WKUYG

How about a coach that won 58% of his D1 college games, 50% in the NCAA tourney, in 4 years his team went to 2 NCAA tourneys and won over 50% (8) of his games against top 25 and top 60 teams? And he will take the job and in the pay range that won't break the budget...under 400K Ken McDonald

A better more actuate break down of a schools budget would be here http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm'>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm and there's no way University of Louisville spent 83 million.b UofL spent 38 million the year before they went to the Big East then it jumped to 48 million, 55 million stayed there for 2 years then increased to 58 million in 2009 then 61 million in 2010...NO WAY it jumps 22 million in one year. There's no way possible for that to happen. Private schools are not listed http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm'>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm

I totally had a brain fart and wasn't thinking about USA joining in football to bring the eastern part of the conference up to six teams. So I guess the ideal pick ups would be La Tech (with their greater than thou attitude) and any addition will have to add another Texas school as a rival/travel partner for UNT. With the east/west that would or should cut down on some travel cost. I wish the new commissioner could pull it off and make all members see that would probably be better in the long run for all teams involved instead of one or two of our members getting jumpy. Here's something else that's going to happen or at least I think it has no other choice but happen...easier to get home and home with the teams that's joining the world wide conference. With so many members that cuts down on OOC teams you can schedule. So they have three choices. 1. Play money games and take a butt kicking 2. buy home games or 3. Schedule home games with close regional teams from the SBC or WAC (if it's still around) or the MAC...no other choices out there. To go bowling you need wins so that cuts out playing over 1 for pay game and if you look at the budget for the teams in the MWC and CUSA there's not one school that can afford to buy a game with the SBC, WAC or MAC. So that means they need 2 home and home. With the cost of travel I would think most would end up scheduling regional games that will put butts in the seats. Of course I could be totally wrong on that but is there many other choices for a 18 team conference? Well I guess they could play 10 or 11 game conference schedule but that would get boring...fast

When adding members to a conference, especially a conference made up of schools with very limited budgets you also have to think of the Olympic sports and the cost of travel. While it might be cheaper to fly into San Antone adding two schools from the west doubles the cost for WKU, MTSU, TROY, FIU, FAU and USA is a wash. Three of the five are with in bus trips and probably all five for most Olympic sports. It also set up a possibility of true east/west divisions if we could bring in a Louisiana Tech. Louisiana schools are in bad shape when it comes to budgets and Direct institutional support and Student fees and that includes Louisiana Tech. Like you I don't like the ideal of adding 1AA schools but if we do it will be what's best for the whole conference and the only way you do that is to add a west and east school and not two from the far reaches of the conference (2 western or 2 eastern). While football is the driving factor in all of this...money has to be right up there in the non revenue conferences like the SBC.

If the SBC adds two 1AA teams one will be Appalachian State a better fit for most of the SBC and they have the history of a established fanbase.

No offense taken because most fans in Bowling Green feels the same way. WKU would still get a packed house of 25,000 if we played 1AA (yeah I know it's still not called that but it's 1AA to me)EKU or Murray but it's a struggle to get 15,000 to any SBC game. That's just the way most fans are old rivals are still old rivals and better know to the local fan. Hopefully winning will take care of that. I don't blame UNT fans for thinking "what if" with this new conference I'm just pointing out the number side of it and honestly I don't see it as a long term conference but if WKU got a invite I would love playing S.Miss, every year and our ole conference friend UAB and hope the conference held together. Looking at it not as a "fan" I don't see how it can work over a period of time. Just like the old WAC and even BCS AQ Bigeast conferences found out....not enough NCAA bids, and not enough bowl bids, and not enough money to go around when you start spreading it around to 18-24 teams.

In 2010 your student fees were 49% of UNT's revenue. Which is low for the amount of students UNT has or I believe they have..25,000+? FIU has $15,635,778.00 in student fees or 71% of their revenue. So even if UNT adds 10 million in student fees that would bring your program a net of 3 million and with a 2010 Total operating expenses of 17 million that would put UNT at 20 million. Still the lowest in the conference. I'm sure UNT will make more money on ticket sells and probably Contributions but what happens if you can't compete right off? Will the fans still show up just because of the CUSA/MWC name you are playing? Another figure to think about Coaching salaries, benefits, and bonuses paid by the university...UNT is around $3.5 million and East Carolina has a $6,467,151.00 figure (Huston was over 7 million) And then you have the behind the scene people that adds up to just about what the coaching staff makes. Support staff/administrative salaries, benefits and bonuses paid by the university..East Carolina $6,024,778.00...UNT list $0.00 so the only thing I can think of UNT is combining coaches and Support staff/administrative salaries. Like I said us fans really don't look at things like that..I do because I'm a stat man If UNT triples their student fees it probably leaves very little room to add anything to it in the future. Like I said earlier money doesn't mean everything (S.miss list revenues of only 20 million) but it does when most of the time. Here's what UNT reported to the US government in 2010

What I'm getting at is CUSA did not get anywhere close to that amount of money from a TV contract and now that ALL the better teams other than S. Miss have left there is ZERO change to get as much money from a TV contract as before. No matter if they had a contract that paid each school 5 million (which is a silly unreachable figure for CUSA...that would be 60 million a year. 5 mil x 12 schools)it wouldn't be worth the paper it was written on or the ink used to sign it. Not with 4 of the marketable teams leaving. Here's something else that will get looked at before UNT gets a invite....UNT's budget compared to the other schools in the conference. Something the UNT fans are not thinking about. How will you be able to compete when your revenue is 13 to 25 million below the other teams in the conference. Here's the answer you will get most to that question. UNT's revenue will increase and maybe it will but will it be enough to keep up with the Jones? Probably not but money isn't everything but things like travel is something you can't avoid. Marshall's travel expenses for 2010 was $2,544,457.00 and with UNT being placed in the east of this new conference I don't think there's a chance UNT could have a travel expense less than Marshall. In 2010 UNT'S travel expense was $1,427,041.00 or $1,117,416 less than Marshall. Then there is recruiting will UNT have to keep up with the rest of the conference or try to get by on what they spent in 2010...$132,788 lower than Marshall (towards the bottom of CUSA in this expense). UNT is reporting for 2010 Total operating expenses of $17,105,046.00 operating revenue of $10,201,988 That's right at 7 million in the red I didn't take the time to remove the teams that's no longer in either CUSA or MWC but this is how UNT stacks up. Maybe I'm missing something but I honestly think a lot of schools from this new conference will wake up a couple three years after they join and think....why! A intact SBC will past this new conference with in 5 years in football

Not even close here is the breakdown from 2010. This chart is all schools with revenues under 30 million. Actually I could only get the information on 102 BCS schools out of the 120...private schools do not have to give budget information. The money under conf/ncaa includes all monies earned by the conference.