Arkstfan

Play someone with a fan base that likes fairs. Last time I bothered to go to the Arkansas State Fair I saw a lot of Razorback t-shirts so maybe call them.

They've done a pretty good job marketing their program. Their web campaign prior to their last bowl set a high standard that many SEC and Big XII schools would have been proud to have claimed credit for.

I think the approach has been all wrong. Back when the 5th bowl was approved to get better access, part of the deal was more money. One idea thrown out at the time was to go to an 8 bowl alignment. Rather than cutting WAC, MAC, MWC, Sun Belt, CUSA a check to shut our yaps and behave the idea was to create three new bowls under the BCS label that would take the five champions and have their pick of the best remaining team from an AQ conference that didn't have two teams in the BCS. The check that would have been cut to each conference would have become part of the bowl payout. So if Las Vegas was in and was the "first pick" second tier BCS bowl they would have whatever payout they could afford plus about $2.5 million per team. If Liberty was second they would have whatever plus about $2 million per team, and if say TicketCity was #3 they would have their payout plus about $1.5 million. First selection bowl would get its pick of non-AQ champs plus anyone from a league w/o two teams in. Then down the line until everyone was accomodated. If a non-AQ champ met the criteria to be in a top-tier, they could be replaced by any school from a league that hadn't had two teams selected regardless of AQ or non-AQ. Thompson and Bankowsky opposed that idea, The six AQ weren't crazy about it but it wasn't going to cost them dollars. Once CUSA and MWC said no the deal was dead. Then the next idea to come down the pike was to have a "play-in" game. The two highest rated non-AQ champions that hadn't qualified to be selected would play that weekend for a slot in a BCS game with the next two playing the early game just for the heck of it to make it a TV doubleheader. Fox was committed guaranteeing $5 million to $8 million for just the TV rights to the two games depending on whether it would be held the first Saturday in December (low number) or the second Saturday (high number). CUSA and MWC weren't interested. The money isn't what matters even if it is nice to have. Access and eroding the labels is what matters.

First, this has to be said as a matter of principle. The Memphis numbers are rank fantasy. Despite announcing the move to the Big East and hiring a new coach they cut season ticket prices this year because of the fan apathy. The season ticket package price cuts ranged from $50 to $120 per seat. Of course that is in large part a function of success. ASU bumped my ticket package from $250 (including mandatory donation) to $370 this year and anyone who bailed out in my area because of that 48% increase has been replaced and I'm bracing for another hit next year because they didn't bump it enough to accomodate all the newbies willing to move into that seating area. WKU brought about as many people to Jonesboro this year as Memphis did. Second, remember that La.Tech at the start of the season was getting some semi-negative press for tepid ticket sales in Shreveport and their weather delay wasn't truly warranted but by rescheduling, there was much more interest in the game as Tech started out great and TAMU fans became more interested as well. Sometimes a little luck helps. That worked out wonderfully for both schools. Third. I take UTSA attendance with a big grain of salt. They've never had back-to-back losing seasons nor been steam-rolled opening weekend by a big name team. Let's see what happens when they start living in the real world. Merely winning does not produce crowds and all the marketing in the world won't put 20,000 in the stands unless there is a product people want to see. I don't mean "Oh team X is coming to town". The product has to be the home team. Last year ASU marketed that we were having a "Price Freeze" uh we were coming off a 4 win season, not like we were raising prices. In reality what we did was offer an early renewal discount. This year prices did go up and while there was no exemption for the minimum donation doubling, the small increase in ticket prices could be avoided by those who had bought bowl tickets through the school AND renewed early. For a number of years ASU marketing consisted of two things. Working diligently to get as many businesses in town to decorate their windows with ASU stuff as possible and pushing the tailgating experience. Produced about a 15% bump that was pretty static. But last year bumped 24% above that new level and that was with 1/3rd of the home games being played while we had a losing record. Attendance just doesn't fix over-night and if it does, good look retaining it. You really can't build a permanent fan base based on "winning this year" nor "we play this name team". You've really got to sell gameday experience, push the school brand, and THEN produce a team that creates excitement.

I wasn't happy about that at all. No need risking injury. On the flip side, ASU's final 27 plays were runs. Until that point we had 31 pass attempts and 23 rushes, and finished with 50 rushing attempts.

