If we truly need the market size, which we do, Tech needs to absorb ULM or LSUS. Period!
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If we truly need the market size, which we do, Tech needs to absorb ULM or LSUS. Period!
If I was a betting person I would bet against this. They actually seem to be telling ESPN to shove it and have replaced them. The money may be different now, but they will have huge exit fees from those teams. I guess we will see, but at least short-term they aren't going anywhere.Originally Posted by SicemDawgz
I know this will come across as flaming, but it’s not. The Cajuns have been in this position before.
The talk of scheduling OOC games against former CUSA members may be a pipe dream. Those programs will want to separate themselves from the remaining CUSA programs. Just as they did when they left the SBC.
The same thing LaTech did in the WAC and CUSA. 4 maybe 5 OOC football games against SBC programs since 2001? So it may not be as easy as just setting up
H&H with these programs.
Adding NMSU, UMASS, UCONN is infinitely better than SHSU, Missouri St and Tarleton St. add UTA and UALR as non-football playing members and keep the auto bids.
If you are going to troll you at least need to get your facts straight...
We have had FOUR SBC games just against y'all since 2001...03, 04, 14, 15...Know the outcome of all of those? Win, win, win, win. Even our arguably worst coaches since 2001...Bicknell and Holtz, they have both beaten Lafayette.
By my records we have scheduled SBC opponents 7 times since 2001. Y'all four times, North Texas when they were still SBC, and South Alabama twice!
Would have had a game against ULM last year but they "canceled due to Covid"
This averages a game every 3 years with a SBC opponent. So to say we NEVER schedule SBC is a fallacy.
Playing as an independent, yeah - it'd be harder than it sounds to fill a whole schedule with regional teams (because eventually everyone wants to focus on conference play).
But for a couple of games a year, we should be fine. Who else are those teams going to play OOC? Half the teams they used to schedule OOC are now in their conference. Same for you guys in the belt. If you're a G5 in the south, and you want a near(ish) 1-for-1, it's going to be CUSA or the other of AAC/Sunbelt. UNT's looking at us, Texas State, or one of the UL-Twins for nearest other G-5 programs. Same is true for SMU. And Rice. And UTSA.
We already had series going with SMU and USA. But now SMU-UNT and USM-ULL/ULM/TROY/USA are all off as OOC games. So again, USM either plays us or they play UAB/Tulane.
It's very much not a good situation for us right now, but one thing that we should be able to do is schedule regional OOC games as needed (we've also played regional OOC series throughout our time in the WAC and CUSA, so I'm not sure what you're getting at there). We played ULL right after we joined the WAC and again years later. We played UNT while in the WAC. You can't play everybody every year (if you could, Independent would be a better option). I guess you're trying to say that the former CUSA west teams will be trying to distance themselves, but I don't think that will be the case and I think their ability to do so would be limited even if they do want to. And I think Tech big-timing the 'belt is overstated, as mentioned above we played Sunbelt teams from the beginning.
So 7 games out of 80 OOC opportunities. That’s a lot of games to fill.
I know I said elsewhere that the Trolls World Tour we're dealing with now is the second worst thing about this whole situation (after the actual conference falling apart and leaving us behind).
But it's starting to become a close second.
How many can raise their hand and say they were around when Tech was playing as an Independent? It's a hard row to hoe. Sounds good on paper. Much tougher to manage in the real world. You're basically running around with your hand out hoping someone will say yes. Not having the conference...any conference...scheduling to rely on makes life in the Independent world a crap shoot.
Well remember it and hearing from the people I worked with and knew asking me "Why are y'all doing this to yourselves?" I think we has as few as 3 home games one year and 4 the rest of the time, no TV, but Dave Nitz provided a window to those games like no one else could, and I mean no one.
We had that really good season where we ranked for a week and did not get any kind of bowl consideration, so yeah, Independence is a last option. I can hold my nose for a while if we have to pull up two or three FCS teams. I would not have hold my nose at all if we pulled up some like ND and SD.
Ah...some of us were long time Tech fans BEFORE we even got to the Indy status days...just saying.
yep. There were good and bad days before being an independent. I actually think filling a football schedule as an Indy would be easier now than it was then. Its the rest of the sports that would suffer without a conference to park them in. Especially MBB and BSB which are hot right now.
I would prefer to be in a good conference, but while I am wishing on star... I wish Holtz was given a lifelong contract as the new coach of USL.
I was there for the '88 - '91 seasons and the schedules were just brutal. Only 3 games at Joe Aillet in '88
Same in 1999.
Back then ULL, ULM, ASU, UCF, MTSU, UAB all spent time as independents (meaning they were available to play mid-season).
We still have independent teams now, and they'll all need games but we're talking about NMSU, Liberty, Army, UMass, UConn. I guess WKU, UTEP, MTSA, and FIU might be independent as well if all bail.
If we're going to end up playing those teams anyway, why not do it in conference play and maybe keep some bowl opportunities?
We can still play a decent number of current AAC/Sunbelt schools, especially if CUSA only goes to the minimum number of schools and we play 7 conference games. We just play them OOC.
NMSU is a given that they would join anyone that asked. UMass, UConn, and Army might/might not. I am not advocating going independent. I doubt there would be many bowls, even with the over abundance of bowls, that would want anyone other than the conference champ from the line up above. So we would have to win it and while that would seem easy, we have proven time and time again to shoot ourselves in the foot. If the TV money is bad now, it would be worse with that line up. Hello Tuesday night home games on the Ocho.
The benefits of being in the crappiest version of CUSA yet to be invented is still marginally better than independence but really only for our other sports. Its a push at best for any Holtz lead football team.
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