GreenEddieNT

South Alabama?

WAC and CUSA have better bowls because they have better fan support. Sun Belt schools can't even get fans into their own stadiums. When was the last time a Sun Belt team sold out its stadium? Never, and we're not even talking about big stadiums at the Sun Belt level. The average Sun Belt stadium seats 30K and they struggle to fill 2 thirds of that. Half the schools in the conference can't even put more than 15K in the seats. The bowls are well aware of this. They can cry and complain till the cows come home about getting only one bowl bid but as long as the Sun Belt can't have even one measly school average 25K in attendance(let alone 30 or 40K like some other non-bcs leagues) the bowls are not going to have enough confidence in us to offer us more tie-ins.

Seemed more like a Memphis home game. Whenever a call happened to go against Memphis the place would erupt in boos but whenever MUTS got a call or scored or did something positive no one cheered.

Wouldn't surprise me. We always do everything on the cheap.

CUSA has 6 bowl games and the Sun Belt has one. Counting bowl games and championship games CUSA appears on national tv(ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Classic, FSN, CSTV, Versus, ABC, CBS, and NBC would count as national) 40-45 times a year whereas the Sun Belt can count on maybe 10 in a good year. That along with facilities, coaching, and fan support are what matters to recruits. CUSA has the Sun Belt by the balls on all those categories and they have more money to boot. Maybe moving to the WAC is not a bad idea. It is not CUSA but it is still an upgrade over the Sun Belt. You are judged by the company you keep and it is obvious that being in the Sun Belt makes us less attractive in the eyes of players, coaches, and fans.

If we were winning no one would complain. That's the issue. Regardless of whether we are running with DD or passing with TD the end result is the same...losing.

True, we have to get to the point where we actually make more money from home games, against anybody, than we do from going on the road for payouts. We need the money....especially when we are supposedly trying to raise money for a stadium.

How much money are they paying us anyway? Is it more than we would make if we were hosting a I-AA school?

I agree. The bottom line is that we don't have the horses on offense or defense. Wether that will change in the future remains to be seen but right now our talent level is no better than it was during the Dickey regime.

If the defense is the strength I'd hate to see the weaknesses.

Exactly. Nobody can run up the score on a team that actually plays defense.

Well, they've gone in for halftime. At least that will momentarily stop them from scoring.

Well, the scary thing is that at this point I'm not even sure we could compete with Boise State or Appalachian State either.

Yup, it's gonna take AT LEAST 2 years...if ever. DD left the cupboard bare. Dodge is really starting from scratch. We have no players, no stadium, no fans, nothing!

Yup, the talent disparity is incredible. I can't believe Boise State was actually able to beat these guys.

WOW! Hopefully we can at least stay within 80 points.

Exactly. UTEP has by far the largest fan base and the best athletic facilities of any of the non-bcs schools in Texas and even they don't have a prayer of getting into the Big-12. UNT at this point isn't even CUSA material so talking about the Big 12 is beyond ridiculous.

Final: Tulsa 35 Monroe 17

We'll get a larger stadium when and if we get a larger fan base. The reason why, as you pointed out, most non-bcs schools have small stadiums(seating 30K or less) is that most non-bcs schools have very small fan bases.

Yup, student size is the most overrated statistic out there. There are a bunch of schools out there with far less students than us but with fan bases so large they dwarf ours easily and I'm not even talking about schools in BCS conferences. The bottom line is that if you want to have a large fan base you need to have the community committed and obsessed to your program rather than just the students, not that our students care all that much either. This is where it really hurts us to be in a market where the public has so many options for where to spend their sports and entertainment money. People don't have unlimited budgets allocated to entertainment and sports. Every dollar that is spent on another sports or entertainment venue is a dollar UNT won't be getting. It is always going to be an uphill battle for us because not only are we not anywhere near the top of the food chain in terms of sports in this market but we also have to compete with a bunch of other people battling for those same sports and entertainment dollars. Another thing the schools with larger fan bases have going for them is great support for basketball so that they stay involved with the athletics even after the football season ends. So to recap we need more "subway" bandwagon fans and a consistent basketball program.

Exactly, the size of our fan base is nothing to brag about. When you combine a small fan base with a crappy conference you end up with a situation where nobody wants to invest in a new stadium that will be empty and hardly noticed by the media.

Excellent points. The only thing worse than being in a non-bcs conference is being in a western non-bcs conference. That is made even worse when that non-bcs conference is the WAC.

