Forgive me having a moment of gravity today. Being in Monroe last Saturday will do that for you even before the events of the past few days occurred. I am good with our lot right now as an independent. It is what it is and we can own it.
ALAFlamesFan wrote: ↑October 23rd, 2021, 12:23 pmIf we can continue to schedule multiple P5 teams per year we will be fine.
That last sentence combined to the new landscape around us is what is concerning me. The Alliance is essentially shutting us out of ACC/B1G/Pac 12 games moving forward outside of what we already have contracted. SEC schools consider us a bit of a dangeous proposition limiting our opportunities there. That leaves the Big XII as our primary scheduling opportunity in the P5 ranks. We have the flexibility to work in 2-for-1s but home-and-homes are not likely. I suspect we will score guarantee games from time to time moving forward as we are likely to play cheaper than other FBS options. Now if strength of schedule proves to be important for Big XII schools with the new playoff system that could be encouraging to our chances.
See I can be optimistic. But being realistic based on breaking developments is also valuable.
As for comparisons to Tarleston, Sam & McNeese, they will likely be filling up our schedules for the remainder of the decade. They haven't been scheduling FBS out of conference and will need to do so. With the large leagues most P5s and G5s now inhabit, they will only have 3 or 4 slots a year to fill. And most of those are already filled up to the end of the decade. The bad news for this Houstonian is that none of these local tams for me are going to be hosting Liberty. They now become fodder for filling up Williams Stadium slots. That is the correlation. I am hoping we get some of these CUSA leftovers to consider an Indy/ASUN alignment like us. That is a our best hope in the interim. And hope and pray we don't have the ACC schools buy us out as part of their alliance agreement.
As for Disney, I am wondering if our extension with ESPN wound up working against us. Since we were already int he Mouse's fold, they had no incentive to push for our inclusion in the AAC or Belt for that matter. Had we been a free agent then we would have been more valuable in their eyes. Things that make you go hmmmmm.