I keep thinking about the impending decision regarding UAB, and wondering how it might impact CUSA, as well, brand-wise. This is an area that CUSA really needs to consider with the upcoming television contract talks. We are a growing conference, and it's imperative that we build greater brand awareness with the tradition/brand equity we have in the cupboard.
With that in mind, I'd like to gauge how everyone views the brands in our conference. I'd argue that UAB is one of CUSAs best brand names, due to having an accomplished basketball history. The football mess is a disaster (I acknowledge as much) but is throwing out the baby with the bathwater going to compound that disaster for CUSA? I wonder about that.
This conference, in my mind, shouldn't be a one-bid conference - by a longshot. We have too many teams with decent histories. That said, if you respect CUSA basketball tradition - and UABs place in CUSA 1.0 - it is so hard to imagine this conference going forward without that presence.
I realize that Charlotte fans are saying that CUSA did the same thing to them. And they are very right to point that out. The 49ers were a cornerstone of CUSA 1.0 as well. Nevertheless, they - more than anybody - likely have good insight into what the purge of basketball cred in '04 did to their perception of CUSA 2.0.
So, I'd like to know everyone's perception of brand value in this conference; so I can gauge myself whether CUSA may be about to repeat the sins of the past. When CUSA was just perceived as Memphis (and everybody else) our lack of adequate brand awareness gave us the perception of being 1-bid worthy. Personally, I don't think that would have been the case if we still had St. Louis and Charlotte (two of our best brands).
It is my opinion that UAB football will come back. But, if it doesn't, will CUSA be better off by hampering it's efforts to rebuild lost credibility with another turn of the knife? Is this death by 1000 cuts?
I don't know. How would all of you rank the CUSA brands from top to bottom? Here is my list.

1.) Marshall (one of our movie brands)
2.) UTEP (the second athletic program with a major movie made about them)
3.) Southern Miss - CUSA 1.0
4.) UAB - CUSA 1.0
5.) Charlotte - CUSA 1.0
6.) Louisiana Tech
7.) ODU
8.) WKU
9.) Rice - Tx (promising new coach)
10.) UNT - Tx
11.) UTSA - Tx
12.) FIU - Fl
13.) FAU - Fl
14.) MTSU

Looking at this list, I really think our "potential" is in Texas and Florida. Those are the brands that CUSA has the most work to do to build. In my opinion, CUSA needs those Top 6 to be strong to grow the Texas and Florida brands. It is so hard for me to envision UAB not being part of that group.

"How would all of you rank the CUSA brands from top to bottom?"
I'll take a stab at it:

1.) Marshall (one of our movie brands, but more importantly, regularly Top 25 ranked in football)
2.) Louisiana Tech (football consistently gets positive national mentions. Basketball pretty good as well also helps their perception)
3.) UTEP (the second athletic program with a major movie made about them- teetering in position due to football being mediocre right now)
4.) UTSA - Tx (captive San Antonio market, huge enrollment, up-and-comer for conference move-up)
5.) Rice - Tx (former SWC member (SWC 1.0), National Baseball Championship, promising new basketball coach, mediocre football team at plateau; school was sliding since being left behind twice, seems to have slowed the fall recently)
6.) WKU (huge wins in football gained national attention, on the way up if this continues)
7.) FAU - Fl (overall sports programs on slow rise)
8.) Southern Miss - CUSA 1.0 (riding on fumes of football teams' former glory- slipping down fast)
9.) ODU (basketball and not much else at the moment)
10.) UAB - CUSA 1.0 (dropping football embarrassment negates most good will basketball built up over the years)
11.) MTSU (baseball success helps, football hanging in there)
12.) North Texas - Tx (not much stands out across the board at the moment, but potential is there)
13.) Charlotte - CUSA 1.0 (lots of work needed to rebuild their brand- basketball was their bread and butter and faltered badly this year)
14.) FIU - Fl (someone has to be last. No sport stands out right now)

Honestly, not a whole lot of national impact in this group. Badly need some name wins in all sports against the big programs to change that. Can't continue to rely on Marshall to do all the heavy lifting and expect conference brands to move up. Their weak football schedules make their success suspect nationally, and actually hurts the rest of the conference brands when they inevitable fall out of Top25 after playing cupcakes. The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

This thread has p-o-t-e-n-t-i-a-l to end well. lol

(05-03-2015 06:51 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

C-USA needs to scoop up Georgia State. Lots of potential.

