(10-25-2021 08:53 AM)Gemofthehills Wrote:  Hearing now JSU has indicated they are not interested. Appears to be a desire to be more a westward conference.

Not sure but this mean WKU and MTSU are on the move?

Just coming out of COVID with staff and budget cuts, this is probably not the best timing for any program.

(10-25-2021 10:39 AM)Shadow_Son Wrote:  Build back relevance through basketball. Add Liberty, NMSU, and Missouri St and keep it at 8 teams for a few years. Hope MTSU gets their heads out of the sand and fires their coach. UTEP has all the tools to be a basketball front runner.

WKU
LT
MTSU
FIU
UTEP
NMSU
Liberty
Mo State

I like this idea the best. I would probably go ahead and add UTA and UALR also for basketball, baseball and olympic sports. Having UTA keeps a presence in the DFW area, which is important. UALR would need to make improvements to their baseball stadium in the near future. They both have really nice basketball facilities.

So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

I enjoyed Hot Springs, but the Sun Belt ran the tournament better than C-USA. Not sure that Judy would do any overseeing to improve the atmosphere.

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

(10-25-2021 11:26 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

STL has hosted MVC's Arch Madness for 20+ years now and it was always pretty well attended. Last 3-4 have been pretty small. There is also the "Family Arena" in St Charles that is a decent setup for basketball and good location.

(10-25-2021 11:28 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:26 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

STL has hosted MVC's Arch Madness for 20+ years now and it was always pretty well attended. Last 3-4 have been pretty small. There is also the "Family Arena" in St Charles that is a decent setup for basketball and good location.

I’m really liking having our one resident Missouri State fan around here. Just wish it was permanent.

(10-25-2021 11:33 AM)Ewglenn Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:28 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:26 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

STL has hosted MVC's Arch Madness for 20+ years now and it was always pretty well attended. Last 3-4 have been pretty small. There is also the "Family Arena" in St Charles that is a decent setup for basketball and good location.

I’m really liking having our one resident Missouri State fan around here. Just wish it was permanent.

I’d still like to think we would commit to the jump as long as we felt the conference was on solid ground. As much as I’ve wanted to move up, I do understand the hesitancy from our administration. If we were in a difference conference, it may be different, but the MVC is solid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(10-25-2021 11:26 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:57 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  So much for moving the hoops tourney east, eh ?

Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

I will say that, should NMSU be invited and make the jump to CUSA, I will miss having the tournament in Las Vegas. Talk about a GREAT time.

GO AGGIES!!!!

(10-25-2021 11:36 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  I’d still like to think we would commit to the jump as long as we felt the conference was on solid ground. As much as I’ve wanted to move up, I do understand the hesitancy from our administration. If we were in a difference conference, it may be different, but the MVC is solid.

I want us to go to CUSA pretty badly (to get us FBS of course) but I can see how the school is very hesitant to join CUSA in it's current state due to it's stabiltiy and when we are in a top 12 basketball conference and CUSA is looking to be more like a 20ish ranked conference. If CUSA can nab Mo St, and a handful of other top 100/top150 schools in basketball then we are looking at a more desirable conference vs if CUSA invites schools like Turkleton State or whatever 300RPI schools in Texas want to go FBS.

But, the only way I can see CUSA being a top 12 or so basketball conference is if they can get some non-football schools from the MVC/Horizon/etc. In a pipe dream, I could see CUSA building back with a basketball emphasis, end up a better basketball conference than SBC/AAC/MAC and could maybe then somehow convince Wichita State or Loyola-Chi type teams to join up with us in a couple years, but I really don't see that ever happening either.

(10-25-2021 11:36 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:33 AM)Ewglenn Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:28 AM)MSUBear42 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 11:26 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 10:59 AM)freshtop Wrote:  Back to Hot Springs would be East for us.

Speaking of new conference tourney locations....if a northeastern division and a southwestern division were to come together, St. Louis and Memphis become possible locations. It's all speculation at this point but those are destination city's with good airport options and plenty to do.

STL has hosted MVC's Arch Madness for 20+ years now and it was always pretty well attended. Last 3-4 have been pretty small. There is also the "Family Arena" in St Charles that is a decent setup for basketball and good location.

I’m really liking having our one resident Missouri State fan around here. Just wish it was permanent.

I’d still like to think we would commit to the jump as long as we felt the conference was on solid ground. As much as I’ve wanted to move up, I do understand the hesitancy from our administration. If we were in a difference conference, it may be different, but the MVC is solid.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For sure, it why I want C-USA to take 4 schools from the MVC.

(10-25-2021 08:34 AM)Hilltop75 Wrote:  If we got to add schools to survive let’s
Add the best basketball schools as well.
Here are the 2022 season’s ratings.

https://kenpom.com/

This season’s ratings for all Div 1 schools

Our remaining CUSA schools

LaTech. 88
WKU. 90
UTEP. 154
MTSU. 272
FIU. 309

Prospective Schools
New Mex. St. 109
Jacksonville St. 136
Chattanooga. 156
Abilene Christian. 173
Sam Houston St. 196

CUSA East

WKU
FIU
JSU
CHATT
MTSU

CUSA. West

LaTech
UTEP
NMST
Abilene
Sam Houston

To get the best basketball schools we can, we remain CUSA in football and beg A-10 or MVC to take our basketball teams. None of this other garbage....I know our fate is almost sealed but I am not accepting it without a fight, please todd!

