shaft

I'm calling 90 out on this one. I have got a 10 year track record on this board of being anything but a cheerleader. But this notion that a coach isn't meeting messageboard "demands" and that's "the" problem with the program is just stupid and shows that you're not a very good or objective judge of this program. THE DODGE ERA WAS THE WORST IN SCHOOL HISTORY. That's a fact. No one is contesting it. He brought in the wrong scheme, the wrong players, and didn't "coach'em up". Mac is in year two of a complete rebuild. To speak to the school analogy in the other thread it's not about expecting A's and B's, when your kid has been held back a grade level for four years. There's no amount of message board bitching that is going to make Dodge recruit any bigger, faster, or teach them a new position. It takes 4 years to clean house for a bottom 10 prgoram, and that's what Mac took over.

Stop the "hot seat" non-sense. Mac's job is secure. In two seasons MAC has more wins than Dodge did in four. That's called progress. This "We should demand more, I have high standards, we have a new stadium now" banter is tired and empirically false. Mac is taking our team from the worst era in school history and completely rebuilding it. Coupled with the fact that we are moving into a tougher conference any well informed fan would have reasonalbe expectations for the next two seasons.

Complaining about a divional game is silly. You know we travel there next year right?

Mac already has more wins in two season than Dodge had in 4, so I'm not ready to start with the hot seat talk. I think it's an uphil climb to 6-6 in a tougher CUSA, but I think a bowl is possible.

Anyone else notice the doom & gloom on the board disappeared the moment the new schedule was released.

What are you talking about. I saw Bob Stoops give that one kid in the cell phone commerical a scholarship.

Tulane. Now who wants to go in on booking a balcony suite at the Inn of Bourbon?

1. Tulsa hasn't left (yet) 2. No one is running away from anyone. Schools are "realigning" because of money. Just like people switch jobs because of more money. 3. No it doesn't hurt worse. The new CUSA is still better than the current & future Sun Belt. Let's stop the pity party. The new CUSA is more money, divisional play, and in-state rivals. The new CUSA is the best conference we have ever been in.

Yawn. All contracts can be can be altered or opted out of. There are consequences to doing so, but very difintion of a contract means their is an exit clause. I also think in this world of college sports chat room talk it is nice to seeing fanbase being civil towards each other.

"TU ranked 10th in Conference USA home attendance. The average of 20,020 was Tulsa's lowest since 2004." Moving to CUSA isn't going to help those attendance numbers. Those are Tulsa's numbers now with them playing the likes of SMU, Houston, Tulane, and Memphis. Going to the Big East means adding an every other year game against UCF which is going to do nothing for Tulsa's attendence. Staying in CUSA means replacing SMU with UNT's larger student populations (and hopefully larger fanbase), replacing Tulane with much closer LA Tech. I get that the tv revenue will probably be double, but the the question is how to you weigh that versus butts in seats?

I would love to see a series with TCU. Something like an every other year home at home for 2+ series would be great for both fan bases. Those games could easily be sell outs which should be one of your goals when scheduling OOC games.

We absolutely were. College Football News used to do a a 3-year football ranking of programs and we were in the bottom 10 Dodge. The Dodge era was the worst in school history and there's no debating it.

Three reasons CUSA made this move. 1. CUSA was working to buffer against an early exit by Tulane & ECU. If those two left early CUSA would be at 10; wouldn't be able to have a championship game and would have to completely atler it's schedule for a single division set up for one year. CUSA just worked out its insurance policy faster than the Big East's expansion plans. 2. Adding FAU & MTSU early lets CUSA move into its 7-team divisional format a year early. The conference had already done the math and figured out how to make it work, so why wait. 3. Adding these teams a year early let's CUSA count the market share/tv/attenandce these schools bring a year early towards any future deals. Basically they are able to show the value of the new CUSA now, with less questions about what is the value of adding 4 teams (FAU, MTSU, ODU, UNC-C) versus replacing Tulane & ECU with start ups UNC-C & ODU. 4. Gets FAU & MTSU out of the SBC before the SBC finds away to raise the exit fees on the departing teams.

