For the Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion Folks (and the two LaTech lurkers out there)

How bad really was the situation in CUSA? And I don't mean "It's Bad" because yeah when all but three try to leave the conference that's as "abandoned ship" as you can be, but what was going on there? I can get the tv deal being lousy but what else was going on there that makes it out to be the NCAA equivalent of Dixie Carter running TNA Wrestling?

From the outside looking in it seems that there was a severe lack of leadership, and when conference admins did something for the conference it was centered in Texas or in the western division. So as an eastern school seeing leadership only pop it's head up once a year, like groundhog day, and it never benefitting your school would get old fast, I'd assume.

No leadership....AT ALL.

Way too focused on Texas in every aspect.

No identity. Conference didn't know if it wanted to be a basketball conference or football conference and ended up being mediocre at both.

The best brands literally got punished with the TV contract. To say the media contract was terrible is an understatement. In CUSA the top brands literally got stuck on the worst platforms such as Marshall having to play so many games on Facebook while NTSU type of teams got to play on NFL Network and the RSNs.

Shameless bush league attitude. Basketball tournament held in a football facility with a curtain over the stands in a location far from the majority of schools. 100 attendance if that and looked worse than a hs facility on TV.
Only FBS conference to cancel football media days in person and go fully remote this season. UAB cancelled football on no notice and there were no repercussions.

I will say that the baseball and soccer were excellent.

As others have stated and in no particular order:

- basketball championships with a curtain between the courts and had 2 games at the same time; should've rotated it to eastern side since that was traditionally the stronger side with WKU, Marshall and ODU most years
- crappy tv coverage; considering we had at times 7+ teams going to bowl games each year something besides facebook live should be on the table
- scheduling format for some sports....this year is the first time USM football has played FIU since the 2013 season. I think the same was said for UTEP and either Marshall or ODU
- commish was rarely seen or heard unless it was the football or basketball championship game

(11-16-2021 11:23 AM)usm99 Wrote:  As others have stated and in no particular order:

- basketball championships with a curtain between the courts and had 2 games at the same time; should've rotated it to eastern side since that was traditionally the stronger side with WKU, Marshall and ODU most years
- crappy tv coverage; considering we had at times 7+ teams going to bowl games each year something besides facebook live should be on the table
- scheduling format for some sports....this year is the first time USM football has played FIU since the 2013 season. I think the same was said for UTEP and either Marshall or ODU
- commish was rarely seen or heard unless it was the football or basketball championship game

All of this. Judy is the worst. But Id also add, nobody seemed to take pride in being in CUSA (us included). Everyone looked at it as a stepping stone, It really was the island of misfit toys. Even with some good teams. I mean, a league with SoMiss, Marshall, LT, ODU, WKU, UNCC, UAB, UTEP, UTSA, Rice, FAU, UNT should be pretty good. But its like a team with a lot of individual talent, but a horrible coach and lots of egos. The nice thing about the Sun Belt is it actually could be a good long term home that you want to make investments and improvements in. Settle in and stay a while. CUSA was like the townhouse you buy when you know you're only going to be in a city a few years and leave. And everyone felt that way, so the neighborhood decayed quickly.

(11-16-2021 11:32 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(11-16-2021 11:23 AM)usm99 Wrote:  As others have stated and in no particular order:

- basketball championships with a curtain between the courts and had 2 games at the same time; should've rotated it to eastern side since that was traditionally the stronger side with WKU, Marshall and ODU most years
- crappy tv coverage; considering we had at times 7+ teams going to bowl games each year something besides facebook live should be on the table
- scheduling format for some sports....this year is the first time USM football has played FIU since the 2013 season. I think the same was said for UTEP and either Marshall or ODU
- commish was rarely seen or heard unless it was the football or basketball championship game

All of this. Judy is the worst. But Id also add, nobody seemed to take pride in being in CUSA (us included). Everyone looked at it as a stepping stone, It really was the island of misfit toys. The nice thing about the Sun Belt is it actually could be a good long term home that you want to make investments and improvements in. Settle in and stay a while. CUSA was like the townhouse you buy when you know you're only going to be in a city a few years and leave. And everyone felt that way, so the neighborhood decayed quickly.

From the outside, this is what it looked like. No cohesion. Just some random schools that just happened to find themselves sharing a conference.
Hopefully we can avoid that here and keep building the conference together.

There hasn't been actual leadership in that conference since Mike Slive was the commish from 1995-2002.

But CUSA isn't in the shape it's in all because of Judy MacLeond. I would say 95% of it lays at the feet of Britton Banowsky.

