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Banowsky Steps Down as Conference USA CommissionerQuote:
Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced today he will be stepping down from the position he has held nearly 13 years to serve as the Executive Director of the College Football Playoff Foundation and further his work with a number of other nonprofit organizations.
I don't think it's a good sign for this to happen in the middle of TV negotiations.
Oh h ll, sombody needs to kidnap mr peanut before he gets his application filled out.
BB is staying on until his replacement is found (earliest is October). I'd say the TV deals will be done.
here is an op/ed piece on C-USA TV deals http://g5conferencenews.blogspot.com...-update_8.html
and another http://g5conferencenews.blogspot.com...-reins-on.html
those schools make up a good "core," not "corp"
That one got me in the 8th grade spelling bee. I didn't ask for a sentence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tech77
That's rite.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tech77
Neither is a member team in the largest TV market dropping football.Quote:
Originally Posted by UABlazin
I agree. I've always thought that is one reason Banowsky was so vocal in his support of UAB.Quote:
Originally Posted by maddawg
Mr. Peanut makng ESPN news by saying Belt teams need to cut down on money games and play more games against "peer" conference schools so they have chance to go undefeated and get one of the 6 big bowl games. Ha!
This will surely backfire. I can see it now. UL-L beats UAB and Toledo in non conference play and gets "snubbed" because ULM blows their doors off in Laffayette in front of all of ULM's recruits.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tech77
Yes, he might want to mind his own business, cuz the majority of the G5s HAVE to play money games to support their athletics program$.
I think senility has landed in that Mr. Peanut brain.
Mr. Peanut's leadership phrase used to be "WAC- Play Up", but that has now morph'ed into "Slumbelt- Play Down".
Hmmmm.
http://www.dnj.com/story/sports/coll...orse/30530767/
Quote:
New C-USA TV contract: Outgoing Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky took questions from the media during media day Wednesday too.The league’s current television contract with Fox and the American Sports Network will expire in June 2016. Banowsky, who will stay in his current role until his replacement is hired, said he expects the new deal to be announced “by the middle” of the upcoming academic year (2015-16).
“We have a team that’s working on it,” he said. “We have an agency out of Raleigh (North Carolina) that does these things. They’re in discussions with all of our TV partners, and we’re starting to get some structure around (the new contract).”
Banowsky also didn’t rule out the possibility of a new TV partner, such as ESPN, coming on board with C-USA either.
Don't want ESPN which would mean Tues, Weds or Thurs games
Exactly! We don't want MACtion.
As you know, we have one of those this year with FOX.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
As a local guy, I'd just as soon play mid week as 11:00 on Saturday. I understand that out of town folks have a tough time with it. I'll miss 967 and his crew, I'd also miss anybody HD normally brings along.;)
Consistent weekday NIGHT games will kill our attendance far worse than any 11:00 am Saturday morning game could every think of
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
History doesn't agree. Some of our most well attended games were during the week. Some of our worst crowds have been 11:00ish.
FWIW, we have never had "consistent" weekday night games.
It would be nice to have ESPN on board. Maybe it is a good thing that he is staying on until his replacement is hired. I have never allowed that at my business, because the person usually checks out early when they know they are leaving anyway. I take that back - I allowed it one time, but it was when the person was going to work for a colleague of mine and needed a solid recommendation to stand.Quote:
Originally Posted by sportdawg
But we would under the ESPN moniker...Quote:
Originally Posted by maddawg
A lone Thursday or Wednesday game every 5 years or so will not hurt attendance
Two week night games a year would decimate it
ESPN is slashing budgets left and right -
Don't know if I want to part of a cost cutting measure - or have our games broadcast by talent sitting in a Bristol Conn dark room with no one in person in Ruston LA
That's what they did with a lot of MAC games & ESPN3 games last year
FS!, FS2, Fox Regional and ASN affiliates produce a much better product
I suppose so if our commissioner was as desperate as Karl Benson or John Steinbrecher. I'd hope that our guy would limit those games rather than harping on "the ESPN platform" that translates into "ESPN 3".Quote:
Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
You are right on the production quality. ESPN sucks. I'll take your word for ASN's production quality since I'm not able to view ASN games on the worlds largest cable provider.;)
I posted before I thought about what that might mean about week day games. I am all for weekend games, especially for people like me that cannot make a weekday game.
Maybe, my point about not letting him stay in office was on point, after all. What is going on with the search and why should it take this long?
The really big week night game that I remember we had on ESPN was that Red Out against Hawaii and we had the first team ESPN crew. Also wasn't Miami in Shreveport on Friday Night? We had the first team crew then, too.
So looks like CBS is out of the picture? I'd like to see if NBC might want to pick us up...
I think so - very few CBS College Sports football slots last year -Quote:
Originally Posted by GermDawg
FS2 is really needing content, especially if PAC12 goes to ESPN and jettisons Fox
Caught sleeping, or did I just miss this?? Thought BB was gonna "hang around" until replacement showed up.
http://www.conferenceusa.com/genrel/081415aaa.html
The press release said he'd stay on until they could complete a process to determine his successor and that a September meeting was "anticipated."Quote:
Originally Posted by OLDBLUE
Why an "interim"??????Quote:
Originally Posted by maverick
Because it will take a few weeks to work out the details of Benson's new contract.Quote:
Originally Posted by OLDBLUE
I heard they were not comfortable announcing the UAB AD as the new commissioner so quickly....Quote:
Originally Posted by Champ967
Wonder if this is an interim step to make MacLeod the commish?
