From CBSsports.com Matt Norlander- 12/1/21 article.

"It would be an awfully big swing" Source says FB stadium nowhere near ready.

Comments are buried in a long article titled--" Court Report:Wild college football, basketball coaching carousels in 2021 will shape both sports for a decade".

While the story casts strong doubt it stopped short of calling it a 100% NO.

(12-02-2021 05:00 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  From CBSsports.com Matt Norlander- 12/1/21 article.

"It would be an awfully big swing" Source says FB stadium nowhere near ready.

Comments are buried in a long article titled--" Court Report:Wild college football, basketball coaching carousels in 2021 will shape both sports for a decade".

While the story casts strong doubt it stopped short of calling it a 100% NO.

SHSU stadium is smaller than 14K and Missouri State stadium is big enough and they can get a waver if it is not. That to me is an excuse for Missouri State to stay in the FCS. TBH from Missouri State perspective I would say in the Missouri Valley. TBH the Missouri Valley is better then C-USA and Missouri State rivals are in the Valley and most of their fanbase want to stay in the Missouri Valley conference.

Can you give some explanation of how YOU know how the BEARS fan base feels?

(12-02-2021 05:34 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  Can you give some explanation of how YOU know the BEARS fan base feels?

Why you did you capitalize/put emphasis on "YOU"? Anyway, from the Bears fans I interacted with, they did not like the ideal of going to C-USA. The Missouri Valley is a competitive conference with great teams in it that have huge rivalries. I can see Missouri State decision to stay in the Valley due to the fact of the quality of teams in the valley. It is going to be hard to take teams away from the Missouri Valley and Big Sky. Theses teams are in a competitive environment to win a FCS Natty unlike teams in the ASun, Southland, WAC, OVC, Southern etc.

Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

If true, this is disappointing but not unexpected news.

The message board I read seems to put their basketball (men's and women's) in the driver's seat rather than football. They don't want to risk worsening those programs at the expense of football and they seemed overly concerned about the costs of moving to FBS.

(12-02-2021 09:13 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

"Way better" is a pretty silly statement. The end of season conference rankings by Kenpom this past season had the MVC 11th and CUSA 12th. In what world is that way better? Loyola (best in the MVC) is leaving for the A10. CUSA will be a better mbb conference going forward. But it's obvious that Missouri St likes the MVC and FCS so let's move on to schools that aspire to FBS and better basketball.

(12-03-2021 08:35 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(12-02-2021 09:13 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

"Way better" is a pretty silly statement. The end of season conference rankings by Kenpom this past season had the MVC 11th and CUSA 12th. In what world is that way better? Loyola (best in the MVC) is leaving for the A10. CUSA will be a better mbb conference going forward. But it's obvious that Missouri St likes the MVC and FCS so let's move on to schools that aspire to FBS and better basketball.

Hmm, you don't suppose that lofty #12 C-USA hoops ranking will be hindered by the departure of ODU, Marshall, Charlotte, UAB and UNT?

(12-03-2021 09:55 AM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  

(12-03-2021 08:35 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(12-02-2021 09:13 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

"Way better" is a pretty silly statement. The end of season conference rankings by Kenpom this past season had the MVC 11th and CUSA 12th. In what world is that way better? Loyola (best in the MVC) is leaving for the A10. CUSA will be a better mbb conference going forward. But it's obvious that Missouri St likes the MVC and FCS so let's move on to schools that aspire to FBS and better basketball.

Hmm, you don't suppose that lofty #12 C-USA hoops ranking will be hindered by the departure of ODU, Marshall, Charlotte, UAB and UNT?

At the end of the day C-USA foot print is in the southeast and Football is bigger in the southeast then basketball. I think Football needs to be the main driving force.

(12-03-2021 08:35 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(12-02-2021 09:13 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

"Way better" is a pretty silly statement. The end of season conference rankings by Kenpom this past season had the MVC 11th and CUSA 12th. In what world is that way better? Loyola (best in the MVC) is leaving for the A10. CUSA will be a better mbb conference going forward. But it's obvious that Missouri St likes the MVC and FCS so let's move on to schools that aspire to FBS and better basketball.

I was more talking about football specifically.

Stephen F. Austin would fit in perfect geographically and they already have a big rivalry with Sam Houston. I believe they are decent at basketball as well. Tarleton State seems to want to move up and they fit geographically but not sure about their basketball and other sports programs. McNeese State seems to be another team that wants to move up. I just think SFA and Tarelton State solidify the western part of the conference.

