Arkstfan

If having never been I-AA matters then ULL trumps UNT, UTSA, La.Tech, WKU, MTSU, ODU, Charlotte, Marshall, FIU, and FAU.

There are over 4 million people living within a three hour drive of Arkansas State and the only gang of 5 in that area is Memphis, purveyors of grand football. The only gang of 5 within 300 miles are: Memphis, ULM, La.Tech (299 miles). If that's not a new market for CUSA, what is? Arkansas State gets about as much coverage in Little Rock as Tulsa gets in Tulsa and Little Rock is a larger market. You consider Tulsa a loss but they had half as many people in the stands for the CUSA title game as ASU had for an all the marbles game against MTSU the same day. Jonesboro is a larger TV market than presumptive pick WKU.

I think UVA is easier to get. Beyond the academic benefits, Maryland is in the Big 10 now and maybe more importantly Va.Tech is in the ACC much to UVA's disappointment. That was a straight political arm twist. UVA was told they couldn't support expansion without supporting UVA and without UVA's vote, there weren't enough votes to admit Miami.

Yeah a "watering down" with the teams that win games and sell tickets would be horrible.

The past four seasons WKU has won five fewer Sun Belt basketball games than Arkansas State. I'm quite content with the Sun Belt as long as ULL is in the league, I like where the league is headed in football but not getting the crown and purple robes for the blobs.

I don't get the WKU love AT ALL. Bowling Green is one of the 29 TV markets actually smaller than Jonesboro. In 2011 with a winning team they averaged 15,310 in Bowling Green and hosted Navy in the home opener and didn't hit 20,000. This year drew 17,415 at home. ASU in 2011 21,257 ASU in 2012 26,398 ULL in 2011 29,171 ULL in 2012 22,865

Care to make a wager? If Tulsa leaves and one team is selected, it will not be WKU.

I don't believe WKU is the pick to replace Tulsa. Screws the divisons up. Now tell me that if Tulsa leaves CUSA goes to 16 and takes WKU and two of ASU, ULL, and NMSU, that contains some logic. Then you have a West division of UNT, UTSA, UTEP, Rice, La.Tech, USM (pick two of ASU, ULL, NMSU). The West makes some sense. It follows the footprint that served the SWC for 75 years until national TV rights took over the game. It puts the West in every market served by Fox SW and the Fox SW subsidaries except for Oklahoma and one of New Mexico and Arkansas (unless ULL is left out). Remeber Fox is half the TV deal so regional matters to them more than national audience. The East makes a lot of sense with Marshall, ODU, Charlotte, FIU, FAU, UAB, WKU, MTSU. WKU brings additional Fox South interest and the east looks like a really good basketball league. Now does that happen? Got me but that is a much better line-up for dealing with Fox in the next TV deal than replacing Tulsa with WKU.

Like that domain name and went and looked it up. It's a personal blog of some guy who hates TV, likes Captain Picard and makes robot cars.

Never know, I might come down for an FC Dallas game this year. They play my boys from Sporting KC on son's 24th birthday.

Guess you'll have to bring back the black jersey.

It's temporary. Although I have been an admin here before when I was doing tech support. Harry is trying to convince to convert my site to this software and letting me take it on a test drive.

The best thing about being on NBC Sports is if you play the early game your lead in will be Premier League soccer. So you get a small but affluent audience. Question is do they change the channel when Big East football comes on?

It actually means fewer FBS games. Big 10 is going to adopt a 9 or 10 game schedule. Results in a net loss of non-conference games even if every played an FCS (and four Big 10 did not play an FCS last year).

That's a very good price for an FBS. It's not about selling your opponent. It's about selling North Texas football. A decade ago, we bought a game with San Jose State. A media member told me recently that was the first time he'd seen Arkansas State ACT like a I-A program since he'd started covering the program. Things like this matter. Sure it's probably a short-term financial loss but it sends a message to supporters and potential supporters.

