If you want to talk ASUN smack or ramble ad nauseum about your favorite pro or major college teams, this is the place to let it rip.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

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By LUOrange
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#663900
ballcoach15 wrote: October 3rd, 2024, 7:43 pm I could see AAC inviting Marshall, but I can't see what ODU has to offer any conference.
They clearly bring the Hampton Roads TV market & a decent recruiting ground. But also remember that they were the biggest complainers of CUSA travel before they left.
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By ATrain
Registration Days Posts
#663901
LUOrange wrote: October 3rd, 2024, 9:43 pm
ballcoach15 wrote: October 3rd, 2024, 7:43 pm I could see AAC inviting Marshall, but I can't see what ODU has to offer any conference.
They clearly bring the Hampton Roads TV market & a decent recruiting ground. But also remember that they were the biggest complainers of CUSA travel before they left.
AAC money will likely offset whatever travel concerns they have. Plus they may end up traveling less in the AAC than in the Sunbelt, especially the Olympic sports. Add to that the fact that basketball has, historically, been their strongest sport, and the AAC will definitely be an upgrade over the Sunbelt in that regard.
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By aj7
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#663904
I guess CUSA doesn't have to add a replacement for UTEP, but it might be wise since NMSU, SHST, Liberty, and WKU are attractive to other conferences. If no one moves we can stay put at 11 with Delaware and Mo St but that doesn't seem stable. On the other hand who do you add? Stephen F. Austin? Bleh. Doubt a Mac school would move.
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By prototype
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#663905
OK - I have stayed silent because this whole movement of teams drives me crazy. I know why it's happening, but man it's frustrating.

We need to stay put and push Conference USA to be better, bigger and more successful. Conference USA has the opportunity to grow right now. Merge with another conference like the PAC7, MW, WAC, I don't care. Make an East and West Division. I'm not sure how long we are in our current TV deal, but get out of it, or add to it. The conference has to get a TV deal on par with the other larger conferences - Not Big10 or SEC, but closer to AAC and Sunbelt.

If Conference USA doesn't start being the aggressor, they will get picked apart. This conference is getting better and still have some decent market areas.
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By aredd33
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#663906
aj7 wrote: October 4th, 2024, 9:44 am but it might be wise since NMSU, SHST, Liberty, and WKU are attractive to other conferences.
Three of those are attractive to other conferences…one of them is not.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#663913
Let the record show that there are no attractive FCS options. Period. There is also a barrier of entry in place that makes its cost prohibitive for most FCS programs to move up ... including the Dakota & Montana schools.

Let me shout this from the rooftops, Tarleton State is not a viable option. They are in the boonies and have no name recognition here in Texas. It is the school where kids who can't get in the many other major universities go as a deep fall-back. And did I mention they are nowhere close to any other CUSA school? Yes, they are in Texas. But as far as the population of the state is concerned, they may as well be in a random Oklahoma town.

ODU is cash constrained and would likely find keeping up with the Joneses in the AAC very difficult. The 757 is a more attractive market than the one LU finds itself. But let's not kid ourselves that Tidewater is on par with Atlanta. Could they wind up in the AAC? Absolutely. But I don't see it as likely.

As for Proto's suggestions of mergers, there are strong reasons why that is not likely to occur even if it makes the most sense. Auto bids to conference champions get eliminated. Tourney money is much more likely to come to schools when they dont have additional schools to battle to get the bids. And the greater the number of schools, the more the pie gets carved up. While it is true that the networks have begin to prize inventory in order to be able to push out more content. But lower tier G6s don't have the cachet to pull more revenue from the networks. Any mergers today would have to occur out of desperation to avoid folding a league.

In summary, we are staying right where we are unless circumstances somehow change enough where we might be invited to a league like the AAC or Pac to round off numbers. That is unlikely but not impossible.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#663916
Sly Fox wrote: October 4th, 2024, 8:49 pm Let the record show that there are no attractive FCS options. Period. There is also a barrier of entry in place that makes its cost prohibitive for most FCS programs to move up ... including the Dakota & Montana schools.

Let me shout this from the rooftops, Tarleton State is not a viable option. They are in the boonies and have no name recognition here in Texas. It is the school where kids who can't get in the many other major universities go as a deep fall-back. And did I mention they are nowhere close to any other CUSA school? Yes, they are in Texas. But as far as the population of the state is concerned, they may as well be in a random Oklahoma town.

