Why did CUSA go to 14 teams?

Coach Bill Lewis · October 28, 2015

I was just curious as to why the CUSA went to 14 teams in this latest round of expansion? Was the conference trying to be proactive in case the AAC took two more CUSA teams? Or was there a different reason or more specific plan? And is the hope to eventually get back down to 12 teams?

wardly · October 28, 2015

I thought that the plan was for 16 teams maximum, but certainly be wrong. To my knowledge there has never been a plan to go back to 12 schools.

Mike Jackson · October 29, 2015

I would like it to go back to 12. If that allows for scheduling more non conference games.

ADLER · October 29, 2015

It creates balanced divisions with 7 in each. 7 team divisions mean that each team plays 3 home and 3 away games inside it's division (you don't play with yourself, at least you're not supposed to), and one home game and one away game with the other division.

It works so much better than 6 team divisions.

GrayEagle · October 29, 2015

I would like it to go back to 12. If that allows for scheduling more non conference games.

I agree on 12 team conferences being the best but that does not allow for more non-conference games.

In a 12 team conference you play the five teams in your division and three of the six in the other division, still leaving four non-conference games. The next year you repeat the division lineup, play the three from the other division that you didn't play the year before and again have four non-conference games.

That allows you to play everyone in the conference every two years whereas in a 14 team league one team in the other division has to wait until the third or fourth year (if you only play two per year in the other division) to play everyone in the conference.

man-up UNT · October 29, 2015

We need to add Texas State to C-USA!

VideoEagle · October 29, 2015

It creates balanced divisions with 7 in each. 7 team divisions mean that each team plays 3 home and 3 away games inside it's division (you don't play with yourself, at least you're not supposed to), and one home game and one away game with the other division.
It works so much better than 6 team divisions.

Within a conference that extends across a large area like CUSA, the 7 team divisions work well. It makes for a balanced home and away schedule. It should make having six home games easier to schedule.

Edited October 29, 2015 by VideoEagle

Mike Jackson · October 30, 2015

Within a conference that extends across a large area like CUSA, the 7 team divisions work well. It makes for a balanced home and away schedule. It should make having six home games easier to schedule.

Nice theory but you have to realize the conference we are in. No team in the east division moves the needle for casual college football fans except. Home games are great but at UNT you need to bring in teams that move the needle. And no team in the from the east is going to put more butts in seats. Even during the Heart of Dallas Bowl season, I only got one guest to come with me to a game. And that was the Rice game (local interest plus old SWC history) As for Texas State you can schedule them non-conference almost anytime you want. But adding them to the conference would make things simpler. They would love a DFW area game for recruiting purposes. I would like home and away games with both team marching bands there. I would reshape CUSA like this.

*West*	*East*
North Texas	ULL
Rice	ULM
UTSA	Southern Miss
Texas State	Middle Tenn
La Tech	South Alabama
Arkansas State	Western Kentucky

Now I would love to have Tulsa, Tulane, Colorado State, and UTEP (or one of the New Mexico school in place of UTEP). I don't like having the worse programs in the state of Florida in our conference. We aren't going to recruit from Florida because we can beat FIU, or FAU. We aren't going to play them enough in the current alignment or a 14 team alignment. I like playing Marshall but the recruiting ground in West Virginia isn't that fertile. In the 12 team alignment I present there are great natural rivalries built into the east and west divisions.

On a side note the leftovers from CUSA East and Sun Belt have a very compelling looking nucleus for a new Sun Belt.

App State

Old Dominion

Charolette

Georgia Southern

Marshall

FAU

FIU

And the Mountain West needs to do the honorable thing and give Idaho, New Mexico State, UTEP a home in the Conference they regionally belong in.

Cerebus · October 30, 2015

They did it before the P5 capped the per team payout of the playoff money at 12. I am not sure they would have if they knew that was going to happen.

VideoEagle · October 30, 2015

There are multiple sources of income for college athletic programs. Fan support is the largest for most of them. Yes, there are the UTs with a mega tv contract, but for most it's fan support. That is a big reason why the lack of MGC growth is such a serious problem. If you look at how the most successful programs built loyal fan bases that donate, they did it by getting people coming to games to see the home team. The original idea was larger divisions that play more more often so more quickly build regional, easy travel rivalries.

