Cusa Making Overtures To South Alabama ?

[MeanGreen61]

Off the Belt board. Dothan Eagle article

Phil Paramore: South Alabama football in good shape

Saturday, Feb 02, 2008 - 06:00 AM

The University of South Alabama will soon have a football coach to go with its first-ever football team. A word of warning: Don’t be so quick dismiss the Jaguars.

The president of the board of trustees at South Alabama is Dothan’s Steve Stokes, a physician here who has served on our own city school board. He and his wife made one of the largest contributions in school history to USA last year, and he is firmly in touch with the goings-on in Mobile.

According to Stokes, athletics director Joe Gottfried may name a coach for the start-up program as soon as next week.

“I think he wants to wait until after signing day (Feb. 6), and then release it,” said Stokes. “I understand we’re down to two candidates.“

One of them is Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. Stokes confirmed the school hosted Steele and his wife this past Thursday. The other serious candidate believed to be in the running is South Florida assistant Dan McCarney, who is the former head coach at Iowa State.

This week, Auburn’s Eddie Gran said the selection committee had informed him he wasn’t under consideration, and then on Thursday, Mississippi State assistant Woody McCorvey and Clemson staffer Dabo Swinney — both ex-Tide assistants — withdrew their names from the search process.

Once a coach is named, Stokes said a plan will be set in motion.

“Next year we’ll sign 30 players and ‘greyshirt’ all of them,” he said. “We’ll do the same thing the next year. In 2009, we’ll play for the first time, as a club-level team. The next two seasons, we’ll compete in Division I-AA. Then in year four, we’ll play as a member of Division I and compete in the Sun Belt Conference.“

However, residence in the Sun Belt may be relatively short-lived. Conference USA, which has a far more recognizable membership, has already made overtures to South Alabama.

“They’d like to establish a relationship because of their tie-in with the GMAC Bowl,” he said. “They are very interested in South Alabama joining their league.“

Stokes said the city and county of Mobile have pledged “significant” financial support. The city will allow South Alabama to use 40,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium free of charge for the first five years of the program’s existence, and nine luxury boxes will be constructed to help raise additional money.

At first glance, the USA program wouldn’t be much of a threat to the Alabamas and Auburns of the world, maybe even the Troys. But think about how fertile the Mobile recruiting area is — Nick Saban currently has seven public commitments from the port city and is still awaiting top prospect Julio Jones’ decision — and it’s easy to see how another option for prepsters could be a key. Some kids’ parents simply can’t afford to travel to SEC venues each week — even home games in Tuscaloosa or Auburn — and many of those prospects simply won’t want to leave home.

“We’ll center on Gulfport-Biloxi all the way over to Tallahassee and everything between,” said Stokes.

Traditionally, there’s enough prospects along that I-10 corridor to stock more than one major-college roster. Soon there will be another one in the mix, and it promises to be anything but a moot point.

Phil Paramore’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in The Dothan Eagle. He can be heard weekday mornings from 7 until 9 on AM 560 WOOF. He can be reached at www.woofradio.com.

[CMJ]

Can't wait for Plumm's response to this.

[UNTFan23]

Can't wait for Plumm's response to this.

I can ...

[CMJ]

I can ...

Maybe I shoulda made the sarcasm more evident.

[greenminer]

Maybe I shoulda made the sarcasm more evident.

There are tags.

[sarcasm]this board invented them[/sarcasm]

[UNTflyer]

It is geographically perfect for C-USA.

Denton, TX is in conference purgatory. We're too small to go to the Big 12, C-USA doesn't want us, MWC wants to become big time so they're unlikely to want us, and the WAC is too expensive to make sense for us.

My greatest hope is an invite for us and UTEP from the Mountain West.

[DeepGreen]

"Stokes said the city and county of Mobile have pledged “significant” financial support. "

Denton County and the City of Denton provide significant financial support for the University of North Texas athletic programs, don't they?

[MCMLXXX]

If CUSA wants South Alabama then why don't they invite them now as a non football school? If CUSA is a better conference then wouldn't that help South Alabama in their initial recruiting? I am personally convinced that the Sun Belt Conference can be as good or better than CUSA within 5 years (of course we need to secure a couple more bowl ties).

