Media Day comments. These are from post on the muts board by Randall Thomason.


1.Waters said the league has discussed requently with ADs what the league should do with conference scheduling when South Alabama joins the football conference in 2012. With WKU entering the league, each team can play 4 home league games and 4 road league games, which is excellent.

He said there are leagues that have experimented with 9 league games and the Sun Belt has talked with those leagues. He expects eventually it will be an economics based decision. Right now, he said the ADs seem to prefer a continued 8 game conference schedule with a rotation of the missed game each year with the exception of one common opponent every year (he gave the example of MT and WKU as one permanent opponent possibility).

Waters said if attendance for league games improves in the next couple years that they might consider playing 9 conference games, but right now the ADs need the flexibility of having 4 non-conference games to make sure bills get paid.

2.Waters said the ability to split into divisions and have a championship game is not a possibility right now because of the 12 team NCAA rule. He said the SEC is very successful with its championship game but that other leagues have a much less successful championship game model depending on the location of the game and the participating teams.

3.Waters said some institutions have contacted the Sun Belt about potentially joining the league. He said to go beyond 13 overall members in the Sun Belt (including non-football schools), it would take a school that would bring "huge economic value" to the league. He refused to name institution names that have approached the league but "you could probably find out by going to any Internet site."

He said the Sun Belt is "not in expansion mode".

(07-21-2009 10:48 PM)MeanGreen61 Wrote:  Media Day comments. These are from post on the muts board by Randall Thomason.


1.Waters said the league has discussed requently with ADs what the league should do with conference scheduling when South Alabama joins the football conference in 2012. With WKU entering the league, each team can play 4 home league games and 4 road league games, which is excellent.

He said there are leagues that have experimented with 9 league games and the Sun Belt has talked with those leagues. He expects eventually it will be an economics based decision. Right now, he said the ADs seem to prefer a continued 8 game conference schedule with a rotation of the missed game each year with the exception of one common opponent every year (he gave the example of MT and WKU as one permanent opponent possibility).

Waters said if attendance for league games improves in the next couple years that they might consider playing 9 conference games, but right now the ADs need the flexibility of having 4 non-conference games to make sure bills get paid.

2.Waters said the ability to split into divisions and have a championship game is not a possibility right now because of the 12 team NCAA rule. He said the SEC is very successful with its championship game but that other leagues have a much less successful championship game model depending on the location of the game and the participating teams.

3.Waters said some institutions have contacted the Sun Belt about potentially joining the league. He said to go beyond 13 overall members in the Sun Belt (including non-football schools), it would take a school that would bring "huge economic value" to the league. He refused to name institution names that have approached the league but "you could probably find out by going to any Internet site."

He said the Sun Belt is "not in expansion mode".

Interesting... I like staying at 8 conference games, keeping the 4 OOC games every season. It's those games that are gonna earn this conference respect.

I don't know what it is about a championship game that makes it so appealing to me... it just seems like a good high stakes matchup that could garner national attention, but I could definetly live without one. Whatever is best for the conference.

And no expansion mode... fine. 10 teams is a nice round number. We could live with that for a while. Let's build what we have now!

I want to hear about BOWL GAMES, Mr. Wright! WE NEED MORE BOWL GAMES! I saw that we are trying to alter the NO Bowl agreement when it expires next year. But what other bowl games are we looking at? How many? What about our current bowl tie-ins? We need to ensure that more of our teams don't get left out of bowl games anymore.

My take: I hate conference title games. If Utah had slipped up and maybe Boise, the MAC title game would have denied the MAC a BCS buster. It would take years to generate enough income from a title game for us to offset the lost revenue of a BCS buster.

I also hate that the title games prevent setting bowl ties earlier. In the prior five seasons the New Orleans Bowl representative has been determined on: December 6, November 20, December 2, November 26, and November 13. No school has done a good job of selling tickets (spare me the nuh-uh we sold X, nobody has sold a decent number through the school. Fans who buy from the bowl or online don't get counted and don't matter) and we need the extra sales time.

All that said, we find two good members that everyone is basically content with who enhance the league I'm all for it, but 2005-2008 is the longest stretch we've had without a membership change. If USA joins 2012 that will be three years between membership changes. At some point we need to play a decent stretch of seasons with the same line-up.

I'm not a 9 game schedule advocate and I understand that due to money requirements you won't likely see a 9 game schedule, but if we don't see schools having more six game home seasons than five game home seasons, we may need to explore 9 just to protect the membership from itself.

Bowls? It will be interesting to see how the bowl contracts shuffle. Texas just signed with ESPN, if that doesn't result in Texas leaping over Shreveport I'll be surprised and there may be some more juggling.

(07-22-2009 07:30 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  My take: I hate conference title games. If Utah had slipped up and maybe Boise, the MAC title game would have denied the MAC a BCS buster. It would take years to generate enough income from a title game for us to offset the lost revenue of a BCS buster.

I also hate that the title games prevent setting bowl ties earlier. In the prior five seasons the New Orleans Bowl representative has been determined on: December 6, November 20, December 2, November 26, and November 13. No school has done a good job of selling tickets (spare me the nuh-uh we sold X, nobody has sold a decent number through the school. Fans who buy from the bowl or online don't get counted and don't matter) and we need the extra sales time.

