(12-06-2017 12:34 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 10:55 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  Just give me the Western Division and add Arky State and ULL. I hate ULL but would much rather play another game in state that have to drive to Bowling Green or Boca. A 9 team Conference with no Championship game and 4 or 5 regional bowls and I am set. Hell we already watch our games on the internet why the hell bother trying to please anybody else but ourselves.

What you really want is the old Gulf States conference, or Southland Conference.

Give me a decent tv deal, three solid bowls and you won't hear me complain.

(12-06-2017 12:37 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 11:53 AM)DETLTU Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 11:07 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 10:04 AM)DETLTU Wrote:  I still think this is a terrible idea. What we need is time to develop a rivalry with some of the schools in the conference. We don't have 50 years of playing each other to draw from like some conferences. I honestly miss playing games against some of the WAC teams we shared the conference with the longest. Boise, Nevada, Fresno, Hawaii. I would love to play some of those teams again before they are forgotten by Tech fans.

Give this configuration time together and the fan interest will grow. FAU and FIU both having successful seasons this year and the game actually meaning something was a big step. Do that a few times and the fans will treat that game as important and can't miss. Even cross division rivalries can be developed.

Do you ever believe that you'll create a real rivalary with ODU, FXU, UTEP, or Marshall? That's not a slight against those schools, it's just that there's no real rivalries that can be formed. They're too far away. You don't interact with their fans on a daily basis.

I do believe we could create a rivalry with any of those schools. I truly believe we had a rivalry with Hawaii and Fresno and Nevada. Sure they didn't bring a ton of fans to Ruston, but they got our fans interested. Those were can't miss games for us. Building rivalries with teams in the east is harder because we don't play as much. ODU is off to a good start because they seem to have our number across multiple sports. WKU is already becoming a rival because we have faced each other so many times with a lot on the line lately. I don't interact with fans of any schools except LSU and Alabama on a daily basis and I doubt a conference with them is in the cards.

AState fans travel in good numbers to ULM. Now ask an A-State fan who they MOST want to beat? Answer is ULL or App. Now we don't travel many to either and they don't travel to us in any significant numbers and part of that is ESPN having a tendency to make those weeknight games but A-State fans travel to Monroe because it is the only easy travel road game and for fans in Central Arkansas it's nearly as close as traveling to Jonesboro so people just go into the season expecting to make that trip.

That doesn't make it a big rivalry, its just easy travel.

Rivalries require games to have some stakes. USC and Notre Dame is rivalry because the game tends to be critical to the post-season dreams of the teams. Now Cal and Stanford is a rivalry and until lately rarely had any impact on the league race but those fans live on top of each other. Not a few hours down the road, they are working in the same office.

This is why WKU vs Tech has been such a rivalry game for us. Something is always on the line when we play them.

Don't forget we have the witching hour coming.
TV deals for BYU, MWC, Sun Belt, and AAC expire after the 2019 football season and 2020 hoops season. CUSA deal with BeIN expires then as well if I remember right.
Also most of the bowl contracts expire after the 2019 bowls.

If someone is seriously thinking change, they will start moving on it between March of 2018 and March of 2019

(12-06-2017 10:00 AM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 09:56 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  No one wants to play in the Sun Belt. Not even Sun Belt teams want to play in the Sun Belt. But if you give me the following, I'd be fine with it. Not like any teams we play have name notoriety anyway, making a regional league would help costs and allow fans to travel to games.

USM
Tech
ULL
Ark St
UAB
MTSU
WKU
USA
one more

I'm struggling to see how this would work with the rest of the conference. If you carve out the middle in USM's dream group you leave a rump in the east and a rump in the west. If the idea is to make it more rational for everyone then USM needs to be the easternmost team in the west or western most in the east.

+1

I think too often people confuse the idea of a rivalry with something that will motivate the casual college football fan to attend a game. We made that mistake when we were in the WAC. We longed for a more regional conference. The sad truth is there is no one in the G5 that would make an LSU fan in North Louisiana to show up at a Tech game in Ruston. The same can be said for everyone else in the G5 and a lot of the lower P5 schools.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy being able to go see Tech play @ Rice or @ USM. The trips to those two schools are as easy or easier than actually going to Ruston for me. That doesn't mean it will result in huge crowds for those schools. The key is to get your own fanbase fired up.

Competitiveness is far more important than closeness. Not to say you want a coast to coast conference, but we could join the southland today and have a nice tight conference with a chance to play in a real playoff. The level of competition would be low enough that no one would care at Tech, at least for years to come.