(10-25-2021 09:17 AM)LaTex14 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 09:05 AM)WKUApollo Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 08:34 AM)Hilltop75 Wrote:  If we got to add schools to survive let’s
Add the best basketball schools as well.
Here are the 2022 season’s ratings.

I agree wholeheartedly but I wouldn't use a single year ranking system. Those numbers won't show the value a school gives to basketball....i.e. a weak league, a bad hire, injuries, etc...all of which can skew the overall strength of a program by misrepresenting their basketball potential.

I'd compare long term history, recent as well...

For example:
Are they a consistent winner in basketball?
How do they normally place in their current league?
Basketball attendance
Basketball facility

These will tell you how much value the school places on basketball.

For sure, did an average attendance deep dive.

Missouri State - 5,150
Illinois State - 5,154
Southern Illinois - 4,472

UNI - 3,774
Stephen F Austin - 3,582
Chattanooga - 3,117
SDSU - 2,715
EKU - 2,489
NDSU - 2,231
Jacksonville State - 2,146

Abilene Christian - 1,259
SHST - 1,138
Tarleton - 1,103

Tarleton has the worst basketball arena.
SHST, UTC, EKU kinda have “old school” arenas. That don’t look awful but not nice.

Everyone else looked good.
But man I’d love to steal some MVC schools. Those top schools have great attendance.

EKU's arena is a dump barn built in 60s. The entire EKU campus has been untouched since 1960, was just there. I live close by to EKUs campus..

Its funny any of you think for one second Judy is going to move anything out of Texas..

(10-25-2021 02:46 PM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 08:34 AM)Hilltop75 Wrote:  If we got to add schools to survive let’s
Add the best basketball schools as well.
Here are the 2022 season’s ratings.

https://kenpom.com/

This season’s ratings for all Div 1 schools

Our remaining CUSA schools

LaTech. 88
WKU. 90
UTEP. 154
MTSU. 272
FIU. 309

Prospective Schools
New Mex. St. 109
Jacksonville St. 136
Chattanooga. 156
Abilene Christian. 173
Sam Houston St. 196

CUSA East

WKU
FIU
JSU
CHATT
MTSU

CUSA. West

LaTech
UTEP
NMST
Abilene
Sam Houston

To get the best basketball schools we can, we remain CUSA in football and beg A-10 or MVC to take our basketball teams. None of this other garbage....I know our fate is almost sealed but I am not accepting it without a fight, please todd!

WKU, LaTech, MoSt, NMSU. That's 4 teams that could be top 100 in any given year. UTEP has basketball history and could become a top 100 team again hopefully. So if you have 5 of your 10 members in the top 100, that's pretty damn good and better than the MVC in most years.

It would be really unique if CUSA formed into a primarily basketball conference with football.

There is still a good base of basketball programs to work with among WKU, MTSU, La Tech, and UTEP.

If you add NMSU, Liberty, EKU, Chattanooga, ETSU, or Grand Canyon... that would be an impressive basketball conference.

(10-25-2021 03:04 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  It would be really unique if CUSA formed into a primarily basketball conference with football.

There is still a good base of basketball programs to work with among WKU, MTSU, La Tech, and UTEP.

If you add NMSU, Liberty, EKU, Chattanooga, ETSU, or Grand Canyon... that would be an impressive basketball conference.

Still very few mentions of targeting Belmont or Murray State. What am I missing? Do you guys closer to them think they wouldnt consider the move, or you all dont like them? Seems like two really good, geographically sound adds to me.

(10-25-2021 03:09 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(10-25-2021 03:04 PM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  It would be really unique if CUSA formed into a primarily basketball conference with football.

There is still a good base of basketball programs to work with among WKU, MTSU, La Tech, and UTEP.

If you add NMSU, Liberty, EKU, Chattanooga, ETSU, or Grand Canyon... that would be an impressive basketball conference.

Still very few mentions of targeting Belmont or Murray State. What am I missing? Do you guys closer to them think they wouldnt consider the move, or you all dont like them? Seems like two really good, geographically sound adds to me.

Neither are bad options for basketball but we have to have full members to sustain a FBS league so the priority right now from most people's minds is focusing on which schools can bring all their sports. Neither Murray nor Belmont could bring football. Murray barely survives with FCS football. Obviously, additional schools will be considered to fortify basketball if needed but right now, everyone's talking about full members.

I imagine we'll hear much more in the coming days. The presidents and the conference office are probably working overtime talking with numerous schools.

Did you guys miss the Liberty declined CUSA tweets? I know lots going on, but half these schools already said no thanks to CUSA and who can blame them?