It is very sad when the OVC gets better/same TV coverage as C-USA. Also frustrating. ESPN just wants cheap/free content for filler. They see no difference in teams rated 189 or rated 58. They see no difference in schools who average 1700 fans vs 6500 fans. They do not give a flip about anyone outside the P5(with a handful of exceptions). The solution? A few smart AD's in this league should know--but have been unable to get movement

(01-05-2019 12:06 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  It is very sad when the OVC gets better/same TV coverage as C-USA. Also frustrating. ESPN just wants cheap/free content for filler. They see no difference in teams rated 189 or rated 58. They see no difference in schools who average 1700 fans vs 6500 fans. They do not give a flip about anyone outside the P5(with a handful of exceptions). The solution? A few smart AD's in this league should know--but have been unable to get movement

Geez, I hate it when I have to agree with a Western FAN.

I would like to see conference stability. Constantly changing membership does nothing to promote rivalries and therefore long term interest in the conference.

I do believe that the conference can do a better job of promoting interest in our brand. One way is to arrange and promote a challenge cup with other conferences. It can include all sports during an academic year or just one during a season. It could be something as simple as a holiday basketball classic featuring the two teams from our conference versus theirs. In a tournament format, the conference champions from multiple conferences could play for bragging rights.

You can't shrink a conference.You can't kick members out, easily. It's a political nightmare. It's much easier to add schools. You have to get approval for a 4-team playoff to make it doable though. The goal here is to setup tight geographic/politically-tolerable divisions that could eventually break off on their own. You're sort of absorbing and splitting, or you're staying big, with 3-4 divisions of 5-7 schools. With tight divisions and so many teams, permanent rivalries could be preserved (App State/Georgia Southern) and disagreeable match-ups could be avoided (La Tech/ULaMo).

Here's an example of a stomach-able setup:
1-NE-Marshall, WKU, MTSU, ODU, Charlotte, App State
2-Sunbelt-Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, South Alabama, Troy, ULaMo, Texas State - you could say this division is setup for political reasons, but it's necessary, though not permanent.
3-SE-FIU, FAU, Georgia Southern, UAB, USM, La Tech
4-SW-ULaLa, Ark State, Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP
or this:
1-NE-Marshall, WKU, MTSU, ODU, Charlotte, App State
2-Sunbelt-Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern,Georgia State, South Alabama, Troy, ULaMo
3-SE-FIU, FAU, UAB, USM, La Tech, ULaLa
4-SW-Ark State, Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP, Texas State
There's a lot of possible ways to merge C-USA and the Sunbelt, but again, you need approval for a 4-school playoff to make it worthwhile. If you could pull it off, it would generate excitement and our champion would have a 14th game (before bowls) to give it a final nudge in the polls.

No more day games the first half of the season for ridiculous TV reasons. There is zero reason for Rice to play a day game before late October.

clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

Figure out what to do with BeIN & Stadium. Create a conference showcase night, and pitch it to ESPN. Thursday is out because the ACC has that. We could try Tuesday though.
Big one for me right here: really start pushing for all members to have IPF’s and practice basketball courts. IPF’s help with recruiting & game preparation, IMO. Practice courts seem to do this for basketball.

1. We need to get back on ESPN during the season and play weeknight games. Tuesday through Friday. Whatever it takes. Every other G5 conference does this. If you're not a P5, you can't have stupid Saturday expectations.

2. Have every game viewable at one freaking place. That can be ESPN+ or on a CUSA network but it has to be one place to see every game online. This bouncing around is idiotic.

3. We need to schedule more regionally to improve attendance.

4. Rival week has to be a part of this. WKU and MT needs to be on Rival week. The rest can pick who they want to play as a rival and we do it every year. No exception. Create names for the games and BRAND THEM.

5. Speak out LOUDLY about this P5/G5 split. If coaches and AD's from P5's talk it, remind them of a potential boycott where none of their sports will ever play us and that will create trouble for the low end P5's. They become nothing. Then work to form a coalition to guarantee that fate.

6. Podcast. An official CUSA podacst or webcast.

7. Better branding overall.

(01-05-2019 09:04 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

(01-06-2019 09:12 AM)BlueraiderJT Wrote:  1. We need to get back on ESPN during the season and play weeknight games. Tuesday through Friday. Whatever it takes. Every other G5 conference does this. If you're not a P5, you can't have stupid Saturday expectations.

2. Have every game viewable at one freaking place. That can be ESPN+ or on a CUSA network but it has to be one place to see every game online. This bouncing around is idiotic.

3. We need to schedule more regionally to improve attendance.

4. Rival week has to be a part of this. WKU and MT needs to be on Rival week. The rest can pick who they want to play as a rival and we do it every year. No exception. Create names for the games and BRAND THEM.

5. Speak out LOUDLY about this P5/G5 split. If coaches and AD's from P5's talk it, remind them of a potential boycott where none of their sports will ever play us and that will create trouble for the low end P5's. They become nothing. Then work to form a coalition to guarantee that fate.