BB was in charge of CUSA when Cincy, Louisiville, USF and TCU left the conference
BB was in charge of CUSA when CUSA let those 4 schools just walk without an exit fee
BB was in charge of CUSA expansion, which included Marshall, I didn't agree with all the schools at the time
BB was in charge of CUSA when they left ESPN
BB was in charge of CUSA when UCF. Tulsa, Tulane, Memphis, Houston, SMU and ECU left
BB was in charge of CUSA when CUSA went "Market Shopping" instead of "Program Shopping".

The only thing Judy has really been in charge of is the basketball tournament placement and the new media rights contract. I seriously think she took the first deal offered to her.

Ok, and now that you are here, when did you realize that the SBC was not a joke and that it had passed C-USA? Just curious.

(11-16-2021 10:55 AM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  For the Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion Folks (and the two LaTech lurkers out there)

How bad really was the situation in CUSA? And I don't mean "It's Bad" because yeah when all but three try to leave the conference that's as "abandoned ship" as you can be, but what was going on there? I can get the tv deal being lousy but what else was going on there that makes it out to be the NCAA equivalent of Dixie Carter running TNA Wrestling?

One USM athletic department employee told me at the SBC announcement that it had been at least five years since anyone from CUSA's upper management had visited Hattiesburg. This was after Keith Gill said that "I'll be back here on campus to check in often in the future."

Britton Banowsky was as much at fault as Judy McLeod for the fall off. He was still commissioner when the play was made for markets after 2.0 fell apart.

(11-16-2021 11:32 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(11-16-2021 11:23 AM)usm99 Wrote:  As others have stated and in no particular order:

- basketball championships with a curtain between the courts and had 2 games at the same time; should've rotated it to eastern side since that was traditionally the stronger side with WKU, Marshall and ODU most years
- crappy tv coverage; considering we had at times 7+ teams going to bowl games each year something besides facebook live should be on the table
- scheduling format for some sports....this year is the first time USM football has played FIU since the 2013 season. I think the same was said for UTEP and either Marshall or ODU
- commish was rarely seen or heard unless it was the football or basketball championship game

All of this. Judy is the worst. But Id also add, nobody seemed to take pride in being in CUSA (us included). Everyone looked at it as a stepping stone, It really was the island of misfit toys. Even with some good teams. I mean, a league with SoMiss, Marshall, LT, ODU, WKU, UNCC, UAB, UTEP, UTSA, Rice, FAU, UNT should be pretty good. But its like a team with a lot of individual talent, but a horrible coach and lots of egos. The nice thing about the Sun Belt is it actually could be a good long term home that you want to make investments and improvements in. Settle in and stay a while. CUSA was like the townhouse you buy when you know you're only going to be in a city a few years and leave. And everyone felt that way, so the neighborhood decayed quickly.

I think this is the lesson of CUSA and one the AAC is in danger of learning. Yes, i'm sure all the SBC schools would like to upgrade their athletic and academic perception in the college athletics landscape, but forming a conference for essentially the sole purpose of getting raided is not a long term solution. I think many of the schools in the sun belt have realized that the best long term solution to meet our athletic and academic goals is to...improve the SBC as a whole, not get picked off by the AAC or MWC or whatever. We have a golden opportunity in football. Basketball will be much harder but we now have a good core. If the SBC soccer rumors are true, we might already be at the top in baseball/softball/ soccer.

(11-16-2021 12:11 PM)Arrowhead Wrote:  Ok, and now that you are here, when did you realize that the SBC was not a joke and that it had passed C-USA? Just curious.

When I began noticing SBC football games airing on actual ESPN networks in recent seasons. I saw that all SBC games were easily available to stream on the ESPN platform or watch on linear ESPN networks while we were forced to look for our games on Facebook/Stadium/Stadium on Twitter/CBSSN/beIN/NFLN. ESPN coverage is a really big deal that shouldn't be taken for granted. That's one reason I felt we should jump to the SBC if possible, in addition to compatibility and geography.

Good reasons. Well we are definitely glad to have y'all! I had a blast at the last ULM-USM game in Hattiesburg.

(11-16-2021 10:55 AM)hotrod2001 Wrote:  For the Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion Folks (and the two LaTech lurkers out there)

How bad really was the situation in CUSA? And I don't mean "It's Bad" because yeah when all but three try to leave the conference that's as "abandoned ship" as you can be, but what was going on there? I can get the tv deal being lousy but what else was going on there that makes it out to be the NCAA equivalent of Dixie Carter running TNA Wrestling?

CUSA was Texas centric. They never seemed to throw the eastern teams a bone.. ever. The basketball tournament was in Texas EVERY year with two games playing at the same time separated by a damn curtain!!!!! It was just ran so bush league and the media deal was a ball crusher.