ODU is cash constrained and would likely find keeping up with the Joneses in the AAC very difficult. The 757 is a more attractive market than the one LU finds itself. But let's not kid ourselves that Tidewater is on par with Atlanta. Could they wind up in the AAC? Absolutely. But I don't see it as likely.

As for Proto's suggestions of mergers, there are strong reasons why that is not likely to occur even if it makes the most sense. Auto bids to conference champions get eliminated. Tourney money is much more likely to come to schools when they dont have additional schools to battle to get the bids. And the greater the number of schools, the more the pie gets carved up. While it is true that the networks have begin to prize inventory in order to be able to push out more content. But lower tier G6s don't have the cachet to pull more revenue from the networks. Any mergers today would have to occur out of desperation to avoid folding a league.

In summary, we are staying right where we are unless circumstances somehow change enough where we might be invited to a league like the AAC or Pac to round off numbers. That is unlikely but not impossible.
Me and you have very different definitions of the boonies. Only an hour outside of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country might as well be the suburbs to me. It's only about 10 miles farther from Fort Worth than SHSU is from Houston and it's growing rapidly.
By ATrain
Registration Days Posts
#663920
Ill flame wrote: October 4th, 2024, 11:36 pm
Sly Fox wrote: October 4th, 2024, 8:49 pm Let the record show that there are no attractive FCS options. Period. There is also a barrier of entry in place that makes its cost prohibitive for most FCS programs to move up ... including the Dakota & Montana schools.

Let me shout this from the rooftops, Tarleton State is not a viable option. They are in the boonies and have no name recognition here in Texas. It is the school where kids who can't get in the many other major universities go as a deep fall-back. And did I mention they are nowhere close to any other CUSA school? Yes, they are in Texas. But as far as the population of the state is concerned, they may as well be in a random Oklahoma town.

ODU is cash constrained and would likely find keeping up with the Joneses in the AAC very difficult. The 757 is a more attractive market than the one LU finds itself. But let's not kid ourselves that Tidewater is on par with Atlanta. Could they wind up in the AAC? Absolutely. But I don't see it as likely.

As for Proto's suggestions of mergers, there are strong reasons why that is not likely to occur even if it makes the most sense. Auto bids to conference champions get eliminated. Tourney money is much more likely to come to schools when they dont have additional schools to battle to get the bids. And the greater the number of schools, the more the pie gets carved up. While it is true that the networks have begin to prize inventory in order to be able to push out more content. But lower tier G6s don't have the cachet to pull more revenue from the networks. Any mergers today would have to occur out of desperation to avoid folding a league.

In summary, we are staying right where we are unless circumstances somehow change enough where we might be invited to a league like the AAC or Pac to round off numbers. That is unlikely but not impossible.
Me and you have very different definitions of the boonies. Only an hour outside of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the country might as well be the suburbs to me. It's only about 10 miles farther from Fort Worth than SHSU is from Houston and it's growing rapidly.
You'll have to forgive Sly. He has a very Houston-centric view and seems to think it speaks for all Texans. A town with a population of over 20,000 an hour away from a major metro is hardly the boonies.
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By Sly Fox
Registration Days Posts
#663923
Stephenville is an nearly an hour to the furthest reaches of exurbian Fort Worth. Huntsville is 15 minutes from exurbian Houston on a major interstate highway connecting two of the top 6 markets in the country. Most of Sam's students come from a commute of about a half hour or so.

Have any of you folks actually been to Stephenville? The answer is most certainly no. I drove through the area a month ago. There is absolutely nothing out there but scrub and cattle corrals. If rodeo were CUSA's banner sport, perhaps they'd be worth a look. Steer wrestling is huge in Stephenville.

Since Fort Worth is being brought up, here are the schools that people in that city follow in sports:

1. Texas
2. Texas A&M
3. TCU
4. Texas Tech
5. UT-Arlington
6. North Texas
7. Baylor
8. SMU
9. Tarleton State
10. Southwest Assemblies of God or UT-Dallas Chess Team


Tarleton does not deliver anything but the Northern section of the Texas Hill Country. Sure Billy the Kid MIGHT have been buried in Hico. But Dublin Dr. Pepper has been sued out of existence by Baylor's big money backers. So I am not sure how highly coveted the Stephenville market is in the grand scheme of things. And before you tell me that Stephenville is in the DFW DMA it should be noted that in Texas the vast areas are hard for East Coasters to comprehend. But just because there is nothing and no people for a hundred miles doesn't stop it from being designated to a distant market. Huntsville may be in the 7.5M Houston market ... but not really. It can claim surrounding counties at best as its true market area. And in Huntsville's case, having Montgomery County just to the south is all the market they need. The Walker-Montgomery-Liberty Counties corridor may only have a million or so currently. But US Commerce Department projections expect there to be 5 million in this corridor by 2050. The explosive growth is in full swing. In Stephenville, it is going to take much, much longer. The DFW growth has primarily been to the north as water and infrastructure are issues to the southwest.

