Sports Business Journal idea for C-USA/SBC Realignment

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...alignment.aspx
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...C409E0BB7.ashx
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...0BB6E47AA.ashxhttp://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...61A2F9CE7.ashx

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Two schools that could be most vulnerable are UTEP in CUSA because of its remote location and the Sun Belt’s Louisiana-Monroe, which is struggling to keep up financially. Annual athletic budgets mostly range from $20 million to $30 million for schools in these two leagues. ULM reported $13 million in revenue from its 2014-15 academic year.

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What do you do when your two designated home teams get slated to play each other based on standing?

Lol. Ulm wasn't invited :)

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Originally Posted by inudesu

What do you do when your two designated home teams get slated to play each other based on standing?

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My thinking is all teams in each division would all play at home or all on road.

So south 1 would host west 1 one year and flip the next

ODU and UAB would pitch a hissy fit.

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

ODU and UAB would pitch a hissy fit.

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To be honest, UAB's the only affected team whose opinion matters

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Originally Posted by rabiddawg

Lol. Ulm wasn't invited :)

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Who???

File this away in the "never gonna happen" folder. That is a stupid idea that belongs on a message board or blog, not a real publication. Author is an Appalachian State grad. No school in C-USA would give a proposal like this the time of day.

This idea has been floated by Arkansas State's AD and UL-Lafayette's former AD for the past several years. UL-Lafayette's president Joe Savoie brought it up to the Sun Belt's presidents at their last meeting. There is no support for it in CUSA. At all.

I can guarantee that each of the CUSA officials quoted in the story threw cold water on the idea. But like any journalist who chooses to slant a story in one direction, he was able to get a nugget or two from people like Wood Selig and use it.

You have to admit, though, that if - IF - all the programs were equally good and TV market didn't matter it would make for great regional matchups. But the reality is only the crappier Sun Belch teams would get a much needed lift of lower travel expenses and riding coattails of better CUSA programs. I don't see any TV outlets going for taking on such a conference unless it could cherry-pick teams or divisions. For example, TV would be interested in the West and North divisions of Realignment 2. The South division wouldn't get squat. Thus, teams like Tech and USM would be right where we are today; i.e, two of the better programs but on streaming broadcasts and PPV. Meanwhile, stAte, UNT, UTEP, and Texas State would be on ESPN2 of the Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio TV markets.

OH, and let's not overlook the whole SLC reunited that would result from such a realignment. All those years trying to shake the association would be for naught.

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Originally Posted by dawg1984

You have to admit, though, that if - IF - all the programs were equally good and TV market didn't matter it would make for great regional matchups. But the reality is only the crappier Sun Belch teams would get a much needed lift of lower travel expenses and riding coattails of better CUSA programs. I don't see any TV outlets going for taking on such a conference unless it could cherry-pick teams or divisions. For example, TV would be interested in the West and North divisions of Realignment 2. The South division wouldn't get squat. Thus, teams like Tech and USM would be right where we are today; i.e, two of the better programs but on streaming broadcasts and PPV. Meanwhile, stAte, UNT, UTEP, and Texas State would be on ESPN2 of the Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio TV markets.

OH, and let's not overlook the whole SLC reunited that would result from such a realignment. All those years trying to shake the association would be for naught.

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Don't worry, we're trying hard to shake those years of trying hard to shake the association

Poor old "Monroe." The missing L takes over their newspaper, now, the ragin's are taking over their campus?

Option 3: The Sunbelt moves down to I-AA and merges with the SLC.

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Originally Posted by DJDAWG

Option 3: The Sunbelt moves down to I-AA and merges with the SLC.

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This is the perfect senario.

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Originally Posted by DJDAWG

Option 3: The Sunbelt moves down to I-AA and merges with the SLC.

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That's more likely than anything in that App State guy's SBJ article.

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Originally Posted by PawDawg

ODU and UAB would pitch a hissy fit.

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Meh. It actually makes some sense (and cents). The bottom 5 in C-USA football attendance this year would all be in the eastern conference. Many fans would enjoy having a big increase in drivable games. C-USA is no longer leaps and bounds ahead of the Belch. Their more compact footprint and sensible number of teams is a strength.

