How would you like this conference?
West
TCU
Houston
Rice
LA Tech
Tulane
Southern Miss
East
South Florida
UCF
ECU
Marshall
UAB
Memphis
How would you like this conference?
West
TCU
Houston
Rice
LA Tech
Tulane
Southern Miss
East
South Florida
UCF
ECU
Marshall
UAB
Memphis
That's a very desirable and strong conference... sounds like a CUSA expansion scenario.Originally Posted by dju_21
Five games vs the West and 3 games vs East opponents would be quite nice from this Dog's perspective.
DJU,
I like the idea. In fact, rosters very similar to that one have been posted on this board several times in the last year or so.
I think that becoming a part of a more regional conference is the smartest thing that La. Tech could do for it's athletic dept.
Our biggest problems right now are low attendance and less money than BcS schools, and both would be addressed with a conference change.
Attendance problems would be greatly improved with the conference alignment that you mention. The WAC is the most geographically dysfunctional conference in existence. The conference has some pretty good teams, but how many people from Honolulu, Fresno, and Boise are going to make the trip to Ruston, La. for one day and then turn around and go home? Unfortunately the same is true when talking about Tech fans travelling to away games. Teams from Mississippi, New Orleans, E. Texas, etc.. would not present the same travel obstacles to fans and could only do good things for the attendance numbers of all schools involved. Also, people in nearby towns who have no ties to La. Tech do not feel compelled to travel and spend money on a football game to watch a team they never hear about on the local news or read about in their local newspaper. Regional alignments solve that problem also.
By improving ticket sales and fan involvement, money problems would not be solved, but they would be greatly eased. I'm not going to kid myself and say that we would suddenly start getting the TV contracts and $$$ that the BcS schools get, but the schools from the Eastern WAC and "football" schools from C-USA would be a great regional conference and TV contracts, bowl tie-ins, etc would be much more readily available to that conference than one that is spread out from Ruston, LA to Honolulu, HI From Houston, TX to Boise, ID. That gives no regional rivalries and therefore is not attractive to advertisers and bowl committees...both of whom like to focus on regional markets of their own.
It's sort of a catch-22 for a school like La. Tech. We have difficulty drawing big crowds because of our conference set-up, and other conferences see us as a gamble because of this. However, if we were in a more regional conference, the problems would not be nearly as bad as they are.
From the picture on your post, I'm assuming that you are a Tulane fan, so here's a question for you:
What do YOU and other C-USA schools think of that proposal?
I'd be very happy with that conference. I believe that it would be on par, if not better, than C-USA in terms of football. Basketball is another story. While the proposed conference would be weakerl, it would give teams like Houston, Tulane, Southern Miss, etc. a better chance at making the tournament. Playing in a league with Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis and Marquette really dims the tournament hopes of the other teams in the conference, especially when that league usually receives four invites at the most. Over on the baseball diamond, the proposed conference would be unbelievable. With teams like Rice, Houston, Tulane and Southern Miss, this league would easily be one of the top three conferences in the country.
There are almost as many conference reallignment scenarios as there are fans. Everyone seems to have some new line-up they are touting.
As long as Tech ends up in a decent regional conference, I can wait on the details.
Well, at least we Tech fans did get something right. We did say several years ago that being in the WAC would offer us a better opportunity to be invited to a good league. I have been making the rounds of some CUSA boards, and there is a thread on reallignment on them all. Tech is usually mentioned, with it running about 60-40 in our favor. And just as often some poster will say, "No Belt schools!"
Yes, leaving the Belt for the WAC is paying major dividends right now. At least we're being considered.
dju - I love your West alignment. Living in Shreveport makes every one of those games an easy, fun road trip. Let's get it done
dju_21 wrote:
How would you like this conference?
West
TCU, Houston, Rice, LA Tech, Tulane, Southern Miss
East
South Florida, UCF, ECU, Marshall, UAB, Memphis
so, if cincy and louisville go to the big east, and army goes independent. that leaves cusa with tcu, houston, tulane, usm, usf, ecu, uab, and memphis. they would need 4 teams to get 12 (rice, ucf, tech, and marshall.
obviously, tech would join if asked. i would hate not having smu and tulsa though. what about:
west :
tulsa
tech
tcu
smu
rice
houston
tulane
east:
usm
uab
memphis
ucf
usf
ecu
marshall
14 teams isnt ideal, but tulsa and smu bring enough to the table to warrant 14. of course tcu may not want any part of it and go mwc and ecu may be part of the big east. so it could very well end up a 12 team conference anyway.
Good scenario .... Two thoughts:
1. Why didnt CUSA take UCF originally? Why would UCF want to hang with yall now after you rejected them before?
2. Would Marshall be interested in this arrangement when they can continue to be top dog in MAC? Also, including Marshall starts to stretch the "regional-ity" of this conference. All the other schools mentioned are in contiguous states. Houston to Huntington aint exactly a day's drive.
I can't answer #2 but I think I know #1 Champ. I asked the same question over and over when CUSA took shunned Cent. Fla. for South Fla. The only answer I could ever get was that the media market for South Fla. was much larger and that South Fla. had potential to be another Miami. I still don't buy that.
I know that Central Fla. only joined the MAC because that was all they had offered. From what I have heard from a few of their fans they would welcome an invite to USA or a new USA.