I disagree with Athlon on a number of points. Big XII and the Champions Bowl is a coup, but they lost TAMU and perennial "almost" Mizzou (TCU this will be your role most likely). West Virginia is a quality team but so far out of the footprint that they eventually will be forced to add at least one school out there for the health of the league (see ACC needing to do something about Boston College). The Big XII was too big to fail but they aren't a winner because of realignment, they are a winner because OU and UT stayed. Boise State, jury is out for me. If they hit their estimates on TV money, Boise will survive the damage done to the other sports. Basketball may not drive the bus, but it is a significant part of an athletic department. It is the only sport other than football that doesn't cost a school to have and pours over money to support the other programs. A lot of Boise's new found wealth be invested in Title IX compliance where you start behind the eight ball with the other sports in an inferior league than they were in. Maybe it works out but I don't think it is a lock. If Boise stumbles in football they can be a force to radically de-stablize the Big East. Conference USA defectors. UCF and Memphis are the clear winners. UCF aligns with USF. Memphis gets a basketball schedule their hoops crazy fans will truly appreciate. Houston and SMU primarily win in aligning with a group closer to them in committment. Rice, Tulane, UAB each have their own quirks that made it difficult for them. They have football coaches being paid around the Sun Belt median. Houston and SMU are in what looks a lot like the OLD Missouri Valley or the old CUSA but the difference is getting away from those who frustrated the efforts to raise CUSA even higher. Mizzou just changes who keeps them from winning the league but after pursuing the Big 10 hard and then being threatened with desolation when the powers flirted with the Pac-12, Mizzou is in a better place. New CUSA. UNT gets three in-state opponents plus Tulsa. That's a win. La.Tech gets to play Tulane. That's a win. UTSA (see UNT). ODU and Charlotte change their timetables but they get their FBS plans on track. Wins all around. Notre Dame. Right now a loser in my book. They were affiliated with one of the elite leagues. Now all you hear is talk of the "Big 5". The Big East is an incredible hoops league pre or post realignment but the perception that most ND sports aren't affiliated with a league consistent with their perception is a loss. Pitt and Syracuse. Clear winners. Life doesn't get much tougher in basketball or football than it was but the ACC doesn't the have the damaged goods mash-up feel of the Big East. TCU. Will the fan base still come with dominance fading away? Big question but Oklahoma State has shown you can crack the UT/OU monopoly. Temple. BIG BIG winner. Hoops finally in the Big East and that's the important part. The new Big East doesn't have Miami, VT, BC, WVU, Pitt and Syracuse to kick them in around in football. Tougher sledding for football than the MAC but not like it was before. TAMU. Winning the SEC will be a much more daunting task, but the recruiting situation in Texas has changed. Before they could rattle off all the things they had and UT would respond by showing something better. Now going head-to-head with UT, the message to recruits is simple. We are in the conference that wins national titles, they are in the conference that watches the national title. WVU came out ahead but it isn't going to be fun for the fans who used to be able to travel and help negate home field advantages. Texas State. They escape the WAC and get in the league they had initially targeted along with UTSA. They aren't in NMSU's or Idaho's shoes. USU and SJSU. Welcome back to the Big West uh WAC uh MWC. Back with some old foes and some schools they long wanted to align with, no looming trips to Texas. ACC winner for now. They have made a strong move to dethrone the Big East as best in basketball. They did nothing to help flagging football. Big East lives to fight another day but they have taken an unstable mess and made it bigger and more unstable. Rumors are swirling that Navy won't even play a full league schedule and will count Army and AFA as designated league games. CUSA. By most accounts still looking to expand. The league is a picture of contrasts. On one end UAB, Rice, Tulane on the other ECU, USM, Tulsa. ODU and Charlotte are bets on the future. La.Tech doesn't fit their traditional models. Biggest problem is that the Big East is unstable and if it tear apart CUSA will feel the impact. ECU got most of what they wanted in the CUSA expansion (FIU, ODU, Charlotte), they didn't get in the Big East but may have better positioned to be considered if the Big East blows up. Idaho is dead meat unless the MWC has a change of heart. On the upside Big Sky wants them, they have old rivalries there, they've been knocked out of the top division twice before and made it back so they can survive if something doesn't break loose. Louisville by mulitple accounts was the consensus #11 for Big XII they just never found a consensus #12. Short-term losers, they stand ready if the ACC goes to 16 or Big XII raids the ACC or the Big XII doesn't raid ACC but needs to solve the WVU problem. MWC. You don't lose BYU, Utah, TCU, Boise and come out ahead. Unlike C-USA doesn't have much to pick from to improve the state of the conference. Sun Belt. Down to three schools really serious about athletics. After Arkansas State, MTSU, Louisiana, it gets thinner. WKU attendance in football is built on deep discounting. Troy appeared to plateau in fan base development before last year's stumble. FAU is a mixed bag.Jury is out on TxSt, USA, and GaSt committment. ULM is just a mess. NMSU it appears Sun Belt has ruled them out. MWC remains a hope but if MWC doesn't pan out they don't have a neighborhood FCS league to provide a place to land.

