Wilkie01 Wrote:That's it, I try to support Memphis for BE membership but after this. I hope they are never asked to be in the BE!

Wilkie don't be too hard on the Tiggers. When RC Johnson leaves then I feel our relationship with the Tiggers will improve.

IF we split and IF we go to 10 schools and IF we can't get a Maryland, Penn State or ND then I would support Navy and Memphis. Navy for the prestige and Memphis because they are improving their football program and they would bring the Liberty Bowl.

Maize Wrote:

Wilkie01 Wrote:That's it, I try to support Memphis for BE membership but after this. I hope they are never asked to be in the BE!

Wilkie don't be too hard on the Tiggers. When RC Johnson leaves then I feel our relationship with the Tiggers will improve.

IF we split and IF we go to 10 schools and IF we can't get a Maryland, Penn State or ND then I would support Navy and Memphis. Navy for the prestige and Memphis because they are improving their football program and they would bring the Liberty Bowl.

Here's a thought say we can get Maryland, PSU, and BC to come together as a package and let's say that 14 teams are the new 12. I say we go for this look:

Big East
Eastern Independent
Temple Rutgers
UConn Boston College
Louisville Cincinnati
Syracuse Maryland
ECU West Virginia
USF Pitt
Memphis Penn State

We really get a nice looking conference with that. So the 6 division games plus 3 rotating OOD opponents would give you 9 conference games each year. Where do all the teams come from?
Big East - RU, UConn, UC, UL, USF, WVU, Pitt, SU
MAC/A10 - TU
B10 - PSU
ACC - UMD, BC
CUSA - ECU, UM

The hoops and football sides are loaded with no real deadweight except for Temple in FB. That could prove to be a very attractive money maker with markets in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, the Northeast, North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. Sounds like the complete eastern conference to me. Of course this would be dependent on 14 teams being even remotely financially viable in the first place.

What are they? A bunch of wimps.

Bambu Wrote:

CardsRChamps Wrote:A Memphis fan actually is talking smack about our schedule? LOL...Have fun playing UCF, Rice, USM and Tulane. Im sure ESPN will be all over those games!

What's so funny? We've always played a tougher OOC than UL.

Your past schedules are out there for all to see, so there's no need
for me to smack on your weak-****** sched. (Save the KY crap :rolleyes: )


ESPN will be all over Memphis. Who cares about the whipping boy?

That's flat out wrong. In fact, you couldn't be more wrong. You are either clueless or else 16 and don't remember anything prior to the last 3 or 4 years.

ESPN will be all over Memphis? Dont you mean ESPNU? LOL. Dont worry about UofL....we will get our usualy games on ESPN, ESPN2 and CBS. We dont do CSTV or ESPNU.

Wilkie01 Wrote:That's it, I try to support Memphis for BE membership but after this. I hope they are never asked to be in the BE!

1. You change your mind every week.
2. What you think is moot.

That's a laugh, a Uof L fan calling Marshall a cupcake. We beat thier butts all over the field when we've played them in football. :laugh:

I think what we have here is a lack of communication. I don't know all the particulars, so I'm really in the dark as to what has occurred. As an outsider to these dealings, here is what I infer:

1. LOU was required to play a cusa member as a condition of leaving the conference and maintaining some financial credits.
2. LOU scheduled incoming Marshall.
3. CUSA felt they had the right to determine which cusa member LOU would play. They did not want it to be Marshall.
4. As a result, the Marshall/LOU game will be cancelled, and LOU will play no cusa member.

Please help me out here. Is that the situation?

Jim

JIM15068 Wrote:I think what we have here is a lack of communication. I don't know all the particulars, so I'm really in the dark as to what has occurred. As an outsider to these dealings, here is what I infer:

1. LOU was required to play a cusa member as a condition of leaving the conference and maintaining some financial credits.
2. LOU scheduled incoming Marshall.
3. CUSA felt they had the right to determine which cusa member LOU would play. They did not want it to be Marshall.
4. As a result, the Marshall/LOU game will be cancelled, and LOU will play no cusa member.

Please help me out here. Is that the situation?

