Rice, UTEP Mentioned in Mountain West Expansion Discussion

[meanJewGreen]

Story here

 

[oldguystudent]

UTEP makes sense.  Rice doesn't.  I suppose we'll be arguing about Ark St. and LaLa coming in to CUSA next.

[Tyler Maryak]

UTEP makes sense.  Rice doesn't.  I suppose we'll be arguing about Ark St. and LaLa coming in to CUSA next.

No lie...that really wouldn't be that bad, would it?  I mean, not that losing UTEP and Rice would be great, but Arkie St and ULaLa aren't terrible pick-ups.

[MeanGreenTexan]

If Rice and UTEP both bail, and the MWC would be interested in one more, it should be a flat-out no-brainer.  We'd be coming over with 2 of our in-state friends.

[HarringtonFishSmeller]

As stated before, we will someday share a conference with Abilene Christian - them moving up, or us moving down.  Bank it.

[oldguystudent]

If Rice and UTEP both bail, and the MWC would be interested in one more, it should be a flat-out no-brainer.  We'd be coming over with 2 of our in-state friends.

They're currently at twelve teams.  Is one leaving?  I can't imagine that they'd prefer 15 teams to 14.

[Harry]

Ugh.  Do we really want to travel out to games out west?

If we considered it, it would have to be with other Texas teams.  And MWC won't do that because they have enough mouths to feed with San Jac State, Fresno, New Mexico etc..

[meanJewGreen]

Ugh.  Do we really want to travel out to games out west?

If we considered it, it would have to be with other Texas teams.  And MWC won't do that because they have enough mouths to feed with San Jac State, Fresno, New Mexico etc..

not only that, do we want 915 start times for games?

[Ben Gooding]

not only that, do we want 915 start times for games?

Uhhh yes. Because this would push our home game start times to 6 or 7. I love it. 

By the way, Rice to the MWC makes 0 sense. 

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ben Gooding

[MeanGreenTexan]

They're currently at twelve teams.  Is one leaving?  I can't imagine that they'd prefer 15 teams to 14.

Eh, I dunno.  Maybe San Jose St. or Fresno St. is about to pull a UAB?  I can't understand how they are staying afloat with the Education funding issues in CA.  You'd know more about that than me though.

 

not only that, do we want 915 start times for games?

We would only have to do this 1-or-2X/yr.   If we joined with Rice & UTEP, we'd be in their "Mountain" division with Rice (Central w/us), UTEP/NM/COSt/AFA/WY/UTSt (Mountain Time). These are just as close, if not closer than several of the Eastern C-USA teams.  
So, assuming we'd play them and a crossover game or 2 with the "West" division, we would only play 1 or 2 late games/yr... and that's IF the game is away.

Not to mention their conference share/payout is much higher.   And do we even need to discuss the competition's name recognition VS C-USA?

 

EDIT: My opinion would hinge on having Rice & UTEP with us.  

Edited December 11, 2015 by MeanGreenTexan

[NM Green]

This seems like such a fake article.  Utep could be a target but she ain't your old Mwc anymore.  The AAC is superstrong cusa is building and Mwc seems stagnant.

I also have heard Utep likes playing the Texas schools.  Rice ain't going byu isn't coming, Mwc is fishing for interest but will come up empty Imo.  Now if Mwc made a play for rice Utep kfc and unt then you have war between cusa and Mwc which has never seen to favor either. When rice doesn't go u make play for Texas state.  That could happen because I think those 4 could be lured.  But still worth the conflict?  Rice will be best served to wait for Houston to go to big 12 and take their place in AAC. 

GMG

[ColoradoEagle]

Mountain West isn't as sexy as it used to be. The football is a bit better, basketball is a lot better, but I don't know that either necessarily convinces any of the current CUSA Texas teams that it's worth dumping a regional footprint to join. Any extra payout would be eaten up quickly by travel costs.

[BillySee58]

No lie...that really wouldn't be that bad, would it?  I mean, not that losing UTEP and Rice would be great, but Arkie St and ULaLa aren't terrible pick-ups.

No, but then you look around at the conference and you'll have 6 of the 9 teams that made up the Sun Belt in 2011.