Will give her credit for responding to the email I sent in about the 2016 basketball tourney going back to UAB. But know nothing about her or her capabilities.
What'd she say about that? Just the usual "not connected in any way to the fact that they were in violation of conference by-laws when they bid?"Quote:
Originally Posted by tenacious_dog
I don't think it's proper to post her exact reply but essentially she said the conference members have been working on finding some neutral site opportunities And they recognize UAB is not a neutral site. She reviewed that currently interested members submit proposals to host with the AD's voting and making a recommendation to the Board of Director. They make the final decision. She went on to say my points were all understandable and will continue to be discussed in the future. "Thanks again for expressing your views in a thoughtful way."Quote:
Originally Posted by inudesu
My email:
Perhaps the reason is economics, convenience or some other factors but I do not like the decision to return to Birmingham for the 2016 basketball tournament.
I don’t think the tournament in 2015 was run well. Several friends who went to El Paso in 2014 and Birmingham in 2015 say El Paso was a much better run affair and infinitely friendlier to the fans from out of town. And it smacked of politics when the attendance rules changed DURING the 2015 tournament which obviously favored UAB and gave them a distinct advantage over every other conference member.
And then there is the situation with seeding teams, specifically the regular season champion versus the host team. Are we playing basketball to win a championship or host a tournament? If its championships then host team seeding should be addressed AFTER the regular season champion’s seeding has been settled. If UAB wins the conference regular season title, then they get the seeding they earned and deserve. If not, then they still get a significant accommodation in seeding.
But ultimately, CUSA should move the basketball tournament to a true neutral site for all future basketball tournaments. Why not move it to Dallas where the conference is headquartered? Then everyone has to travel and get hotel rooms of which DFW has an abundance as well as playing venues. And even from ODU it’s not a bad flight.
Please take steps to move the basketball tournament to a neutral site in 2017.
-----------
And, yes, I realized the proximity of North Texas. Imho, depending on where in DFW its held they are likely to get a hotel close to the venue(s) rather than risk traffic problems and to give their players as much down time as possible between games. Obviously I'm not talking about North Texas hosting if the tournament is in Dallas. If anyone disagrees with that....fine, that's your opinion, too.
When stuff like this happens, people need to express their opinions not only to Tech's admin but to CUSA too.
I hear Mr. Peanut had MD on speed dial.Quote:
Originally Posted by tenacious_dog
Interesting. I wouldn't expect a CUSA official (or for that matter most of the ADs or coaches or school representatives) to publicly disagree with the call (I love that the ODU? coach had a comment).Quote:
Originally Posted by tenacious_dog
Your issues are legitimate, but my issue is that they shouldn't have been allowed to bid to begin with. But I'd expect the official response to be along the lines of our AD's. Something about "they did a great job last time, and the two issues aren't related, and it all worked out, and maybe someday it'll be neutral." Didn't seem worth bothering to do more than a few snide Twitter remarks and some CUSA message board "discussion."
I had a paragraph about UAB being allowed to bid, but removed it from the final draft as I felt it changed the character of the letter. But it was absolutely wrong to delay the decision on naming the 2016 tournament site. Period. If ODU or some other school had a better bid than Tech's, then it should have gone there. But this whole UAB thing has been an exercise in excess preferential treatment and I don't understand why.
Back on thread topic, HOPEFULLY whomever the new conference commissioner is, they'll be more "forward leaning" when it comes to even handedness among conference members.
As I stated early in this thread, once he stated he was leaving, they should have stated he needed to leave immediately. It never works out to keep someone on, when there mind is already out of the game. I think it is good to have an interim, if they don't have someone ready yet. Should have been done when he announced.
I've heard significant chatter that Fox will buy Tier 1 and ESPN will get everything else. FOX will choose first, ESPN will choose second, and then ESPN will sublicense games to ASN. I think this is best case scenario and would open the door for all non-televised games to be on WatchESPN.Quote:
Originally Posted by GermDawg
CUSAbbs @CUSAbbs 7m7 minutes ago
C-USA to name Judy MacLeod as first female FBS commissioner http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/writer/dennis-dodd/25342331/conference-usa-to-name-judy-macleod-as-first-female-fbs-commissioner …
Not too impressed. Emailer her during the basketball tournament last year and got no reply.Quote:
Originally Posted by sportdawg
She's replied to my emails. Banowsky didn't even make his email address public.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tech77
Ditto. Gave her credit for actually answer the points of my emails. Hope she's an upgrade from Banowsky. IMO he's been mailing it in for the last 2 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dawg06
He took care of UAB before he left. IMO he ended up being as corrupt as Karl Benson was towards Boise.Quote:
Originally Posted by tenacious_dog
@lkguice: Congratulations to Judy MacLeod, new Conference USA Commissioner! https://t.co/U83v9JbzBE