Christopher Walker

Hey hey, ya'll. Long time, no see. In case this has not been referenced here, before, I recently learned of Athletic Director U's Conference Power Index from Matt Brown and the Going For Two podcast. It essentially is a comprehensive survey ranking programs and athletic departments across conferences rooted in perceptions by peers. Here is the most recent Power Index for Conference USA: https://athleticdirectoru.com/articles/athletic-department-power-index-conference-usa/ I think ya'll will be most pleased with these results. Even further, there are broader comparisons available through the partner program Athlete Viewpoint: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/athleteviewpoint/viz/AthleticDepartmentRanking/SchoolComparison Here, you can select multiple conferences at once. Knowing that these rankings are built from respondents both within and external to CUSA, I find the meshing of ours and the AAC listings particularly delightful. TL;DR: the national perception within the industry is that we're doing a lot of things well.

Circling back around to this... two things: No stage worth its salt is ever going to be big enough to hold 1200 grads plus a platform party. That's lunacy. The MPAC, while certainly unique, has been falling apart and sinking for a number of years now. Besides, its only reallllly suitable for large ensemble wind, orchestral, and choral music. Anything outside of those three (read: jazz) is miserable in that space.

I’ve never seen a 99% win prediction before…

Milwaukee 6 LSU 11 North Texas Brune would have a field day.

Yeah, that's a damn good presser.

Okay, I'm usually a fan of big shiny things, but it's absolutely comical to have that size court screen system in a gym that small.

Miss everyone, too. And yeah. Whole lotta 4 U.S. Code § 8 violations abound here. However, I now live in a land that apparently recognizes no borders, whether state or federal, and you see more of the Old Doug of Cascadia than you do anything else this way: I've raised a few eyebrows flying the North Texas Battle Flag on our street.

Love to see the Hamlet sweaters are still fresh.

Willing to bet... 1. Michigan 2. Alabama 3. Cincinnati 4. Georgia

And retain Rees as OC. Kind of telling on Kelly that he couldn't convince either of his coordinators to join him in Baton Rouge.

Would be interesting if we played Tulsa in Frisco on the 21st... as men's basketball takes on the Golden Hurricane in the Super Pit earlier that same day. Tulsa can save on some travel costs and hotel deals.

Since we're in a legitimate place for new comparisons, we should stop holding ourselves to CUSA standards. Here's our recruiting rankings in those same years amongst the lineup of the 2023 AAC that we're joining: 2018 • 10th / 14 at #101 2019 • 5th / 14 at #76 2020 • 3rd / 14 at #68 2021 • 4th / 14 at #78 + Current 2022 • 11th / 14 at #119 - yikes So those figures aren't too misaligned in trajectory, but the last year and a half are NOT comforting, either. What I think matters more to me, however, is the lack of development from our nice recruiting classes. Development is hard to define but NFL Draft picks is at least a metric, so here we go across the past three seasons with draft rounds in parentheses: 2019 Draft AAC 11 • CUSA 6 *Houston 3 (1st, 4th, 6th) Temple 3 (2nd, 5th, 7th) Memphis 2 (3rd, 4th) FAU 2 (3rd, 7th) *UCF 1 (2nd) Charlotte 1 (3rd) Tulane 1 (7th) *Cincinnati 1 (7th) 2020 Draft AAC 19 • CUSA 10 Memphis 3 (3rd, 7th) Charlotte 2 (3rd, 4th) Tulsa 2 (4th, 5th) Tulane 2 (5th, 7th) Navy 1 (7th) *Cincinnati 1 (3rd) SMU 1 (6th) *Houston 1 (3rd) *UCF 1 (4th) FAU 1 (4th) 2021 Draft AAC 19 • CUSA 4 *UCF 6 (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th) - 8th most represented school overall in draft *Cincinnati 4 (4th, 5th, 7th) *Houston 3 (1st, 6th, 7th) SMU 2 (3rd, 4th) Tulane 2 (4th, 7th) Tulsa 1 (1st) UAB 1 (4th) North Texas 1 (4th) East Carolina 1 (4th) Memphis 1 (5th) *these schools of course are onwards and upwards. This is I think the better company we should be seeking to achieve, and thus shoot for coaches who can not only maintain and build on the recruiting trajectory – finish top 60, anyone? – but also aim for one to two draft picks a year as well.

The most predictable Bingo game we could ever play.