The guy has had a lot of horses shot out from under him, but let's review the record with an eye cast toward fairness.

MAC was stable only move was adding Akron.

Took over the bloated WAC that had ignored advice of the AD's by going to 16 instead of 12. That die was cast when he arrived. With the collapse of the CFA, ABC had no significant interest in their TV killing TV revenue.

8 bail to form MWC.

Two years later TCU leaves to join the then stronger and more geographically appropriate CUSA

Four years later SMU, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP leave for CUSA which is more geographically appropriate and UTEP wants the DFW/Houston exposure CUSA offers.

Six years later Boise State leaves for the stronger MWC.

One year later Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada follow.

Comes to the Sun Belt, UNT/FIU leave followed by MTSU/FAU.

I'm curious which of those moves could have been staved off and how? The best shot was the BYU non-football plan but everyone asked other than USU blinked.

I'm not really sure what sort of commissioner magic prevents those situations from playing out exactly as they played out.

I actually think the BYU move is what killed the WAC. Sure the MWC would have raided the WAC further later on, but it might have been delayed long enough that the WAC could have convinced a few more FCS schools to move up to keep the league afloat. Benson took a big swing that he could turn the tide on the MWC and it failed.

No one pays any attention to history. The WAC was bloated at 16 teams and teams broke away to make the MWC. History will repeat itself after all this is done and conferences grow to 16 and beyond. To many teams to keep everyone happy, feelings will get hurt and schools will break away again.

This garbage will last for a long time.

(12-07-2012 02:40 PM)Usajags Wrote:  No one pays any attention to history. The WAC was bloated at 16 teams and teams broke away to make the MWC. History will repeat itself after all this is done and conferences grow to 16 and beyond. To many teams to keep everyone happy, feelings will get hurt and schools will break away again.

This garbage will last for a long time.

For fans it is about winning championships.

A 16-team league crowns one. An 8-team league crowns one.

For a questionable shot at a bit more money programs reduce shot at championships and ditch rivalries that get fans interested.

We'll see.

When the TV money dries up, and it will, all of these conferences will implode.

(12-07-2012 02:58 PM)CAJUNNATION Wrote:  When the TV money dries up, and it will, all of these conferences will implode.

It could be happening quicker than you realize!

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...15/big-eas

.

Looks like the BE is about to get caught with their pants down.

Don't count me as a fan of the guy but I really don't know what exactly could have been done.

The start of the WAC break-up was the fault of the unified CFA TV contract going away and pretty much every loss since has been related to the scramble to get in on the subscriber/ad revenue that has grown in part because sports programming is in what looks like a bubble to me of being over-valued because no one has yet figured out how to deal with the DVR and because internet delivery isn't ready for the non-geeks yet.

Someone figures out a better solution for advertisers and the bubble will burst.

Right now the Alabama's and Michigan's of the world work via conference for TV revenue because it is efficent. If internet delivery becomes more user friendly the subscriber fee channel with a fairly broad range of programming will be replaced by something closer to PPV and again, the bubble bursts.

(12-07-2012 02:24 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  The guy has had a lot of horses shot out from under him, but let's review the record with an eye cast toward fairness.

MAC was stable only move was adding Akron.

Took over the bloated WAC that had ignored advice of the AD's by going to 16 instead of 12. That die was cast when he arrived. With the collapse of the CFA, ABC had no significant interest in their TV killing TV revenue.

8 bail to form MWC.

Two years later TCU leaves to join the then stronger and more geographically appropriate CUSA

Four years later SMU, Tulsa, Rice, UTEP leave for CUSA which is more geographically appropriate and UTEP wants the DFW/Houston exposure CUSA offers.

Six years later Boise State leaves for the stronger MWC.

One year later Fresno, Hawaii, Nevada follow.

Comes to the Sun Belt, UNT/FIU leave followed by MTSU/FAU.

I'm curious which of those moves could have been staved off and how? The best shot was the BYU non-football plan but everyone asked other than USU blinked.

I'm not really sure what sort of commissioner magic prevents those situations from playing out exactly as they played out.

I am new here but have been watching the past few days. I am an Appalachian State grad from more than a few decades ago and wanted to see how current Sun Belt fans feel about the possible addition of my alma mater. I have always pulled for the Sun Belt to do well and felt that its regional identity could be a major plus.

I find what is being said about Karl Benson more than a bit disheartening. It is easy for any of us to make statements when we do not have the facts at hand nor know the person we are trashing. I know Karl and he is not only a good man, he is clearly doing his best to make the Sun Belt a strong and stable conference. Many may not like the way he is going about reaching his goal but what he is doing comes from experience. Few if any of you know what he faced at the WAC. You think he has a tough job at the SBC? The WAC was in a class by itself........loaded with member institutions that continuously acted upon their own agendas and never really had any desire to be part of a cohesive conference. The WAC had always been known as a place where a school would stay only until a larger conference would let them in the door. Benson was trying to change that culture. He negotiated the first ESPN deal and had just signed another much more lucrative agreement when Boise State bolted. The undoing of the WAC was a result of less than honest CEOs at member institutions and athletic directors, a few that were impossible to reason with. With the current realignment a commissioner's job is that much harder. Does it not make sense to start knowing who is committed to the conference and who is ready to flee at the first chance? I firmly believe that is what he has done in this case. No grand conference plan has a chance of success unless you know that all schools are of the same mind moving forward. If getting through that process rubs some schools the wrong way, then so be it.

