(04-08-2020 08:17 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 07:37 AM)ballantyneapp Wrote:  Sure Cusa has no midweek games, but their fans have to login to facebook or watch from some random Russian streaming site to see their team play for 0 money.

App was on the ESPN family 7? Times last year I think.

All 4 of the Rice non-conference games were on CBS-SN nationally. If we get to host LSU on September 19, I imagine that will also find a national airing.

you got me, I employed hyperbole. But you have to admit, Rice is an outlier.

You had 2 games against strong national brands (Army, Texas) 1 game against a strong regional brand (Baylor) and WF. Thats a damn tidy OOC schedule. None of your conference games made the cut.

UNCC had 1 OOC game on the ACC network, because they were playing one of the top 3 CFB brands right now.

(04-08-2020 08:17 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 07:37 AM)ballantyneapp Wrote:  Sure Cusa has no midweek games, but their fans have to login to facebook or watch from some random Russian streaming site to see their team play for 0 money.

App was on the ESPN family 7? Times last year I think.

All 4 of the Rice non-conference games were on CBS-SN nationally. If we get to host LSU on September 19, I imagine that will also find a national airing.

IMO, the only thing that matters is being affiliated with ESPN. I hate that, but it’s the way it is. I would most definitely be willing to play 2 mid-week games to be on national tv. It also gives them the chance to broadcast your big home games OOC if you have someone coming in. This year Marshall has Boise St and Pitt at home. You don’t think ESPN wouldn’t grab that Boise game if they had a CUSA contract. Don’t worry though, I’m sure we can get it televised on CBSSN, which is a channel that no one watches either.

This is where I get aggravated with my fellow CUSA and Marshall brethren. We act like we are to good to meet ESPN in the middle and play some mid-week games to get some exposure. Heck our 2014 team was destroying people, literally games were over by halftime and it still took 10 or 11 games for them to reluctantly put us in the Top 25 at like #24 or some crap. I’ll go to my grave swearing the lack of respect was due to no one being able to see us, and not having any ESPn backing. They were going to put in a 2 lose Boise over Marshall even if we hadn’t lost to WKU. Both the AAC and MAC have sent teams to the access bowl. App State had a great shot this year for the Sun Belt. They all have something in common, ESPN exposure.

(04-07-2020 10:00 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 09:36 PM)HTOWN_HERD Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 09:29 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 08:22 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  They can drop EMU, add Marshall, and move Bowling Green to the west. Works out for everyone.

The MAC cannot drop EMU. No one’s getting dropped. Everyone pulls their weight.

Well then I don’t understand why the MAC would have Marshall back, if it even comes to pass. What incentive would the MAC have? It would just cut into their media deal and be less money for existing members. Is it possible to expand to 14 teams and take Marshall and say App State or WKU and renegotiate the ESPN deal to come close to the same amount of money members are currently getting?

To many unknowns here, but the rumor is from a creditable source. I’d say everything hinges on whether we have a football season or not, so we won’t know anything publicly for a while. My bet is if the season gets played the rumor dies off.

JMU was #14 when UMass rejected the all-sports offer. MAC expands with Marshall and JMU, bump BG to the West.

You're trackin', but I believe ODU is the primary and JMU is the secondary. Either way, yes, BGSU would move to the MAC West.

FIRE UP CHIPS! :)

(04-08-2020 08:17 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 07:37 AM)ballantyneapp Wrote:  Sure Cusa has no midweek games, but their fans have to login to facebook or watch from some random Russian streaming site to see their team play for 0 money.

App was on the ESPN family 7? Times last year I think.

All 4 of the Rice non-conference games were on CBS-SN nationally. If we get to host LSU on September 19, I imagine that will also find a national airing.

That was due to playing Army and 3 P5's.

(04-08-2020 08:59 AM)HTOWN_HERD Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 08:17 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(04-08-2020 07:37 AM)ballantyneapp Wrote:  Sure Cusa has no midweek games, but their fans have to login to facebook or watch from some random Russian streaming site to see their team play for 0 money.

App was on the ESPN family 7? Times last year I think.

All 4 of the Rice non-conference games were on CBS-SN nationally. If we get to host LSU on September 19, I imagine that will also find a national airing.

