Arkstfan

If you hire a person to one of the on-field positions they can recruit the old high school. It's just the quality control positions and operations positions. Two-a-days go away but same number of practices are allowed, but you can open camp a week earlier. Talked to a few of our former players and when I mentioned no two-a-days they were like "wish that had been the rule when I played", then when I said camp can open a week earlier they felt two-a-days were better. :)

At 22 millon homes BeIN isn't "big" but they've got to have US interest content if they are ever going to break out above that number. They seem pretty squared away.

If my 83 year old dad can figure out how to run his Roku to watch games most anyone can.

And it gets uglier. First three months of 2017 another 762,000 homes dropped pay television. https://news.fastcompany.com/cord-cutting-spikes-fivefold-in-cable-tvs-worst-quarter-ever-4036578

SEC commissioner about a week ago on the super division. Sankey, who has been serving as SEC commissioner since June 2015, also shot down any talk of a potential "super division" of Power 5 schools separate from the rest of the NCAA's Division I programs in football. "Whenever I'm asked that question I say you know I'm only asked that question and have the conversation in media gathering like this, seriously, it's not an agenda item at any meeting," Sankey said. "We've committed now, what are three years in to a new governing structure that was predicated on the "big tent" model of Division I where there are now 351 Division I members? They're all very different but it is working and I think it can continue to work." http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2017/04/greg_sankey_addresses_speculat.html

No one has ever put forward a convincing economic or legal case for this happening. Assuming a complete break from the NCAA and 100% of all turnbacks to Division I going to that group, is less than $3 million per school. Taking CUSA, Sun Belt, and MAC out of the CFP distribution works out less than $500,000 per school, realistically less since CFP makes payments to full scholarship FCS leagues. The entire value of a COMPLETE break which is unlikely is less than $3.5 million per school. If there were an anti-trust challenge that were successful the risk per school would be roughly $52.5 million. People really have no grasp on the dollars involved and where they come from. Ticket sales, donations, and sponsorships are the REAL money followed by TV money. None of which is impacted by Division I as a group having 350+ members or FBS having 128 or whatever it is now. NCAA and CFP money is the only impact and the CUSA, MAC, Sun Belt share is walking around money for Texas and Michigan.

AAC has good hoops but they make less than the Big East in raw dollars before splitting it and since Big East has fewer teams, they really are a good bit back of Big East. Basketball has no analogy to the P5 in football. In football it means a guaranteed invite and guaranteed bigger share of the bucks.

Should have played at FIU. They are used to it.

I quit watching arm wrestling after watching a couple guys arms twist funny and flop over. Absolutely horrible programming when you are sitting down with your pal Tony the Tiger for breakfast. 30 for 30 is some of the best stuff on TV.

Exactly. CUSA didn't pick the carcass of the Big East. SWC didn't raid when they got gutted but they were basically at three once Houston cast its lot with CUSA and when Houston did that, it meant Tulane and Memphis weren't heading over to join SMU, TCU, and Rice (and presumably Tulsa).

Texas cannot go anywhere unless they are willing to give up LHN. SEC, Big 10, and Pac-12 all have networks and B1G owns 49% of their network while P12 owns 100% of their network. They have to cough up their cut and allow LHN to be rebranded and ACC is headed down the network path as well. No way Texas is walking away from LHN if they don't have to. The money is sweet but it more importantly is a great branding situation and a plum to attract anyone foolish enough to want to go into sports broadcasting in this climate because there are teaching and internship opportunities associated with LHN. If I had lay a bet, my bet would be that when their GOR gets closer to expiring you will see OU and Kansas bolt to the B1G or SEC. Don't underestimate the value of hoops (nor Kansas being an AAU school) because conference networks live on a steady diet of hoops and Kansas is one of the blue bloods of basketball. While OU is obviously one of the best football brands going. Then Texas either tries to rebuild the Big XII with fans holding pitchforks wanting out or they go hat in hand to the ACC begging for a Notre Dame type deal.

40% of all Division I men's basketball players transfer by the end of the sophomore season. If he went juco, I'd be unhappy because that hurts APR. If he doesn't successfully complete this semester I'll be unhappy because that hurts APR. AState is changing directions offensively seeking more height, he has no guarantee he fits in Balado's scheme. Mac seems to work with a lot of quick 3 point bombers, we often had 4 guys 6'4" or less on the court. Balado being a Pitino disciple seems to want a couple bodies in the paint instead of one.