[UNTflyer]

Just say "No" to the WAC.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---At this point I am not worrying much about any other conference... We need to prove we can win in THIS conference. We haven't scared a lot of people the past three years. If we are TOO GOOD for the SunBelt then we should be dominating it in several sports. Going to another conference and being a bottom feeder is not what I want either.

[FirefightnRick]

"Stokes said the city and county of Mobile have pledged “significant” financial support. "

Denton County and the City of Denton provide significant financial support for the University of North Texas athletic programs, don't they?

Why should they provide financial support for this university? I mean, it's so AFFORDABLE, right? One of America's "Best buy's".

Please BOR, pull the trigger and get us on the right path.

Rick

[UNTflyer]

Then start getting ready to say "YES" to a newly revised SBC that many teams of the !-AA Southland Conference would be able to beat most years.

I don't want to stay in the Belt either. I have said over and over, the Mountain West should be our goal, with second choice being C-USA.

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

I guess that we'll have a steady dose of this drivel until fall practice begins.

How one person's spin can set this off is beyond me. Are we just looking for something to get pi***** about?

What used car salesman made the pitch to USA about membership. How many spots are open? I can only remember two conferences (in modern times) that have had more than 12 football-playing teams....the MAC and the WAC. The MAC is about to be #11 rated in the FBS, Division 1-A, or whatever. They lost their two teams over 12 (Marshall and Central Florida) and have now taken in Temple for football only and who knows how long that will last? Look what happened to the WAC when they tried to expand to 16 teams. They had to take three of the Belt's lower ranked teams to stay in existence in spite of having four good programs and two okay programs. So how can they talk about membership when there are no openings?

They would like to keep the bowl slot with the GMAC Bowl and this is to keep their foot in the door. If USA influences the bowl to become a Sun Belt host, then CUSA would be out of the picture since we already have the two conferences matched in New Orleans.

I'd call the free use of Ladd-Peebles Stadium for five years a "significant" contribution by the City-County. If they charged very much it could kill the program before it got off of the ground. If their attendance is successful, then the city-county will have another tenant for many years to come.

This is, by no means, a slam against USA. They have been very competitive with most of their sports teams and will, no doubt, continue to be. But, if they believe that CUSA will take them in ahead of several far more qualified universities, then they are far more gullible than I thought. Two or three years form now CUSA could possibly be sincere but without a coaching staff or a single player, they can't be serious.

What it does seem to imply is that members of the Sun Belt Conference are trying to get something better for themselves and all are eager to abandon the conference for the right offer.

In a way, I hope that they are successful because it would probably cause the more western CUSA members to bolt and form a new conference, allowing some, or all, of the eastern Sun Belt teams room in CUSA. And, if that didn't happen, we'd look westward to the WAC.

[UNTflyer]

The WAC is barely more respected than the Belt, and moving over to that conference would kill our budget. The MWC offers more recognizable teams and a local rival.

Plus, what game would fill Fouts? Idaho? Fresno State? I'd rather see Air Force, BYU, TCU and Utah as our home conference schedule.

Unfortunately, I think the MWC is looking to Utah State, Boise State, and Fresno State.

[UNTFan23]

I understand some people are like toddlers and are easily distracted by the shinny B©S games that two of the WAC teams have it made to, so let's take those two anomalies out of the equation and have another look at the conference.

Top to bottom, they really that much different the the SBC. There is a real disparity between the haves (Hawaii, Boise St) and the have nots (Utah St, Idaho, NMSU) in the WAC. Notice who's at the bottom? Oh right, former Sun Belt members. That's where'd we be right now if we jumped on the WAC wagon. How about this: imagine losing by similar margins that we lost to Troy by, for a lot of our conference games. Would those losses taste any better since we now have a WAC patch instead of a Sun Belt patch? I'd bet my yearly bonus that we would have set most every defensive record for having the world's worst defense if we had been in the WAC this past season.

