(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

(08-07-2018 01:04 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 11:30 AM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  I eliminate Troy and ULM. Both of these schools really are maxing out. They both have small undergraduate enrollments and have few main campus growth opportunities. If Troy gets any better, they'll lose their coach and AD, and will have to start over.

...both Troy and ULM are effectively using their assets for athletics and due to specific constraints related to their institutions really can only hope for a great year or two before someone steals their coach and the rebuilding starts anew.

Before you get mad at me, I think ULM and Troy will be two of the better programs this year. Being a sleeping giant means that you're really not doing something right.

They said we maxed out in 2007, went on to win three more titles. MTSU fans accused us of cheating at least once a week. This board said we'd never get a coach as good as Larry. We did, and the program is in way better shape despite winning five straight titles. They said it would be a revolving door, yet Neal Brown has been here four years.

When we hired Neal Brown, the money for his coaching pool was tops in the SBC. We'll probably do that again. We're not as maxed out as people think. If we keep winning, we can make Troy a destination school for coaches, a lot like Houston has been.

We pay our coaches some of the top salaries in the SBC and when we hired Neal Brown we had the highest assistant salary pool of any G5.

We have some of the best facilities in all sports across the board in the sun belt.

But we are little sisters of the poor.

(08-06-2018 07:23 AM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 06:33 AM)eaglewraith Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 02:00 AM)T2003 Wrote:  GA State. ATL market. They won't be SBC for long.

With the fallout from market driven realignment, I wouldn't be confident in the entire makeup of the G5 staying the same in the not so distant future.

The market alone doesn't make the giant, but I think GA ST has more going for it right now than just its market

Admisntration is actually talking about stuff not as if its in an NSA black ops file..





...so there is that new novelty. First time where President, Foundation and Athletics are all on the same positive feet forward page in our history.

(08-07-2018 01:04 PM)TroyFootball05 Wrote:  

(08-06-2018 11:30 AM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  I eliminate Troy and ULM. Both of these schools really are maxing out. They both have small undergraduate enrollments and have few main campus growth opportunities. If Troy gets any better, they'll lose their coach and AD, and will have to start over.

...both Troy and ULM are effectively using their assets for athletics and due to specific constraints related to their institutions really can only hope for a great year or two before someone steals their coach and the rebuilding starts anew.

Before you get mad at me, I think ULM and Troy will be two of the better programs this year. Being a sleeping giant means that you're really not doing something right.

They said we maxed out in 2007, went on to win three more titles. MTSU fans accused us of cheating at least once a week. This board said we'd never get a coach as good as Larry. We did, and the program is in way better shape despite winning five straight titles. They said it would be a revolving door, yet Neal Brown has been here four years.

When we hired Neal Brown, the money for his coaching pool was tops in the SBC. We'll probably do that again. We're not as maxed out as people think. If we keep winning, we can make Troy a destination school for coaches, a lot like Houston has been.

Its highly unlikely that Troy will ever be a peer of Houston. Quite frankly very few of our schools can really hope to do that.

You might keep Brown, but you're going to have trouble getting to 10,000 students. You might win 8-10 games a year, but you're not going to erase your deficit while doing it. I don't see any path for Troy to be in the AAC. They do have small schools, but those are small RICH schools with academic reputations that are quite frankly not part of most SBC institutions goals (our schools are largely geared towards providing a good education to the broad population - and thats a good thing).


Lets just look at the schools that play FBS that have fewer than 8000 undergrads

ULM
Troy

AFA - really not applicable to any of our schools
Naval Academy - ditto
West Point - ditto

Now lets look at the privates, which can just hit their students up with 5000 dollar athletic subsidies without scrutiny.

Rice - $5 Billion plus endowment and they cant be consistently good
Wake Forest - Billion dollar endowment and P5 membership. And they have trouble competing
Tulsa - Billion dollar endowment. They're in the AAC, but they don't seem to be thriving there.

All of the other FBS small schools have been playing at the highest level for a long, long, loooooong time too. And every other non-academy school playing is in a metro area north of 950,000 people.

---
Now lets look at the schools that a smaller endowment than Troy.

App
A-State
Coastal
Georgia Southern
Troy
ULM
Louisiana Tech
MTSU - Offset by a huge enrollment
Eastern Michigan
Northern Illinois

There are six programs that do reasonably well on this list, App, A State, Troy, La Tech, MTSU, and Northern Illinois. But none of them are on the AAC move up list.

----

Now lets look at public schools with a greater subsidy percentage than the 72.45 percent Troy (meaning the amount spent on athletics not recouped by athletic revenue including direct gifts to the athletic department) loses on atheltics. This is a measure of how much a school can sustainably spend on its athletic program

UMass
Coastal Carolina
Georgia State
Ball State

A couple of schools have deficits rather close but not as high as Troy). But only 4 public teams playing FBS have one worse than Troys

Three of them are very new to FBS.
----

Money isn't everything, but it does matter. It might matter less, if Troy, like Arkansas State, had a really awesome athletic giving program that keeps the athletic program on an even keel. But you guys largely don't. Troy does great with what they have but I fear what might happen at Troy if the spending level overall gets amped up or revenue falls again.