Only way C-USA deal gets renegotiated at this point is if CBS or Fox think they are over-paying. Otherwise it rides out until it expires.

Tulsa would accept. They get to stick with SMU and Tulane and make marginally more money. If you can play regional teams that your fans care about, who cares if the league is what it used to be or will produce buckets more money.

I've only met Brady a few times away from the on-court/pre/post game action. Really nice guy, reserved almost to the point of being shy. Get him to open up and has great stories. After Dickie Nutt and his incessant "Hey buddy!" to everyone and his notorious reputation for never buying his own meals and the semi-famous story of Nutt calling a GA telling him to buy a small bottle of Heinz ketchup and bring it to him because the restaurant he was at had Hunt's, Brady is a breath of fresh air. A friend was in Miami on a road trip against either FIU or FAU and said Brady came over to the small group of ASU fans after the game and asked them to stick around. After the press conference about 15 of them had actually stayed, he chatted with them for a bit and he invited them to dinner at Ruth Chris's 10 of them actually went. Brady picked up the check. More than one ASU student dining out wearing Red Wolf apparel has told of seeing Brady at a restaurant and when time came to pay was told by the waiter or waitress that Coach Brady liked your hat (or jacket or hat) and picked up your check. Student organizations love him, he asks to speak, to most every year. Doesn't just pitch going to games, he talks about life and making good choices, asks questions about the group, the members, and hangs around to visit. Like I said, the guy will blow a game for you and often goes ape during games but he's a pretty decent guy.

Got one paperclip that's been on the floor of my office for two years you can have. Oddly enough building management claims they vacuum every office at least twice a week.

My prediction. After the storm caused by MTSU's bowl snub, Benson won't do anything to Benford for fear that there will be blowback accusing him of not treating the departing schools fairly. He his already wildly unpopular in Jonesboro after the Liberty Bowl fiasco and over-ruling the Sun Belt supervisor of football officials to suspend Q Lee for a helmet to helmet to blow (Alcorn QB ducked as Lee was coming in for the tackle). So Benson does nothing and its up to RV and Terry Mohajir to straighten out their own coaches.

Noticed that Brady went to great lengths to say he doesn't hassle other coaches or players. No mention of refs. So bonus points for honesty. I'm not happy with Brady because that's his weak point. He cost us a chance in the Sun Belt tournament the year Trey Finn blew his knee in practice between the end of the regular season and the tournament by getting a technical when UALR assistant Joe Kleine kept coming out of the box and then during a stop in the action was on the court a few feet and got in an ASU player's face yelling. Brady went bonkers and the technical free throws and possession put us down four.

Cincinnati did sue, and while the case was pending they met I-A standards in 1982 and made the whole thing moot.

Depends. If I'm a coach in trouble, I want lots of stars to calm the fans down and be able to tell people I need a couple years for those high star recruits to develop. If I'm selling subscriptions to a web site cashing in on fans desire to count stars can make me some money. Back in 1990 and 1991 we had a coach who generated a lot of excitement with highly regarded recruits. About 1/3rd couldn't get in school, about 1/3rd couldn't stay out of trouble. The other 1/3rd... well one of them eventually became our AD so it wasn't a total bust.

I don't put a lot of concern into stars. Ryan Aplin was a 2 star recruit. DeMario Davis taken in the 3rd round by the Jets was a 2 star recruit. MD Jennings who earned his 15 minutes of fame when his interception for Green Bay against the Seahawks was ruled a Seahawks TD by the replacement refs was ZERO stars. Two star JD McKissic had over 1,000 yards receiving and was GoDaddy.com Bowl offensive player of the game and named AP Freshman All-American.

Point being that a Texas recruit committed to ASU was mentioned and that was scoffed at because UNT hadn't shown interest. Over the past five years, ASU has won 55% of its games, UNT 25%. Not drawing interest from UNT is no proven indicator the kid can't play.