(12-06-2017 12:31 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I despise that headline.

I think it is much more a case of "If we knew then, what we know now".

The six team expansion, three of the eight voting schools left. Would the remaining five have voted the same way knowing ECU, Tulane, and Tulsa were leaving? Probably not.

Far more importantly though there have been some HUGE changes.

When the six team expansion took place, the powers that be had agreed in principle to a playoff but what it would look like was unknown. There was still a lot of push to simply select #1 and #2 post-bowls to play a single game.

The economic model was not established. Even when it was established, it ended up changing as the $12 million maximum base per conference was the first version, the G5 schools then voted to change that to $10 million and poured the extra into the performance pool.

The changing direction of TV was not fully apparent just yet either.

A more accurate article would be.

"Changing athletic situation poses questions"

The primary question being, "What is the best way to maximize net income?" Is it becoming more compact? Is it coordinating with one or more other conferences for a joint television package? Would it make better sense to eliminate some or all crossover games and replace those with inter-conference games scheduled jointly with someone else?

Does it even make sense for leagues like the Sun Belt and CUSA to pay to rent offices and hire fairly large staffs when they could merge their administrative functions into a single office while remaining two different conferences? Or maybe outsource most of the league office work to someone like SEC, Big XII or ACC and only employ a commissioner?

And I would also say that today isn't the day to solve the TV issue given that ESPN is in the process of trying to purchase the Fox Regionals because two years from now we may find ourselves in a situation where ESPN is taking content that normally is parked on ESPN3 and distributing it regionally via the ESPN Regional Networks they buy from Fox.

It would be very useful to know what is going on there.

The writer implies that CUSA botched its moves. I would say that the real issue is the world changed around CUSA AFTER the realignment decisions were made and those changes MIGHT be best addressed by realignment but I think there are options to innovate.

I like your way of thinking but differ in opinion on model.

I believe that CUSA should split while maintaining some formal alliance to cover a lot of the cost you are talking about. The major deterrent that the big boys put in the contract for the CFP was that the 10 million would not go to another Conference. They set a certain amount and let us to our own devices. The issue is that that amount of money is not enough to feed everybody. From a Basketball standpoint, the NCAA would give us hell over another automatic bid. That again take food out of the big boys mouths.

The tv issue could have been resolved if CUSA had gone all in on CUSATV but instead they half-arsed it and sold their best stuff to other internet tv providers. We should simply go all in on CUSATV or all in on Stadium but put all our media stuff on one platform and push to make that more available in our markets.

(12-06-2017 01:41 PM)pilot172000 Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 12:31 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I despise that headline.

I think it is much more a case of "If we knew then, what we know now".

The six team expansion, three of the eight voting schools left. Would the remaining five have voted the same way knowing ECU, Tulane, and Tulsa were leaving? Probably not.

Far more importantly though there have been some HUGE changes.

When the six team expansion took place, the powers that be had agreed in principle to a playoff but what it would look like was unknown. There was still a lot of push to simply select #1 and #2 post-bowls to play a single game.

The economic model was not established. Even when it was established, it ended up changing as the $12 million maximum base per conference was the first version, the G5 schools then voted to change that to $10 million and poured the extra into the performance pool.

The changing direction of TV was not fully apparent just yet either.

A more accurate article would be.

"Changing athletic situation poses questions"

The primary question being, "What is the best way to maximize net income?" Is it becoming more compact? Is it coordinating with one or more other conferences for a joint television package? Would it make better sense to eliminate some or all crossover games and replace those with inter-conference games scheduled jointly with someone else?

Does it even make sense for leagues like the Sun Belt and CUSA to pay to rent offices and hire fairly large staffs when they could merge their administrative functions into a single office while remaining two different conferences? Or maybe outsource most of the league office work to someone like SEC, Big XII or ACC and only employ a commissioner?

And I would also say that today isn't the day to solve the TV issue given that ESPN is in the process of trying to purchase the Fox Regionals because two years from now we may find ourselves in a situation where ESPN is taking content that normally is parked on ESPN3 and distributing it regionally via the ESPN Regional Networks they buy from Fox.

It would be very useful to know what is going on there.

The writer implies that CUSA botched its moves. I would say that the real issue is the world changed around CUSA AFTER the realignment decisions were made and those changes MIGHT be best addressed by realignment but I think there are options to innovate.

I like your way of thinking but differ in opinion on model.

