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Inside Conference USA’s future: Amid realignment, has league found stability? - The Athletic
This article was mentioned today, but you have to be a subscriber to access it.
Inside Conference USA’s future: Amid realignment, has league found stability? - The Athletic
You must be wearing a blindfold to read because you missed my point for a second time.
I never said Kennesaw State is the best option. But a 10th member is a better option than standing at 9. There are many reasons why an even number is always better than an odd number.
How many FBS conferences have an odd number of teams right now? Two, AAC and C-USA. How many FBS conferences will have an odd number of teams next year? One. C-USA. Get the picture?
Trying to minimize costs and maximize revenues makes it easier for conference members. That and making things as easy for student-athletes as possible is the only easy I am referring to.
4 2-game basketball flying road trips for both men's and women's basketball with a bus ride to Huntsville would basically be a wash to having either 2 or 3 2-game flying road trips, 1 or 3 1-game flying road trips, and the bus ride to Huntsville. And how about playing conference home games over Christmas break or just as bad in mid-December? Those are great (not!) for attendance. Another school like Jarvis Christian being added OOC does not help either.
And watch out, the pay article link I posted above even discusses moving to 12 teams. If those other two schools were Missouri State and Chattanooga, I could live with it. Otherwise adding only Kennesaw may be the lesser evil.
There's too much smoke in the air to think that Kennesaw won't be joining for 2024-2025.
I think 9 is much better than 10 (in a vacuum) but specifically I'd say that CUSA is not in the same position as any of the other FBS conferences. Obviously the P5 are apples to oranges and a sample size of 4 doesn't tell you much (two with 12 and two with 14, so it's not like there is a standard "this is the best amount of teams"). It's always going to be circumstantial. I wouldn't be complaining (as much) if we were adding Notre Dame.
A basketball trip to UTA/UALR/SFA/ASU/ULL/ULM/Tulane/USM/UNT is better than one to Atlanta.
And round robin is better for football (not for $ reasons although that probably washes out more or less since you don't get "real" divisions with just 10). And adding a team that isn't good at football or basketball isn't helpful at all. Our strength was going to be basketball, and now we're adding an anchor there (they've been good at FCS football over a short span, but still won't help our average conference strength).
I agree that it's probably a done deal and I saw that they're pretty strongly considering 12 (but thankfully not 14). My issue with 12 is that there aren't 3 decent options (or you could say there aren't 2 more options if you're assuming the boneheaded addition of KSU).
You also have to divide your limited conference money farther, which is only off-set if you're getting 1.1111 for a tenth member (and so on for 11 and 12). It's entirely possible that this is somehow the case (heck, it sure better be) but if so that's a little surprising (who is on the edge of their seat to watch KSU play FIU?).
And finally, if they add Missouri State and UT-C that doesn't give Tech a very good division, does it? I guess we could push for pods or something (but how would that even work with that set of teams?).
I'll give you three guesses.
I don't actually blame him - what's he going to say? I'd assume all the other CUSA admins can't talk about it yet until it's official, and no matter what you'd probably have to put a good spin on it once it's a done deal. Maybe one of our well-connected posters can get a candid answer in person some day. I really don't see how the pros can remotely approach the cons on this, but if the guys who see the numbers can say "the tv deal is sooooo much better with them" or something, I guess that would be the reasoning.
I've heard the name "Tarleton" being thrown around. Are they a candidate because some folks will throw crazy money for their move to FBS? I never heard of the school until CUSA got raided. Missouri State and Chattanooga has more name recognition. Shoot, Abilene Christian has better facilities than Tarleton.
Abilene Christian
Tarleton (*baseball just rendering of new grandstands)
Tarrleton State is the way to go if CUSA decides to offer rodeo as a sport. I think NMSU offers has a team, too.
I don't think they're even all the way FCS yet. But people really like to imagine them in CUSA for some reason.
ACU football capacity is 3k less than Tarleton, but is definitely expandable beyond that in the future. Basketball-wise ACU facility is way way better than Tarleton's HS gym.
I've step foot on Tarleton's campus once. It is small and so is the town of 20k.
Overall, we need out of this conference and be realigned back with some of our former conference-mates.
I don't know if this account really knows anything but...Sidelines Sports Network™
@Sidelines_SN
Kennesaw State received approval from their BOR today to pursue CUSA membership. With CUSA approaching 10 teams, rumors persist the conf. is looking to add 2 more. Top candidates appear to be SFA, Tarleton, EKU, MO State, & UCA. SFA looks like a lock, #12 likely MO State
Sidelines - Conference USA and 8 others
2:14 PM · Oct 12, 2022·Twitter Web App
*sigh*
Soon we will be the only FBS program left.
Woohoo SFA!!! Greek letters
Rodeo is Much Greater than freekin' WBB.
There definitely seems to be a sense of the pied piper in all of this. CUSA appears to be a waste land of lost teams looking to stabilize their existence on fledgling schools rather than solid schools… only something the worst conference would do.
Over the top, I know but you get the point
https://youtu.be/7WXTKM6xZ94