Stadium capacities:

EKU 20,000
Delaware 18,800
Tarelton State 16,600
Stephen F. Austin 14,575
McNeese State 17,610
Kennesaw State 8,318
Chatannoga 20,412

(12-03-2021 01:00 PM)sstaedtler88 Wrote:  Stephen F. Austin would fit in perfect geographically and they already have a big rivalry with Sam Houston. I believe they are decent at basketball as well. Tarleton State seems to want to move up and they fit geographically but not sure about their basketball and other sports programs. McNeese State seems to be another team that wants to move up. I just think SFA and Tarelton State solidify the western part of the conference.

SFA falls in the same mold as NMSU, UTEP, MTSU and kinda WKU: Basketball first. SFA could hang around in the midish bottom 3rd in football but would be winning great OOC basketball games and keeping the NET/RPI/KenPom average really high. Good travel partner for SHSU, which means everyone else gets two games with one flight.


Tarleton State seems the best choice if football is more desired. They average more in attendance than SHSU and SFA do. Definitely transitioning, which is a downside I guess... But only until it's completed.

I can't imagine CUSA wanting to go to 12 at the moment, but if they did SFA an Tarleton should be in the next three added.

(12-03-2021 01:47 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  

(12-03-2021 01:00 PM)sstaedtler88 Wrote:  Stephen F. Austin would fit in perfect geographically and they already have a big rivalry with Sam Houston. I believe they are decent at basketball as well. Tarleton State seems to want to move up and they fit geographically but not sure about their basketball and other sports programs. McNeese State seems to be another team that wants to move up. I just think SFA and Tarelton State solidify the western part of the conference.

SFA falls in the same mold as NMSU, UTEP, MTSU and kinda WKU: Basketball first. SFA could hang around in the midish bottom 3rd in football but would be winning great OOC basketball games and keeping the NET/RPI/KenPom average really high. Good travel partner for SHSU, which means everyone else gets two games with one flight.


Tarleton State seems the best choice if football is more desired. They average more in attendance than SHSU and SFA do. Definitely transitioning, which is a downside I guess... But only until it's completed.

I can't imagine CUSA wanting to go to 12 at the moment, but if they did SFA an Tarleton should be in the next three added.

Adding Tarleton State would not make C-USA more competitive in football plus their budget is 7M. I would go and get the best FCS schools out of the southeast from the past 5 years. You already got two of them, I would get Kennesaw State and UCA.

(12-03-2021 09:55 AM)BeatWestern! Wrote:  

(12-03-2021 08:35 AM)MinerInWisconsin Wrote:  

(12-02-2021 09:13 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Yeah the MVC/MVFC is way better than CUSA. It would be dumb to leave.

"Way better" is a pretty silly statement. The end of season conference rankings by Kenpom this past season had the MVC 11th and CUSA 12th. In what world is that way better? Loyola (best in the MVC) is leaving for the A10. CUSA will be a better mbb conference going forward. But it's obvious that Missouri St likes the MVC and FCS so let's move on to schools that aspire to FBS and better basketball.

Hmm, you don't suppose that lofty #12 C-USA hoops ranking will be hindered by the departure of ODU, Marshall, Charlotte, UAB and UNT?

Never said #12 was lofty and UAB, UNTand Marshall ratings are good, the rest are not. We also lose UTSA, FAU and USM which offset other losses. We gain 2 strong programs in NMSU and Liberty. So CUSA will rise a bit most likely while the MVC loses their best program and should dip a bit. It may turn out to be a wash but the MVC is not way better at all.

I don't know enough about Tarleton to have a solid opinion of them or their program, pro or con.

With that important caveat, based solely on the schools I do know about, I'd prefer the following (all additions would be all-sports members):

WEST (adding 2): NMSU, UTEP, SHSU, La Tech, *UCA, *SFA

EAST (adding 1): JSU, WKU, MTSU, FIU, Liberty, *NCAT

Next up, either in a move to 14, or to replace any current teams poached by other conferences:

WEST: Tarleton St
EAST: Kennesaw St

NCA&T would be the best Southern/SouthEast pickup left in the FCS. That would be a fantastic pickup. I pay attention to NCA&T as they're my FCS team. They would need some coaching changes just because they're still operating on with a weak staff.

NCA&T has equal standing in the UNC system as any other public school. They have access to the same funds and are in a great location. CUSA could do wildly worse.

(12-05-2021 05:00 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  NCA&T would be the best Southern/SouthEast pickup left in the FCS. That would be a fantastic pickup. I pay attention to NCA&T as they're my FCS team. They would need some coaching changes just because they're still operating on with a weak staff.

NCA&T has equal standing in the UNC system as any other public school. They have access to the same funds and are in a great location. CUSA could do wildly worse.

Adding NC&T would not make C-USA more competitive in football. I would add Kennesaw State to the east to get the metro Atlanta market/recruiting and it would make C-USA more competitive at football. NCA&T did not even do well in the Big South. If you get them, they would be the worst team in C-USA. I would add KSU to the east and SFA or UCA to the west. I would go after A-Sun schools