(05-03-2015 07:40 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(05-03-2015 06:51 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

C-USA needs to scoop up Georgia State. Lots of potential.

And if all goes well, they will have a HUGE Major League Baseball stadium to showcase for the conference. Now it will be empty, but a huge stadium on tv is a good thing, right? Before each game they can show the spot in the parking lot where Hank Aaron hit 715. TV ratings bonanza!

Marshall has a solid brand that has national recognition. Southern Miss was there but they have slipped a lot lately. After that, we are all trying to get something going. The new G5 access bowl will help assuming you can make it.

It's different for different sports.

Football is probably,

1. Southern Miss
2. Marshall
3. La Tech
4. Rice
5. the rest

Basketball is probably,

1. UTEP
2. UAB
3. Charlotte
4. WKU
5. La Tech
6. the rest

(05-03-2015 07:40 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(05-03-2015 06:51 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

C-USA needs to scoop up Georgia State. Lots of potential.

The Sunbelt is great fit for Georgia State

(05-03-2015 08:23 PM)winston70 Wrote:  

(05-03-2015 07:40 PM)CajunFanatico Wrote:  

(05-03-2015 06:51 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

C-USA needs to scoop up Georgia State. Lots of potential.

The Sunbelt is great fit for Georgia State

But they got that market thing goin' on. Think potential.

1. Marshall
2. Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. ODU (fan support warrants this)
5. UTSA (ditto)
6. La Tech
7. Rice
8. MTSU
9. WKU
10. North Texas
11. FAU
12. FIU
13. Charlotte

If you are speaking more of awareness of the brand, I think it's different depending on the region you live in. Here in the mid Atlantic I would say

1.Marshall (the movie helped a lot)
2. So Miss
3. ODU/CHARLOTTE (tie)
5. UAB
6. LT
7. Rice
8.WKU
9.UTEP
10. MTSU

The rest.
Most people here don't even know NTx, UTSA, FIU, FAU exist. No offense. I'm sure most in Fla or Tx don't know,of ODU either.

(05-03-2015 08:15 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  It's different for different sports.

Football is probably,

1. Southern Miss
2. Marshall
3. La Tech
4. Rice
5. the rest

Basketball is probably,

1. UTEP
2. UAB
3. Charlotte
4. WKU
5. La Tech
6. the rest

So the only top 25 team from last season and the team that makes the NIT F4 doesn't even make your top 5 in basketball? We all have our opinions, but that surprises me. For hoops only I would go UTEP, UAB, Charlotte/ODU,/WKU/LT all tied for third.

(05-03-2015 09:55 PM)monarx Wrote:  If you are speaking more of awareness of the brand, I think it's different depending on the region you live in. Here in the mid Atlantic I would say

1.Marshall (the movie helped a lot)
2. So Miss
3. ODU/CHARLOTTE (tie)
5. UAB
6. LT
7. Rice
8.WKU
9.UTEP
10. MTSU

The rest.
Most people here don't even know NTx, UTSA, FIU, FAU exist. No offense. I'm sure most in Fla or Tx don't know,of ODU either.

This is the only correct answer. People on the east coast know brands like odu and Charlotte pretty well. I'm sure we are both virtually unknown in texas.

Age also matters. Basketball fans in their 40s know the charlotte brand because we were in the tournament almost every year when they were I'm college and played a fair amount of nationally televised games on espn and espn 2. Anyone under 30 won't have seen much of us, so we are probably mostly unknown to that age group.

If you talk to people in their 60s, I'm sure they know the utep brand pretty well, but a teen isn't going to know who they are.

Older football fans will know usm very well, but someone under 25 probably wont.

