Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
. We had an average attendance of 14,603 this year with the two Eastern Div games averaging 13,203 both home and away. That means no interest.
I submit there may more reasons for slumping attendance than our current conference membership.
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It is literally costing us money to be in this conference.
Yeah so? It literally costs us money to keep the library open too.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
HogDawg
CUSA is not going to rot on a vine. Simply put,
it doesn't take $60M to run a football program in Ruston. Or Hattiesburg. Or Huntington, for that matter. Compared to most "big time schools", the tuition rates in Ruston are much cheaper, the teaching and coaching salaries are much less expensive, the simple cost of living is much lower and the taxes are much less. I would argue that any 10 people from this BB&B board would have a very difficult time spending $60M annually on OPERATING expenses to run LA Tech's athletic programs in Ruston.
Many large companies have already figured this out, and now pay their employees differently for the same jobs in different regions of the country. For example, they pay someone in Boston more to work the same job than they pay someone else to work the same job in Dallas. That's because they know that "homeowners" in Boston need an income of 129K per year to live comfortably, while homeowners in Dallas only need 83K. For Houston home owners, that number is 79K. So the person in Boston needs 39% more in income than the person in Houston, to work the same job.
https://www.gobankingrates.com/makin...-cities-us/#18
I'm sure the same can be said for running college athletic programs. But of course, the NCAA will be the last to figure this out and fully understand it.
I've always thought the whole "big budget" requirement was a little silly. Sure, any good conference wants their members to be able to build good facilities and keep up with modern technologies, etc... But, we're not talking about capital expenses, we're talking about OPERATING budgets here. It just doesn't take as much money to run a football program in Ruston, LA as it does in Austin, TX. It's nothing more than the big schools' attempt to punish the traditionally smaller schools, and intimidate them into thinking they have to spend more money to "keep up".
You are right that it doesn't take $60m to run an "Athletic Department". Tech however is still very much cash poor and unable to keep up with the Jones at well under $25m in operating cost. Cost of living is absurd here in North LA when you compare it to Boston or LA, but Coaching Salaries, and other things are the same everywhere. Also, it takes money to develop a product that draws in the casual fan, especially when there is so much free stuff on tv. Tech is the worlds worst about drawing casual fans, or maintaining even the lower level die-hards. We don't cater to the masses and it is killing us.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
Champ967
Let me take this opportunity to also reiterate what I've said before about diminishing returns.
A football budget of INFINITY will still not bring your program more than 85 FBS-caliber players, nor more than 15 wins. And the same goes for your whole athletic program.
As long as the number total of wins available remains finite, you'll reach a point on the ROI curve where each new dollar accomplishes less than the one before it. And just like (blech! gag) HogDawg explained, that point is going to be substantially lower in Ruston than in Seattle.
You are equating success on the field to success in the Athletic department. We have a .570 winning percentage lifetime and still have never ever sold out our current stadium. I never said we needed $60m budget to be successful, yet it keeps getting repeated like I did say that. My definition of success is the establishment of a higher value point of the brand that it Louisiana Tech.
We are no where near a ROI curve and you know it. We are far from it. Clemson University operates at around $112m in athletic expenditures. When comparing apples to apples you should be using Clemson, SC not Boston or Seattle.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
Y Tech is the worlds worst about drawing casual fans
We're actually pretty good considering the population from which we have to draw them.
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You are equating success on the field to success in the Athletic department.
Yes, those are cinnamons.
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We are no where near a ROI curve and you know it.
Agree. There's still a lot more we can do.
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When comparing apples to apples you should be using Clemson, SC
Disagree. Clemson might like to call themselves a small town, but they're smack in the middle of the Greenville-Spartanburg metro with around 1.5MM people. (Same goes for Auburn & TAMU)
Apple to apples, we need to be looking at Boone, NC and Pullman, WA.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
Champ967
We're actually pretty good considering the population from which we have to draw them.
Yes, those are cinnamons.
[LEFT][COLOR=#333333][FONT=Verdana]Agree. There's still a lot more we can do.
Disagree. Clemson might like to call themselves a small town, but they're smack in the middle of the Greenville-Spartanburg metro with around 1.5MM people. (Same goes for Auburn & TAMU)
Apple to apples, we need to be looking at Boone, NC and Pullman, WA.
North LA from Rapides up is 1.25 million people. Greenville Metro may be bigger than Shreveport Bossier but its not dissimilar. If all it took was winning we would have been a P5 school a long time ago. There are multiple p5 comparisons that we could utilize to see where we stack up. We are good enough to be a solid mid level G5 school, but we don't excel in many of the areas that would make us a "state" school like a Wazzou, Clemson, Kansas State, Iowa State or Oklahoma State. Our biggest problem has been and always will be that the State of LA is a economically dysfunctional as there can be and its investments will always be LSU, but we should still rank closer to the second tier P5 schools than we do. I have been to Clemson and it is about the size of WM. It was shocking how small.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
First is that it operates as two conferences totally disinterested in the other. We had an average attendance of 14,603 this year with the two Eastern Div games averaging 13,203 both home and away. That means no interest.