I believe that CUSA should split while maintaining some formal alliance to cover a lot of the cost you are talking about. The major deterrent that the big boys put in the contract for the CFP was that the 10 million would not go to another Conference. They set a certain amount and let us to our own devices. The issue is that that amount of money is not enough to feed everybody. From a Basketball standpoint, the NCAA would give us hell over another automatic bid. That again take food out of the big boys mouths.

The tv issue could have been resolved if CUSA had gone all in on CUSATV but instead they half-arsed it and sold their best stuff to other internet tv providers. We should simply go all in on CUSATV or all in on Stadium but put all our media stuff on one platform and push to make that more available in our markets.

This. Cord cutting is the way of the future. Every yougFAU fan I talked to loved Stadium this year because it was just so simple and accessible.

(12-06-2017 01:46 PM)owlcountry40 Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 01:41 PM)pilot172000 Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 12:31 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  I despise that headline.

I think it is much more a case of "If we knew then, what we know now".

The six team expansion, three of the eight voting schools left. Would the remaining five have voted the same way knowing ECU, Tulane, and Tulsa were leaving? Probably not.

Far more importantly though there have been some HUGE changes.

When the six team expansion took place, the powers that be had agreed in principle to a playoff but what it would look like was unknown. There was still a lot of push to simply select #1 and #2 post-bowls to play a single game.

The economic model was not established. Even when it was established, it ended up changing as the $12 million maximum base per conference was the first version, the G5 schools then voted to change that to $10 million and poured the extra into the performance pool.

The changing direction of TV was not fully apparent just yet either.

A more accurate article would be.

"Changing athletic situation poses questions"

The primary question being, "What is the best way to maximize net income?" Is it becoming more compact? Is it coordinating with one or more other conferences for a joint television package? Would it make better sense to eliminate some or all crossover games and replace those with inter-conference games scheduled jointly with someone else?

Does it even make sense for leagues like the Sun Belt and CUSA to pay to rent offices and hire fairly large staffs when they could merge their administrative functions into a single office while remaining two different conferences? Or maybe outsource most of the league office work to someone like SEC, Big XII or ACC and only employ a commissioner?

And I would also say that today isn't the day to solve the TV issue given that ESPN is in the process of trying to purchase the Fox Regionals because two years from now we may find ourselves in a situation where ESPN is taking content that normally is parked on ESPN3 and distributing it regionally via the ESPN Regional Networks they buy from Fox.

It would be very useful to know what is going on there.

The writer implies that CUSA botched its moves. I would say that the real issue is the world changed around CUSA AFTER the realignment decisions were made and those changes MIGHT be best addressed by realignment but I think there are options to innovate.

I like your way of thinking but differ in opinion on model.

I believe that CUSA should split while maintaining some formal alliance to cover a lot of the cost you are talking about. The major deterrent that the big boys put in the contract for the CFP was that the 10 million would not go to another Conference. They set a certain amount and let us to our own devices. The issue is that that amount of money is not enough to feed everybody. From a Basketball standpoint, the NCAA would give us hell over another automatic bid. That again take food out of the big boys mouths.

The tv issue could have been resolved if CUSA had gone all in on CUSATV but instead they half-arsed it and sold their best stuff to other internet tv providers. We should simply go all in on CUSATV or all in on Stadium but put all our media stuff on one platform and push to make that more available in our markets.

This. Cord cutting is the way of the future. Every yougFAU fan I talked to loved Stadium this year because it was just so simple and accessible.

The BIG BIG thing about Stadium or CUSATV is that its each and every school's responsibility to develop a quality platform and studio to present their content. So far TECH has not done this and neither have others.

(12-06-2017 12:58 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  All of this talk of who's a rival and fans not interested I want to point something out....

S. Miss since the year 2000 (not counting 2017) has played 94 home games

Would it surprise anyone if 3 of the 7 S, Miss games in that span vs ECU was in the bottom 24 attended games (3,23,24)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 out of the 3 games vs Tech was in the bottom 15 games (9,15)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the bottom 10 came against UAB (1, 10)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the bottom 20 came against Marshall (11,20)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the top 4 came vs FCS schools...the other 2 Miss St and Neb.
Would it surprise anyone if only 2 S. MISS games vs the current CUSA was higher than vs ODU #27..Marshall #16, UAB #26 (TOTAL 94 GAMES) Only 2 of the 7 S. Miss home games vs Memphis is higher than ODU

Before a S. Miss fan goes off I have this info at my fingertips...if I had Techs or ODU or anyone else I would used those

Below is S. Miss lowest 25 attendance games and top 30. For those of you complaining about the limited number of games on espn today. You will notice not a lot on espn for S. Miss not even in those good old days. Mostly games vs P-5

You really do have a strange fascination with USM to dive that deep. You should donate to the Eagle Club.