As for the schools moving to Conference USA, the grass is not always greener on the other side. You can be in a large market but if your conference school there, like UAB, only draws 12,000 a game in Legion Field that seats nearly 100,000 do you not think that television networks take note of that? I am a media lawyer, and I have seen and negotiated a number of sports media rights contracts. I can tell you that Conference USA's strategy of getting mediocre schools in large markets is a loser. It will not be shown until their next rights negotiation. Television wants stands filled......strong rivalries and excitement. That is compelling sports programming. The Sun Belt can and will achieve that goal where Conference USA will never see that from a UAB vs. FIU game played in either Birmingham or Miami-Fort Lauderdale markets.

If you can just lay off of Benson for awhile and give him a chance to put his plan in place. I am confident that he can do it and if he does then the Sun Belt will not only grow but prosper while others with these grand aspirations of large markets and ridiculous media rights will see that the dreams they were sold were just words. It also must be remembered that the commissioner only makes suggestions. It is the CEOs of the member institutions who vote on what action to take. The day of the "strong" commissioner has passed with so much money being bantied about. Fans need to look to the administrators of the schools as they more times than not are the ones that are making the mistakes that many on this board point out.

I'm not unhappy with Benson.

Turnberry, what you are seeing here is frustration in what is happening. You got to blame someone, some have choose to blame Benson. The end result is as fans we have no control over what happens. And what is happening is the bastardization of college football.

This will not end well for college football.

I love the reassurances handed back and forth by the USA, Troy, UL, ULM and ASU fans (asf excluded of course)....as soon as one of you get a call from C-USA you'll shut-up faster than a rat trap.

(12-07-2012 04:24 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  I love the reassurances handed back and forth by the USA, Troy, UL, ULM and ASU fans (asf excluded of course)....as soon as one of you get a call from C-USA you'll shut-up faster than a rat trap.

If USA ever leaves this conference, I'll post one last time wishing everyone good luck and then move to the new conference's board.
Just seems like the mature move.

(12-07-2012 04:26 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  If USA ever leaves this conference, I'll post one last time wishing everyone good luck and then move to the new conference's board.
Just seems like the mature move.

Well, when we stop playing Sun Belt games, I'll probably stop posting here...but thanks for the suggestion.

Never said South wouldn't go if called, never blamed anyone for leaving.

In general I hate all this conference realignment mess and blame Texas for all of it. Personally, I would have loved to be in C-USA 5 years ago, now, as far as a fan perspective, I don't see the benefit of being in it anymore. Would have loved to see the SBC stick together and grow together, but that isn't what happened.

I would love to be in a conference with USM and even UAb, but that isn't happenning, at least not today. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

(12-07-2012 04:31 PM)FIUFan Wrote:  

(12-07-2012 04:26 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  If USA ever leaves this conference, I'll post one last time wishing everyone good luck and then move to the new conference's board.
Just seems like the mature move.

Well, when we stop playing Sun Belt games, I'll probably stop posting here...but thanks for the suggestion.

Same here. Until then, as karl benson recently said "Middle Tennessee is still a full-fledged member of the Sun Belt" (whether he plans to treat MT as one or not) and we all will have to deal with that and MT fans, whether it is until the summer of 2013 or later.

(12-07-2012 04:03 PM)Usajags Wrote:  Turnberry, what you are seeing here is frustration in what is happening. You got to blame someone, some have choose to blame Benson. The end result is as fans we have no control over what happens. And what is happening is the bastardization of college football.

This will not end well for college football.

USAjags you hit the nail on the head. In five years intercollegiate athletics, especially football, will be unrecognizable to everyone. The tradition and such that makes college football special means nothing anymore. It is all a game of money.....very big business. It amazes me that some FBS conferences think they are going to strike major rights deals with major cable and terrestrial networks. That is not going to occur. There is a point of diminishing returns and that stops with the top six conferences.....really five now with the realignment. Networks have to justify the rights fees and production expenses and that is very hard to do when you have schools which fail to attract viewers or people to fill seats in the venue. If the Sun Belt were smart it would work to build a strong regional network on cable, terrestrial and "connected" television. With a compact conference footprint they could get easy clearance on a large number of games in practically all the markets throughout the conference footprint. This would help build strong rivalries and be profitable by selling sponsorships to large regional advertisers. This thought that people on the west coast or the northeast will be eagerly waiting to watch a Sun Belt game on over a nationwide feed is ridiculous.....but this is how many think. I think you will see things trend this way when the top four or five conferences break away from the NCAA and play within their own organization. That will happen but not before a torrent of lawsuits are filed and antitrust matters are tended to. But yes.....what we remembered as football while in college is fading fast.

I don't know squat....but I would not want to see a change at the top with Benson at present. Why you ask? He has seen implosion, he has seen collapse. Now I do not know if that is all good but at least he is not a nubie in there. The Belt will exist for a while in the South because of so many schools and the moratorium on moving up to FBS coming up. I have no idea who will be with us and it will be a lower level conference but those others e.g. CUSA is going to be just about the same level or lower or in perceptively higher......in reality from TV money or otherwise. Nope if Benson leaves now we would be in for a heap of trouble in my opinion.[/i]

(12-07-2012 04:03 PM)Usajags Wrote:  Turnberry, what you are seeing here is frustration in what is happening. You got to blame someone, some have choose to blame Benson. The end result is as fans we have no control over what happens. And what is happening is the bastardization of college football.

This will not end well for college football.

It seems that FCS is about the purest type of college football these days.

(12-07-2012 04:03 PM)Usajags Wrote:  Turnberry, what you are seeing here is frustration in what is happening. You got to blame someone, some have choose to blame Benson. The end result is as fans we have no control over what happens. And what is happening is the bastardization of college football.

This will not end well for college football.

Amen to that point, jags.

When you point a finger, remember that three are pointing back at thee; let's work on what we can control and leave the rest to the "experts".