Our brands are weak... that's why there's a debate over who has exposure/relevance in various regions and ages.

(05-03-2015 06:51 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  "How would all of you rank the CUSA brands from top to bottom?"
I'll take a stab at it:

1.) Marshall (one of our movie brands, but more importantly, regularly Top 25 ranked in football)
2.) Louisiana Tech (football consistently gets positive national mentions. Basketball pretty good as well also helps their perception)
3.) UTEP (the second athletic program with a major movie made about them- teetering in position due to football being mediocre right now)
4.) UTSA - Tx (captive San Antonio market, huge enrollment, up-and-comer for conference move-up)
5.) Rice - Tx (former SWC member (SWC 1.0), National Baseball Championship, promising new basketball coach, mediocre football team at plateau; school was sliding since being left behind twice, seems to have slowed the fall recently)
6.) WKU (huge wins in football gained national attention, on the way up if this continues)
7.) FAU - Fl (overall sports programs on slow rise)
8.) Southern Miss - CUSA 1.0 (riding on fumes of football teams' former glory- slipping down fast)
9.) ODU (basketball and not much else at the moment)
10.) UAB - CUSA 1.0 (dropping football embarrassment negates most good will basketball built up over the years)
11.) MTSU (baseball success helps, football hanging in there)
12.) North Texas - Tx (not much stands out across the board at the moment, but potential is there)
13.) Charlotte - CUSA 1.0 (lots of work needed to rebuild their brand- basketball was their bread and butter and faltered badly this year)
14.) FIU - Fl (someone has to be last. No sport stands out right now)

Honestly, not a whole lot of national impact in this group. Badly need some name wins in all sports against the big programs to change that. Can't continue to rely on Marshall to do all the heavy lifting and expect conference brands to move up. Their weak football schedules make their success suspect nationally, and actually hurts the rest of the conference brands when they inevitable fall out of Top25 after playing cupcakes. The conference could really use another major media market, especially if they lose Birmingham, which appears inevitable.

Good assessment, as you said not much national impact. UTSA doesn't have the sports brand awareness yet, so I would rank then lower. But they definitely have potential in the future

(05-03-2015 08:15 PM)T_Won1 Wrote:  It's different for different sports.

Football is probably,

1. Southern Miss
2. Marshall
3. La Tech
4. Rice
5. the rest

Basketball is probably,

1. UTEP
2. UAB
3. Charlotte
4. WKU
5. La Tech
6. the rest

Close but I would say:

Football is probably,

1. Marshall
2. Southern Miss
3. La Tech
4. Rice
5. the rest

Basketball is probably,

1. UTEP
2. UAB
3. Charlotte
4. La Tech
5. WKU
6. the rest

(05-03-2015 09:51 PM)goherd24herdfans Wrote:  1. Marshall
2. Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. ODU (fan support warrants this)
5. UTSA (ditto)
6. La Tech
7. Rice
8. MTSU
9. WKU
10. North Texas
11. FAU
12. FIU
13. Charlotte

As far as athletic brand awareness in Texas (and US), Rice would definitely be ahead of UTSA

(05-03-2015 11:16 PM)Dawgxas Wrote:  

(05-03-2015 09:51 PM)goherd24herdfans Wrote:  1. Marshall
2. Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. ODU (fan support warrants this)
5. UTSA (ditto)
6. La Tech
7. Rice
8. MTSU
9. WKU
10. North Texas
11. FAU
12. FIU
13. Charlotte

As far as athletic brand awareness in Texas (and US), Rice would definitely be ahead of UTSA

Absolutely. People who don't follow CUSA know who Rice is. I have to explain to them who UTSA is.

As we all know Football coverage will outdraw Basketball by a longshot. The CUSA teams that just started football are going to be at a disadvantage as far as athletic brand awareness.

1. Marshall
2. Southern Miss
3. UTEP
4. Louisiana Tech
5. Rice
6. WKU
7. Charlotte
8. ODU
9. North Texas
10. MTSU
11. UTSA
12. FAU
13. FIU