Arkstfan

CONGRATULATIONS GUYS! So much for the SMU block theory. It’s been zero secret that Sun Belt and USM and Marshall have been talking for months. They’ve got their landing spot. Question is does anyone else in CUSA have a landing spot.

The Larry Fedora coaching tree is withering. AState had to tie a pork chop around Blake Anderson’s neck by slashing his buyout to get Utah State to take him. Walt Bell is 2-20 at UMass.

I feel like Captain Kirk in one of the movies (they blur together) when they think they’ve found God and he wants the Enterprise and Kirk asks “Why does God need a starship?” If UAB is THE choice as we’ve heard basically since the prospect AAC losing members first arose, my question is, “If UAB is who you want, why haven’t you added them?” I mean come on first thing AAC needs right now is an 8th full football member, if UAB is the easy choice, the top choice, why not add them and “continue looking at options to advance the league”?

You can’t have FBS football without sponsorship of another 15 sports. They are part of football existing and their costs matter.

That last sentence is just silly and smells vaguely of being pulled from a colon.

There is a saying I like and try to remind myself of it at times. ”If only we could see ourselves as others see us.” Some need that worse than others, like the folks in Ruston. What CUSA paid for was to have one of the most successful Commissioners of the modern era look at the G5 landscape tell the presidents what they are viewed as by someone who started the realignment frenzy, the guy who started the conference network frenzy, the guy who make the B1G incredibly wealthy and forced others to keep up, something only SEC has managed to do. OU and Texas aren’t headed to SEC but for the things he set in motion. And when you look at the G5 from the viewpoint of schools that are (mostly) receiving more applications than they could ever admit, operating on $100 million plus athletic budgets and have programs the vacuum up the greatest high school players, leaving others to seek diamonds in the rough is a different viewpoint. The 33 or so schools in G5 that aren’t in the MAC and aren’t in MWC look pretty fungible from that angle. The media rights potential of any combination of 9-16 of those schools isn’t going to look like much. What does look sensible when you approach it from the point of view is organizing around the most possible nearby games and putting the media rights into a 30+ team bundle where there is some leverage. I don’t think there are many presidents willing to see themselves that way, I know few fans are. But it’s an idea that works in theory, makes a lot of sense in theory. Reality is the decision-makers are not going to admit that from a media rights perspective there is more out there by ignoring the human instinct to form small tribes rather than work cooperatively across a larger group.

Cute. There’s a difference flying from the Central time zone to the Mountain and Pacific, except for Las Vegas which is usually really reasonable except around Christmas.

I’d say in athletics, socialism has worked remarkably well for the NFL and NBA.

Thing is most G5’s aren’t chartering flights for men’s and women’s hoops or volleyball etc.

La Tech has tended to really dominate ULM in non-conference competition but when they’ve been in the same conference ULM has had the upper hand. If Tech can’t sell having a better affiliation ULM has out-performed them.

Do you do much business travel East and west. Going west tends to cost more with less desirable times.

Given their location are we sure that’s not in Canadian money?

MWC is in an interesting position. There is not an interesting FBS school within 300 miles of the current members. Among FCS Cal-Davis, Portland State, and Sacramento State is about it. Montana is interesting but if they are called up to replace Boise State, they are 470 miles from the nearest MWC and as of this writing, Missoula is under a winter storm warning. I think it’s going to be remarkably difficult for MWC to agree on an addition. It’s going to be really hard for anyone in the Central time zone to justify membership without there being at least two more going with them.

In theory you can do all sorts of cool stuff. Consolidate the TV rights into a single contract to have greater leverage, consolidate the bowl negotiations, post-season event location deals. Set a base payment per team from TV and then eat what you kill for the rest. But it won’t happen. Let’s say AAC can get $3 million per, Sun Belt is supposedly at $1.3 million per and CUSA around $1 million. Let’s take the example of Memphis, AState and MTSU So do nothing Memphis $3 million, AState $1.3 and MTSU $1 Now if we consolidate TV and money goes up so it’s Memphis $4 million AState $4 and MTSU $4 Memphis doesn’t want that. The $1 million raise is offset by parity. It’s better to make $1.7 million more than AState and $2 million more than MTSU than make another million and have your regional competition making the same.