All that said, we find two good members that everyone is basically content with who enhance the league I'm all for it, but 2005-2008 is the longest stretch we've had without a membership change. If USA joins 2012 that will be three years between membership changes. At some point we need to play a decent stretch of seasons with the same line-up.

I'm not a 9 game schedule advocate and I understand that due to money requirements you won't likely see a 9 game schedule, but if we don't see schools having more six game home seasons than five game home seasons, we may need to explore 9 just to protect the membership from itself.

Bowls? It will be interesting to see how the bowl contracts shuffle. Texas just signed with ESPN, if that doesn't result in Texas leaping over Shreveport I'll be surprised and there may be some more juggling.

Playing 9 conference games actually won't help the home game situation IMO. It would eliminate one OOC game thus limiting scheduling flexibility. All of us rely on the BCS games for the cash. Unfortunate but true. If we went to 9 games, we would be forced into a 4/5 then 5/4 every year. Maintaining the 2 BCS game average we all seem to hit, then we would have to maintain one 1aa game for a home game and hopefully schedule a home and home with another mid major. Under that scenario the best you are looking at is a 5/7 then a 6/6 for the foreseeable future. I believe 4/4 conference gives the schools more flexibility to achieve the 6/6 year end and year out.

How big is the stadium in Little Rock? I think the Sun Belt needs to look at the possibility of starting a new bowl there, even if it is against the MAC to begin with, until some more spots open up elsewhere. The Sun Belt should start having at least three bowl eligible teams every year with the addition of Western Kentucky and the MAC usually has at least four eligible programs but only three slots.

In the meantime, Wright Waters can continue to angle for a GMAC slot starting in 2014, which is the next contract opening after South Alabama reaches the FBS level. With at least two bowl spots secured in New Orleans and Little Rock, the Sun Belt will be in better position to get extra teams into vacated slots over the next few years, and any resulting success should help with GMAC negotiations.

(07-22-2009 12:05 PM)Krocker Krapp Wrote:  How big is the stadium in Little Rock? I think the Sun Belt needs to look at the possibility of starting a new bowl there, even if it is against the MAC to begin with, until some more spots open up elsewhere. The Sun Belt should start having at least three bowl eligible teams every year with the addition of Western Kentucky and the MAC usually has at least four eligible programs but only three slots.

In the meantime, Wright Waters can continue to angle for a GMAC slot starting in 2014, which is the next contract opening after South Alabama reaches the FBS level. With at least two bowl spots secured in New Orleans and Little Rock, the Sun Belt will be in better position to get extra teams into vacated slots over the next few years, and any resulting success should help with GMAC negotiations.

War Memorial Stadium is around 65,000 I think. Maybe ya'll could get Mr.Waters to talk to Verizon wireless or Tyson about sponsership.

I question how Little Rock would support it. They sure didn't support our efforts to annually play a game there.

War Memorial seats 53,000.

Little Rock has a spotty track record on such things. The key is a title sponsor.

Wal-Mart, Tyson, Arvest Banks, and the trucking firms are all based in NW Arkansas and have close relationship with the University of Arkansas, none would take on title sponsorship for fear of keep War Memorial viable as a second home for UA, they want all the games in Fayetteville where their nice suites are.

In Little Rock, three years ago I'd have said possibilities would be:
Acxiom
Alltel
Baptist Health
Catholic Health Initiatives
Dillards
Stephens, Inc.

As of now:
Acxiom tried to go private during a hostile take-over bid but the collapse of the capital markets left them and their raider unable to pull it off. They've had to scale back due to the downturn.

Baptist and Catholic are both involved in layoffs and Catholic closed one hospital campus.

Dillards is under fire for its leadership by Wall Street. Their stock was trading near $40 in late 2006, bottomed at just over $2 and is currently trading around $8. They aren't taking on any big sponsorships, upper end retail is in the tank.

That leaves Stephens, Inc., the largest off-Wall Street brokerage firm and one of the few that didn't have to get bailed out. The owner may be more fond of his trips to Augusta for golf than Sun Belt football. He did drop several million on UALR for an arena.

(07-22-2009 01:01 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  I question how Little Rock would support it. They sure didn't support our efforts to annually play a game there.

That is unfortunate but perhaps the idea needs to be rethought. Arkansas is playing an "away" game in Little Rock against Louisiana-Monroe every year for quite a few more seasons. What if Arkaksas State did a similar deal with another SEC or Big 12 program to "host" a contest in Little Rock in alternate seasons when the Razorbacks and Warhawks face off in Fayetteville?

The downside is that the Red Wolves would have to travel to the SEC or Big 12 campus every other year, never getting that team to visit Jonesboro, but it should ensure sufficient crowds to support the Little Rock venture every season. I guess it comes down to how important Arkansas State thinks it is to play in Little Rock. Doing so would also help promote a bowl though.

The SBC was in on the UCF Bowl for the Cure along with CUSA. The only hitch they hit was when the title sponsor pulled out late in the process. The game will get a new title sponsor and be good to go this year.