[ballcoach15]

JMU is located in a drug/pit bull infested town. Crummy school, regardless of their football attendance. As for academics , no one will ever confuse JMU with Duke, Vanderbilt or the Ivy League schools. I'd place it 2 notches above a community college.

[PAmedic]

I looked at Total Expenses from the 2022 Reporting Year on the EADA site and against all AAC members, LU would have had the 3rd largest Athletics budget at $57.4M. The highest was Temple at $67.1M, followed by the University of South Florida at $62.3M. The average (excluding SMU since they are leaving) was $44.3M, so from an investment standpoint we are more than ready for the AAC. For giggles, I looked at JMU's budget and they were sitting at $52.9M, which is also respectable by comparison. If it were a question on the ability of a potential member to provide additional investment, I think it's pretty clear that LU would easily outpace JMU. A $10M increase to put us at the top of the league is not a far-stretch.

Why would any conference focused on Football ( spare me the other sports Twitter Argument stats ) with a choice choose LU over JMU. They average more fans, aren’t a religious school and are more respected in Academics. Both have small / same tv markets. Again - LU will have to buy their way in ( SMU just set the standard ).

Write it down. I agree with Tyndal
And I haven’t started drinkin yet.

GO PHILS

[LUGrad2000]

Army to the AAC

[Humble_Opinion]

I looked at Total Expenses from the 2022 Reporting Year on the EADA site and against all AAC members, LU would have had the 3rd largest Athletics budget at $57.4M. The highest was Temple at $67.1M, followed by the University of South Florida at $62.3M. The average (excluding SMU since they are leaving) was $44.3M, so from an investment standpoint we are more than ready for the AAC. For giggles, I looked at JMU's budget and they were sitting at $52.9M, which is also respectable by comparison. If it were a question on the ability of a potential member to provide additional investment, I think it's pretty clear that LU would easily outpace JMU. A $10M increase to put us at the top of the league is not a far-stretch.

Why would any conference focused on Football ( spare me the other sports Twitter Argument stats ) with a choice choose LU over JMU. They average more fans, aren’t a religious school and are more respected in Academics. Both have small / same tv markets. Again - LU will have to buy their way in ( SMU just set the standard ).

I missed this, so just for the record, in some piece of news thrown out in a prior page of this thread, the AAC was quoted as saying that any of their expansion targets have to show a commitment to investing in Athletics. My response here was looking that prism alone. In-total, JMU would be more appealing until we get our act together... starting to think that may never happen.

[ATrain]

AAC commish stated that they're not looking to expand beyond 14 for now.

[LUOrange]

Message zBoard chatter is that UMASS (all sports), Delaware and possibly MO State are coming to CUSA. The consensus is that UMISSED and DE are the most probable. Any of you expert insiders hearing the same?

[ATrain]

Message zBoard chatter is that UMASS (all sports), Delaware and possibly MO State are coming to CUSA. The consensus is that UMISSED and DE are the most probable. Any of you expert insiders hearing the same?

I'm seeing the same chatter on Twitter/X. What I can't seem to figure out is if UMass will be all sports or football only.

[LUOrange]

Message zBoard chatter is that UMASS (all sports), Delaware and possibly MO State are coming to CUSA. The consensus is that UMISSED and DE are the most probable. Any of you expert insiders hearing the same?

I'm seeing the same chatter on Twitter/X. What I can't seem to figure out is if UMass will be all sports or football only.

Everything I've seen says it's all sports and a main reason that both DE & UMass want CUSA now is better MBB and the shorter window on the GOR.

I like it cause, making UMass a conference game allows us another opportunity to beef up our non-conference. Delaware gives a fairly close road game in the PHL market. If we do bring in MO State, the questions is who else does CUSA promote to even out the west? SFA? Tarleton State? UCA?

[Ill flame]

Missouri state makes a lot of sense for CUSA. If they ever want to get back to being a conference that makes sense geographically, they are the obvious next addition. Plus they are the second biggest school in a decent sized state where they can carve out a pretty good sized niche for themselves without much competition.

From our perspective I'm not opposed to adding Delaware. They give us a team close by that likely won't embarrass themselves and might help us engage fans in that part of the country better. I really don't see much point in adding umass. They are pathetic in football and have been bad at basketball for the last decade. If CUSA has to expand I would go with the first two schools but I would prefer they stay pat and let these FCS schools get their feet under them before they start adding more.

[Purple Haize]

I’m just here to remind everyone that the precursor to CUSA, The Great Midwest Conference, was one of the greatest basketball conferences in history



Carry on

[ballcoach15]

Missouri State is the only good candidate for CUSA expansion right now. Adding UMASS makes zero sense.

[TH Spangler]

[paradox]

Sounds like a plan. It will be interesting to see if they finalize a move. And if they do,wil Delaware follow them in?

[Sly Fox]

The Blue Hens are the only obvious addition. They have the academics that the league presidents will love and have the financial commitment to athletics that is sorely missing from many of our current CUSA brethren.

I can hear the arguments for both Missouri State & UMass. Neither really moves the needle much for me. If you think UMass football is terrible, take a closer look at Missouri State. At least MSU traditionally has stronger hoops and baseball.

[Ill flame]

Your not wrong about missouri state being bad at football. I tend to think they would actually do better in CUSA than they have in the MVFC. Right now they have a bunch of ranked teams in their conference all recruiting the same region as them. At the G5 level there is really no one recruiting missouri states region. NIU mostly recruits the chicago area and upper midwest while Arkansas state mostly recruits the deep south. No one at the G5 level is really recruiting missouri, southern /central Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska which is why the MVFC is as stacked as it is.

[ATrain]

I know UMass wants a home for all its sports, but is CUSA really better than the A10 when it comes to basketball? That's why UMass didn't move all its sports to the MAC.

[paradox]

A10 hasn't been a regional conference in years. UMASS hasn't been competitive in years. They'll be immediately competitive in BB by moving down. CUSA has a 2-bid goal. Hope it happens

[ballcoach15]

UMASS does not belong in CUSA in any sport. That makes as much sense as Stanford in the ACC.

[LUOrange]

So Greg Flugauer is reporting that the SEC may pick up Clemson, UNC, FSU & UVA by 2026 or 27. Sounds like the new CFP agreement may be the next hurdle or domino.

[JK37]

Can they take UVA without VT? We’ve been here before.

[ballcoach15]

Seriously, why would SEC want UVA ?

[Ill flame]

Can they take UVA without VT? We’ve been here before.

If UVA is going anywhere it'll be to the big ten and the big ten won't touch VT.

[prototype]

Seriously, why would SEC want UVA ?

UVA is pretty good at all sports outside of Football.

[ATrain]

Can they take UVA without VT? We’ve been here before.

That was 20 years ago.

[ballcoach15]

I wish UVA would go to Big 10 and never be heard from again