Ben Gooding · October 30, 2015

I am not sure why they decided to go to 14. It doesn't make logical sense. 12 was a great number. However, I am a fan of ODU mainly because of their administration in place and the support they get from their fans. I think that was a good addition. With that said, if there any way we can bump Charlotte and FIU I would be all for it.

Phil Steele stated (and he's extremely in tune with CFB) this morning on sirius radio that the P5 system will go to the 4 "P5" super-conferences of 16 in the very near future. I am assuming Big12 gets disbanded when this does get put into motion. The other 4 will pluck out who they like out of the 10 in there. It will be safe to assume that the Pac12 will have first dibs on UT and OU. The Big10 will take 4 of them to get them up to 16. That leaves 4 scrambling like eggs to find a home. My bet is that KU gets picked up by someone solely because of basketball. That still leaves 3 or 4 teams scrambling...my bet it will be IA St, TCU, Baylor and possibly even Tech. The ACC will have to fill a couple voids as will the SEC. Dream scenario for us UNT fans...this happens and TCU, Baylor, IA St, Tech, Houston, SMU, Rice, La Tech, ULL, Ar St, Marshall, WKU, NIU, Memphis, UNT, and Southern Miss all join together to create a new super-conference of our own. Because the current format as is will get us nowhere fast.

StealthEagle84 · October 30, 2015

I wonder if Appalachian State was ever considered, mainly in lieu of Charlotte. I feel like that would have been a better addition. Appalachian State averaged 23,166 per home game last year vs. Charlotte's 13,272. Their football program has a history of success at the FCS level and tons of people will forever associate them with their upset win over Michigan. Just seems like they would have been better than a startup team.

MeanGreenTexan · October 30, 2015

I wonder if Appalachian State was ever considered, mainly in lieu of Charlotte. I feel like that would have been a better addition. Appalachian State averaged 23,166 per home game last year vs. Charlotte's 13,272. Their football program has a history of success at the FCS level and tons of people will forever associate them with their upset win over Michigan. Just seems like they would have been better than a startup team.

App St. is in Boone, NC. The middle of nowhere. UNC-Charlotte is in Charlotte, a huge media market. That's why.

Think of the remote-ness of Southern Miss, and why they were left behind when all of the teams moved from C-USA to AAC.

Cerebus · October 30, 2015

App St. is in Boone, NC. The middle of nowhere. UNC-Charlotte is in Charlotte, a huge media market. That's why.

Also even though they have been down lately Charlotte has 11 NCAA tournament appearances and have gotten as far as the Final 4.

HarringtonFishSmeller · October 30, 2015

C-USA went to 14 because it had a great commissioner.

StealthEagle84 · October 30, 2015

I understand the media market and that money drives the wagon, but at what point does that aspect outweigh success on the field? Southern Miss may be in the middle of Nowhere, Mississippi but people around the country know who they are and respect them as a football program. The majority of people around the country probably don't know that Charlotte has a football team and most that do probably don't know that they're an FBS team. On top of that, Charlotte has to compete with the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Hornets to be relevant in their city. App. St. on the other hand is the main attraction in town and probably has all the support in the world from local businesses and residents. K-State (Manhattan, KS) and Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) are few teams that come to mind as small town college teams that have no problem being relevant on the national stage. Being in a major market may help bring in some dough, but I think winning does an even better job.

UTSA Fan · October 30, 2015

I understand the media market and that money drives the wagon, but at what point does that aspect outweigh success on the field? Southern Miss may be in the middle of Nowhere, Mississippi but people around the country know who they are and respect them as a football program. The majority of people around the country probably don't know that Charlotte has a football team and most that do probably don't know that they're an FBS team. On top of that, Charlotte has to compete with the Carolina Panthers and Charlotte Hornets to be relevant in their city. App. St. on the other hand is the main attraction in town and probably has all the support in the world from local businesses and residents. K-State (Manhattan, KS) and Ole Miss (Oxford, MS) are few teams that come to mind as small town college teams that have no problem being relevant on the national stage. Being in a major market may help bring in some dough, but I think winning does an even better job.

all of them. Conferences look at media market$ and new recruiting turf (see texas a&m to sec). That is why unt, utsa,houston would never get a b12 invite even if they could ever be ready to move up.