I’ve long argued that leagues ought to consolidate their offices. One issue that comes up is Championship events. Fans far from the chosen site complain. Cities generally want a multi-year deal to give favorable terms. Easiest solution is to pick two sites and do a four year deal with each and rotate the conferences between the sites. But the reality is it is an incredibly long shot. Everyone is going to fear the other group gets favoritism on sending press releases and doing social media and official assignments. What happens if League A thinks the commissioner needs to be replaced and League B thinks the commissioner needs a raise and extension. Ordered realignment just isn’t happening. Someone is going to be mad and either block the vote or sue. Sun Belt tried to get this conversation going a decade ago and got told to go pound sand. Even pitched a limited time shuffle to deal with Covid in multiple sports and told to go pound sand because there were too many “we don’t want them as a conference mate” objections. Can’t imagine why Sun Belt would now scoff at the idea.

All I got on that one.

No. I’ve got a flight in the morning. Can’t make the game, drive two hours home and not worry about oversleeping.

I was in Sandestin for the Sun Belt meetings just before TXST and UTSA to WAC was officially announced but everyone was certain it was happening. I’m visiting with Wright Waters later in the day after the presidents meet. I ask if there were any surprises. He said Yes, Dr. Rawlins had told me that during new business he intended to put UTSA forward for admission. New business came and went and he said nothing. Would be interesting to see how things might have gone had he spoken up.

He has two years as a head coach so bit early but still surprised Auburn went with Harsin.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-931471.html

Eli is a dork and unabashedly so from the Gus Malzahn of weird football guys. He’s got a special place in the hearts of Arkansas State fans because Bryan Harsin fired himself as playcaller and turned that over to Drink who saved our rear ends. I was super disappointed he got the App job because he was on my wish list.

Eh it’s a looney Marshall fan who claims media dude Chuck Landon said so on Facebook but there are no links or screenshots to substantiate he has said such thing and he’s certainly not said it on Twitter. There’s a poll discussion of who people would like to pursue if said is true.

It’s a mixed bag. You get fewer eyeballs in 2021 but the networks love getting better data about who is watching.

Matt Brown writes on how media value works. https://www.extrapointsmb.com/mid-major-tv-valuation-conference-realignment-streaming/

What AAC ought to do and what it will do probably aren’t the same thing. If I were advising them I’d say 10 is fine right now. You can have a championship game, anyone in MAC, CUSA, SBC is going to hop on board. You don’t have to do anything today except add at least one to get your 8 full FBS members (Navy doesn’t count as football only) and two to get your title game. I’d snag UAB and Buffalo then wait for a year or two and see how things shake out. What I expect to happen is AAC to be in panic mode. You may see Tulsa, SMU, Tulane in a snit and block expansion unless Rice is invited. UAB gets picked. There are rumors/speculation that ECU and Temple are lobbying for Charlotte and may have other support because Charlotte has a basketball “name” (never mind they’ve been nothing special lately). You’ve got rank speculation that one of the F_U’s gets grabbed and similar speculation about UTSA. This smells like CUSA great six team grab where taking one or two becomes taking six to smooth al the feathers. AAC ought to take two. Maybe consider bolstering hoops, it’s almost assured St. Louis would join, question is can Dayton be peeled off? If so add two football two hoops. But I think they panic and go twelve. If they really believe Big XII is going to add two more at a later date (odd strategy, why not do it at once?) then a panic reaction is go to 14 to try secure a bigger presence and not feel compelled to add more after losing two (but likely adding if losing one). So far the weirdest and wildest idea tossed is a very dubious claim (probably some poster thinking of it in the shower) is MWC pursuing Army and Navy and setting it up so neither plays the other in league play, swapping divisions every two years and letting them keep the Army-Navy game as a non-conference game and keep the TV rights.