[UNT90]

We should be in the middle of this discussion, but we have an AD that oozes complacency, so...

Mountain West isn't as sexy as it used to be. The football is a bit better, basketball is a lot better, but I don't know that either necessarily convinces any of the current CUSA Texas teams that it's worth dumping a regional footprint to join. Any extra payout would be eaten up quickly by travel costs.

I bet UTEP and Rice jump in a second if offered. 

Its a much much better conference. See Billy's post. 

[UNTFan23]

We should be in the middle of this discussion, but we have an AD that oozes complacency, so...

Why? We tried the Big West experiment and it failed for so many different reasons.

[NorthTexan95]

I'm wondering why the MW is thinking about expansion.  As the article says, unless they can increase their revenue they would all be taking a pay cut to add another team.  I don't think any of their teams are in danger of being taken away by another conference.  Now if they wanted to kick out a couple of teams to add UTEP and Rice then that would make sense.   It would also sent off huge fireworks for all conferences if teams started being kicked out of conferences.  

[Tyler Maryak]

No, but then you look around at the conference and you'll have 6 of the 9 teams that made up the Sun Belt in 2011.

good point...

[NorthTexan95]

CUSA should be talking to Colorado State about coming this way.  Probably not interested but you never know. 

[Ben Gooding]

I'm wondering why the MW is thinking about expansion.  As the article says, unless they can increase their revenue they would all be taking a pay cut to add another team.  I don't think any of their teams are in danger of being taken away by another conference.  Now if they wanted to kick out a couple of teams to add UTEP and Rice then that would make sense.   It would also sent off huge fireworks for all conferences if teams started being kicked out of conferences.  

I think teams need to start being kicked out of conferences. Just my opinion. If you are not competing on a consistent basis then they should be replaced. That goes for P5 & G5. I know this strategy would put us on the fringe, but it needs to be done. 

[UNT90]

Why? We tried the Big West experiment and it failed for so many different reasons.

The mountain west isn't the big west. 

[ColoradoEagle]

I bet UTEP and Rice jump in a second if offered. 

Its a much much better conference. See Billy's post. 

I can't say for sure what UTEP or Rice would do, but it really is not a much better conference. It's about the same in football now. AAC has 3 top 25 teams, CUSA has 1, and MWC has 0. Basketball is much better, but Rice obviously doesn't care about that (they haven't been to the tourney in 45 years) and UTEP would recruit the same players regardless of who they play. 

Edited December 11, 2015 by ColoradoEagle

[MeanGreenTexan]

I think teams need to start being kicked out of conferences. Just my opinion. If you are not competing on a consistent basis then they should be replaced. That goes for P5 & G5. I know this strategy would put us on the fringe, but it needs to be done. 

  Where would UNT be right now if this were an option for C-USA?

[Travis]

As a resident of Boise now, having UNT come to my place would be AWESOME!

[untjim1995]

There is no reason for the MWC not to expand to Texas--they have way more to gain than to lose by coming this way.  UTEP is a no-brainer for this, especially if the get Rice with them.

When you compare the leagues, CUSA has one advantage for us--its cheaper to travel because of the Texas schools and La Tech.

The G5 conference hierarchy is the AAC and MWC, then CUSA and MAC, and then the SBC.

Rice gives the Houston, UTEP gives them El Paso, and the UTSA gives them San Antonio, and us DFW. If the 4 of us were in a division with UNM, Colorado State, AFA, and Utah State, that is a collection of 7 conference games that blows away what we have now in the revenue sports. Play two extra games a year against the MWC Western Schools, home-and-away, which is Boise State, Fresno State, Hawaii, San Jose State, San Diego State, Wyoming, Nevada, and UNLV and you have crushed it out of the park compared to games against CUSA East playing ODU, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, WKU, MUTS, and UAB. Not even close. Probably one game a year in the PST.

 

[wardly]

UTEP makes sense, Rice nonsense. Does anyone watch MWC games with a 9:30 pm kick? Hawaii is the joker in the deck. They are a "football only" member struggling to keep a program. If they move either on or out UTEP would be the logical chose. However logic doesn't always come into play, hence West Virginia in the BIG 12.