You don't have many main campus students, you don't have much money, and you lose tons of money even now. Last year, USA, in the midst of a terrible year, had more athletic revenue/giving than Troy.

Troy is the only school playing FBS that has an endowment of 105 million or less, has a main campus undergrad enrollment of less than 8000, and has an athletic department loss of greater than 72.45%. (I used Troy's resources as the benchmark here).

---

Furthermore, I don't see any of these metrics changing much even if Neil Brown takes Troy to the promised land of consecutive top 25 seasons. The reason I don't see Troy as a sleeping giant is that winning might not solve the structural reasons that keep the university from being able to really get prominent. Its certainly possible, but just far less likely at Troy than at other schools.

---

Troy can be successful. But I just think that structually, they've got a much harder road to become a permanent power at a higher level than they are now.

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Conference within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App State and Charlotte in the same conference...? what did you do man lol *hide*

(08-07-2018 03:21 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App State and Charlotte in the same conference...? what did you do man lol *hide*

Go on... I really don't know what the issue is...

(08-07-2018 03:23 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:21 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App State and Charlotte in the same conference...? what did you do man lol *hide*

Go on... I really don't know what the issue is...

Fanbases despise each other. Why? not really sure. My guess is the rural vs city thing. I will refer to App and Charlotte fans to comment on why.

Personally, I actually agree that they would benefit from playing each other every season. Hatred is good for ticket sale

(08-07-2018 03:48 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:23 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:21 PM)GSUALUM17 Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App State and Charlotte in the same conference...? what did you do man lol *hide*

Go on... I really don't know what the issue is...

Fanbases despise each other. Why? not really sure. My guess is the rural vs city thing. I will refer to App and Charlotte fans to comment on why.

Personally, I actually agree that they would benefit from playing each other every season. Hatred is good for ticket sale

Agreed. If there's not already a rivalry, it sounds like a rivalry dying to happen.

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:20 PM)AlwaysSunny Wrote:  Obvious answer is Georgia State. They made a lot of awful decisions early on but with their budget and location, when they get their stars aligned, especially with all they're doing facility wise... I like for them to take off. They basically already have basketball on lock. I can easily seeing them being the next UCF type school if they can get their football program together. I also think they have the most potential to get out of the Sunbelt if they get their act together and another shift happens. Troy and Ark State are good programs, but I don't think either will ever go further than the belt. Just my opinion though.

Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App would rather have nothing to do with Charlotte. And they certainly aren't going to pay millions of dollars to play MTSU or WKU, and that's completely ignoring the pink elephant in the room that is the Florida trip.

Texas State would probably love to play Texas Schools regularly, but not enough that they are going to pay Entrance and Exit fees to do it.

No one from the Sun Belt is ever moving to CUSA without something drastic happening in the world of college football. Period.

People's perspectives of "sleeping" and "giant."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4XT-l-_3y0

(08-07-2018 04:02 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App would rather have nothing to do with Charlotte. And they certainly aren't going to pay millions of dollars to play MTSU or WKU, and that's completely ignoring the pink elephant in the room that is the Florida trip.

Texas State would probably love to play Texas Schools regularly, but not enough that they are going to pay Entrance and Exit fees to do it.

No one from the Sun Belt is ever moving to CUSA without something drastic happening in the world of college football. Period.

For Appalachian State, you have a point about exit and entrance fees. You also have a point about the Florida trip because believe me, the Florida schools have made travel a bit difficult for some of us in C-USA also. Well, for that matter, some in the East also don't like the El Paso trip. The two Florida schools would put the average division road trip in C-USA East at 8 hours for App. State, while it's only 6 in the Sun Belt East. So I'll concede that.

Regarding Texas State though, yeah, the exit and entrance fees would be a nuisance at the outset, but you have to think about it long-term because long-term, I do think it would be a benefit for them to be in a conference with 4 other Texas schools, assuming we all stay in C-USA of course.

That said, the next conference realignment is said by some prognosticators to possibly be anywhere from 2023 to 2025. Time will tell whether that window is accurate and what happens with all our schools at the next go-around.

(08-07-2018 04:02 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:16 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:13 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 03:09 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 01:48 PM)Georgia_Power_Company Wrote:  Unless you're talking about joining the American or a P5 conference no school in the Sun Belt would benefit at all in moving to another conference. With that in perspective very few Sun Belt teams fit the large metro school profile of the American. Texas St & GSU do and beyond that it's a stretch to think any of the rest of our teams will ever fit in that conference.

Respectfully disagree. I think that Texas State would benefit from a move to C-USA because of all the potential Texas divisional rivalries they'd have in the West Division: UTSA, UTEP, Rice, and UNT.

Although Appalachian State supporters would be better able to comment on this, I also think Appalachian State might possibly benefit from a move to C-USA because of the potential rivalries there could be with the following schools in our East Division (Charlotte, Marshall, MTSU, ODU, and WKU). Charlotte and App. State are separated by only 2 hours and are both University of North Carolina system schools. There are 5 schools in our East Divison within 6.5 hours of App. State, compared to only 3 schools in the Sun Belt that are within 6.5 hours.

