(04-21-2020 11:58 AM)army56mike Wrote:  EAST C-USA
Army
Navy
Cincinnati
Louisville
East Carolina
UAB
USF
UCF
WEST C-USA
Memphis
Southern Miss
Tulane
Houston
TCU
Air Force
BYU
Boise St.


But since you said it can only be 12 I’d say

In the 95-96 range, Boise State was a non-entity that was just in the process of moving up from 1-AA to the Big West. There's no way they'd have been considered for CUSA.

And there's no way BYU was leaving the WAC to join CUSA either. The WAC was their conference, though they messed up in allowing expansion to 16 teams. Same thing for Air Force...no reason to leave the WAC, which was established with good bowl games, for a new conference that was eastern focused.

Charlotte hurt itself adding football when it did. In my opinion they should have added it in the 90s and been in CUSA or not add it all recently and I would bet money the would be in the American already as a full nonfootball member like Wichita State

(04-21-2020 01:26 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  Charlotte hurt itself adding football when it did. In my opinion they should have added it in the 90s and been in CUSA or not add it all recently and I would bet money the would be in the American already as a full nonfootball member like Wichita State

If Charlotte adds football in the 90s, they’re in the AAC today.

(04-21-2020 01:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 01:26 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  Charlotte hurt itself adding football when it did. In my opinion they should have added it in the 90s and been in CUSA or not add it all recently and I would bet money the would be in the American already as a full nonfootball member like Wichita State

If Charlotte adds football in the 90s, they’re in the AAC today.

**** happens. In the 90's Charlotte was half it's current size and was far much more a commuter school. That said, basketball was humming and had a great following. Apparently we had a double super top secret football feasibility study going on around 2000, but the previous AD later claimed that 9/11 put that on hold. A lot of folks call that revisionist BS. My opinion is we should have started football right beside USF in 1997.

(04-21-2020 01:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 01:26 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  Charlotte hurt itself adding football when it did. In my opinion they should have added it in the 90s and been in CUSA or not add it all recently and I would bet money the would be in the American already as a full nonfootball member like Wichita State

If Charlotte adds football in the 90s, they’re in the AAC today.

You are probably correct.

(04-21-2020 01:59 PM)49RFootballNow Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 01:30 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(04-21-2020 01:26 PM)Carolina_Low_Country Wrote:  Charlotte hurt itself adding football when it did. In my opinion they should have added it in the 90s and been in CUSA or not add it all recently and I would bet money the would be in the American already as a full nonfootball member like Wichita State

If Charlotte adds football in the 90s, they’re in the AAC today.

**** happens. In the 90's Charlotte was half it's current size and was far much more a commuter school. That said, basketball was humming and had a great following. Apparently we had a double super top secret football feasibility study going on around 2000, but the previous AD later claimed that 9/11 put that on hold. A lot of folks call that revisionist BS. My opinion is we should have started football right beside USF in 1997.

Maybe you could have been ranked #2 for one week almost 15 years ago and still talking about it as though it's better than what UCF has accomplished in recent years.

The trouble with the SWC rebuild is that they needed to convince Cincy, Louisville, and Memphis that it was the best move. Tulsa, Tulane, and USM could probably be convinced pretty easily but if tou don’t land that trio your prospects are UTEP, LA Tech, Ark St, and ULL—not exactly behemoths by 1990s standards (or modern ones).

It’s too bad that the WAC 16 was a terrible failure. I still think they could have made the pods work had they invited Nevada instead of Tulsa:

Quad I: Hawaii, SDSU, SJSU, Fresno St
Quad II: Nevada, UNLV, BYU, Utah
Quad III: Wyo, AFA, Colo St, UNM
Quad IV: UTEP, SMU, TCU, Rice

(04-21-2020 02:38 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  The trouble with the SWC rebuild is that they needed to convince Cincy, Louisville, and Memphis that it was the best move. Tulsa, Tulane, and USM could probably be convinced pretty easily but if tou don’t land that trio your prospects are UTEP, LA Tech, Ark St, and ULL—not exactly behemoths by 1990s standards (or modern ones).

It’s too bad that the WAC 16 was a terrible failure. I still think they could have made the pods work had they invited Nevada instead of Tulsa:

Quad I: Hawaii, SDSU, SJSU, Fresno St
Quad II: Nevada, UNLV, BYU, Utah
Quad III: Wyo, AFA, Colo St, UNM
Quad IV: UTEP, SMU, TCU, Rice

Those La Tech teams with Tim Rattay and Troy Edwards were something to watch though.

One thing that doesn’t get talked about regarding the Metro/C-USA is that the feud between Louisville and Memphis/Cincinnati that resulted in the split killed a really awesome Midwestern Private School League: the Midwestern City Conference (aka Horizon League)

They had:

Detroit
Xavier
Dayton
ND
Butler
Evansville
Loyola
Marquette
St Louis

Tack on Creighton and DePaul to that group and oh wow.