Ok. Most of you have realized, I love the business of the game and while other folks are hitting up the people they know in their athletic department to talk about the freshman QB or the DT they are trying to sign, I talk NCAA stuff, TV, realignment, etc.

This is a non-insider analysis of what makes UMass attractive as a response to claims of insider knowledge that UMass is it as any other current FBS addition seems unlikely today.

1. With few full members (AState, UL, ULM, Troy) that have been FBS since 2010 adding a member already classified FBS helps soften the image hit.

2. It broadens the regional distribution footprint and the addition of a title game makes it more practical to use the opportunity to use a look-in window to negotiate with ESPN. Even if you cannot extract more dollars, simply being able to soften or remove the geographic restrictions of the ESPN deal for Tier II would simplify life for the Sun Belt.

3. When you look at the wishlist/candidate pool you have JMU who is convinced FBS is a negative in the Sun Belt and their program doesn't need training wheels and is ready to ride with the longer established leagues. You have Missouri State who fits if they make the choice to go all in but they aren't ready to do that today and may never be ready. You have EKU who fits nicely geographically has functional facilities they can make do with for a time but needs $2.5 million in annual operating funds more than they currently have and reality is most schools end up under-estimating that figure. You have Jacksonville State who can make it work facility-wise and maybe in operating budget but sit in the wrong spot. The same state as two other Sun Belt schools and in tight proximity to Georgia State who I believe would not want to deem them a peer and support invitation. You've got Lamar who needs a facility upgrade and has none announced. Then you have Liberty who fits by every athletic measure but no matter how you slice it, the underlying academic institution is one that creates heartburn for university CEO's between the issues of faculty and student limitations to the large reliance on non-traditional service delivery (ie. online) and it only takes three existing CEO's finding those elements unacceptable to snuff out the Flames hopes.

So if you are in a position that you have a candidate that hopes to make the needed changes but hasn't made a large step toward it, (EKU) the better play is wait rather than act now and make someone an equity member then watch their plans collapse or if you haven't reached comfort level with someone (Liberty) why force the issue and make them an equity member even if the vote is 9-2 and the two are steadfast and adamant. You've got to work with them even if you can out-vote them.

4. The marketplace remains unsettled. The MAC believes (as do some neutral observers) that it will reach parity or near parity with the current C-USA television deal. If that were to occur the MAC becomes a viable alternative if C-USA reaches a crisis point. The Conference USA TV deal expires after the 2015-16 basketball season. While TV values have been rising there are some issues looming. For one, of the 12 schools present when the contract was signed, only five remain. Secondly, neither Fox nor CBS opted to take all the basketball games their contract permitted them to carry. They basically warehoused that inventory. Third, CBSS is purchasing some AAC content from ESPN. The world wide leader has purchased more inventory that it can accomodate easily and to fulfill its obligations they are moving some content to CBSS. There are some suggestions circling that ESPN is making a sweetheart deal that costs CBSS less than what they pay for CUSA content because ESPN is retaining the highest profit margin content for itself and turning a competitor (CBSS) into a customer and there may even be relationship to the deal with CBS that permits ESPN's SEC Network to telecast games in competition with the CBS exclusive window for SEC and remember ESPN sued C-USA over the TV deal because C-USA violated the exclusive bargaining window and C-USA gave up several years of the CUSA title game to settle the suit. ESPN undercutting C-USA's value because they can deliver such payback isn't far-fetched. So the question remains what sort of dollars can C-USA expect for 2016 football and beyond especially if ESPN doesn't enter the fray and CBS has less interest in the content since the bulk of what they bought when the deal was cut is now available cheaply via the ESPN/AAC deal. The FS1 deal so far hasn't produced significant ratings success. If everything goes wrong (and that remains to be seen).

In a nutshell, if you aren't fully sold that your available choices are very good choices, wait and see what happens. Maybe C-USA comes in at same or better money, they stay stable and the others are still out there, or it may come in worse and the situation destablize and create opportunities and you aren't burdened with too many members and not being able to act.

You forgot the most important reason, because Amherst was ranked the #1 college town in America a couple years ago and it's a hell of a lot of fun to visit for your fans. Great food, great bars, great atmosphere.