IMO, the only thing that matters is being affiliated with ESPN. I hate that, but it’s the way it is. I would most definitely be willing to play 2 mid-week games to be on national tv. It also gives them the chance to broadcast your big home games OOC if you have someone coming in. This year Marshall has Boise St and Pitt at home. You don’t think ESPN wouldn’t grab that Boise game if they had a CUSA contract. Don’t worry though, I’m sure we can get it televised on CBSSN, which is a channel that no one watches either.

This is where I get aggravated with my fellow CUSA and Marshall brethren. We act like we are to good to meet ESPN in the middle and play some mid-week games to get some exposure. Heck our 2014 team was destroying people, literally games were over by halftime and it still took 10 or 11 games for them to reluctantly put us in the Top 25 at like #24 or some crap. I’ll go to my grave swearing the lack of respect was due to no one being able to see us, and not having any ESPn backing. They were going to put in a 2 lose Boise over Marshall even if we hadn’t lost to WKU. Both the AAC and MAC have sent teams to the access bowl. App State had a great shot this year for the Sun Belt. They all have something in common, ESPN exposure.

The sad irony of this, is prior to joining CUSA we (Marshall) were an ESPN darling, then we join CUSA and the member schools decide to tell ESPN to #$%$ off and go with Fox. Now we are stuck with a crappy deal and those same members who flubbed their nose at ESPN are in the AAC and ESPN darlings.

(04-07-2020 09:24 AM)wsherdfan Wrote:  OK - disclaimer: There is no official confirmation, so like many comments on this board, it is purely conjecture on my part.

I believe there is a $7 mil exit fee for a member leaving for a different conference. But - IF CUSA were to dissolve due to financial hardship, I would think the exit fee would be null & void.
My main thought vis a vi the members is this:
IF the conference was to disband, where would your school most likely go?
I know for the newer members, they moved up from FCS level to FBS level, meaning there would not be a horizontal path to another G5 conference affiliation. For the older members of CUSA 2.0, they came from other G5 conferences that prob no longer exist...
Where would you see your team going if CUSA goes belly up?

They would have to want you.

(04-07-2020 09:11 PM)schmolik Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 08:22 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  They can drop EMU, add Marshall, and move Bowling Green to the west. Works out for everyone.

Except of course for Eastern Michigan.

Wait... carry the one... hmm....

(04-07-2020 09:11 PM)schmolik Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 08:22 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote:  They can drop EMU, add Marshall, and move Bowling Green to the west. Works out for everyone.

Except of course for Eastern Michigan.

Well, except for Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green and Marshall. Bowling Green is not going to be one of the "yes" votes for an expansion that shifts it to the West. And Marshall is a better fit with the other four "core" members of CUSA East and wants the annual trip to Florida represented by the FxU pair.

Now, if Old Dominion wanted to bolt for the MAC, JMU and Old Dominion would make genuine travel partners, 3.5 hours apart. Now, on this year's net, it's not like either would be a big boost to the MAC BBall competition, but the football coaches might appreciate the access to the high school recruiting grounds.

But they are both good schools with long histories, and it seems like the MAC Presidents would be happy to have them in the conference.

(04-07-2020 09:24 AM)wsherdfan Wrote:  OK - disclaimer: There is no official confirmation, so like many comments on this board, it is purely conjecture on my part.

I believe there is a $7 mil exit fee for a member leaving for a different conference. But - IF CUSA were to dissolve due to financial hardship, I would think the exit fee would be null & void.
My main thought vis a vi the members is this:
IF the conference was to disband, where would your school most likely go?
I know for the newer members, they moved up from FCS level to FBS level, meaning there would not be a horizontal path to another G5 conference affiliation. For the older members of CUSA 2.0, they came from other G5 conferences that prob no longer exist...
Where would you see your team going if CUSA goes belly up?

That is a "BIG NO".

Realignment wishes thread number 4,957 is now in the books. Yes!

(04-07-2020 09:24 AM)wsherdfan Wrote:  OK - disclaimer: There is no official confirmation, so like many comments on this board, it is purely conjecture on my part.