Our closest conference opponents would be La Tech and NMSU. We've also played both of these teams here recently in Fouts. NMSU was our best draw at 20,000, but keep in mind this was for a trip to New Orleans on the line. I think LaTech drew something like 16 to 18,000 when they came to Fouts a couple years ago. If the two closest schools don't draw more then what we can draw with Sun Belt schools, the farther WAC schools won't do any better, I'm sure of it.

I don't really give a damn what conference a school is in, only its location. I like being able to go to road games. They're fun. The WAC doesn't offer travel friendly destinations that I can afford.

Something I found interesting about Hawaii is that they seem to really struggle with funding their program. Care to guess why that is? Perhaps it's all the travel they have to do for conference games for all the sports they offer. It became quite public while JJ was being courted by SMU that Hawaii's facilities aren't where they really should be. LaTech is struggling to keep what they have up-to-par given their travel expenses. Do we really want to put ourselves in that kind of position?

The only way we'd really be able to afford the WAC is double our ticket prices across all sports. If our fans really want to go to a "better" conference, then our fans should pay for the expense of moving there (and staying there). If the WAC is the be-all-end-all that some make it out to be, then they wouldn't mind coughing up the extra bones to pay for our success.

[UNTflyer]

Toddlers? Isn't it toddlers who think small because they are, you know, sorta' small, ya' think? Only a small thinkin' toddler would see a shiney BCS Championship Seires Bowl as some kind of negative or something.

That's not the point. I think UNTFan32 was saying Boise St and Hawaii were flukes as far as BCS bowl berths. Looking at the WAC, do you see that happening again any time soon? I don't. If you throw out Boise ST and Hawaii, the WAC is no better than the Sun Belt. I look at the MWC and see 5 bowl teams and BYU as having a good chance of a BCS berth next season.

And yes, the MWC wants to expand because they want that championship game, which means they need 3 more teams. Now, I don't see the MWC coming to knock on our door and that's why we need to sell ourselves to them. We need to point out that inviting UNT would give them a top 10 university in terms of size. It would pretty much guarantee that local cable providers would carry the Mtn. network. It would provide TCU with a travel partner and a local road game every other year. And they would all have a nice new stadium to play in when they visit Denton.

One last point... BSU, Hawaii, and Fresno St (the 3 bowl eligible WAC teams) all want to jump ship and go to the MWC. Why would you want to leap from one leaking boat to a leaking boat that's twice as expensive?

Edited February 3, 2008 by UNTflyer

[greenminer]

Those MWCers are former WACers that bring much more tradition into the equation.

Where will Boise State be in 5 years? I wonder if they're losing momentum...

Plus, Hawaii just lost their coach. They might be a one-and-done deal. If they prove me wrong, great, but I think their magic dust just left for the Hilltop to grow old and fizzle.

When Hawaii and Boise State aren't ranked, where does the WAC stand? Fresno hasn't been on the map for "only" a couple years, but it seems eons since they were mountain killers.

MWC schools can hang their hat on a lot more tradition from top to bottom...in basketball, too.

PS: Not really saying where I hope we go, just an additional perspective. Personally, I like to just hang tight in the Belt and see what happens to football in a couple years.

PPS:... and donors/funds. We need more money before we move anywhere.

Edited February 3, 2008 by greenminer

[emmitt01]

Plumm, there's a saying that I heard quite a bit growing up and it still holds true...

Money Talks and Bullshit Walks

In other words, unless you're ready to plop down $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ for this stadium you keep talking about ad nauseum...or are ready to write a check for the travel expenses we'd incur in the WAC....give it a rest.

Santa aint coming down that chimney...don't continue to get soot in your eyes looking up there.

[TheTastyGreek]

I think he's just saying that demands pile up faster than dollars. Not calling for an audit of you, Plummer.

I, on the other hand, demand to see your checkbook and 2007 tax return.

Edited February 4, 2008 by TheTastyGreek

[CajunNation]

ArkStFan on the matter:

http://www.beltboard.com/forum/forum_entry...&order=time

<< Of course CUSA has contacted USA. It's called due diligence. It's not an indication of a future invite.