(12-06-2017 10:32 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  Here is the problem with C-USA and why regional alignment will help. First off college attendance is dropping everywhere, we can all agree on that. But when you look at P5 football, most of the games have a good amount of fans from the opposing school, because they care enough to go to the games and they have some sort of hatred to that opposing team because chances are they are not that far away. You need the fans to travel. Regional realignment makes it so that it is easier for away fans to get to games.

I am an ODU alum and right now my only realistic conference away game I could attend is Charlotte, now to be fair I live in Charlotte but if I lived in Norfolk I would still go to that game because Charlotte is a cool city to visit. I went to 4 home games and 1 away game this year; Albany, UNC, @VT, WKU and Rice.

If ODU was in a conference that included any of the following:

JMU
ECU
App State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Ga Southern

I could travel to any of those away games from Charlotte relatively easily. I would like to get to a game at Marshall but its hard to go when you have gone to a bunch of home games. However im not going to texas or florida it is just to far and the fans from FAU, FIU, NT, Rice and so on just dont care. Why would I want to go to an away game where their fans dont care enough to make it to a home game. Im not travelling several hundred miles to go to an empty stadium. The next round of conference realignment should be based on the proximity and strength of fan base. If you dont make the cut then too bad. [/u]

Its hard to hate someone that is halfway across the country.

The best rivalries are created and fed by people you live and work with. If a school is too far away for you to have friends and co-workers as grads of that school, then its probably going to be difficult to ever create much of a real rivalry with that school. The tiny SWC Texas-centric footprint was horrible for TV--but it sure did a great job of creating rivalries. lol..lots'a hate.

(12-06-2017 02:16 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 10:32 AM)cmett003 Wrote:  Here is the problem with C-USA and why regional alignment will help. First off college attendance is dropping everywhere, we can all agree on that. But when you look at P5 football, most of the games have a good amount of fans from the opposing school, because they care enough to go to the games and they have some sort of hatred to that opposing team because chances are they are not that far away. You need the fans to travel. Regional realignment makes it so that it is easier for away fans to get to games.

I am an ODU alum and right now my only realistic conference away game I could attend is Charlotte, now to be fair I live in Charlotte but if I lived in Norfolk I would still go to that game because Charlotte is a cool city to visit. I went to 4 home games and 1 away game this year; Albany, UNC, @VT, WKU and Rice.

If ODU was in a conference that included any of the following:

JMU
ECU
App State
Charlotte
Coastal Carolina
Ga Southern

I could travel to any of those away games from Charlotte relatively easily. I would like to get to a game at Marshall but its hard to go when you have gone to a bunch of home games. However im not going to texas or florida it is just to far and the fans from FAU, FIU, NT, Rice and so on just dont care. Why would I want to go to an away game where their fans dont care enough to make it to a home game. Im not travelling several hundred miles to go to an empty stadium. The next round of conference realignment should be based on the proximity and strength of fan base. If you dont make the cut then too bad. [/u]

Its hard to hate someone that is halfway across the country.

The best rivalries are created and fed by people you live and work with. If a school is too far away for you to have friends and co-workers as grads of that school, then its probably going to be difficult to ever create much of a real rivalry with that school. The tiny SWC Texas-centric footprint was horrible for TV--but it sure did a great job of creating rivalries. lol..lots'a hate.

Long time SWC fan. The SEC and SWC where what we watch as a kid. The SWC model is IMHO great for G5 Conferences simply because regardless of what we do as a whole, we will always be horrible for tv. We spent the last decade bending over backwards to satisfy ESPN, Fox and CBs when in reality they dumped us the minute it was convenient. Lets build conferences designed to energize the base and develop content from there that is sexy enough to sell.

Once again, the problem with our conference is not being regional enough it is the fact that it has too many members. The best programs from CUSA need get together and form their own smaller conference with maybe a couple of the best Sun Belt programs. One Example: USM, MT, Marshall, WKY, La Tech, UAB, ODU, ULL, Arky State. Everybody plays everyone each year and all these programs are usually decent in football and basketball.