There was also the issue of the fans not caring about any of the schools. There were no rivalries. We loved playing SoMiss, but they got moved to the western division and we rarely played them anymore. They tried to make a rivalry with WKU but it felt forced. To be honest I only really liked ODU and SoMiss. FAU was ok and so was LaTech, but really fans didn't care and it started to show up in attendance.

When we were in the MAC it was obvious that culturally we did not fit. But the MAC fans were such a-holes, constantly with their elitist comments about us hillbillys and us being beneath them it was tiresome. BUt it did create some hatred. In CUSA there was no hatred or love, it was just... there, and we needed out and now I feel like the SBC is where we should have been all these years.

(11-16-2021 12:28 PM)Arrowhead Wrote:  Good reasons. Well we are definitely glad to have y'all! I had a blast at the last ULM-USM game in Hattiesburg.

When visiting fans care enough to travel, it makes it more fun. Troy brought a nice, rowdy crowd and their band this year and that helped liven up things. UNT and UTEP brought mostly football parents to Hattiesburg this year and that's about all. ETA- Marshall always traveled well to Hattiesburg, and it's not the easiest trip. We just haven't played them in a few years.

Interesting question, and I think that several of the posters have hit on the major issues, so I won't repeat them here.

Bottom line, I think the 4 teams that just moved to the conference WANT to be in the Sun Belt. It's not an afterthought, but a reasoned, thoughtful decision based on where they want to play for the long term. For Marshall, and this one fan, we are well positioned in a geographically tight, 7 team East division, with 6 like minded schools whose philosophy and outlook are similar in most respects and who are interested in growing their brand as well as the conference brand. We are also partnering with 7 West division schools similarly situated.

It just feels like home.

I can't wait till it actually gets going. (And this is one fan who wants it to happen by 7-1-2022!)

(11-16-2021 12:37 PM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  Interesting question, and I think that several of the posters have hit on the major issues, so I won't repeat them here.

Bottom line, I think the 4 teams that just moved to the conference WANT to be in the Sun Belt. It's not an afterthought, but a reasoned, thoughtful decision based on where they want to play for the long term. For Marshall, and this one fan, we are well positioned in a geographically tight, 7 team East division, with 6 like minded schools whose philosophy and outlook are similar in most respects and who are interested in growing their brand as well as the conference brand. We are also partnering with 7 West division schools similarly situated.

It just feels like home.

I can't wait till it actually gets going. (And this is one fan who wants it to happen by 7-1-2022!)

It honestly felt like CUSA wanted the eastern teams to leave. Luckily SoMiss was an eastern division team at heart (SoMiss was in the eastern division before the 2014 realignment).

So I basically agree with everybody here, but there is one thing I think hasn't been mentioned in regards to C-USA and why it failed.

It's branding and marketing were awful. And I mean a truly 'disconnected-from-the-current-college-athletics-landscape' type of awful. Watch any C-USA conference-wide commercial, there is no energy, hype, or excitement. Think about how clunky the whole "C-USA Way" movement was, and how obviously it was a value-brand "Fun Belt" or "MACtion" attempt. Heck, even the logo was never updated to reflect the new reality of square/circle profile pictures/screen graphics being the predominant way that folks would see the logo. A short and wide logo looks good on the field, the court, and on the top of a media report, but the wasted space in a square/circle profile was dreadful. And the lack of identity for the conference I think also rests pretty heavily on the marketing department's shoulders. How do you have teams in Norfolk, San Antonio, Miami, Birmingham, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, Nashville (or close enough), and Charlotte and not push that angle??? Or how do you not show off the gameday atmosphere at Marshall football, or WKU basketball?

C-USA was disconnected with how most people accessed college sports, along with it's other leadership and decision making woes.

(11-16-2021 12:51 PM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(11-16-2021 12:37 PM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  Interesting question, and I think that several of the posters have hit on the major issues, so I won't repeat them here.

Bottom line, I think the 4 teams that just moved to the conference WANT to be in the Sun Belt. It's not an afterthought, but a reasoned, thoughtful decision based on where they want to play for the long term. For Marshall, and this one fan, we are well positioned in a geographically tight, 7 team East division, with 6 like minded schools whose philosophy and outlook are similar in most respects and who are interested in growing their brand as well as the conference brand. We are also partnering with 7 West division schools similarly situated.

It just feels like home.

I can't wait till it actually gets going. (And this is one fan who wants it to happen by 7-1-2022!)

It honestly felt like CUSA wanted the eastern teams to leave. Luckily SoMiss was an eastern division team at heart (SoMiss was in the eastern division before the 2014 realignment).

It really did seem that way. Which is why I cant figure out why LU even wanted to be in that dumpster fire after MU, ODU and UNC-CH all left.

Ever peed on an electric fence?
Stuck a penny in a light socket?

How about put your wiener in a meat grinder?

I imagine all those are more pleasant than CUSA.