Originally Posted by
champion110
No non-aq (or whatever you want to call aq vs. non-aq now) conference is a solid landing point. Some are better than others, though. In order, I would say that CUSA is better than the belt, but not as good as MWC. It is a shame that MWC and CUSA were close to equal footing just a few months ago - even talk of merging and/or collaboration. Now, MWC is much further ahead. My apologies to Paralex, but I blame Houston and SMU for going to a conference that was CLEARLY unstable and falling apart with aq status soon to be a thing of the past with the playoff sytem. The BE was not going to get a auto play-off spot and there was already a big split growing with the bball schools there. When they left CUSA for that, it left CUSA in a bind for NO reason. The tv deal and bowl tie-ins would have been better in the old CUSA than the new Big East. If they would come back, it would still be better in CUSA.
Problem is now N. Texas for SMU and Houston. They don't want to be in the conference with them. I get it, but is that worse than being in a conference on the East Coast as a Southern school? Maybe it is...... Similar to us and the WAC to get away from the ULX's.
Now, we are faced with some serious issues. Do we sit back and be happy that we are in the conference still known by, but formerly CUSA? Do we try for the Big East and risk it falling apart more?
I believe we have NO choice but to play some politics and team up with Houston, SMU, Tulsa, Southern Miss, and even ECU. I am not joking when I say that we form a new conference and be the LEADER for once. Call an Airport meeting! Invite 11 programs that are having choices to make right now - including the ones above and several more (Tulane, etc..). Forget the aq in the NCAA bball tournament. It is not that big of a deal to miss out on that for a couple of years. Several will qualify, anyway, most likely.
If we would stop chasing and strart leading and pulling people together, we might could solve a lot of the problems we face together with some other programs. Leave the Commish's out of the meeting until we figure out the direction we want to go. Take charge of our own destiny. AND, for those that think we don't have that power, you are living in a shell. We DO have power, but have chosen to act like victims. That goes for our fans and our administration.
First, LG needs to head this up. Get every big doner and big name we have to play the politics with us. LG needs to get Karl and Terry on our side and hire an AD that is POWERFUL. No more playing around. Like it or not, we need an AD with a Dooley personality, but with more political clout. FOR ONCE, pay what we need to pay to hire an AD. Get the donors to help with the cost of even a 3 year contract for a high paid consult instead of a full time permanent one, if needed. The consulting AD needs to have strings and be someone that people respect and will follow - connections!
Work WITH ESPN and Fox Sports to see which one is going to pull the money from the Big East and CUSA and give it to this conference that is new and stable - one with market AND stability.
I am tired of having all this potential and constantly seeing us trying to climb the wall to the deep end of the pool and falling. JUMP OFF THE HIGH DIVING BOARD!