NMSU has to come on board for all sports now.

(04-25-2014 01:53 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Ok. Most of you have realized, I love the business of the game and while other folks are hitting up the people they know in their athletic department to talk about the freshman QB or the DT they are trying to sign, I talk NCAA stuff, TV, realignment, etc.

This is a non-insider analysis of what makes UMass attractive as a response to claims of insider knowledge that UMass is it as any other current FBS addition seems unlikely today.

1. With few full members (AState, UL, ULM, Troy) that have been FBS since 2010 adding a member already classified FBS helps soften the image hit.

2. It broadens the regional distribution footprint and the addition of a title game makes it more practical to use the opportunity to use a look-in window to negotiate with ESPN. Even if you cannot extract more dollars, simply being able to soften or remove the geographic restrictions of the ESPN deal for Tier II would simplify life for the Sun Belt.

3. When you look at the wishlist/candidate pool you have JMU who is convinced FBS is a negative in the Sun Belt and their program doesn't need training wheels and is ready to ride with the longer established leagues. You have Missouri State who fits if they make the choice to go all in but they aren't ready to do that today and may never be ready. You have EKU who fits nicely geographically has functional facilities they can make do with for a time but needs $2.5 million in annual operating funds more than they currently have and reality is most schools end up under-estimating that figure. You have Jacksonville State who can make it work facility-wise and maybe in operating budget but sit in the wrong spot. The same state as two other Sun Belt schools and in tight proximity to Georgia State who I believe would not want to deem them a peer and support invitation. You've got Lamar who needs a facility upgrade and has none announced. Then you have Liberty who fits by every athletic measure but no matter how you slice it, the underlying academic institution is one that creates heartburn for university CEO's between the issues of faculty and student limitations to the large reliance on non-traditional service delivery (ie. online) and it only takes three existing CEO's finding those elements unacceptable to snuff out the Flames hopes.

So if you are in a position that you have a candidate that hopes to make the needed changes but hasn't made a large step toward it, (EKU) the better play is wait rather than act now and make someone an equity member then watch their plans collapse or if you haven't reached comfort level with someone (Liberty) why force the issue and make them an equity member even if the vote is 9-2 and the two are steadfast and adamant. You've got to work with them even if you can out-vote them.

4. The marketplace remains unsettled. The MAC believes (as do some neutral observers) that it will reach parity or near parity with the current C-USA television deal. If that were to occur the MAC becomes a viable alternative if C-USA reaches a crisis point. The Conference USA TV deal expires after the 2015-16 basketball season. While TV values have been rising there are some issues looming. For one, of the 12 schools present when the contract was signed, only five remain. Secondly, neither Fox nor CBS opted to take all the basketball games their contract permitted them to carry. They basically warehoused that inventory. Third, CBSS is purchasing some AAC content from ESPN. The world wide leader has purchased more inventory that it can accomodate easily and to fulfill its obligations they are moving some content to CBSS. There are some suggestions circling that ESPN is making a sweetheart deal that costs CBSS less than what they pay for CUSA content because ESPN is retaining the highest profit margin content for itself and turning a competitor (CBSS) into a customer and there may even be relationship to the deal with CBS that permits ESPN's SEC Network to telecast games in competition with the CBS exclusive window for SEC and remember ESPN sued C-USA over the TV deal because C-USA violated the exclusive bargaining window and C-USA gave up several years of the CUSA title game to settle the suit. ESPN undercutting C-USA's value because they can deliver such payback isn't far-fetched. So the question remains what sort of dollars can C-USA expect for 2016 football and beyond especially if ESPN doesn't enter the fray and CBS has less interest in the content since the bulk of what they bought when the deal was cut is now available cheaply via the ESPN/AAC deal. The FS1 deal so far hasn't produced significant ratings success. If everything goes wrong (and that remains to be seen).

In a nutshell, if you aren't fully sold that your available choices are very good choices, wait and see what happens. Maybe C-USA comes in at same or better money, they stay stable and the others are still out there, or it may come in worse and the situation destablize and create opportunities and you aren't burdened with too many members and not being able to act.

