(05-18-2023 02:05 PM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  Dang then SBC would have disqualified in 2014? Just 4 core members

Georgia Southern joined 2014
Louisiana qualified
App State joined 2014
Texas State joined 2013
Arkansas State qualified
South Alabama joined 2013 for football
ULM 3-5 qualified
Troy 3-5 qualified
New Mexico State joined 2014
Idaho joined 2014
Georgia State joined 2014 for football

So you consider "core members" to be teams that sponsor all Sun Belt sports? Football is not even a auto bid sport.

(05-18-2023 02:05 PM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  Dang then SBC would have disqualified in 2014? Just 4 core members

Georgia Southern joined 2014
Louisiana qualified
App State joined 2014
Texas State joined 2013
Arkansas State qualified
South Alabama joined 2013 for football
ULM 3-5 qualified
Troy 3-5 qualified
New Mexico State joined 2014
Idaho joined 2014
Georgia State joined 2014 for football

Georgia State re-joined in 2013. USA started football in 2012.

(05-18-2023 09:40 AM)monarx Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 09:26 AM)rokamortis Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 08:38 AM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 08:13 AM)ballantyneapp Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 07:58 AM)CardinalBlackTrojan Wrote:  And made the strangest additions to boot.

not strange at all when you see who's leading the charge. An old TV exec who's applying '90s and '00s thinking to the '20s landscape. Marketz is a good strategy, until it isn't.

We'll see who made the better business model for the '20s and beyond, i'm betting on us.

Guaranteed. He's on record making the comment that they were trying to find the next UCF, that's a huge gamble.

Dude worked some magic in their most recent extension though. How he got a long term deal to keep the same payouts is beyond me.

It is funny to see him walk back the P6 thing though.

They're certainly lucky with the timing of FAU's magical run too. Adding a top 25 hoops team nobody every would have imagined, right after losing some of the best teams is just an incredible stroke of luck.

Not to mention Tulane, a school "left behind" in the AAC, emerging from the pack with a top team on the gridiron...

For a number of years, there were *informal* talks among schools about the geographics of CUSA and the SBC and maybe moving some teams around to make the conferences more regional (SBC shifting more to the east, CUSA to the west). A former AD at USM told me about some of these "what if" conversations that he participated in directly. The problem for CUSA is that version 3.0 fell off a cliff. The media deal was hot garbage. The leadership was terrible and uninspired. It became a broken conference.

Meanwhile, the SBC was on the opposite path, onward and clearly upward, and increasingly (and rightly) had no need or desire to regionalize anything. So out of the "let's maybe tighten up these leagues" theorizing came CUSA programs looking at SBC like "hey, the other place makes a lot more sense for us." That came well before the AAC came combing through CUSA for replacements.

I can't speak for everyone but I've thoroughly enjoyed this past season of sports.

Good competition in sports... Good smack talk/ribbing with fans from conference mates...

Ability to watch most of the games easily...

It's been a breath of fresh air..

I don't see the soreness we experienced across the road and I'm not seeing the chest pounding like we'd see day in day out across the road. I feel like most of them that did that are moving to the junkyard across the fence.. Sure they may make some money off the scrap metal, but eventually that runs out...

Thankful for the SBC invitation and not being a part of a split from CUSA. I have my doubts that a break off would have ever came to be though.

Everything worked out the best it could have Marshall. The SBC East is a perfect fit and I don't see any changes being made expect for maybe if ECU ever wanted to jump ship. Even then, is it really worth it?

The current SBC setup is enough to take the top spot in the G5 college football world. We really just need to bust the door down and get a team in the college football playoff in 2024. Once you establish yourself as the best, it's hard to change the perception that you're not.

(05-19-2023 08:22 AM)gdunn Wrote:  I can't speak for everyone but I've thoroughly enjoyed this past season of sports.

Good competition in sports... Good smack talk/ribbing with fans from conference mates...

It's been a breath of fresh air..

As the all-sports 2022-2023 season winds down I'll go ahead and take a stab at ranking fanbases on this board in terms of board activity, collaboration, passion, entertainment value and holding alma maters accountable.

1) USM
2) JMU
3) Marshall
4) App
5) Coastal
6) UL
7) TXST
8) Troy
9) USA
10) stATe
11) GATA
12) GSU
13) ODU
14) ULM
14)

(05-19-2023 08:22 AM)gdunn Wrote:  I can't speak for everyone but I've thoroughly enjoyed this past season of sports.

Good competition in sports... Good smack talk/ribbing with fans from conference mates...

Ability to watch most of the games easily...

It's been a breath of fresh air..

I don't see the soreness we experienced across the road and I'm not seeing the chest pounding like we'd see day in day out across the road. I feel like most of them that did that are moving to the junkyard across the fence.. Sure they may make some money off the scrap metal, but eventually that runs out...

We’re thrilled to have all of you here. I don’t know how you fans in the west feel overall but the east is essentially a perfect division. Quality throughout. Even my college buddy who was the staunchest FCS fan has come around to how good this conference is. He still hates bowls though

(05-19-2023 09:09 AM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 08:22 AM)gdunn Wrote:  I can't speak for everyone but I've thoroughly enjoyed this past season of sports.