I recall reading that SMU was in favor of adding Tech but I also recall reading that Memphis was adamant about adding UTEP or adding nobody and at that time, and probably still, Memphis has more clout than SMU. As for how the other 9 CUSA schools felt with regard to adding UTEP, UNT, Tech, or nobody I really don't know because their people were less vocal than those of SMU and Memphis. However, if indeed there was any truth to the rumor that CUSA was prepared to stay at 11 if they couldn't get UTEP then one has to look at UTEP's qualifications as the minimum "informal" requirements for admission, especially considering that Memphis favored a school like UTEP and Memphis seems to call the shots in CUSA. UTEP Men's Basketball Tradition NCAA men's basketball tournament appearances:1963(Lost to Texas 47-65), 1964(Defeated Texas A&M 68-62 & Creighton 63-52, lost to Kansas State 60-64), 1966(Defeated Oklahoma City 89-74, Cincinnati 78-76, Kansas 81-80, Utah 85-78, & Kentucky 72-65), 1967(Defeated Seattle 62-54 & Wyoming 69-67, lost to Pacific 63-72), 1970(Lost to Utah State 81-91), 1975(Lost to Indiana 53-78), 1984(Lost to UNLV 60-73), 1985(Defeated Tulsa 79-75, lost to North Carolina State 73-86), 1986(Lost to Bradley 65-83), 1987(Defeated Arizona 98-91, lost to Iowa 82-84), 1988(Lost to Seton Hall 64-80), 1989(Defeated LSU 85-74, lost to Indiana 69-92), 1990(Lost to Minnesota 61-64), 1992(Defeated Evansville 55-50 & Kansas 66-60, lost to Cincinnati 67-69), 2004(Lost to Maryland 83-86), 2005(Lost to Utah 54-60) Men's basketball post-season NIT appearances:1965(Lost to Manhattan 53-71), 1972(Lost to Niagara 57-76), 1980(Defeated Wichita State 58-56, lost to Michigan 65-74), 1981(Defeated San Jose State 57-53, lost to Tulsa 67-72), 1983(Lost to Fresno State 64-71), 1993(Defeated Houston 67-61, lost to Georgetown 44-71), 1995(Defeated Montana 90-60, lost to New Mexico State 89-92), 2001(Defeated McNeese State 84-74, lost to Memphis 65-90), 2006(Defeated Lipscomb 85-66, lost to Michigan 67-82) UTEP Football Tradition Football bowl appearances Sun Bowl(El Paso, Texas):1937(Lost to Hardin-Simmons 6-34), 1949(Lost to West Virginia 12-21), 1950(Defeated Georgetown 33-20), 1954(Defeated Southern Miss 37-14), 1955(Defeated Florida State 47-20), 1957(Lost to George Washington 0-13), 1965(Defeated TCU 13-12), 1967(Defeated Ole' Miss 14-7) Independence Bowl(Shreveport, Louisiana):1988(Lost to Southern Miss 18-38) Humanitarian Bowl(Boise, Idaho):2000(Lost to Boise State 23-38) Houston Bowl(Houston, Texas):2004(Lost to Colorado 28-33) GMAC Bowl(Mobile, Alabama):2005(Lost to Toledo 13-45) UTEP's Fan Base Seasons when UTEP has averaged at least 30,000 fans per home game in football:1987(42,086), 1988(35,975), 1992(30,131), 1999(36,455), 2000(44,715), 2004(41,209), 2005(47,899), 2006(42,444) Seasons when UTEP has averaged at least 8,000 fans per home game in men's basketball:1976-77(10,879), 1977-78(8,124), 1978-79(9,104), 1979-80(9,293), 1980-81(9,346), 1981-82(8,758), 1982-83(8,885), 1983-84(11,568), 1984-85(10,732) 1985-86(11,001), 1986-87(11,106), 1987-88(10,198), 1988-89(10,263), 1989-90(10,927), 1990-91(8,707), 1992-93(8,416), 1993-94(8,738), 1994-95(10,362), 1995-96(8,448), 1999-00(8,534), 2000-01(9,657), 2003-04(10,282), 2004-05(10,405), 2005-06(9,695), 2006-07(8,707) Main UTEP Football & Basketball Facilities Football: Sun Bowl Stadium(On campus), seating capacity 51,500 Basketball: Don Haskins Center(On campus), seating capacity 12,000 To be honest there is no school currently in the Sunbelt or in the eastern WAC(LA Tech, NMSU?) that even comes close to the total package so my guess is that if CUSA lost someone they would try to get TCU back and since I doubt TCU would swallow their pride and go back then CUSA would likely stay at 11, especially if Memphis is still around to have a say in it. So look for the Sun Belt to stay together and also pick up LA Tech(and possibly NMSU as well if the WAC suffers a big raid from the MWC) at some point. I just don't see how Tech can survive in the WAC another 5 years even under the best of circumnstances, let alone in the current reality they have with huge costs, no money, and a very small fan base.

As Shakespeare would say..."ay, there's the rub".

Did you ever see the movie "Free Willly"? In it a boy(the one who rescues Willy) is abandoned by his mother as a baby and left to be raised by social workers and foster parents. Everytime he gets placed in a foster home he refuses to accept his new parents and insists that his mother will be coming back for him at any moment. Towards the end of the movie he finally decides to stop running away from his adoptive parents after realizing they are the only ones that love him. The moral of this story is that Louisiana Tech is everybody's bastard as well. SMU, Rice, Tulsa, and UTEP are not going to be rescuing you from the WAC. They left you behind and didn't even give a backwards glance to see how you were doing. At this point they don't even know you exist. Likewise, the western WAC schools don't want you around either. Sure, they tolerate you because no one else wants to be in the WAC but they'd rather see you take a walk as soon as they find a western replacement or as soon the period expires when they would lose NCAA BB units if Tech leaves. The only schools in a 1-A league that PROBABLY wouldn't mind being in the same league with Tech are the ones in the Sun Belt. They are the only ones who have ever wanted you. Stop pining for mommy to come back cause she went to CUSA and you ain't never gonna see her again. Your stepfathers in the WAC ended up stuck with custody of you and they ain't too happy with it. Heck, the moment a MWC invite comes they won't hesitate to leave you to your fate along with the other Sun Belt runaways NMSU, Utah State, and Idaho. You better hope that by the time that happens the Sun Belt is still wanting to adopt you.