss.

But don't kid yourself . . . If we took more losses, we'd be hard pressed to back fill with FCS teams on the same level App and GS were. . . . as a conference, we've yet to draw other FBS programs to this conference, aside from programs looking for a home afternoon their FBS conference imploded . . . .

(10-14-2016 03:41 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Hard for me to imagine a more smug line on a message board than the first one you typed. I have been following realignment to an almost compulsive level for a decade and a half with spreadsheets and other data sets that take it to near insane proportions.

C-USA looked at the available teams, didn't see name-brand teams like they had with Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston or SMU and decided that they would pursue the media market strategy in an attempt to sell eyeball potential in a school's market. They also went with more teams (14) than they previously had to both A) protect against future raids and B) increase the number of home-market eyeballs. When the last teams left, they started to see the writing on the wall and went with MTSU and FAU and a few days later WKU, with only the FAU being a market team. But their addition was more to cushion costs for traveling to FIU.

Better update your spreadsheet then, because Cincinnati was already in the Big East. I think you meant UCF. In any event, during the first wave of the most recent expansion for C-USA, the idea was to replace like for like as closely as possible. It's never possible for the raided conference to replace like-for-like but to mitigate the loss as nearly as they can. The reason ODU and Charlotte as FCS/Start-up programs were brought in, as far as the rumors around here were concerned, was to shore up hoops from the loss of Memphis (plus ODU brings value in other areas and Charlotte is a past member with a centralized market). The same could not be said for App St nor Ga Southern at the time.

I think you also know the population dynamics of Dallas and S. Florida, doubling in size every 6 and 9 years respectively (at current growth rates of 12 and 8%/annum). These schools are adding colleges and campuses to their university system all the time to keep up with this demand. If you were to forecast where these schools will be in 20 years, you'd probably put your money on them rather than on other rural schools around the SE.

(10-14-2016 04:49 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(10-14-2016 03:41 PM)FoUTASportscaster Wrote:  Hard for me to imagine a more smug line on a message board than the first one you typed. I have been following realignment to an almost compulsive level for a decade and a half with spreadsheets and other data sets that take it to near insane proportions.

C-USA looked at the available teams, didn't see name-brand teams like they had with Cincinnati, Memphis, Houston or SMU and decided that they would pursue the media market strategy in an attempt to sell eyeball potential in a school's market. They also went with more teams (14) than they previously had to both A) protect against future raids and B) increase the number of home-market eyeballs. When the last teams left, they started to see the writing on the wall and went with MTSU and FAU and a few days later WKU, with only the FAU being a market team. But their addition was more to cushion costs for traveling to FIU.

Better update your spreadsheet then, because Cincinnati was already in the Big East. I think you meant UCF. In any event, during the first wave of the most recent expansion for C-USA, the idea was to replace like for like as closely as possible. It's never possible for the raided conference to replace like-for-like but to mitigate the loss as nearly as they can. The reason ODU and Charlotte as FCS/Start-up programs were brought in, as far as the rumors around here were concerned, was to shore up hoops from the loss of Memphis (plus ODU brings value in other areas and Charlotte is a past member with a centralized market). The same could not be said for App St nor Ga Southern at the time.

I think you also know the population dynamics of Dallas and S. Florida, doubling in size every 6 and 9 years respectively (at current growth rates of 12 and 8%/annum). These schools are adding colleges and campuses to their university system all the time to keep up with this demand. If you were to forecast where these schools will be in 20 years, you'd probably put your money on them rather than on other rural schools around the SE.

And the smugness continues.

I get where the confusion comes from, but I said they had with Cincinnati, not that they lost Cincinnati in that most recent round of realignment.

Unlike many, I'm okay with ODU, who has a good all-around sports program. Charlotte was a low level team in the A-10 and had basketball history, but very little recent success. They were a market add.

As for App, they were victors of many commissioners cups in the SoCon and do bring a good all-around program. Southern is more football-centric, but does have good baseball history and can be hit or miss in other sports. Either one would have been a better add for all-sports competition than Charlotte and I said so at the time.