In this fairy tale scenario, I think being in a league with LA Tech, USM, and Troy is preferable to being in a potential division of FIU, FAU, Coastal Carolina, and Georgia State.

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Originally Posted by UABlazin

Meh. It actually makes some sense (and cents). The bottom 5 in C-USA football attendance this year would all be in the eastern conference. Many fans would enjoy having a big increase in drivable games. C-USA is no longer leaps and bounds ahead of the Belch. Their more compact footprint and sensible number of teams is a strength.

In this fairy tale scenario, I think being in a league with LA Tech, USM, and Troy is preferable to being in a potential division of FIU, FAU, Coastal Carolina, and Georgia State.

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Oh really? And yet every Belt school that would be offered an invitation to CUSA would take it!

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Originally Posted by UABlazin

C-USA is no longer leaps and bounds ahead of the Belch.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

Oh really? And yet every Belt school that would be offered an invitation to CUSA would take it!

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Can't expect a UAB person to live in reality.

LaTech owned the two best Sunbelt teams when we were not the best team in C-USA.

LA Tech gains nothing from this. Unlike most of these schools, LA Tech is already at the top of the 11 other schools it would supposedly be paired with. From day one, those 11 schools would be chasing LA Tech (except maybe USM, HAHA!)

LA Tech needs to be finding a way to join the AAC schools, not another conglomeration of these clowns.

We need to find a way into the MWC or AAC asap.

Or we need to do better.....along with USM, WKU, UNT, etc. in making CUSA a whole lot better.....quickly.




The championship game today looked very, very sub G5 level of play.

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Originally Posted by HogDawg

LA Tech gains nothing from this. Unlike most of these schools, LA Tech is already at the top of the 11 other schools it would supposedly be paired with. From day one, those 11 schools would be chasing LA Tech (except maybe USM, HAHA!)

LA Tech needs to be finding a way to join the AAC schools, not another conglomeration of these clowns.

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In a dream world, I would like a more regional conference combining AAC and CUSA. Get rid of the F_U twins.

Example conference 1
Tulsa
SMU
Houston
Memphis
Tulane
Louisiana Tech
UTEP
UNT
UTSA
USM
Rice
UAB

Example conference 2
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Temple
Navy (football)
East Carolina
UCF
USF
WKU
MTSU
Old Dominion
Marshall
Charlotte

I believe UTEP belongs in the MWC, but I can remember when they were our closest conference mate in the WAC after Rice, Tulsa and SMU jumped to the AAC.

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Originally Posted by Houston Techsan

I believe UTEP belongs in the MWC, but I can remember when they were our closest conference mate in the WAC after Rice, Tulsa and SMU jumped to the AAC.

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I agree. Wished CUSA would of picked us over UTEP back then. WAC could of had a longer shelf life.

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Originally Posted by qng001

I agree. Wished CUSA would of picked us over UTEP back then. WAC could of had a longer shelf life.

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The irony was, that CUSA membership vote took place in the spring (April?) right after Mike Price arrived at UTEP, and UTEP beat LA Tech in football 44-27 in Ruston in 2004. It was the only time since 1939 that UTEP has beaten LA Tech in football.

I still maintain that LA Tech would have been invited to join CUSA in 2005 instead of UTEP, if not for that one loss. The timing of that loss was just terrible for LA Tech. With Mike Price's arrival, everyone was suddenly more optimistic than ever about UTEP fortunes. So when Price's first team beat LA Tech in Ruston for the first time since 1939, everyone in CUSA thought UTEP's fortunes were much better than Tech's.

UTEP has lost every single game to LA Tech since. :icon_roll: LA Tech owns the series with 10 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie.

http://www.winsipedia.com/louisiana-tech/vs/utep

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Originally Posted by HogDawg

The irony was, that CUSA membership vote took place in the spring (April?) right after Mike Price arrived at UTEP, and UTEP beat LA Tech in football 44-27 in Ruston in 2004. It was the only time since 1939 that UTEP has beaten LA Tech in football.