Jim

You hit it on the head. The agreement was we had to play 2 C-USA members in basketball. There was no such agreement in which C-USA could determine who we play.

Yeah, Jim. That about sums it up. It seems to me it was all a miscommuniation. UofL thought that it could schedule a member of its choosing to be able to keep its BB credits, and all along the C-USA conference office had in mind that the game would be a UofL-Memphis matchup. I guess that came out from the conference office, that that is what they wanted, and that was the only way they'd keep their credits, so UofL said, thanks, but no thanks, you can have the credits, and we'll just drop everything.

As a Herd fan, sure I'm disappointed that we didn't get UofL home-and-home, but maybe we'll have the oppurtunity in the future, once we get our BB back up to where it was in the late '80's, rockin' and selling out 10,000 seats every game. Still not sure about the coach. I still think they way screwed up by not hiring Mike D'Antoni (yes, the 2005 NBA Coach of the Year) when he wanted the job. We'd have to come up with some more $$$ to get him, but it would be nice to have him in the mix next time around if our guy now doesn't work out in a couple of years.

Marshall is starting a major growth spurt right now with facilities, athletics, and education. In 10 years, it will be hard to recognize the school.

I still am hopeful of a future BE invite, for the obvious BCS reasons, but also to have a permanent home with closer regional rivals. After 5 years time I look for C-USA to be a Texas based conference, more like the old SWC. They are heavily leaning this way now, and it's just starting. I still think the answer to the "split" in 5 years will be to take the best teams from C-USA east that make sense for a "east coast" type geography to the conference, and not just having a NE based conference.

I have said this before but my plan would be ...

(Hopefully the FB side will keep this name …)

Big East Conference

NORTH Division
1- UConn
2- Syracuse
3- Rutgers
4- Pittsburgh
5- West Virginia
6- South Florida

SOUTH Division
1- Louisville
2- Memphis
3- East Carolina
4- Cincinnati
5- Marshall
6- Southern Miss

I put USF in the North division just because it is the easiest way to keep all the cross-division (primary cross-over opponents) equal. They will more than likely be flying to every school with the exception of USM, who is their cross-over opponent anyway. These would be used for both FB and BB.

Primary Cross-over matchups
---------------------------------
UConn-Louisville
Syracuse-Memphis
Rutgers-ECU
Pitt-Cincinnati
WVU-Marshall
South Florida-Southern Miss

FB schedule
-------------
1- OOC
2- OOC
3- OOC
4- OOC
5- Divisional (home & home, annually)
6- Divisional (home & home, annually)
7- Divisional (home & home, annually)
8- Divisional (home & home, annually)
9- Divisional (home & home, annually)
10- Primary Cross-over, opp. div. (home & home, annually)
11- Opposing Division (home & home, rotate every two years)
12- Opposing Division (home & home, rotate every two years)
CC- Division Champions
-----(site TBD … NYC, New Jets Stadium if it ever gets built??)

BB Schedule
--------------
5 Divisional + 1 primary cross-over (home & home, every season)= 12
5 Opposing Division games (3 home, 2 away, rotate each year)= 5
All the rest can be filled up with OOC match-ups

... You'd have to at least consider Army, Navy and Temple, I suppose, but I honestly don't think the military institutions are the way to go (even though I know Jim has a preference for Navy). And Temple, well, there was a reason that we have been trying to get them out of the BE for this long to begin with. So bringing them back, just is beyond my comprehension.

I write this as both a Marshall and WVU fan. I am very concerned with the BE's future, and I hope that it is a good one.

Thunderdent, that's actually a quite reasonable proposal.

In basketball, I'd do 10 in division games, home and away.
Then, I'd play each of the other division teams once for a total of 6 cross division. GRAND TOTAL OF 16 games.

Either way would be good Jim as far as BB goes. Just think that format, especially for FB is the best scenario for the conference, regardless of the teams. Although I think the ones I provided would be the best choices for having strong FB teams, with good fan bases that travel well.

Also, in case you were wondering, and to give you some more info to base your judgments on, some of the improvements Marshall has on the way are:

This season: New FieldTurf, New Weight Room/Players Meeting building attached to the current Facilities Build. and to the new IPF (suppose to be one of the largest and nicest square-foot facilities in the country, I've heard 2-3x bigger than LSU's). New Biotechnology Science Center, new Regional University Cancer Center.

