... is going to pour the money to the AAC just like before. They have absolute power over which schools succeed. While joining the SunBelt would be a great move for USM, none of us can compete year-in year-out with the "chosen" schools getting their $7M a year checks from ESPN. They are allowed to play the "kingmaker". And its mostly schools who NEVER did anything to deserve it.

Pure hatred in my heart.

This is exactly what's going to happen, because AAC wouldn't be pursuing the MWC without ESPN telling them they'll finance the deal.

Yeah it’s pretty clear who is holding and dealing the cards.

The Belt will expand and feature regional rivalries. The AAC would be a far flung conglomerate of teams with little stability

My tinfoil hat says ESPN has the AAC wrecking the MWC and picking off UAB from CUSA to start the hit on that conference. The Sun Belt is also ESPN affiliated so it hits CUSA for Marshall and USM. Then the MWC backfills with the Texas CUSA schools.

In the end, ESPN, through its AAC and Sun Belt contracts, will have a near-monopoly on the G5, with the non-ESPN-affiliated MWC a shadow of its former self and CUSA left for dead.

(09-16-2021 03:42 PM)raptorbpw Wrote:  My tinfoil hat says ESPN has the AAC wrecking the MWC and picking off UAB from CUSA to start the hit on that conference. The Sun Belt is also ESPN affiliated so it hits CUSA for Marshall and USM. Then the MWC backfills with the Texas CUSA schools.

In the end, ESPN, through its AAC and Sun Belt contracts, will have a near-monopoly on the G5, with the non-ESPN-affiliated MWC a shadow of its former self and CUSA left for dead.

Sounds like a plan. Lets do it!

(09-16-2021 03:42 PM)raptorbpw Wrote:  My tinfoil hat says ESPN has the AAC wrecking the MWC and picking off UAB from CUSA to start the hit on that conference. The Sun Belt is also ESPN affiliated so it hits CUSA for Marshall and USM. Then the MWC backfills with the Texas CUSA schools.

In the end, ESPN, through its AAC and Sun Belt contracts, will have a near-monopoly on the G5, with the non-ESPN-affiliated MWC a shadow of its former self and CUSA left for dead.

I think you are onto something.

(09-16-2021 03:44 PM)Fanof49ASU Wrote:  

(09-16-2021 03:42 PM)raptorbpw Wrote:  My tinfoil hat says ESPN has the AAC wrecking the MWC and picking off UAB from CUSA to start the hit on that conference. The Sun Belt is also ESPN affiliated so it hits CUSA for Marshall and USM. Then the MWC backfills with the Texas CUSA schools.

In the end, ESPN, through its AAC and Sun Belt contracts, will have a near-monopoly on the G5, with the non-ESPN-affiliated MWC a shadow of its former self and CUSA left for dead.

Sounds like a plan. Lets do it!

As long as we get that spot on the SBC lifeboat I am all aboard. Let's rollll.

What is this? We are not allowed to have reality based discussions regarding realignment. MODS! Pull this thread so we can all get back to our mindless speculations.

The only sure thing is CUSA will lose its top teams. They could pull a Sun Belt and backfill with the top FCS schools. They really need to ditch that crappy media contract and take what ESPN is willing to give them. Every school wants the TV exposure and CUSA doesn't offer that.

It's no coincidence that bad things tend to happen to conferences who don't have ESPN as their primary media distributor. It's been going on for decades now.

The Mountain Ack is such a bat-sh*t crazy proposition, though, even Disney throwing money at it might not be able to make it happen, especially with the P/G gap only growing bigger and the increasing likelihood that we're all going to end up in a new football division in the end anyway.

(09-17-2021 07:50 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  The only sure thing is CUSA will lose its top teams. They could pull a Sun Belt and backfill with the top FCS schools. They really need to ditch that crappy media contract and take what ESPN is willing to give them. Every school wants the TV exposure and CUSA doesn't offer that.

On their board, they no longer think that. Someone posted some numbers on supposed conference revenues and it shows the SBC still dead last. This has emboldened the Marshall/USM/ODU faithful to say things like "no way a school is paying 5 million in exit fees to make less money".

I'm sorry but ESPN has been laying off talent and cutting costs wherever they can. Do they still have money to throw at the American...sure but will they? Unless Boise and the other MWC teams get a significant bump in BOTH money and exposure I can't see them moving to a coast to coast conglomerate. Personally with Boise in the mix for the Big 12 and San Diego St on the West Coast I see them both saying no to the AAC. Colorado St and Air Force are a definite possibility but only if Navy says in the fold. If by some miracle the AAC can get those two then UAB + one other CUSA team will be selected and the AAC will be full. MWC will then make a move and if as expected they take one or more Texas schools from CUSA they may be cut down to a more eastern based conference ending the need for schools to defect.

If this happens SBC may come out of this adding no one. If no one from the MWC goes and the American pulls from CUSA and the Sun Belt all bets are off though.