I still maintain that LA Tech would have been invited to join CUSA in 2005 instead of UTEP, if not for that one loss. The timing of that loss was just terrible for LA Tech. With Mike Price's arrival, everyone was suddenly more optimistic than ever about UTEP fortunes. So when Price's first team beat LA Tech in Ruston for the first time since 1939, everyone in CUSA thought UTEP's fortunes were much better than Tech's.

UTEP has lost every single game to LA Tech since. :icon_roll: LA Tech owns the series with 10 wins, 2 losses and 1 tie.

http://www.winsipedia.com/louisiana-tech/vs/utep

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HD, the CUSA vote took place in April, 2004, prior to this game. When UTEP came to Ruston in 2004 they already had the CUSA invite in hand. I believe the revenue we lost from conference distributions alone was probably more than $10 million. The other side of the coin is that had we gotten the CUSA invitation in 2004 we would have never seen the changes that were made when Dooley became the AD.

Our leadership at the top had no idea what was going on in the real world of college athletics. Stuck in that rut, I have a bad feeling about how our play on the field and courts would have looked during that time had we been in CUSA. There would have been a lot of complacency. Oakes knew what was going on, but didn't really have the power to change anything. Not getting into CUSA was a wake up call for many.

UTEP being a metro area with a rich basketball history was the reason RC Johnson, the AD of Memphis at the time, supported them over us. He's a turd like Steve Ehrhart.

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Originally Posted by The Historian

HD, the CUSA vote took place in April, 2004, prior to this game. When UTEP came to Ruston in 2004 they already had the CUSA invite in hand. I believe the revenue we lost from conference distributions alone was probably more than $10 million. The other side of the coin is that had we gotten the CUSA invitation in 2004 we would have never seen the changes that were made when Dooley became the AD.

Our leadership at the top had no idea what was going on in the real world of college athletics. Stuck in that rut, I have a bad feeling about how our play on the field and courts would have looked during that time had we been in CUSA. There would have been a lot of complacency. Oakes knew what was going on, but didn't really have the power to change anything. Not getting into CUSA was a wake up call for many.

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Yep. You're right about the dates. My bad. That's why you are "the Historian". :icon_razz:

Instead of the Sunbelt merging with CUSA, why not CUSA merge with the AAC?

That sounds a lot better to me!

I wouldn't be too critical of some of the current Belch programs. WKU came out of the Belch and very quickly rose to the top of CUSA. Appy State for sure would be a good addition to CUSA, if indeed the league ever needs an eastern addition. Troy? Well....ummmm....maybe. But again, they would catapult to at least the middle of whichever CUSA division they would be in. I see them being a fairly consistent 3-5, 4-4, 5-3 type program. Some years a little worse, some years maybe 6-2. Ga. Southern? To be honest I expected more out of them. Thought they would do well in the Belch, but thus far, not so much.

There aren't any other current Belch schools that bring anything to the table. If CUSA needs to go shopping, and we can't/don't get one of those three, we'd have to look elsewhere.

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Originally Posted by dawg80

I wouldn't be too critical of some of the current Belch programs. WKU came out of the Belch and very quickly rose to the top of CUSA. Appy State for sure would be a good addition to CUSA, if indeed the league ever needs an eastern addition. Troy? Well....ummmm....maybe. But again, they would catapult to at least the middle of whichever CUSA division they would be in. I see them being a fairly consistent 3-5, 4-4, 5-3 type program. Some years a little worse, some years maybe 6-2. Ga. Southern? To be honest I expected more out of them. Thought they would do well in the Belch, but thus far, not so much.

There aren't any other current Belch schools that bring anything to the table. If CUSA needs to go shopping, and we can't/don't get one of those three, we'd have to look elsewhere.

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If it was an option, I'd boot the F_U twins for Appy State and Georgia Southern. If nothing else, it's a competitive boost.

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Originally Posted by Built4Speed

If it was an option, I'd boot the F_U twins for Appy State and Georgia Southern. If nothing else, it's a competitive boost.

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No thanks.