I'm all for UMass. I don't care how far away they are, they are easy to get to and they are likely to be trending upward as a program from this point forward.
My first inclination is to wait until you see if a 12th team is necessary for the CCG. If it is, or if it seems a decision is not coming soon, go get UMass. With a basketball deal included, I'm sure the benefits outweigh the negatives.

There would be a hue upside to UMass if they agree to rotate home and home series in basketball with SBC opponents. Throw in NMSU all sports, and you would manage to improve two major underlying issues on the basketball side of the league, while UMass doesn't face any all sports pressure like they did in the MAC.

Man this has come 180 degrees around from when I first suggested it almost a year ago.
Back then got laughed at and not sure one poster agreed with the move.

Only bad thing about it is it being a temporary deal. Of course stranger things have happened
and could work out well for UMass and the SBC. We know that both sides will gripe about it
regardless, even if it works out well.

It would be premature to work under the assumption that this is happening.

(04-25-2014 02:02 PM)EmeryZach Wrote:  You forgot the most important reason, because Amherst was ranked the #1 college town in America a couple years ago and it's a hell of a lot of fun to visit for your fans. Great food, great bars, great atmosphere.

Meaningless to me. Just wiped out my frequent flier accounts for the family vacation this summer.

From back in the day before our new renovations. If you're curious.

What is it going to look like after renovation/expansion?

(04-25-2014 02:36 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  What is it going to look like after renovation/expansion?

Previous:


New:

Yeah, first round of renovation is almost done and has been the a new Press/SkyBox, and a Football Training/Office/Booster Lounge/Viewing Deck building. The stadium is also getting all new paint, new paving of parking lots, new exterior gate around the stadium and other cosmetic upgrades.

From what I'm hearing our big boosters are in discussions with the university now for round two of renovations. Those will include increased seating in the South endzone, new permanent bathrooms, new concessions, and other upgrades. Hoping to get those started next year.

Here are some other pictures of this first round of renovations that will be completed this summer.





This is what round two is supposedly going to look like once all the financing gets finished.

(04-25-2014 03:12 PM)EmeryZach Wrote:  Here are some other pictures of this first round of renovations that will be completed this summer.





This is what round two is supposedly going to look like once all the financing gets finished.

looks good seen the live pics on the MAC board what is first phase capacity and second phase. Hard to read the proposed seating capacity looks like 21500 just guessing.

I read that three and three is the new plan with 4-2 not an option .
Five to one or an even split are designated by the NCAA as far as home field. Gillette and Amherst sorry if that was confusing.

Yeah, has to be either be 5-1 or 3-3 on the split. Looks like we might be doing 5-1 in 2015, with the one game at Gillette being against Temple.

The phase one capacity is 17,000 (You can squeeze more in, we've done it before), and I believe the phase two seating expansion was reported to be 25,000.

So it's 5 Amherst / 1 Gillette ?

(04-25-2014 03:08 PM)EmeryZach Wrote:  Yeah, first round of renovation is almost done and has been the a new Press/SkyBox, and a Football Training/Office/Booster Lounge/Viewing Deck building. The stadium is also getting all new paint, new paving of parking lots, new exterior gate around the stadium and other cosmetic upgrades.

From what I'm hearing our big boosters are in discussions with the university now for round two of renovations. Those will include increased seating in the South endzone, new permanent bathrooms, new concessions, and other upgrades. Hoping to get those started next year.

How is the football team going to be EZ?
Are there signs that your old coach coming back is going to make a difference?

(04-25-2014 03:48 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  So it's 5 Amherst / 1 Gillette ?

That's what I'm hearing for 2015. It will all depend each year on who we schedule for out of conference games.

Obviously games against P5 schools will have to be at Gillette. Like this year we are hosting Boston College and Colorado at Gillette, so our third game at Gillette will be Eastern Michigan and it will be on "Band Day" where we get about 5,000 high school band kids and their parents to show up and they play during halftime.

How does this solve the issue of having a travel partner for App State?

(04-25-2014 04:24 PM)JSUFan Wrote:  How does this solve the issue of having a travel partner for App State?

Does not. Travel partner for App State not going to happen if this happens. Guess rest of the SBC doesn't care that much about it.