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Originally Posted by
Champ967
I submit there may more reasons for slumping attendance than our current conference membership.[/FONT][/COLOR][/LEFT]
Yeah, I think 14 schools is way too many for any conference, but that's kind of where we're at in most of FBS these days. Also, you're telling me that we had about 1,000 fewer fans at our cross-divisional game than our OOC and in-division games - I don't think that's a travesty. There aren't 14 schools you could put together where a random cross-divisional game wouldn't garner less interest.
On the whole, while I could see that we'd likely have a slightly higher average attendance if BB&B was allowed to cherry-pick our favorite 8 teams to make our own new Tech-centric conference, it's never going to work that way. Not even if you limited the choices to CUSA and the 'Belt. And so by the time you re-shuffled the deck, there is a really good chance we're right about where we are now (or worse off). I just don't think CUSA is all that bad (even if it isn't my dream conference). It's a fun game to play when you look at the geography and see the overlap, and even national writers that I like really enjoy trying to split us off "to make more sense." But I don't see the overlap as that big of a deal, and I'm not convinced that redrawing the conferences based solely on geography makes anyone all that much happier (well, I guess some would be happier, maybe even us, but on average I think it's a wash).
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
inudesu
Yeah, I think 14 schools is way too many for any conference, but that's kind of where we're at in most of FBS these days. Also, you're telling me that we had about 1,000 fewer fans at our cross-divisional game than our OOC and in-division games - I don't think that's a travesty. There aren't 14 schools you could put together where a random cross-divisional game wouldn't garner less interest.
On the whole, while I could see that we'd likely have a slightly higher average attendance if BB&B was allowed to cherry-pick our favorite 8 teams to make our own new Tech-centric conference, it's never going to work that way. Not even if you limited the choices to CUSA and the 'Belt. And so by the time you re-shuffled the deck, there is a really good chance we're right about where we are now (or worse off). I just don't think CUSA is all that bad (even if it isn't my dream conference). It's a fun game to play when you look at the geography and see the overlap, and even national writers that I like really enjoy trying to split us off "to make more sense." But I don't see the overlap as that big of a deal, and I'm not convinced that redrawing the conferences based solely on geography makes anyone all that much happier (well, I guess some would be happier, maybe even us, but on average I think it's a wash).
I could agree with your overall assessment. My biggest problem is being at 14 teams. That's the biggest screw up ever. We have to split the same pot of money 14 ways and the Sunbelt only 10 ways. That's nearly a 3% increase in revenue we are out.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
I could agree with your overall assessment. My biggest problem is being at 14 teams. That's the biggest screw up ever. We have to split the same pot of money 14 ways and the Sunbelt only 10 ways. That's nearly a 3% increase in revenue we are out.
Good point. The C-USA presidents thought taking the F-Us away from the Sunbelt was important for some reason. I've never seen the upside.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
PawDawg
Good point. The C-USA presidents thought taking the F-Us away from the Sunbelt was important for some reason. I've never seen the upside.
Worst mistake ever. Yea, FAU got some buzz two years ago for hiring Joey Freshwater but dang, one year later they still can't draw flies. So much for markets!
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
Worst mistake ever.
No, that would be disco.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
Champ967
No, that would be disco.
Wrong. That would be rap.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
KSDAWG
Worst mistake ever.
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Originally Posted by
Champ967
No, that would be disco.
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Originally Posted by
Amos Moses
Wrong. That would be rap.
Tie! Move to center ice for the face-off.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
tenacious_dog
Tie! Move to center ice for the face-off.
I retract my previous statement regarding worst mistake ever as it has moved into the musical realm. I fear someone will next pull up bell-bottoms and MC Hammer pants.:)
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
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Originally Posted by
tenacious_dog
Tie! Move to center ice for the face-off.
Disco was created by Boomers, who have solidly refused to take responsibility for anything for roughly 2/3 of a century now.
Rap, on the other hand, was created by GenX. We're used to being ignored, and dont care what you think anyway.
Re: UConn Leaving AAC for Big East
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Champ967
Disco was created by Boomers, who have solidly refused to take responsibility for anything
for roughly 2/3 of a century now.
Rap, on the other hand, was created by GenX. We're used to being ignored, and dont care what you think anyway.
Disco was created by the devil himself/herself/itself/Z...... don’t want to offend any of the current generation by using a defining pronoun. Wait... I’m Gen X I don’t care what anyone thinks anyway... f@ck it.. himself! ;)