6. Podcast. An official CUSA podacst or webcast.

7. Better branding overall.

Those of you averaging less than 15k/game might be ok with the midnight games and I don't care if we play them on the road but as a Marshall fan, no thanks. We have an actual fan base who likes to come to our games on Saturdays. Not worth it for us.

We need more CONFERENCE games on actual TV sets on Saturdays (and perhaps Thursday's & Friday's)...therefore more restaurants/bars across the nation will be airing them for the casual football fans. People say that many are cutting cable and that may be true but many casual fans also drink and watch football in bars/restaurants so there is still a lot of utility in having games on actual TV sets. This is huge for building our brand. Besides, unless the businesses are hardcore fans (which by far most aren't) they are not going to stream the ESPN3/+ games on their TVs but if they are on 1/2/U/News/CBS sports/FS1 then it's more likely they will be casually seen across the nation.

As for the Friday games... I'm not entirely opposed to Friday games so long as they are on actually TV sets (for the reasons mentioned above). USM used to have a few of their games on ESPN and we'd work with many of the larger HS's in the area to schedule their Friday night fb games on Saturday since HS football is king in the south on Friday's.

(01-06-2019 09:31 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 09:04 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

(01-06-2019 02:14 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:31 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 09:04 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

clt would gladly punt Marshall for coastal. Better FB, golf and baseball.

(01-06-2019 07:06 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 02:14 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:31 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 09:04 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

clt would gladly punt Marshall for coastal. Better FB, golf and baseball.

Well head on over to the Sun Belt with Coastal. Send us either App St or Troy. We will even let you choose which one.

(01-06-2019 08:31 PM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 07:06 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 02:14 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:31 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-05-2019 09:04 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt would only approve coastal from the sunbelt

herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

clt would gladly punt Marshall for coastal. Better FB, golf and baseball.

Well head on over to the Sun Belt with Coastal. Send us either App St or Troy. We will even let you choose which one.

You must be young, the way you talk about kicking teams out of CUSA...

maybe you dont understand that the President of Marshall voted for UNCC as a CUSA member? So when you say we, you really mean, you. Why even argue over something that has about as much chance as Marshall winning a football championship? Neither is going to happen.


edit: national championship

Once again football is lost, will never gain anything with "casual fans' with football.....No one is going to watch us on Monday, Tues, Thursday at midnight, etc....Saturday no way any casual fan will pay attention either even if on a channel people get...As far as bars goes, no one is going to turn on a CUSA game on a Saturday at 3 in the afternoon.. So we need to worry about how to gain more exposure for CUSA basketball. It starts with getting a better TV deal than the 26th best conference this season....

(01-06-2019 09:21 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 08:31 PM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 07:06 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 02:14 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:31 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  herdfan says that literally no one cares what Charlotte thinks. In fact, consider yourself lucky if you we allow you to join the new conference with real FBS programs.

As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

clt would gladly punt Marshall for coastal. Better FB, golf and baseball.

Well head on over to the Sun Belt with Coastal. Send us either App St or Troy. We will even let you choose which one.

You must be young, the way you talk about kicking teams out of CUSA...

maybe you dont understand that the President of Marshall voted for UNCC as a CUSA member? So when you say we, you really mean, you. Why even argue over something that has about as much chance as Marshall winning a football championship? Neither is going to happen.


edit: national championship

No our current President did not. Also all the Presidents who voted for Charlotte over App State are morons.

(01-07-2019 09:22 AM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 09:21 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 08:31 PM)herdfan129 Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 07:06 PM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  

(01-06-2019 02:14 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  As if Marshall internet fans have any more say in the matter than any other CUSA fanbase?

Your administration LOVES being in a conference with Charlotte. What's not to love being in a conference with another university in the middle of one of your major alumni bases?

Serious question, has Marshall ever been a founding member of an FBS level conference? We are founding members of the SunBelt and CUSA.

clt would gladly punt Marshall for coastal. Better FB, golf and baseball.

Well head on over to the Sun Belt with Coastal. Send us either App St or Troy. We will even let you choose which one.

You must be young, the way you talk about kicking teams out of CUSA...

maybe you dont understand that the President of Marshall voted for UNCC as a CUSA member? So when you say we, you really mean, you. Why even argue over something that has about as much chance as Marshall winning a football championship? Neither is going to happen.


edit: national championship

No our current President did not. Also all the Presidents who voted for Charlotte over App State are morons.

Yes, university presidents and athletic directors are dumber than you. Good luck in life.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Charlotte was ALWAYS coming back to C-USA once we got football.

clt says Marshall and appy are both on decline and living in the past.

(01-07-2019 11:25 AM)ghostofclt! Wrote:  clt says Marshall and appy are both on decline and living in the past.

Yeah. Guess last weeks basketball game is ancient history lol