Go watch FC Dallas. They aren't very good this year but probably a good bunch of fans. Don't know how the FCD fans are but Sporting KC fans are some tailgating, yelling, hardcore fans. FCD plays Toronto on July 4 and ought to win that one. San Jose on Saturday, probably not as fun of a game to watch. Portland on the 21st very winnable. Galaxy on the 28th Donovan and Beckham. Colorado on August 11 and then its time for football. In the meantime, you've had some beer, had some practice tailgates and you are ready to go.

I think there are several things at play. First, CUSA started out with a consensus to add two schools (FIU and UNT). The Alliance idea was still in play and two divisions of 10 playing 9 games was rather manageable. Then MWC needed to kill the WAC in order to survive since it became apparent that the Alliance idea had some serious issues. Offering a lifeboat to UTSA and La.Tech then entered the equation. That led to ECU and Marshall to oppose because they felt there was not sufficient accomodation in the east and UAB felt basketball was getting the short end of the stick. That led to Charlotte and ODU. What was supposed to be a simple 2 team expansion mushroomed into six teams (remember WAC16 was supposed to be WAC12 and it took off). From those I've talked to the sense is C-USA is not content at 14. There is belief that the Alliance concept of a large conference having greater bargaining power with TV still has merit but MWC is not the appealing partner it once was. I am told models of 16, 18, and 20 are being discussed, 18 looks popular at this point. Timining is a significant issue because it needs to be done prior to signing the next TV deal but not so it overlaps with the ODU and Charlotte transition seasons because there could be two FCS added (James Madison and Delaware being most likely). The eastern schools supposedly would like to add JMU, UD, and FAU so that USM is in the west. With one school added in the West, supposedly UTEP wants New Mexico.

Off-topic but reminds me of something I've been wondering. As a general rule, I've put my "rooting energy" into Boise State quite bit hoping to see them keep SEC fans seething about how undeserved their rankings were. Now going into the Big East, I don't care if they lose every game. I'm wondering if moving to the almost big time of the Big East may actually hurt national interest in watching their games.

Prophetic too. Harry bought my beer tonight.

The beach in Biloxi blows. The barrier islands prevent almost all wave action and its quite stagnant (if you've been on the beach in downtown Corpus Christi near the Lexington you know what I mean) and it will be a rare March you can do anything other than look at the water and the island because it will be too cold to get in the water. You will be hard pressed to find a better place to eat than in nearby Ocean Springs though. Restaurants there are top-notch. The casino we stayed in for my wife's conference I thought I was going to suffocate from the cigarette smoke before we got on the elevator to our room. There are a few of the nice old homes left but sadly there are a lot of foundations and steps with no house as well. I'd like to see the tournament rotate around rather than one place each year but Biloxi presents more travel issues. Biloxi is another hour further from MTSU and WKU than Hot Springs is. Really only handy to USA not too bad for ULL and Troy (3.5 hours and 4 hours respectively). When the Hot Springs extension was signed, the rumor was that Waters was retiring and they wanted the new commissioner to be able to come in and negotiate the next tournament deal without a contract expiring right on top of them.

Point missed. Look around the college environment. Really with few exceptions (most notable NFL free zone LA), programs located in the heart of a metro are don't develop hardcore loyal fan bases. Houston has been all over the map, Rice was getting outdrawn by ASU when they were in the SWC and we were I-AA. Tulane and UAB struggle to draw any fans. Cincinnati and Rutgers have had problematic attendance. Pitt and Miami have never drawn like peers outside the heart of metro areas with similar profile and success. UNT and MTSU are removed enough from the heart of the metro area to develop real fan bases and not just lookie-loos who show up when a big name is in town or the team is exceptionally successful. That is a positive. Naturally you guys get your feathers ruffled over a positve.

Insanity doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Chasing markets is why the once really good MWC and CUSA are in the position of believing they need to merge. Other than UAB, Tulane, Rice, and UNLV all the market teams have left. As Harry and I have discussed UNT and MTSU aren't true large market schools like Houston Memphis, FIU that are close to the heart of their metro.

We actually did that with UNO and Denver passing membership standards and setting a deadline to meet them. UNO opted to drop down and Denver had the chance to go to the WAC before the deadline.

If that happens we have terrible presidents at the helms of our schools.

Mack won 6 games and fled like the house was on fire. Lot of good coaches just couldn't win there.