Good competition in sports... Good smack talk/ribbing with fans from conference mates...

It's been a breath of fresh air..

As the all-sports 2022-2023 season winds down I'll go ahead and take a stab at ranking fanbases on this board in terms of board activity, collaboration, passion, entertainment value and holding alma maters accountable.

1) USM
2) JMU
3) Marshall
4) App
5) Coastal
6) UL
7) TXST
8) Troy
9) USA
10) stATe
11) GATA
12) GSU
13) ODU
14) ULM
14)

I don't disagree with your rankings I just find it curious since ODUs main board is on this site as well. I don't comment a lot, here or on our own board, so I'm not really helping to bring people over. I seem to remember more ODU fans on the CUSA board then the conference change happened and all the crap that went down with that. Add onto the fact that our major sports haven't really been busting the door down and competing for the top spots has left most of the ODU fans to stay on the home board.

My only complaint is due to playing AppSt 4 years in a row for the conference championship, we won't see them that much going forward. A new and exciting rivalry was created and now the air is being let out of the tires, so to speak. USM takes their place, and that's quite ok with me. stAte is our longest, most consistent rivalry. ULM is instate, so always interesting when we play, but we have a much longer history with stAte. USA is a really good rival, but that history had been in baseball and basketball, given they late start in football. Troy and TxSt are relatively new opponents for us.



Sent from my SM-S911U using Tapatalk

(05-19-2023 10:24 AM)benny_t Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 09:09 AM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 08:22 AM)gdunn Wrote:  I can't speak for everyone but I've thoroughly enjoyed this past season of sports.

Good competition in sports... Good smack talk/ribbing with fans from conference mates...

It's been a breath of fresh air..

As the all-sports 2022-2023 season winds down I'll go ahead and take a stab at ranking fanbases on this board in terms of board activity, collaboration, passion, entertainment value and holding alma maters accountable.

1) USM
2) JMU
3) Marshall
4) App
5) Coastal
6) UL
7) TXST
8) Troy
9) USA
10) stATe
11) GATA
12) GSU
13) ODU
14) ULM
14)

I don't disagree with your rankings I just find it curious since ODUs main board is on this site as well. I don't comment a lot, here or on our own board, so I'm not really helping to bring people over. I seem to remember more ODU fans on the CUSA board then the conference change happened and all the crap that went down with that. Add onto the fact that our major sports haven't really been busting the door down and competing for the top spots has left most of the ODU fans to stay on the home board.

Yeah, somewhat rough times to be a Monarch. My posting and reading has decreased significantly on either board. I still watch most our games but then just take the loss and move on with my life, not as invested emotionally.

Worked out for the best. ODU/Marshall ended up with a great regional division and a much cooler western division to partner with than we had in CUSA. It was just dysfunctional with terrible leadership.

(05-18-2023 09:37 AM)monarx Wrote:  Love the Sun Belt, and especially the SBeast. There is a benefit to growing and splitting though, IF both sides keep auto bids as it seems CUSA may have been able to do. Especially now that at-larges for non-P5s are basically a thing of the past. Add ECU to the east and WKU to the west, split into two and each side has a 1 in 8 chance of winning the auto bid instead of 1 in 14. Even if we added four more (ecu, wku, mt, uncc?) the benefit of a 1-9 chance is pretty tempting.

For basketball, perhaps. Not sure it would be advantageous for football.

Football, its all about how many teams we can get into the CFP the next 5-10 years.

(05-18-2023 10:47 AM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 10:27 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  Look at this trainwreck:

https://conferenceusa.com/sports/2022/10...rship.aspx

An online school, 3 unready fcs call-ups, a team that SBC punted after 2017, 4 leftovers and the only school in FBS worse than TXST at football. What a well-manicured lineup for success.

Judy and co seem to have their mind set on making it a texas centric league, even if that means adding St Judith sisters of the poor at Brownsville.

Schools like SFA, Tarleton and Abilene Christian are said to be in the pipeline. And the saddest part is SHSU and the other newbies seem excited about that.

(05-19-2023 11:37 AM)JMURocks Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 10:47 AM)Johnnychimpo Wrote:  

(05-18-2023 10:27 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  Look at this trainwreck:

https://conferenceusa.com/sports/2022/10...rship.aspx

An online school, 3 unready fcs call-ups, a team that SBC punted after 2017, 4 leftovers and the only school in FBS worse than TXST at football. What a well-manicured lineup for success.

Judy and co seem to have their mind set on making it a texas centric league, even if that means adding St Judith sisters of the poor at Brownsville.

Schools like SFA, Tarleton and Abilene Christian are said to be in the pipeline. And the saddest part is SHSU and the other newbies seem excited about that.

CUSA 3.0 was, if not Texas centric, at least Texas adjacent.

(05-18-2023 06:55 AM)GreenBison Wrote:  

(05-17-2023 10:36 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  My understanding is that the SBC East is basically what Marshall and ODU wanted. They wanted to be with App and Coastal, and they obviously liked the idea of being with JMU. Adding in old SoCon friend Georgia Southern was probably icing on the cake for Marshall.