And for the uninformed, all Texans know that West Texas begins immediately west of Fort Worth. Judging by topography and culture, Stephenville is VERY West Texan. I know it appears on a map somewhere toward the center of the state. But that's a map illusion. The Texas Triangle divides the state up.

Let me go back to a Virginian analogy. If Longwood had a football team and had just moved up from Division II, they would be Tarleton. And if you are thinking that would be cool to have a conference mate nearby, picture Longwood moving to Frederick, Maryland. That's about the same distance Tarleton is from Sammy. Sure, it is driveable but it is also the closest to any other school out there.

I recognize that the enormous growth of the State of Texas is attractive. In the 34 years that I have lived in Texas, I have watched Houston grow from 2.5 million to 7.5 million and it is not slowing down with the flood of Northerners and Californians. Austin went from 750k to now over 2M. So yes, having schools in Texas is advantageous. But not random schools that no one in the state has ever known existed. It was a MASSIVE stretch for Sam Houston to step up to FBS. They are still struggling institutionally to catch up even as its football team continues to exceed expectations. Sam is essentially a commuter school for the most part. But even they are leagues ahead of the ag school in Stephenville. Yes, A&M dumped a bunch of money into them. But Stephenville is not their focus anymore. The growth is in the major markets where A&M has traditionally not been located. Trying to establish beachheads in high growth DFW, San Antonio and South Texas are their new focus. And that is going to require massive amounts of capital. Don't count on that flow of cash to continue to Stephenville. It should also be noted that by state designation, UT and A&M can only enter the Houston/Harris County market in healthcare. UT has that sewed up in Houston but now is battling A&M in the DFW market.

Coincidentally you can expect that cash flow now to head toward Stephen F Austin since they have joined the UT System this past year. They had been in the same system with Texas State & Sam Houston prior. They are nowhere closer to ready to become a candidate for this league right now. But 5-10 years from now may be a different story. The SFA brand is signficantly bigger in this state than Tarleton. They are also in boonies which will always hold them back.
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By aj7
Posts
#663943
The lack of candidates to replace UTEP is concerning, not because we need to replace them right now. But because in the future (tomorrow or several years) someone in CUSA will get the call from a different conference. Then we pretty much are forced to take an FCS team again.
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By LUOrange
Registration Days Posts
#663944
The acceptable FCS teams in Texas and east of the Mississippi will be there for CUSA when needed. There not going anywhere. IMO, it makes more sense for CUSA to wait to see what happens with the realignment that is going on right now with the PAC12, MWC, and AAC first. I still expect NMSU to leave for the MWC and Memphis, Tulane & UTSA to wind up in the PAC12. Then of course, there's still the ACC. Then it appears that 2030 could be another round. Again, I'd wait for the current G6 shuffle to wind down, cause there's really no great FCS teams available. Unless, CUSA want to open a Mountain Division and go for the Montanas and Dakotas, but they'd probably have to be willing to subsidize their FBS entrance fees, which ain't happening.
By ballcoach15
Registration Days Posts
#663952
Liberty22 wrote: October 8th, 2024, 10:21 am https://sports.yahoo.com/while-sec-and- ... 31534.html

This is ridiculous….
I agree. I am reminded of 1 Timothy 6:10, "the love of money is the root of all evil". College sports should be about getting an education, playing the game, and trying to win a championship. It's time for Congress and/or Supreme Court to intervene over these money hungry hogs (conference commissioners), and restore sanity to college sports. Once the money hogs take over college sports, high schools and youth leagues are next. ( already there in some places).
By ATrain
Registration Days Posts
#663955
Congress and SCOTUS have FAR more important things to be concerned with than college sports.
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By Ill flame
Posts
#664008
jimflamesfan wrote: October 9th, 2024, 1:30 am Image

Look at the 11th team. It's interesting that Meta AI says Liberty is already in the Sunbelt.
It also has louisana Monroe twice and two schools that are no longer a member of the conference. I'm curious where it pulled its data from.
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By LUOrange
Registration Days Posts
#664027
Lots of PAC12 fan accounts on the X-Twitters posting that Memphis & Tulane will be joining the PAC sooner than later. If this happens, do y'all think we have a shot at the AAC?
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