The simple and immediate solution is to split up and form two new regional conferences at 8 or 9 members each. I don't like CUSA in it's current form either.
Ideally we'd have something like this in the southwest...
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
North Texas
Rice
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Lafayette
Southern Mississippi

Everything can evolve from there. The Big12 could break at some point, and thenTulane, Tulsa, and SMU could possibility be added. A 12-member conference can survive if it's within a small region.

(12-06-2017 02:34 PM)Ourland Wrote:  The simple and immediate solution is to split up and form two new regional conferences at 8 or 9 members each. I don't like CUSA in it's current form either.
Ideally we'd have something like this in the southwest...
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
North Texas
Rice
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Lafayette
Southern Mississippi

Everything can evolve from there. The Big12 could break at some point, and thenTulane, Tulsa, and SMU could possibility be added. A 12-member conference can survive if it's within a small region.

This was proposed last year...

(12-06-2017 02:34 PM)Ourland Wrote:  The simple and immediate solution is to split up and form two new regional conferences at 8 or 9 members each. I don't like CUSA in it's current form either.
Ideally we'd have something like this in the southwest...
UTEP
UTSA
Texas State
North Texas
Rice
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Lafayette
Southern Mississippi

Everything can evolve from there. The Big12 could break at some point, and thenTulane, Tulsa, and SMU could possibility be added. A 12-member conference can survive if it's within a small region.

This would work for me.

Love to have Marshall, WKU, MTSU, and ODU in the MAC and go to North/South Divisions.

(12-06-2017 02:05 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 12:58 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  All of this talk of who's a rival and fans not interested I want to point something out....

S. Miss since the year 2000 (not counting 2017) has played 94 home games

Would it surprise anyone if 3 of the 7 S, Miss games in that span vs ECU was in the bottom 24 attended games (3,23,24)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 out of the 3 games vs Tech was in the bottom 15 games (9,15)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the bottom 10 came against UAB (1, 10)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the bottom 20 came against Marshall (11,20)
Would it surprise anyone if 2 of the top 4 came vs FCS schools...the other 2 Miss St and Neb.
Would it surprise anyone if only 2 S. MISS games vs the current CUSA was higher than vs ODU #27..Marshall #16, UAB #26 (TOTAL 94 GAMES) Only 2 of the 7 S. Miss home games vs Memphis is higher than ODU

Before a S. Miss fan goes off I have this info at my fingertips...if I had Techs or ODU or anyone else I would used those

Below is S. Miss lowest 25 attendance games and top 30. For those of you complaining about the limited number of games on espn today. You will notice not a lot on espn for S. Miss not even in those good old days. Mostly games vs P-5

You really do have a strange fascination with USM to dive that deep. You should donate to the Eagle Club.

I like numbers and trends and it's been every good to me over the past 15 years. At one time I had about 200,000 spreadsheets and data bases on sports

But if there comes a time Western plays S. Miss at S. Miss I will be a member of the Eagle Club. I always buy a set of season tickets to one conference away game each year

I get emails from Tech, FIU, UAB, Ark St, Troy, USA on renewing my season tickets. Well I should say I use to on the SBC schools

(12-06-2017 11:36 AM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 11:33 AM)freshtop Wrote:  It also makes sense for some programs to drop to the FCS level to be honest.

Which programs should be FCS, and why should they be FCS?

performance? fans? budget? history?

USM because their budget is the smallest.

Sent from my SM-G930F using CSNbbs mobile app

(12-06-2017 02:53 PM)ODU2017 Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 11:36 AM)FIU4Ever Wrote:  

(12-06-2017 11:33 AM)freshtop Wrote:  It also makes sense for some programs to drop to the FCS level to be honest.

Which programs should be FCS, and why should they be FCS?

performance? fans? budget? history?

USM because their budget is the smallest.

Sent from my SM-G930F using CSNbbs mobile app

There is something to that.....

FCS games are usually some of their best attended games. So if their fans want rivals so they get better attendance.

The G5 ADs, Presidents, and Commissioners have sold their schools down the river for a few million in CFP royalty.

Since I've been a dedicated CFB follower since the mid 2000s, the amount of disrespect and disdain for G5 schools in both BB and FB has grown exponentially. We are literally at the kids table. If the powers that be don't figure out how to get to the big table and actually have a chance at a NC, then we're looking at another split in 2025/2026.

10 Conference Champions. All 10 should get in to a playoff, period. Why the 5 conferences can't get together and throw their weight towards this goal, I have no idea. The P5 elitism is the worst part of College Football. A close second is the self-righteous preening that G5 schools and conferences attempt to try and show they belong to the thing they hate.