AState ended up 5th in the Sun Belt after tiebreakers. Until the late season collapse, I think AState would have done just fine against anyone in CUSA other than playing at MTSU. Last few weeks we wouldn't have beaten much of anyone.

Bowl games are a different scenario. I met people in Mobile for the GoDaddy Bowl who were wearing AState gear, get to talking to them and it was their first game in 10 years or first game since graduating or first AState game ever. When we played the NOLA Bowl in Lafayette as I was walking into the stadium got a call from fraternity brothers I hadn't heard from in years wanting to know where the ticket windows were and the parking situation, they were an hour outside of Lafayette and had gotten the idea that morning to go to the game.

Toyota Camry Bowl. Free parking if you drive a Camry to the game.

Yeah until Tulsa announced they were leaving. The main reason our fans ever wanted in were Tulsa, Memphis and USM, at least USM is still there but not much else exciting. We aren't in a state with several CUSA schools, we are 300 miles from the nearest CUSA school

Basically WKU hosting a bowl size venue. Montgomery has a similar size stadium and it has worked fine. You get Temple and Georgia State in Frisco and 20k is going to be too big. Houston and AState or ULL and there will be people who can't get a ticket..

Toyota Stadium??? Can they do more than 20k seating?

As luck would have it. I was talking to a friend who is a suite holder about the spring game and wondered if the school was going to use it to fine tune the use of the video board. He said that one of the Learfield guys had visited with him during a game last year pointed out how wrong we were in how we use the video board, said we were not getting maximum revenue and it was too jarring for fans but they couldn't do much with it for the 2016 season because of the ad contracts in place but said they could make better use of it in 2017.

I started to add an * saying doesn't really matter since neither of us get to decide. I like the AState formula of a small media market where local TV and newspaper are too far from the nearest big name to cover them in person so they cover the local G5. Gives you a chance to build your brand among people too far from the name brand to go every week. One of the reasons I liked Coastal Carolina so much more than Eastern Kentucky. USA fits that model better than Troy because of TV. The Gurdon light lead you down to Denton??? :)

Here's my case for South Alabama. Troy has 18,000ish students but less than half are on the campus at Troy. USA has 16k plus in Mobile. USA happens to be in the same city as a good G5 bowl game. They exist in their own media market a nice distance from any P5 (the closest P5 to USA is LSU) and have a lot of upside that hasn't been tapped. They can beat MWC champion San Diego State or SEC member Miss State, they just haven't figured out winning Sun Belt games. Better regarded academic school which scratches an itch presidents have.

Most basketball players can name a good piece of the roster of any NBA team, they know the blue blood college programs and a few more elites. After that recruiting is relationships. You bond with the assistant recruiting you. According to the NCAA, 40% of all men's basketball players who enroll at a four year school straight from high school leave before their junior season starts with roughly half transferring within Division I. Coaching changes (head and/or assistant) and playing time being the major factors.

I don't know Tech's opinion on being in an all Texas league but AState would hate it. Alabama is too important to our recruiting and we'd rather have South Alabama than Troy even though Troy tends to have the better football program. I suspect the limits the Bama board has put on UAB means they are always at risk of the drop football fiasco repeating so I'm leery of them. Wouldn't waste any time expecting UALR to add football. They have the highest student athletic fee in the state and they aren't awarding all their scholarships as it is. Adding two sports and 90 or so scholarships probably isn't within reach for them. You don't need 12 for a football championship, only 10. Big XII is adding a title game and Sun Belt adds one in 2018.

Sun Belt came out better than most of the G5. We didn't manage to lose ULM or UALR (and UALR won a game in the Dance since then) but TXST has been a push, GaSt picked us up some extra NCAA money by winning a tournament game, UTA has been good for our RPI in hoops, App has been good for quality of play in football and viewership on TV, GaSo has been a good performer though not as noted as App. No one is crying over the lack of trips to FIU and FAU. My opinion has been that the G5's biggest problem is not understand the rules of the game. No one delivers the audience needed to cause the networks to secure their presence and help the carriage fees they receive. Now the carriage fee economy is withering. Trying to emulate what the P5 do without their resources or reach is foolish. It's like a retailer trying to out Wal-Mart Wal-Mart. Sears used to be the biggest retailer and Wal-Mart didn't pass them by following Sears business model.