(09-17-2021 08:40 AM)EagleNationRising Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 07:50 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  The only sure thing is CUSA will lose its top teams. They could pull a Sun Belt and backfill with the top FCS schools. They really need to ditch that crappy media contract and take what ESPN is willing to give them. Every school wants the TV exposure and CUSA doesn't offer that.

On their board, they no longer think that. Someone posted some numbers on supposed conference revenues and it shows the SBC still dead last. This has emboldened the Marshall/USM/ODU faithful to say things like "no way a school is paying 5 million in exit fees to make less money".

That crap drives me bananas. They really don’t think all those numbers will change over the next 5 years after conference realignment happen? Some people really live in the “right now” and are incapable of seeing what things will look like 5-10 years down the road. Anyways, I’ve been told by people who should know that Marshall is leaving CUSA no matter what, so evidently we are willing to give up some of that revenue to get back with like-minded schools in our own region, and mainly the big cheese ESPN. Which is 100% the correct move to make here.

(09-17-2021 08:46 AM)HTOWN_HERD Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 08:40 AM)EagleNationRising Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 07:50 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  The only sure thing is CUSA will lose its top teams. They could pull a Sun Belt and backfill with the top FCS schools. They really need to ditch that crappy media contract and take what ESPN is willing to give them. Every school wants the TV exposure and CUSA doesn't offer that.

On their board, they no longer think that. Someone posted some numbers on supposed conference revenues and it shows the SBC still dead last. This has emboldened the Marshall/USM/ODU faithful to say things like "no way a school is paying 5 million in exit fees to make less money".

That crap drives me bananas. They really don’t think all those numbers will change over the next 5 years after conference realignment happen? Some people really live in the “right now” and are incapable of seeing what things will look like 5-10 years down the road. Anyways, I’ve been told by people who should know that Marshall is leaving CUSA no matter what, so evidently we are willing to give up some of that revenue to get back with like-minded schools in our own region, and mainly the big cheese ESPN. Which is 100% the correct move to make here.

Gotta be more to the story than the 990 forms from 2019 some guy from Marshall found somewhere. There's too much CUSA-teams-to-the-Belt smoke for there to not be some kind of fire.

The CFP conference payout plus performance payout plus Media money plus bowl distributions the SBC gets is more than what Herdfan's numbers are and that doesn't include sponsorships, tournament credits, CCG monies, etc.


So I'm sure there's more we don't know than just the numbers he found.

(09-17-2021 09:00 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  The CFP conference payout plus performance payout plus Media money plus bowl distributions the SBC gets is more than what Herdfan's numbers are and that doesn't include sponsorships, tournament credits, CCG monies, etc.


So I'm sure there's more we don't know than just the numbers he found.

There’s a few fans over there who don’t live in reality. Nobody knows the truth of what we make in the SB because those numbers aren’t public.

(09-17-2021 09:07 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 09:00 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  The CFP conference payout plus performance payout plus Media money plus bowl distributions the SBC gets is more than what Herdfan's numbers are and that doesn't include sponsorships, tournament credits, CCG monies, etc.


So I'm sure there's more we don't know than just the numbers he found.

There’s a few fans over there who don’t live in reality. Nobody knows the truth of what we make in the SB because those numbers aren’t public.

The exit fee and conference revenue numbers floating around about Marshall and CUSA are completely incorrect. Those numbers are based on old TV and NCAA credit numbers.

The exit fee will not stop Marshall, IMO.

(09-17-2021 09:13 AM)Superanjario Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 09:07 AM)Troy_Fan_15 Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 09:00 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  The CFP conference payout plus performance payout plus Media money plus bowl distributions the SBC gets is more than what Herdfan's numbers are and that doesn't include sponsorships, tournament credits, CCG monies, etc.


So I'm sure there's more we don't know than just the numbers he found.

There’s a few fans over there who don’t live in reality. Nobody knows the truth of what we make in the SB because those numbers aren’t public.

The exit fee and conference revenue numbers floating around about Marshall and CUSA are completely incorrect. Those numbers are based on old TV and NCAA credit numbers.

The exit fee will not stop Marshall, IMO.

Building on this--

People have been throwing around an exit fee amount of $5-$6 million for CUSA. The CUSA bylaws state the exit fee is two years of conference distributions.

USM received a total CUSA distribution of about $1.3 million in 2019 according to the actual Southern Miss athletic budget. So at most we're talking about an exit fee of around $2.6 million.

Let's remember with UCONN leaving, along with the latest three, the AAC will be getting anywhere from 47-60 million dollars in exit fees.

That could help them get the teams they covet.

(09-16-2021 03:42 PM)raptorbpw Wrote:  My tinfoil hat says ESPN has the AAC wrecking the MWC and picking off UAB from CUSA to start the hit on that conference. The Sun Belt is also ESPN affiliated so it hits CUSA for Marshall and USM. Then the MWC backfills with the Texas CUSA schools.

In the end, ESPN, through its AAC and Sun Belt contracts, will have a near-monopoly on the G5, with the non-ESPN-affiliated MWC a shadow of its former self and CUSA left for dead.

Hate to see that. My capacity for pity is enormous after a decade of CUSA fans delusions of superiority. SIKE

Rest in piss, CUSA