My take on C-USA expansion

[FriscoDawg]

I know that CUSA will be great for Louisiana Tech, but I will no longer be able to catch games in Fresno, San Jose, or other western locales.

There's still the Cal game in Berkeley scheduled for October 28, 2006.

[olddog75]

This is why the CUSA will be soooo good for us. As printed in today's Monroe paper regarding the baseball team "After today's contest, Tech will board a bus and drive overnight to New Orleans where the Bulldogs will catch a flight Wednesday morning to make the long trip to Hawaii for a series that begins on Friday night."

[TECH88]

This is why the CUSA will be soooo good for us. As printed in today's Monroe paper regarding the baseball team "After today's contest, Tech will board a bus and drive overnight to New Orleans where the Bulldogs will catch a flight Wednesday morning to make the long trip to Hawaii for a series that begins on Friday night."

Geez, we can't depart from Shreveport anymore? I know we have to watch every penny, but man, that's unreal.

[TulsaDawg]

Now the crazy thing to me is, after CUSA in its original state has crumbled a mere 9 seasons later (8 in football), people want to rebuild it according to the EXACT SAME PRIORITIES that didn't work the first time! They want big cities. They want a certain school because they've got a really good [insert one sport here] team. Screw everything that successful conferences are built on, like geographic proximity, natural rivalry, and similar interests.

Damn good post! Especially about the big cities. Sure, you've got more population, but you also have a lot more competition for the entertainment dollar. Thank you.

I think you should know that a lot of ECU fans are pulling for you. UTEP??? Nah...I sure hope not.

GO PIRATES!

[THEarmada]

thanks hummel. haha, its nice to feel wanted every now and then.

[arkstfan]

Now the crazy thing to me is, after CUSA in its original state has crumbled a mere 9 seasons later (8 in football), people want to rebuild it according to the EXACT SAME PRIORITIES that didn't work the first time! They want big cities. They want a certain school because they've got a really good [insert one sport here] team. Screw everything that successful conferences are built on, like geographic proximity, natural rivalry, and similar interests.

While I agree to a point, I don't know that you can call what happened to CUSA a failure that you wouldn't want to replicate.

Look back at the charter members: Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, UAB, Memphis, Southern Miss, Houston, Marquette, DePaul, Charlotte, Tulane and St. Louis of that group of six football and six non-football schools.

Two of the hoop schools added I-A football programs.
Five of the original 12 moved upward into one of the six richest (didn't say best, said richest) conferences in the country.
Two more moved into the premier non-football conference (at least non I-A).

The formula may not be good for long-term stability but the union of teams with great potential resulted in 58% of the charter schools landing in improved homes in a decade of existence.

For 7 of the charter members CUSA worked perfectly by providing them a place to grow into a role in more lucrative conferences.