There is nothing great about NMSU & TXST

With all the realignment focus on Tulsa to the Big East no one is talking about the Big East adding an Eastern team. It makes sense that Navy might want Army for the 12th spot in CUSA. Big East West: SMU, Houston, Tulsa, Memphis, UCF, USF Big East East: Temple, UConn, Cincy, ECU, Navy, Army

I think everyone would agree CUSA > the SBC, but ach new addition to CUSA takes some of the luster off it. One thing to consider is CUSA West is still probably the best division in the realigned Big East, CUSA, or SBC. CUSA West: UTEP, UNT, UTSA, RICE, LA Tech, S Miss, (Tulsa or UAB) CUSA East: Marshall, ODU, MTSU, UNC, MTSU, FIU, FAU, (UAB or WKY) Big East West: SMU, Houston, Tulane, Memphis, UCF, (Tulsa) Big East East: Temple, UConn, Navy, Cincy, ECU, USF SBC: TXST, AKST, UL-L, UL-M, USA, Troy, GAST, (WKY or NMSU) Big East West is cloase second, but has a random Florida outlier.

They could send Tulane East to drive up their travel costs as a parting gift.

CUSA 3.0 = CUSA 2.0 as far as UTEP is concerned. Their league payouts are the same. Same Texas markets to travel to, plus San Antonio. None of the East Coast teams do anything for a school in the Mountain Time Zone.

Yeah, the same Sun Sentinel article that said NMSU and WKY are on the CUSA short list said FAU & MTSU aren't moving and would have to pay an extra million dollar SBC buy out. Plus it doesn't make sense for those two teams to come on board early.

CUSA is not adding MTSU & FAU until 2014.

If we end up in a conference with New Mexico State we have truely failed. With that said there is nothing to support NMSU as the next best program for CUSA.

Bad spot? They are in the exact same confernce they were in with 3 other Texas teams. Everyone know the MWC wanted Boise, BYU, SDU, UTEP in that order.

"On Jan. 8, Aresco told ESPN that if his league lost San Diego State, it would remain at 10 football members -- Cincinnati, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Rutgers, SMU, South Florida, Temple, UCF and UConn -- for this fall. In 2014, East Carolina and Tulane will join the Big East to replace Louisville and Rutgers, who are leaving for the ACC and Big Ten, respectively. Aresco said it was "unlikely" ECU or Tulane would join the Big East in 2013. ECU, which was originally sought as a football-only member, is now expected to become an all sports member in 2014. Navy is scheduled to join in 2015 as a football-only member, giving the Big East 11 football members. Tulsa is being targeted to become the Big East's 12th member in 2014, sources told ESPN." http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8850122/san-diego-state-reinstated-mountain-west-conference-member Do you think there is anything CUSA can do to keep Tulsa? If Navy decommits, do you think CUSA can hang on to Tulsa and even lure back ECU and Tulane?

I'd rather kick out MTSU than add a 14th. At the point where S Miss is going to be in the Western disvions I'd rather see them add an Eastern team like GA State that will add market share than a regional travel buddy like TXST.

UTEP's draw to the MWC is their time zone & market size, strength of program is secondary, history of the program is third (but that's been the case in almost every realignment decision). I agree that the possible 12 team CUSA line up would be better than our current SBC set up, but I would still prefer a 14 team conference for the simple reason of 6 divisional games, and two intra-divisional games. The less trips to the Eastern Time Zone the better as far as I'm concerned. One of the biggest challenges with being in the Sun Belt has been the travel. Playing an annual game in Miami hasn't help us when we can't reasonably recruit the market. Regular games in West Virgina and North Carolina aren't going to do alot to help us build our program. Under a 14 team, 2 intra-divisional game format we would only visit the far away teams once every 7 years instead of once every 4 years.