You are only fooling yourself if you believe half of what you said.

What part of what I said is erroneous?

App would rather have nothing to do with Charlotte. And they certainly aren't going to pay millions of dollars to play MTSU or WKU, and that's completely ignoring the pink elephant in the room that is the Florida trip.

Texas State would probably love to play Texas Schools regularly, but not enough that they are going to pay Entrance and Exit fees to do it.

No one from the Sun Belt is ever moving to CUSA without something drastic happening in the world of college football. Period.

On that count, you're wrong. Our AD is useless and incompetent, but IF our fan base ever learned that he had a shot to move us to a conference where we'd have natural in-state rivals, including UTSA; and he passed on it because of exit/entrance fees, the villagers would storm his office with torches and pitchforks.

You are of course entitled to your opinion, however incorrect.

(08-07-2018 04:31 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  Regarding Texas State though, yeah, the exit and entrance fees would be a nuisance at the outset, but you have to think about it long-term because long-term, I do think it would be a benefit for them to be in a conference with 4 other Texas schools, assuming we all stay in C-USA of course.

I'm gonna disagree with you on that part (the long term part).

I think in the short term (10 years give or take) it would be a benefit, as it would gain us some traction in Texas, playing Texas teams. But long term, it will limit the amount of exposure we would get nationally, as most of the interest is limited in Texas.

If (and in no way am I stating that CUSA or Sun Belt would do this) one of the groups waived fees for us to enter/exit, I think we would do it. But our school hates spending one time fees unless it's for a capital expenditure.

I do not consider Arkansas State a "sleeping giant". We are doing well but we could do much better. My definition of "sleeping giant" is someone who is not doing well and has a lot of potential. With that definition, Texas State and Georgia State are the biggest sleepers.
However, I will say that Arkansas State has a much higher ceiling than most of you give us credit for. We are one of only 2 FBS schools in our entire state. The other FBS school is 5 hours away from us and is in the NW corner of the state. We are also located in one of the fastest growing cities in the state. Jonesboro will never be Atlanta or Austin but I think we would be good eventually getting to 200k. There is also a lot of untapped donor resources with Wal-Mart, Tyson, etc. headquartered in Arkansas. Currently they are giving most of their money to the piglets but if we could ever get on our feet and win our OOC games then we can get more money from them. There is a lot of potential for us. It remains to be seen whether we capitalize on that or not.

How do these discussions always wander back to conference realignment? I don't believe anyone here thinks anything of that nature will happen for many years and when it does the mid-majors will most certainly do so along geographic footprints. Until then, who cares?

(08-07-2018 04:42 PM)TheRevSWT Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 04:31 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  Regarding Texas State though, yeah, the exit and entrance fees would be a nuisance at the outset, but you have to think about it long-term because long-term, I do think it would be a benefit for them to be in a conference with 4 other Texas schools, assuming we all stay in C-USA of course.

I'm gonna disagree with you on that part (the long term part).

I think in the short term (10 years give or take) it would be a benefit, as it would gain us some traction in Texas, playing Texas teams. But long term, it will limit the amount of exposure we would get nationally, as most of the interest is limited in Texas.

If (and in no way am I stating that CUSA or Sun Belt would do this) one of the groups waived fees for us to enter/exit, I think we would do it. But our school hates spending one time fees unless it's for a capital expenditure.

Not trying to "start anything," but how's that "National Exposure" working for ya after 3-9, 2-10, and 2-10 seasons.

Shot in the dark: I doubt that our Belt affiliation coupled with our lousy team performance has put us on anyone's radar as it pertains to "some perceived" national rep.

(08-07-2018 05:05 PM)Bobcat87 Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 04:42 PM)TheRevSWT Wrote:  

(08-07-2018 04:31 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  Regarding Texas State though, yeah, the exit and entrance fees would be a nuisance at the outset, but you have to think about it long-term because long-term, I do think it would be a benefit for them to be in a conference with 4 other Texas schools, assuming we all stay in C-USA of course.

I'm gonna disagree with you on that part (the long term part).

I think in the short term (10 years give or take) it would be a benefit, as it would gain us some traction in Texas, playing Texas teams. But long term, it will limit the amount of exposure we would get nationally, as most of the interest is limited in Texas.

If (and in no way am I stating that CUSA or Sun Belt would do this) one of the groups waived fees for us to enter/exit, I think we would do it. But our school hates spending one time fees unless it's for a capital expenditure.

Not trying to "start anything," but how's that "National Exposure" working for ya after 3-9, 2-10, and 2-10 seasons.

Shot in the dark: I doubt that our Belt affiliation coupled with our lousy team performance has put us on anyone's radar as it pertains to "some perceived" national rep.

Good is good; and good will always get recognized. Unless you played all your games in a "sleepy little Texas league" you HAVE to travel outside of your state. You have to play P5 and G5s out of conference. Opportunities to prove yourself would certainly be there. Plus we all know how football hungry Texans are.

I'd love for App to play Charlotte every year. And an annual OOC rivalry could be something special (ala Clemson/South Carolina). I don't hate the idea of having FAU and FIU in the same conference. But they are way out there on an island.