There is a big difference in Tulane and UNT. Look at the coaches they've had. Bob Toledo. Got fired for winning only 7 at UCLA (they've posted a better record than his "fire" record only once in the nine years since). Never won more than four at Tulane. Tommy Bowden. Two great years and bailed Buddy Teevens ( a weird hire) did no better than 4 wins at Tulane, had been successful in the Ivy, posted a couple 4 win seasons at Stanford. Greg Davis did one five win season (his first at Tulane and then fell off the map). Has been a pretty successful OC since at a number of schools. Mack Brown. Posted 11 wins over 3 seasons at Tulane Vince Gibson fairly successful at Louisville lasted three years at Tulane. Larry Smith. Four bad, one good year at Tulane big success at Arizona, moderate success at USC and Mizzou. Tulane has had coaches that do well elsewhere that do terrible there and the few successful have fled quickly. Good coaches have done well at UNT and even some that weren't that great.

I get your point. I don't believe the money difference is going to be significant. CUSA with UH and SMU along with Tulsa and Rice was far more attractive. The overall merged league isn't spell-binding, and is actually a bit puzzling considering that the remaining MWC schools rated below the Sun Belt (and remaining WAC not counting TxSt and UTSA) in the BCS standings this year. I've got the same feeling if ASU pops out as a dark horse. Nice to be with Tulsa and USM but losing Memphis really took the shine off.

Yeah he was quoting me. Denver being in play is reliable. The Alliance has approached them and investigated them. That's a long way from an invite. Remember Hawaii is football only. To balance things out there are two easy solutions. #1 You add a football only to the east #2 in the alternative you take a non-football school to fill the rest of Hawaii's spot in the west. All the rumblings make it sound as if Temple has looked at the MAC and looked at the Alliance doesn't see Rice selling any more tickets in Philadelphia than Ball State and no significant benefits to football only in one over the other. They had at one time wanted Temple all-sports but once Memphis left any chance of that died. I suspect that Temple understands that the Big East is likely to lose 2 to 6 more teams depending on what the Big 12 does and what the ACC does (or is forced to do if SEC successfully raids ACC in the future). I would also think they know that Air Force is less opposed to the Big East with Navy now in and knows that Air Force has made definitive statements the past 4 or 5 years that they will go independent if their conference goes to a 9 game schedule (they only have two dates to play with now playing 8 conference Army and Navy) and might approach the Big East if the Alliance goes to 9 games and the Big East would need a 14th team to balance them. San Jose has the issue that Fresno despises them as much or more than Tech hates ULM. Nevada is by all accounts not a fan either (by way of an aside, if you take the CNN/Money cost of living calculator, adjusted for local costs, SJSU's budget is equal to ULM's). While I expect LaTech to join the Sun Belt shortly, probably some time between now and Memorial Day, if the Alliance wants a football only in the East, it might well be Tech because of the potentials Tech has its other league ironed out. FIU might be willing to go that route but less likely.

The agreement was that Thompson would be commissioner but Britt would continue to draw his full salary through the end of his contract and serve as "special assistant / consultant" to Thompson. Thompson tried to get the Pac-10 job when they hired Larry Scott, and applied for the Big 12 when they hired Beebe. Doesn't sound like he is pursuing the Big 12 job this time. He is pursuing the Minnesota AD job which to me is a tough gig, pretty consistent doormat in Big 10 football and seems like any time they are really good in basketball they go on probation. Bankowsky made the final 4 or 5 of Big 12 last time but didn't make the final two. Supposedly he is tight with Neinas so that may help his cause.

FWIW, I've been told that ECU and Marshall are pushing hard for Old Dominion and Charlotte with UTEP going west and UAB is leaning toward supporting them for the sake of basketball. By my math that still leaves them 9 votes short of acceptance if they require a 3/4ths vote, which is what most leagues require. I think ECU, Marshall and UAB would advocate most any plan that send UTEP west.

Dumbest leadership group ever. They have to give up a regular season game to play semi-finals. http://www.arkst.com/?p=1688

Right now, if I were rating worst possible places to be an AD it would be roughly this" 1. Idaho 2. NMSU 3. Texas State 4. SJSU 5. UTSA 6. ULM There is a chance that the merry-go-round is going to spin a lot faster and they've got the weakest hold on to it and the greatest danger of being spun off.

Big East is playing the same game the Alliance is playing. OH CRAP WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING NOW!!!! The Big East and Alliance are cobbling up coast-to-coast leagues that are inherently unstable because there are so few "we want to play each" groupings or pairings in them. Look at the Alliance concept. One of the foundational principles is they want to create divisions so large they don't play anyone from the other division. That's not a conference, it's a mini-NCAA.

La.Tech? The second most famous school in Lincoln Parish? The one just now expanding facilities up to Sun Belt standards? The one with the recruiting class that would have been 10th in the Sun Belt and was fourth in the WAC? The one that had two recruits flip late to Arkansas State to replace kids who flipped to SEC schools? They have a good program but they are no dream program.