We will not go independent
We may reconstitute CUSA 4.9 as something less than the Southland but we will NOT go independent
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We will not go independent
We may reconstitute CUSA 4.9 as something less than the Southland but we will NOT go independent
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Originally Posted by DallasDog
My feelings exactly. But it's going to keep coming up like this on the message boards. 20 years worth of fans (luckily) don't remember those days. And 10 years worth of fans or so don't remember the far-flung WAC days. So it's just going to keep being brought up as a viable option for as long as this thing doesn't improve.
I see the tide turning on perceptions of being associated with our ULS brethren. Young alumni were not around during our WAC days. Their most fond memories are beating up on ULL twice. They are completely in favor of playing Sunbelt schools and joining that conference if given the chance. I have been around for the Indy days and forward. I was not around for the State Fair days. I was young when we played NLU and USL regularly so it’s not as vivid a memory as it is for many of you. I don’t want us to go back Indy either. Money games against Penn St and others where travel is nearly impossible for many of us. 4-5 home games every year. Not good. If I could see that there is a long term, program building benefit to playing the ULX twins, I would be on board in a heartbeat. Of course, we probably won’t have a say in any of it and will just take the sloppy seconds left to us like usual.
The SunBelt will not invite us. Nor WKU nor MTSU. The Belters, if nothing else, are a petty bunch. No former conference members will be considered for re-admittance. At least not this round. (Yes, we all know Tech never played SBC football. But they dont care.) The Forgotten 5 -- Tech, Western, Middle, UTEP, & FIU -- are stuck together. And we'll have to find a way to make it work. Gotta get to 8.
The most obvious candidates are the other FBS Independents. In order of likelihood that's -- NMSU, Liberty, UMass, Army, UConn. It's been reported that Army and UConn are happy as fball independents, and that UMass likes their non-football sports right where they are.
So if CUSA can secure NMSU and Liberty for all sports and UMass for football only, then you only need one non-football member to close the gap. UALR, UTA, & UNO seem the most immediate prospects, but there's 100+ Division1 non-football schools. There's got to be at least one that's not happy with their current conference.
I think it's true that sunbelt fans are petty, but the presidents will hopefully follow the money (eventually).
And I think that while you start with the FBS independents, that conversation ends pretty quickly with NMSU. After that it's FCS schools wanting to come up. There is a bit of a back log there as I understand it, with several schools who have been eyeing the move (I've heard the new WAC football league was a step towards transitioning up eventually). NMSU, EKU, and SHSU would give us 8. But those conference officials want to keep their cushy jobs, so they'll push to pad things a little bit (you'd have thought 14 would have been enough this time, heck, that was half the reason to have so many conference teams to begin with). 9 would be fine with me, but I bet CUSA pushes to 10 or 12 to try to protect against another wave of realignment in case the Big 12 expands a little more or the 'Belt decides to go to 16.
As long as there are two ULS schools in the Sunbelt, I don't see a place for Tech. Other than program history what do we bring to the conference? I could see academics maybe, not sure how we compare to all the current Sunbelt schools. But with ULM 35 miles down the road there is no new markets opened for the Sun Belt by adding us.
We're one of the most-played opponents for at least 4 sunbelt members. We'd also be among the biggest draws (certainly within the conference) for all 4 plus Texas St. We add strength to that conference's football, basketball, and baseball. The geography is ideal (for most of the west at least, if an alabama school doesn't want to bump over to the east we would need to be added along with FIU or someone else in the east, although if you're talking about 16 schools at that point, maybe you do pods anyway, where we'd still be a good fit). We do bump the academic profile, but I don't think that really matters.
We don't add an additional market, given that there is a school already in the conference 30 miles away, but the sunbelt's approach has been more focused on good fanbases than good markets (for the most part, at least that's the story now). And we have that, at least relative to the rest of the conference.
We would bring quite a bit to the Sunbelt, and I suspect some of the school presidents understand that. But apparently not enough of them. So here we are.
That's all good stuff, but based purely on what I've seen from the current and previous iterations of conference realignment I'm afraid Market and potential $$$ add are the only things that really carry any weight in a schools consideration. Due to our inability to take advantage of our past success and to parlay that into a fanbase that moves the meter for these other conferences and presidents, I am afraid we are fairly well stuck in our present condition.
They just added Southern Miss and Marshall.
I'll agree that it's why we didn't get in the AAC (or CUSA in 2004).
NMSU is the only current FBS that I think snaps up the first offer that comes their way. If you could talk NDSU and Sam Houston into coming up they would be stronger football wise than anyone of the FBS leftovers with the exception of perhaps Army. I don't know enough about liberty to know whether they would take the offer or not. Geography is going to suck no matter what if you are strung out from New Mexico to the east coast. It's not the first time we have been in a BIG WAC geography crap show.
This is the most likely and probably best option. However in that conference, Judy needs to be gone before the first game with the new members. Should have already been gone.
Liberty was trending on Twitter a few days ago for a whole lot of the wrong reasons. I bet some school presidents don't want to touch that if a decision has to be made in the short term. Of course it could be they are ALWAYS trending on Twitter and I just noticed because of all of this realignment talk. They seem to be a lightning rod for liberal scorn.
Marshall and USM were both members of CUSA prior to us as well. Hattiesburg metro area has a population of roughly 149,000. Huntington, WV metro area population about 350,000. This is what is perceived as Market and Potential Revenue generators. What is the Ruston metro population? Without pulling in Shreveport or WM, we're what 45,000 or so?
I'm not arguing that we add much in the way of market size. I'm not arguing that it's not a factor at all.
I'm arguing that it makes less difference with the SB in 2021 than it does for the AAC in 2021 or CUSA in 2004 (or the Big 10 in 2014). FIU is in Miami, but Marshall and ODU and USM were chosen instead. For that matter, this is a conference that previously invited App State and Georgia Southern. I think our lack of market is something that could be overcome.
I think most of the western half of the SB would trade market-size for a bigger gate and easier travel at this point (especially given what is left to choose from). The problem is that for one reason or another, whether that reason is market size/market saturation/hurt feelings we weren't picked this time around. So either they go to 16 or there is another shuffle before it matters.
Markets just don't seem like a big deal these days. Where did it get our conference adding all those big market schools and now the AAC is doing the exact same thing. What would be appealing about adding y'all from a financial point is how much cheaper travel would be for everybody and ticket sales would go up for everyone on the western side of the conference. I really believe Memphis will get invite to the Big 12 eventually. The have a ton of 💰 and some stroke with FEDEX being in their back pocket and a big market if that is important to the Big 12.
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