(04-30-2014 01:58 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(04-28-2014 07:10 PM)SlyFox Wrote:  I assume this means that WLAX gets the boot to their own place so the lines can stay off the field.

A number of LAX teams play on a gridiron with permanent lines, though LAX fans tend to whinge about it ... sharing a field with a soccer pitch is a lot less distracting.

For instance, when the Buckeye's men's LAX team plays That School Up North, they play in the Horseshoe before the spring football game, and they hosted the first round NCAA game in the Horseshoe last year ...
... though they play most of their games at the Jesse Owens Track & Field and Soccer stadium, where they are hosting the ECAC tournament starting tomorrow (and hosting a first round NCAA tournament game is not going to be an issue for them this year).

(04-28-2014 11:18 AM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Only advantage the Sun Belt might actually have is for Army's coach to have been GaSo coach.

Which would not think was much of an advantage.

The sprawling Sunbelt footprint would seem like the main draw for a school that would like to play a fairly national schedule ... that would be a big advantage of the Sunbelt over the MAC, from the perspective of what Army wants ... but it seems like Army would have to believe it could compete for bowl game bids and the occasional conference championship before it would make the move.

As arkstfan notes, they wouldn't move if they feared a risk of the disastrous CUSA conference experience ... which one of two main reasons to think they'd at least prefer the Sunbelt to the America, which is, in essence, an upgraded CUSA version 1.0 (the other reason being bringing the Army-Navy game in-conference).

And relative Conference position on an "Army preference ladder" is meaningless so long as the top rung of the ladder is remaining independent.

I think it would be very hard to blast them out of independence unless there is something brewing that they consider a risk.

Air Force has won the Commander-in-Chief trophy 18 times Navy 14 and Army 6 times

Army has been .500 or better once in the last 17 years.

Air Force is probably a little easier to recruit to, they've got the sexy jobs like pilot positions and a lot of removed from danger jobs. They've also had WAC and MWC membership to tout.

Army and BYU remain the last true independents with Notre Dame handing over 4 slots a year to the ACC for scheduling.

Army's TV deal expires this year I believe and I don't think the numbers have been that good. In fact other than Army-Navy which had no college football competiton, Army drew 331k viewers vs Air Force and 129k vs La.Tech in the only games with reported national rankings. For perspective, UL at AState drew 767k and Troy at AState on ESPNU drew 137k

So while I consider it unlikely that Army has reached the must do something point, they are now the only academy with no conference to play in, they've nailed down bowls for only 3 of 6 years but they've only been bowl eligible once in 17 years so don't have a lot of negotiating pull and its questionable they can sign as good of a TV deal.