CUSA

GrayEagle · September 10, 2018

19 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

SMU would never allow us to squeeze into the AAC and it would be redundant for the league unless they kicked SMU out. The MWC would move our night games an hour or 2 later, plus make away game travel tougher. I love being in CUSA. Some of our teams struggled tonight, others handled their business. If we aren’t going to be in the P5, let’s just win the CUSA every year. First step, win it once. Then we can blow our horn about how we deserve to play better teams every week.

I must have missed the posting that SMU had veto power over who is in the conference with them. I don't know of any conference that requires 100% approval for new members.

Most conferences are after fans/viewers. To me, a university with 300,000 living alumni is hardly redundant. Market should not be the lone criteria. In the Raleigh market (much smaller than DFW) there are three P-5 teams...North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke. Nor would it be necessary for SMU to leave. It would save them a lot of travel expense say if we replaced UConn who is rumored unhappy.

I like some of CUSA (Western Division) but the East leaves me a little cold (and distant). I also realize that there are drawbacks to every G5 conference but ideally I'd like to be where they are the least.

I have an old alumni buddy (who still posts here) who used to say, "Grow where you are planted." I can't argue with that; we certainly want to contribute and not just take up space. But, even after 70 years of following this university's teams, I believe that if we could just get planted over in that river delta that we'd be more prone to have a bumper crop.

Cr1028 · September 10, 2018

29 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

I must have missed the posting that SMU had veto power over who is in the conference with them. I don't know of any conference that requires 100% approval for new members.

Most conferences are after fans/viewers. To me, a university with 300,000 living alumni is hardly redundant. Market should not be the lone criteria. In the Raleigh market (much smaller than DFW) there are three P-5 teams...North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke. Nor would it be necessary for SMU to leave. It would save them a lot of travel expense say if we replaced UConn who is rumored unhappy.

I like some of CUSA (Western Division) but the East leaves me a little cold (and distant). I also realize that there are drawbacks to every G5 conference but ideally I'd like to be where they are the least.

I have an old alumni buddy (who still posts here) who used to say, "Grow where you are planted." I can't argue with that; we certainly want to contribute and not just take up space. But, even after 70 years of following this university's teams, I believe that if we could just get planted over in that river delta that we'd be more prone to have a bumper crop.

The 3 NC schools were original members of the ACC that was created in 1953 when TV markets were not a factor and travel time/costs were.

Edited September 10, 2018 by Cr1028

Legend500 · September 10, 2018

12 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

I must have missed the posting that SMU had veto power over who is in the conference with them. I don't know of any conference that requires 100% approval for new members.

Most conferences are after fans/viewers. To me, a university with 300,000 living alumni is hardly redundant. Market should not be the lone criteria. In the Raleigh market (much smaller than DFW) there are three P-5 teams...North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke. Nor would it be necessary for SMU to leave. It would save them a lot of travel expense say if we replaced UConn who is rumored unhappy.

I like some of CUSA (Western Division) but the East leaves me a little cold (and distant). I also realize that there are drawbacks to every G5 conference but ideally I'd like to be where they are the least.

I have an old alumni buddy (who still posts here) who used to say, "Grow where you are planted." I can't argue with that; we certainly want to contribute and not just take up space. But, even after 70 years of following this university's teams, I believe that if we could just get planted over in that river delta that we'd be more prone to have a bumper crop.

Spot on.

This obsession with those dastardly kids at SMU thwarting our every move is really quite old, and hasn't been accurate for some time now. Especially in the case of the American, the biggest opposition doesn't even come from anywhere close to Texas - it's the concern that having too many non-P5 Texas programs in one conference makes selling games nationally an impossibility, and makes the conference unbalanced. In SMU's specific case, they'd love nothing more to replace going to UCONN with us - it offers better home exposure, gives them another week on the schedule, allows them to save a bucket of money, lets them sell 8 "home" games to their fan and recruits, and gives them a pretty full stadium once every two years.

The last round of realignment was all about geography for the G6 (poor, dearly departed WAC) - Mountain West didn't kick the tires in El Paso because the Miners would add football value, but rather because it lets TV package another "early" game for national audiences while giving the MW a chance in the Texas recruiting market. American didn't add Tulane because of sterling on-field performance.

