Banowsky: Realignment over for now

[Dawg06]

My thoughts about WKU...

Look at this realignment from the prism of athletic budgets, take a look at the USA Today database. WKU was the last piece, where C-USA effectively chopped the head off the top 5 conference programs over $20MM budgets: MTSU, WKU, FIU, FAU, and UNT. And out of those 5, WKU had the highest non-subsidized revenue.

Yep. The #1 factor is athletic budget. Media markets are a lame excuse for schools that got left behind.

Here is the timeline. Charlotte got invited on the same day we did.
1. OUT: Houston, Memphis, SMU, UCF
2. IN: Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, UTSA
3. IN: Old Dominion
4. OUT: Tulane, East Carolina
5. IN: Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee
6. OUT: Tulsa
7. IN: WKU

Charlotte was a charter member of C-USA, and have you seen Charlotte's facilities? Wow! Charlotte had a $20K+ athletic budget before they even added football.

[inudesu]

My only beef with BB was why add WKU and Charlotte to get to 14???? I think we would have been fine with 12, personally. Adding a Sunbelt school and a FCS 'newbie' doesn't enhance our cache! IMHO! Does someone else compelling reason??????

DFiH

I agree with you that 14 is an awful number of teams for a conference.

[DallasDog]

It is just refreshing to be in a conference that has a plan and strategy from the outset and not reacting to everything after the fact. He is right, now the conference can focus on growing the brands it has.

[JAMROB]

My only beef with BB was why add WKU and Charlotte to get to 14???? I think we would have been fine with 12, personally. Adding a Sunbelt school and a FCS 'newbie' doesn't enhance our cache! IMHO! Does someone else compelling reason??????

DFiH

After getting to know FIU, id take either one of them in a minute over FIU.

[johnnylightnin]

Charlotte had a $20K+ athletic budget before they even added football.

$20,000 is impressive, but I think we can do better. Charlotte and WKU are going to be great for roundball…that has always been CUSA's bread and butter.

[Dawg06]

$20,000 is impressive, but I think we can do better. Charlotte and WKU are going to be great for roundball…that has always been CUSA's bread and butter.

Oops. Meant million.

[CaseyDawg]

I would still like someone to explain why the conference decided to add both FAU and FIU. One is bad enough but both, why?

[PawDawg]

I would still like someone to explain why the conference decided to add both FAU and FIU. One is bad enough but both, why?

More defense vs. the Sunbelt. Probably not necessary, but it hurt Benson and the Sunbelt in a big way to have zero Florida market. Yes, it matters to have that market when getting TV contracts.

[domangue]

Yep. The #1 factor is athletic budget. Media markets are a lame excuse for schools that got left behind.

Here is the timeline. Charlotte got invited on the same day we did.
1. OUT: Houston, Memphis, SMU, UCF
2. IN: Charlotte, FIU, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, UTSA
3. IN: Old Dominion
4. OUT: Tulane, East Carolina
5. IN: Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee
6. OUT: Tulsa
7. IN: WKU

Charlotte was a charter member of C-USA, and have you seen Charlotte's facilities? Wow! Charlotte had a $20K+ athletic budget before they even added football.

The only belt school with a legitimate market gripe is texas state. They are now the top budget school... by quite a large margin. Cusa just simply didnt need a 5th texas school.

[Dawg06]

I would still like someone to explain why the conference decided to add both FAU and FIU. One is bad enough but both, why?

Money (athletic budgets, facilities, endowments, etc.), travel partners (saves money), a couple new bowl games (Boca Raton Bowl & Miami Beach Bowl), massive enrollments (45K for FIU & 30K for FAU), big markets (Miami #16 & Boca #38), Florida recruiting, academics (both have medical schools & FIU has law), etc.

Florida Atlantic, Middle Tennessee, and WKU were better than the next best alternatives: James Madison, New Mexico State, Texas State, Missouri State, South Alabama, Georgia State, Arkansas State, Liberty, U-La-La, etc.

The only states C-USA will have multiple teams in is Texas and Florida. It just makes sense.

[inudesu]

You can make a case for just about any one school in the conference. Almost everybody brings something to the table.

But I'd still rather be in a conference of any 11 of them than a conference with all 13.

With that many schools, we're just about to the point of being a conference in the sense that the NFC is a conference.

[Dwayne From Minden]

You can make a case for just about any one school in the conference. Almost everybody brings something to the table.

But I'd still rather be in a conference of any 11 of them than a conference with all 13.

With that many schools, we're just about to the point of being a conference in the sense that the NFC is a conference.

Might as well get used to it, because that is the direction that college sports in trending

[Dawg06]

C-USA isn't any different from the other conferences with more than 12 schools.

ACC - 15
SEC - 14
Big Ten - 14
C-USA - 14
A-10 - 14
Southland - 14
MEAC - 13
Big Sky - 12+2 FB-only
MAC - 12+1 FB-only
Sun Belt - 11+2 FB-only
CAA - 10+7 FB-only

[inudesu]

Might as well get used to it, because that is the direction that college sports in trending

Maybe.

But I have hopes that divisions will become the new conferences (which sort of continues the NFL comparison). Heck, if CUSA would just add two more schools you'd basically have two pretty good conferences who just happened to set up tv and bowl contracts together. And if CUSA added 4 more teams, that's exactly what you'd have because 9 is perfect for a football conference (even if you call it a division).

[inudesu]

C-USA isn't any different from the other conferences with more than 12 schools.

ACC - 15
SEC - 14
Big Ten - 14
C-USA - 14
A-10 - 14
Southland - 14
MEAC - 13
Big Sky - 12+2 FB-only
MAC - 12+1 FB-only
Sun Belt - 11+2 FB-only
CAA - 10+7 FB-only

I'm not saying it is different. I'm saying it is bad.