To me, the SBC East is great because it's the "endgame" of what the schools wanted. Sure, Marshall fans would probably like it if we add WKU, and both Marshall and ODU would love to add ECU, but it's still essentially what they wanted.

I applaud Marshall and ODU for having a clear vision and pursuing it. I feel at least those two, App, JMU, and probably Coastal are very close now. That's a solid crew, and the group might be larger than that.

The best case scenario unfolded for Marshall and ODU. I'm telling you, people had been unhappy in Huntington for a long time. I think this also shows that there was blood in the water before realignment even started. I know for a fact that Marshall, ODU and SoMiss (and UAB for that matter) were exploring options back in 2019.

We had several options being explored.

1. Spliting CUSA into two separate conferences.
2. Creating a new Mid Atlantic / East Coast conference with a mixture of CUSA East and SBC East schools.
3. Joining the SBC.

There are several posters on other boards that keep repeating that Marshall, ODU, and SoMiss only left CUSA after the AAC made their pick and that we left in a panic or were scared. The honest truth is that the wheels were in motion in 2019 and that the AAC pick just sped everything up.

I still wonder how much it was Mike Hamrick that held back. I get the impression that Marshall's skeleton in the closet is that him and ECU's AD had enormous leeway in designing C-USA East 3.0 from the ground up. It was done in exchange for supporting MacLeod in creating a Texas-centric West division.

I'm just glad to be done with him and C-USA. I don't think it's even possible to overstate how much of a mess things were.

(05-19-2023 11:56 AM)KRT8871 Wrote:  I still wonder how much it was Mike Hamrick that held back. I get the impression that Marshall's skeleton in the closet is that him and ECU's AD had enormous leeway in designing C-USA East 3.0 from the ground up. It was done in exchange for supporting MacLeod in creating a Texas-centric West division.

I'm just glad to be done with him and C-USA. I don't think it's even possible to overstate how much of a mess things were.

It's the first I'm hearing of this. I knew ECU had a role in promoting UNCC and ODU, but they vouched for schools like Middle Tennessee State and Florida International too?

(05-19-2023 12:22 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 11:56 AM)KRT8871 Wrote:  I still wonder how much it was Mike Hamrick that held back. I get the impression that Marshall's skeleton in the closet is that him and ECU's AD had enormous leeway in designing C-USA East 3.0 from the ground up. It was done in exchange for supporting MacLeod in creating a Texas-centric West division.

I'm just glad to be done with him and C-USA. I don't think it's even possible to overstate how much of a mess things were.

It's the first I'm hearing of this. I knew ECU had a role in promoting UNCC and ODU, but they vouched for schools like Middle Tennessee State and Florida International too?

Hamrick did exactly the same thing that ECU did, it was those two working together that convinced the conference on who to add for a majority of the schools. The only two adds that were worth a darn that he did vouch for was WKU and ODU. UNCC should have never been invited and there was never a need for two FL schools basically sitting side by side. FIU was the worst add with horrible stadium and horrible arena. UNCC never lived up to their promise to expand their stadium and basketball never lived up to their past. What makes all this funny, the AAC is doing exactly the same thing CUSA did, except the expect it to be different somehow.

(05-19-2023 12:22 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 11:56 AM)KRT8871 Wrote:  I still wonder how much it was Mike Hamrick that held back. I get the impression that Marshall's skeleton in the closet is that him and ECU's AD had enormous leeway in designing C-USA East 3.0 from the ground up. It was done in exchange for supporting MacLeod in creating a Texas-centric West division.

I'm just glad to be done with him and C-USA. I don't think it's even possible to overstate how much of a mess things were.

It's the first I'm hearing of this. I knew ECU had a role in promoting UNCC and ODU, but they vouched for schools like Middle Tennessee State and Florida International too?

Think ECU pushed for UNCC to the AAC also? They want a "little brother" nearby to beat up on?

(05-19-2023 12:22 PM)Yosef181 Wrote:  

(05-19-2023 11:56 AM)KRT8871 Wrote:  I still wonder how much it was Mike Hamrick that held back. I get the impression that Marshall's skeleton in the closet is that him and ECU's AD had enormous leeway in designing C-USA East 3.0 from the ground up. It was done in exchange for supporting MacLeod in creating a Texas-centric West division.

I'm just glad to be done with him and C-USA. I don't think it's even possible to overstate how much of a mess things were.

It's the first I'm hearing of this. I knew ECU had a role in promoting UNCC and ODU, but they vouched for schools like Middle Tennessee State and Florida International too?

I've read elsewhere that Hamrick had pull in CUSA due to his longevity in the conference (I believe he spent time at ECU as well), and he got a lot of say in who was added to the East. I know nothing for a fact, just repeating the rumors from over the years.

As far as the FIU thing, it seemed like we loved having 2 Florida teams so we could guarantee recruits that they would get to play at least 1 game a year down there. Supposedly it helped recruiting, but I'm not sure I ever bought into that theory.