The 2023 round is going to be much different - with three new trends significantly impacting what happens. Unlike in previous rounds, ESPN won't have the money to bribe Group conferences to arrange themselves in a pleasing manner for network schedulers. Also, viewership is time-shifting and going online: this means that giving you advertisers a good Nielson rating matters much less in the next round that it used to. Finally, the megaconference is out there, and may be the only choice for teams who are truly elite programs but trapped in unfavorable situations (hi Notre Dame and Texas!).

So everyone here has been right - you need to move up (even though it's like going from a soggy deck chair to a moist one on the Titanic), you need to work on what you can do to make things better (facilities and winning), and you need to try new things.

As they are, the American, CUSA, Sun Belt and XII are all terribly unstable creations of network programmers who are losing money and power. That won't last much longer.

PlummMeanGreen · September 10, 2018

21 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

I must have missed the posting that SMU had veto power over who is in the conference with them. I don't know of any conference that requires 100% approval for new members.

Most conferences are after fans/viewers. To me, a university with 300,000 living alumni is hardly redundant. Market should not be the lone criteria. In the Raleigh market (much smaller than DFW) there are three P-5 teams...North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke. Nor would it be necessary for SMU to leave. It would save them a lot of travel expense say if we replaced UConn who is rumored unhappy.

I like some of CUSA (Western Division) but the East leaves me a little cold (and distant). I also realize that there are drawbacks to every G5 conference but ideally I'd like to be where they are the least.

I have an old alumni buddy (who still posts here) who used to say, "Grow where you are planted." I can't argue with that; we certainly want to contribute and not just take up space. But, even after 70 years of following this university's teams, I believe that if we could just get planted over in that river delta that we'd be more prone to have a bumper crop.

As always, I concur with most all you post. 70 years following North Texas football? Well, my 45 years makes me think I'm a newbie fan. LOL!

And another thing from another thread: We don't have to win CUSA championships 10 times before we look for brighter lights and we don't have to fill Apogee 100 times before we think about expansion. Me'thinks if your standing still & not looking ahead for your school in today's NCAA climate that usually means you might as well be going backwards. (You do learn a few things following all this for 45 years).

AND.....GrayEagle, could the phrase you were looking for from your "old alumni buddy" have been...

Bloom Where Planted? :)

PS: I was looking for you at Apogee the other night where you used to sit & couldn't find you. Did you change seats?

BEAT THOSE ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS,

MEAN GREEN!

Edited September 11, 2018 by PlummMeanGreen

wardly · September 10, 2018

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 11:18 PM, mgfan said:

We are too good for CUSA. UAB just lost Coastal Carolina. We have been to stagnate in re-positioning ourselves. Thank God someone had the common sense to move us out of the FCS. In college football you are either moving up or down. That includes facilities, recruits and perception. There is a reason the AAC pushes the Power 6 slogan (whether you like it or not). They get it.

Since when are we too good for either CUSA or the Sun Belt? We have 2 winning seasons in football since 2004 . What we should do,] in my opinion], is combine the 7 schools in CUSA West with the 5 schools in the Sun Belt West and go on with our lives . There is no more t.v. money in G5 programs, and if football for us becomes a gate revenue sport them we need to look hard at cutting travel expenses so that we can continue to pay our head coach a 7 figure salary.

PlummMeanGreen · September 10, 2018

6 minutes ago, wardly said:

Since when are we too good for either CUSA or the Sun Belt? We have 2 winning seasons in football since 2004 . What we should do,] in my opinion], is combine the 7 schools in CUSA West with the 5 schools in the Sun Belt West and go on with our lives . There is no more t.v. money in G5 programs, and if football for us becomes a gate revenue sport them we need to look hard at cutting travel expenses so that we can continue to pay our head coach a 7 figure salary.

In a perfect world & for a new conference we'd put all the SWC leftovers together with North Texas, La Tech, U of L & Arkansas State, but we know we do not have a perfect world. 😞

GMG!

BEAT THE HOGS!