Late this season/next spring: New Indoor Practice facility

Next season: New Baseball stadium, Complete refurbishment/upgrade of SB stadium, 2 new dorms, new student rec center.

(Above things are either funded or are awaiting new $80 Mill. funding that is suppose to be approved tomorrow.)

(On the drawing board) Next 3-5 seasons: New Soccer Stadium (FB is taking over current field for its outdoor grass PF), New VB Arena (refurbishing Gullikson Hall to become new VB facility), New Tennis Courts/Tennis Center (current courts will be taken up when the new dorms go in), FB stadium Expansion (deck and skysuites, depending on how they do it anywhere from 50-63,000 total seats, Plans have already been drawn up with 2 phases of expansion listed).

Also the new University President has stated that he is going to increase enrollment of international students (for culture/learning oppurtunites) and increase the total enrollment to over 20,000 in the next few years. Along with the new doctoral and research programs that the University is starting, it seems that things are on the right track.

3601 Wrote:

Wilkie01 Wrote:That's it, I try to support Memphis for BE membership but after this. I hope they are never asked to be in the BE!

1. You change your mind every week.
2. What you think is moot.

Memphis keeps screwing with us! I think Memphis makes perfect sense from a quality of play aspect, but then there is the question of character!

JIM15068 Wrote:I think what we have here is a lack of communication. I don't know all the particulars, so I'm really in the dark as to what has occurred. As an outsider to these dealings, here is what I infer:

1. LOU was required to play a cusa member as a condition of leaving the conference and maintaining some financial credits.
2. LOU scheduled incoming Marshall.
3. CUSA felt they had the right to determine which cusa member LOU would play. They did not want it to be Marshall.
4. As a result, the Marshall/LOU game will be cancelled, and LOU will play no cusa member.

Please help me out here. Is that the situation?

Jim

Yes

Come on character. This comes from somebody who had a fan fly a Big East sign over your stadium when Memphis came to town to play a football game two years ago. Why kick a dog when he's down?

Some character.

Tigeer Wrote:Come on character.  This comes from somebody who had a fan fly a Big East sign over your stadium when Memphis came to town to play a football game two years ago.  Why kick a dog when he's down?

Some character.

I don't think Louisville is being smart in this. I would've met the contract by playing Marshall and another CUSA team then sue CUSA for breach of contract if they didn't followup on the contract agreements. Instead you are buying out teams and leaving units behind and say you'll make up the revenue with extra home games?

What's NOT smart about this? It gives the dumb*** running C-USA one more kick in the nads for his repeated stupidity (trying to strong-arm a Memphis-Louisville game, choosing Memphis for the C-USA Tourney DESPITE obvious financial losses, etc etc etc) while at the same time giving the home fans more games to attend. We come out even financially if not ahead (some say the extra games could be worth more than $2 million over the course of time) and don't give Memphis, Banowsky, or any of the idiots left in C-DOA the satisfaction of making Louisville do ANYTHING. I'll gladly watch another MAC team LIVE than cry-babies from Memphis on TV who ***** and moan until they get what they want (regardless of the fact that the contract never promised them squat).

CardinalEmpire.com Wrote:I'll gladly watch another MAC team LIVE than cry-babies from Memphis on TV who ***** and moan until they get what they want (regardless of the fact that the contract never promised them squat).

Why do you spew so much venom? You have no reason. The UofLs connection off and on over the years with Memphis ended up being good for the UofL.

Most Memphis fans just want to play a team that they have considered their rival in basketball for many years, regardless of what you think Memphis.

I have a problem with Banowsky and company, not with Memphis. I've always enjoyed our matchups, lately in football too.

CardFan636 Wrote:I have a problem with Banowsky and company, not with Memphis. I've always enjoyed our matchups, lately in football too.

Banowsky showed some real class as we were discussing on the Rutgers Rivals board today. He wrote an open letter to all the departing teams thanking them for being a part of CUSA in the first 10 years and wishing them all luck.