I promise you that Waters and Banosky of CUSA have pretty good information on every member of the other's conference and every college in or near the region that is publicly or privately talking football at the FBS level. The same can be said out west of Thompson and Benson. The same can be said in the Midwest of the MAC commissioner.

They need to keep an eye on those developments, not just because of expansion, even though their expansions would likely only be triggered by defection. They need to know about possibilities of new FBS conferences forming from groups of schools moving up. They need to be able to give members coherent information about scheduling new schools (ie. when they are expected to count against the I-AA schedule restraints, when against I-A, when they will be I-A).

Some WKU fans got hot and bothered thinking the MAC was about to invite them when the MAC did the same due diligence. There was not only not an invite, my MAC contacts say WKU didn't have enough support to get past the expansion committee much less the entire conference.

I'd be shocked if CUSA hadn't touched base, it's part of the job. >>

[NTPhiKap99]

Newsflash everyone in the Sun Belt wants to join a better conference. Also several teams including ourselves have certain positive things to offer another conference. But currently none of us have enough to offer a bigger better conference to get an invite. I hope we are the first to make a jump to bigger better things but any interest shown in a Belt team here or elsewhere id good for our conference. We are all competing to take that next step and articles about any of us just draws attention to the others as well. Lets not worry about how far others have come and what attention they may be getting and worry about taking steps ourselves to start winning on the field and improving our program so we get more press and get an invitation instead of the rest of the competition.

[BleedGreen64]

NO NO NO to going to the west - time delay problems for PR and travel expenses.

USA going to the CUSA is a questionable idea as conferences with more than 12 teams have been shown not to work. Would UAB pull an SMU and veto them?

WAC and CUSA would only want new members after they lose their best teams (Boise, Fresno, Hawaii w/o JJ?, Memphis, S, Ms., etc.

If the SBC sticks together, each team continue to improve, and only take quality new teams some CUSA deserters) it will rival the MWC in a few years. I see us getting stonger and the CUSA, WAC ,and MAC fallinf behind.

Being in a conference with SMU, Rice ,and Tulane might be good geographically but not image wise. SMU is a good Non-conference game. I would vote to take in TCU if they ever realize the difficulties they have being in the far-flung western conference.

[NTPhiKap99]

Can we please wait until someone actually wants us to start discussing where we'd like to go. I personally think the Big XII it the best regional pick and they get a BCS bid. I think we should play their instead of CUSA or the WAC. How great would it be for all of our road games to be within 4-5hrs I vote Big XII or whatever it would then be called.

[badgerwolf]

Newsflash everyone in the Sun Belt wants to join a better conference. Also several teams including ourselves have certain positive things to offer another conference. But currently none of us have enough to offer a bigger better conference to get an invite. I hope we are the first to make a jump to bigger better things but any interest shown in a Belt team here or elsewhere id good for our conference. We are all competing to take that next step and articles about any of us just draws attention to the others as well. Lets not worry about how far others have come and what attention they may be getting and worry about taking steps ourselves to start winning on the field and improving our program so we get more press and get an invitation instead of the rest of the competition.

I found this comment about the early days of CUSA very similar to comments made by fans of some of the current SBC:

Carr, a former athletics director at C-USA's Houston, said discussions of shifting membership in the league are common.

"The only constant in that league is change," said Carr. "When we started the conference (in 1995), one thing everybody had in common was that we all wanted to be somewhere else." :-P

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

Well.............we won "THIS" conference 4 years in a row and where are we now in the minds of those who can give the kind of monies that can move and shake our school to its very foundations, yet in the name of progress & growth? Are we better off today than we were during even those 4 years of 15k per game averages while being ranked in the Bottom 25?

---The real problem with those four years was that we rarely won a non-conference game and a lot of non-coference losses were blowouts,.. and not many of our conference teams were winning against non-conf. teams either. Most are doing better now. The bad part about those non-conf. losses were the awful scores indicated we would have a rough time in other conferences. . Part two... football is not everything... we need to do well in basketball also... We did well last year but that is the only year that we have excelled since being in the Belt. We need to get better in both before we have reasonable expectations of moving. Better attendence would help tooo.