One of the main parts of an athletic budget is the cost of education I would think and the difference from cost at La. Tech and SMU, Rice, Tulane and Tulsa would be a lot of money.
If you strip out the difference the budgets may not look nearly as great as just looking at the
raw total numbers.
I think we do. But we need a promised bigger budget as stated above by Tech77. Also as stated our being pretty good in MBB and Football really helps right now. Likewise, our Tier 1 status/academics is a huge positive for AAC's private school votes.
And we've obviously been conference mates in the WAC with some of these guys.
Correct. The schools the AAC spoke to back in 2011 when the realignment game was put on hold were Rice and Southern Miss. How attractive is CUSA without Rice, Southern Miss, and UAB? What if realignment continues and four schools leave CUSA for the AAC and UAB is long gone? Tech must plan for what its facing in the next 18 months. If we're not invited to the AAC, someone else in CUSA will be.
And regarding USM, if budget is a factor USM is only in the low-20M range.
I know this is super simple, but it takes 1,000 alums/supporters giving $1,000 a year to equal $1 million. We would probably need to increase our budget by about $5 million to $7 million. We must do a better job involving those alums who currently give nothing, or almost nothing.
Good old Memorial Gym
While I'm not excited about all things our AD is doing, I think he gets what you describe above. He has pounded this message in EVERY pregame interview this year and every other interview I've heard him do. He is also sending out letters leading up to the bowl game. One thing different he is doing that I've never heard done before is asking for ANY SIZE donation.
Like season tickets, LTAC commitments aid them in setting the budget. I'm glad to see and hear him seeking help from the common folk.
The AAC would be doing good to get name teams. I would consider Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, and UTEP to have the most name recognition in CUSA - UTEP being too far out of the footprint.