Watching these games at Winthrop and Liberty looks great on TV.

I think it’s way past time that we need to accept some hard truths as a conference and stop pretending because we have FBS football programs that somehow we are a higher class of programs than we actually are. Outside of us (C-USA fans), no one cares. The same can be said for every other conference except the high majors.

I may be in the minority here but one of these truths is an on campus tournament would have more fan excitement and reward the better teams with some extra home games. Almost no one attends or even watches the C-USA tournament except us. Do we make more money as a conference by slapping some sponsorship on it as opposed to having games people might actually attend at the higher seeds?

It’s hard to accept when you aren’t as great as you thought you were, and we have been pretending for about 6 years, maybe longer. So instead of trying to do stuff to garner the attention of outsiders, why don’t we do something benefits the actual fans of the schools.

(03-08-2020 02:54 PM)MU42 Wrote:  Watching these games at Winthrop and Liberty looks great on TV.

I think it’s way past time that we need to accept some hard truths as a conference and stop pretending because we have FBS football programs that somehow we are a higher class of programs than we actually are. Outside of us (C-USA fans), no one cares. The same can be said for every other conference except the high majors.

I may be in the minority here but one of these truths is an on campus tournament would have more fan excitement and reward the better teams with some extra home games. Almost no one attends or even watches the C-USA tournament except us. Do we make more money as a conference by slapping some sponsorship on it as opposed to having games people might actually attend at the higher seeds?

It’s hard to accept when you aren’t as great as you thought you were, and we have been pretending for about 6 years, maybe longer. So instead of trying to do stuff to garner the attention of outsiders, why don’t we do something benefits the actual fans of the schools.

The Big South is moving its tournament to Charlotte next season.

I don't disagree with the premise that on-campus sites would generate more excitement, but the reason that it's so appealing is also the reason that it won't work as well as you might hope: the conference's unwieldy footprint. It makes having a successful central location for a tournament difficult to impossible, but if you're doing home sites, you run the risk of making, say, FIU travel from Miami to UTEP on short notice, or UTSA to Norfolk, or Southern Miss to North Texas and then Charlotte. It's much easier to do in a bus league, which CUSA very much isn't.

You could let the top seed host the whole thing but if they go out early, your final isn't going to be well attended.

You could punt the tournament entirely and give the bid to the regular-season champion but you'd have to figure out scheduling to accommodate that, and people are already getting antsy about the pods because it didn't gin up at-large bids from whole cloth, so I don't know how excited they would be for this.

There's no easy answer as things stand now.

If not “on campus”, move to a more centralized location. Do it on this weekend instead of selection Sunday weekend. Have only the semi final and final be the tournament. A lot of ideas. Cusa officials just want it in their backyard so they don’t have to make effort to get there.

clt says some small schools like marshal, unt and smiss are not prepared to host a tourney on campus.

Here's the answer and it's been the answer from day one..... attend the tourney . You have 365 days to plan, save, put in for time off work and to get a group of friends to attend with you to cut cost. Unlike a bowl game you know exactly the date and location 365 days in advance.

Simple answer to a very simple problem. But I understand its a lot easier to blame somebody else when in fact most fans complaining, not going unless its a home game.....100% sure answer and fact.

There is no central location and when most of the teams have under 2,000 in the stands , well most have under 1,000 but I was being kind, for a home game...what makes anyone believe those fans or more of them will drive 3+ hours to see their team play? The answer to that question....THEY WONT. A few might make the drive if their team makes the championship game..but we are talking 100s even then, not 1,000s

There are 4 post above mine, why are each of you sitting home? (edit) now 5 post

I think I know the reason all 5 of you are not going. I also think the same reasons would be in place anywhere this tourney was played, outside of your home state. So we can play the what if game till the end of time and it wont change anything because CUSA is not willing to play on the home courts. I bet not many, if any coach in CUSA wants to do that either. Also that would limit schools from playing regional or state tourneys on their court.

Do it like football and have an East tournament and a west tournament. The two champs meet on the highest seeds home court a week later on ESPN. Let the conference pay for the road team to travel. I’d bet a tournament in Charlotte, Nashville or Norfolk would draw more with half the teams than Frisco does with all of them. Ashville, Knoxville and Roanoke would work too if you don’t want a schools home city.

(03-08-2020 07:10 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Here's the answer and it's been the answer from day one..... attend the tourney . You have 365 days to plan, save, put in for time off work and to get a group of friends to attend with you to cut cost. Unlike a bowl game you know exactly the date and location 365 days in advance.

Simple answer to a very simple problem. But I understand its a lot easier to blame somebody else when in fact most fans complaining, not going unless its a home game.....100% sure answer and fact.

There is no central location and when most of the teams have under 2,000 in the stands , well most have under 1,000 but I was being kind, for a home game...what makes anyone believe those fans or more of them will drive 3+ hours to see their team play? The answer to that question....THEY WONT. A few might make the drive if their team makes the championship game..but we are talking 100s even then, not 1,000s

There are 4 post above mine, why are each of you sitting home? (edit) now 5 post

I think I know the reason all 5 of you are not going. I also think the same reasons would be in place anywhere this tourney was played, outside of your home state. So we can play the what if game till the end of time and it wont change anything because CUSA is not willing to play on the home courts. I bet not many, if any coach in CUSA wants to do that either. Also that would limit schools from playing regional or state tourneys on their court.

I agree.

(03-09-2020 06:22 AM)MAN4UAB Wrote:  

(03-08-2020 07:10 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Here's the answer and it's been the answer from day one..... attend the tourney . You have 365 days to plan, save, put in for time off work and to get a group of friends to attend with you to cut cost. Unlike a bowl game you know exactly the date and location 365 days in advance.

Simple answer to a very simple problem. But I understand its a lot easier to blame somebody else when in fact most fans complaining, not going unless its a home game.....100% sure answer and fact.

There is no central location and when most of the teams have under 2,000 in the stands , well most have under 1,000 but I was being kind, for a home game...what makes anyone believe those fans or more of them will drive 3+ hours to see their team play? The answer to that question....THEY WONT. A few might make the drive if their team makes the championship game..but we are talking 100s even then, not 1,000s

There are 4 post above mine, why are each of you sitting home? (edit) now 5 post

I think I know the reason all 5 of you are not going. I also think the same reasons would be in place anywhere this tourney was played, outside of your home state. So we can play the what if game till the end of time and it wont change anything because CUSA is not willing to play on the home courts. I bet not many, if any coach in CUSA wants to do that either. Also that would limit schools from playing regional or state tourneys on their court.

I agree.

My wife and I attend one major tournament per year (a regional or sweet sixteen). We can catch 10 conference tournaments before reaching Frisco. There’s just too many convenient tournaments to justify flying half way across country for the CUSA tournament.