I believe there is a $7 mil exit fee for a member leaving for a different conference. But - IF CUSA were to dissolve due to financial hardship, I would think the exit fee would be null & void.
My main thought vis a vi the members is this:
IF the conference was to disband, where would your school most likely go?
I know for the newer members, they moved up from FCS level to FBS level, meaning there would not be a horizontal path to another G5 conference affiliation. For the older members of CUSA 2.0, they came from other G5 conferences that prob no longer exist...
Where would you see your team going if CUSA goes belly up?

If CUSA goes belly up, the remaining schools will just form two small regional confernces. Simple as that. No Exit Fee and No Entrance Fee. I don't understand why people want to over think this. The CUSA East schools will form a new conference and so will CUSA west schools.

Problem solved.

(04-09-2020 11:09 AM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(04-07-2020 09:24 AM)wsherdfan Wrote:  OK - disclaimer: There is no official confirmation, so like many comments on this board, it is purely conjecture on my part.

I believe there is a $7 mil exit fee for a member leaving for a different conference. But - IF CUSA were to dissolve due to financial hardship, I would think the exit fee would be null & void.
My main thought vis a vi the members is this:
IF the conference was to disband, where would your school most likely go?
I know for the newer members, they moved up from FCS level to FBS level, meaning there would not be a horizontal path to another G5 conference affiliation. For the older members of CUSA 2.0, they came from other G5 conferences that prob no longer exist...
Where would you see your team going if CUSA goes belly up?

If CUSA goes belly up, the remaining schools will just form two small regional confernces. Simple as that. No Exit Fee and No Entrance Fee. I don't understand why people want to over think this. The CUSA East schools will form a new conference and so will CUSA west schools.

Problem solved.

Please don’t take this as me being argumentative because I’m not. I am curious how it will be just that easy to start a new conference? Who pays for the start up fees of said new conference? There are bound to be cost associated with that. What if some of the members don’t want to come along? There only only 7 teams in CUSA East so you’ll need to pick up 3 additional members. If the Sun Belt survives then you can forgot about any of their teams paying an exit fee to come join us. That leaves adding FCS teams and Liberty. Furthermore, who will run this new conference? Will they be better than Judy? What kind of media deal can it get? No one wants this steaming pile of poo that we are in now. We play games on Facebook for crying out loud. Just breaking the same teams into something smaller isn’t going to change that.

I honestly don’t know the answers to these questions, and it seems like an awful lot of unknowns to me. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t 100% correct in your assessment, but that’s a lot of things that have to come together for it to be the same or better than where we are now.

You are correct about the problems and expense of starting a new conference. Would a "new" conference provide stability? In addition, you need a conference that has a close proximity of schools to reduce travel expenses. I think that is why the MAC was offered as a realistic conference affiliation for Marshall.

The MAC isn't doing squat unless somebody leaves, like Buffalo for the AAC, or something. MAC, stability is thy game.

(04-09-2020 07:10 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  The MAC isn't doing squat unless somebody leaves, like Buffalo for the AAC, or something. MAC, stability is thy game.

I'm just looking for clarification. I know the MAC has decided that it wants no more football-only members after UCF, Temple, and UMass all spent time in the league and all decided to go elsewhere.

Is there really a strict no-expansion sentiment that has been expressed by members and/or the commissioner?

I can certainly understand the hesitation with Marshall. I'm sure you know the MAC history with Marshall. Joined in 1954, kicked out in 1969, returned after a 19 year stint in 1-AA in 1997, and left again in 2005. The MAC may not want a third time around with Marshall no matter how much notoriety might bring.

On the other hand, the MAC had teams seen more time in the polls during Marshall's second stint than it has since or at any time dating back to the early 70's with Toledo and Miami (OH). #MACtion is great, but could Marshall plus one other team bring some extra spice the MAC has missed for a while?

The MAC would probably expand if the combination was Marshall and JMU. They improve the league. JMU would’ve been invited 5+ years ago if UMass took the invite. The MAC sees JMU as a stand-by #14 if a home run #13 comes up.

Read on the Marshall board the Toledo Blade had an article hinting the MAC could expand (though I can’t find and haven’t seen it).

I agree the MAC +Marshall -Buffalo is the perfect league geographically.

(04-09-2020 11:09 AM)GreenBison Wrote:  [quote='wsherdfan' pid='16768318' dateline='1586269443']
OK - disclaimer: There is no official confirmation, so like many comments on this board, it is purely conjecture on my part.

I believe there is a $7 mil exit fee for a member leaving for a different conference. But - IF CUSA were to dissolve due to financial hardship, I would think the exit fee would be null & void.

What does this even mean? It's not like the CUSA is going to go bankrupt and be liquidated ... it's most valuable assets are it's status as a Div1 conference having run a qualifying basketball competition for eight consecutive years, and therefore the recipient of Tourney autobid, and its status as a signatory member to the CFP as a member of the Go5, earning a minimum slice of one CFP share ... the $1m per school up to 10 and the smallest of the five competitive pool payments ... no matter how badly it performs.

The conference is not a cost to it's members, it's a revenue source. How does it get dissolved due to financial hardship?

If too many schools leave for it to retain it's status as an FBS conference ... that would be 7 or more CUSA schools withdrawing from the conference ... it just invites others in, and problem solved.

It seems like the most that a "financial crisis" for the CUSA could really mean would be the Conference is in breach of some obligations to the member schools due to a budget shortfall, putting it in legal breach of the same membership agreement which obligates payment of the exit fee, giving members a free pass to leave CUSA if they want to.

But CUSA would still be a full conference member of the FBS of Div1 of the NCAA, with all the benefits that entails. It's not going to be shut down and replaced by one or two new organizations without either of those benefits.

The “rumor” that got all this started seems to think that people inside Marshall’s administration believes that CUSA is or will be broke due to canceling the basketball tournament and IF football season is shortened or canceled. You seem a lot more educated on this subject than me but I believe that the original poster from that board is pretty credible although I don’t know them personally.

IMO, it seems like once that study from ODU was published it gave everyone who hasn’t been happy and the ones that realized they made a mistake by joining a far flung league an opportunity to say, now is the time for change. What that change is remains to be seen, but I firmly believe that whether it’s Marshall back to the MAC or the CUSA East breakaway that something WILL happen from this financial crisis stemming from Covid-19.

First, may I note that the topic title is itself BS, since if this is all speculation by the OP, then they are NOT merely "the messenger" ... they are the author of the message.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(04-10-2020 06:53 AM)HTOWN_HERD Wrote:  The “rumor” that got all this started seems to think that people inside Marshall’s administration believes that CUSA is or will be broke due to canceling the basketball tournament and IF football season is shortened or canceled. You seem a lot more educated on this subject than me but I believe that the original poster from that board is pretty credible although I don’t know them personally.

IMO, it seems like once that study from ODU was published it gave everyone who hasn’t been happy and the ones that realized they made a mistake by joining a far flung league an opportunity to say, now is the time for change. What that change is remains to be seen, but I firmly believe that whether it’s Marshall back to the MAC or the CUSA East breakaway that something WILL happen from this financial crisis stemming from Covid-19.

So that sounds like this entire thread is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what a "financial crisis" entails. A financial crisis means the CUSA cannot pay everything they owe and everything they've promised to pay.

In the most extreme case, it may mean they have to go into Chapter 11 and restructure their debts, and some future NCAA Tourney and CFP revenue gets committed to paying for that restructure instead of getting distributed to the schools.

It doesn't mean the CUSA goes belly-up (Chapter 14 bankruptcy)

But even if the schools have a free pass on leaving ... do that mean they would want to leave? A lot of "breakaway" theories assume that we are still under the same rules and conditions as when the MWC formed after the famous airport meeting. We are not. To save the WAC, which would have lost it's autobid status and with it would have been unable to rebuild, the NCAA swapped continuity from a group of schools playing together to a conference having run a competition for consecutive years.

So a "Breakaway" loses the NCAA autobid for eight years, loses access to the Access Bowl race, loses $1m per school from the CFP payout and another couple of hundred thousand per school from the rest of the CFP distribution. And of course walks away from all NCAA tourney units they may have earned for the conference they are leaving.

Listen, your knowledge of these things is wayyy above my own. Thanks for the breakdown, and that explains a lot to me. Well if that’s the case, and IF Marshall’s administration is talking to the MAC then I would think it has nothing to do with CUSA financially and everything to do with the MAC expanding. Thus, leaving the door open for Marshall to walk out of CUSA without paying an exit fee and joining a much more geographical fit in the MAC. The MAC has a better tv deal with more money and travel cost would be cut immensely. That makes sense to me.