Arkstfan

I could have finished third in my bracket with a Memphis win but I enjoyed finishing 6th. I picked Memphis by looking at all the number 1 seeds and asked myself a simple question. "Which #1 winning it all would piss me off the worst?" That's who I picked. I totally loved the outcome. http://www.arkst.com/?p=100

In my bracket I had Wisconsin vs. Louisville in one semi-final and Memphis vs. UCLA in the other with Memphis beating Wisconsin in the championship.

Actually Iowa was the next to last state to go to 5 on 5 basketball for girls high school and there was a real fight to keep it. The argument was that it was killing the chances of the girls to get college scholarships. I know a couple college coaches loved recruiting up there because you got players who would run plays to perfection and were real scorers, they just had to learn defense and dribbling (you could only dribble twice before shooting or passing). It was a very tactical game, you couldn't get a fast break so it required a lot of motion a crisp passing to get a good shot. I enjoyed the heck out of the games because the strategy was so different.

This from an interview with John Brady. You said that other coaches told you this program is a diamond in rough. Can you expound on that? They have a base of fan support that appreciates basketball and enjoys watching a quality team and will come out and support it ... I've talked to some coaches in the league, Ronnie Arrow, Kermit Davis. They think this is a special place where you can get it done here. What we need to do is hopefully encourage the fans to come support this program. I really believe this is a shared venture, it's not just the coach doing it all. I have to have the support of the fans, the student body, former players, former coaches. We all need to get on board and do what we can to create an environment, an atmosphere in the Convocation Center that is second to none. It's my job to recruit the kind of players to play in this league, to put them together in a way that makes a quality team and when all those factors work together, you can win in a significant way. The other coaches in the league think the possibility for that to happen is here because it's been done in the past. What was most attractive about the Arkansas State job to you? The chance to win. I think there is an opportunity to win here and win in the Sun Belt Conference. There's an opportunity to win the conference tournament, there's an opportunity with the recruiting base here to get the kind of players that can do that in this league. Hopefully I hire the right [assistant] coaches who can identify talent and maybe even steal a recruit or two, and that's just about building relationships and building credibility within that relationship. Possibly my name and being where I've been and done what I've done can get us farther ahead of the game than maybe if someone was here that they didn't know as well, and hopefully that will be the case. We're going to work in that regard and put a team together that hopefully people will enjoy watching play and also come watch play. What do you tell a recruit, say, one out of Memphis that isn't on John Calipari's radar, what do you sell them on coming to ASU? He can play for me. It's a big deal, man, come play for me (laughing). He can come into a great community in which to find his way for the next four or five years that will be supportive. He can come into a situation in which the crowd will support him, that understands basketball, appreciates what he does as a player. He can come possibly win a Sun Belt Conference championship and get to the NCAA Tournament. And hopefully, with the experience I've had and the players I've developed, come knowing he can be well-coached and developed to his highest potential. That's what we're going to do. I think recruiting is all about credibility. I've been around long enough, I've recruited Memphis, I know a lot of high school coaches there, they know what I've done. And a player not on Memphis' radar or Arkansas' radar, maybe a notch below what they're thinking about, we can commit to that player early, lock him in and get him to come here and play in a wonderful environment.

Me too. Football gets the media attention and it gets the donor dollars. I don't know why everyone in positions of authority is hell bent on football being king but down at the core, its really a hoops state. Football has always had a bigger bandwagon when successful than basketball does, but basketball attendance usually remains pretty constant. When the Nutt era at ASU peaked in the 98-99 season ASU was averaging a little better than 6,600 a game. Over the next 9 seasons ASU finished above .500 in conference play twice and posted losing records 4 out of 5 years. With a 20 loss season this year, ASU still finished sixth in the Sun Belt in attendance with 3,200 per game (boosted mightily by the firing of Nutt and Indian Family retirement ceremony). So over nine years there was a drop of 52% in attendance. When football tanked it took only three years for attendance to fall 51%.

Arkansas State basketball is a great job. Attendance is the pits right now but for 15 years ASU was 1st or 2nd in attendance in the conference every year and was consistently in the top third of the nation in attendance. During that stretch local favorites coached the team and managed to share two regular season conference titles, make three NIT appearances and one NCAA. Bring any degree of success and your resume can easily tout doubling or even tripling attendance and could crack the top 75 in the nation. The fans gave Nutt 10 years on the strength of a shared league title, one NCAA trip and no NIT appearances... unfortunately the school gave him 13 years. Loads of good basketball talent within a three hour radius of the school.

I think the worm was the best UNT helmet design.

Based on what the MT folks are saying, there will be a new bowl for 2009 in state starting with the letter T. The delay is because a new game this year would interfere with a big anniversary this year. Doesn't take much checking to see that this year the Liberty celebrates its 50th game. So I think you can pencil Memphis in for 2009. Memphis is: 70 miles from ASU 245 miles from MT 275 miles from WKU 326 miles from Monroe 380 miles from Troy 393 miles from USA 438 miles from Lafayette 487 miles from Denton 1010 miles from FAU 1053 miles from FIU The MAC has struggled to sell tickets for the GMAC in Mobile. I'm sure the GMAC will make a run at a name conference first but you have to think we will be in the mix. Mobile is: Home field of future member USA. 174 miles from Troy 256 miles from ULL 303 miles from ULM 451 miles from MT 462 miles from ASU 515 miles from WKU 623 miles from UNT 681 miles from FAU 724 miles from FIU CLOSEST MAC SCHOOL 758 MILES

For the first time we can negotiate with bowls with some cash in hand instead of promises that we think we can sell tickets.

Time to get philosophical here. I have yet to make my mind up about the bowl situation. On one hand I remember quite bitterly when 11-0 might not get you a bowl, hasn't been that long that 10-2 was no guarantee. We saw this year that 8 wins wasn't a guarantee. I have a hard time saying there are too many bowls when schools win 8, 9, 10, 11 and can't find a spot especially when 6 and 7 win teams were getting slots those years. I don't see that a bowl for every .500 or better team hurts the game. Sucks for the folks having to dig in their pockets to pay for them but if they didn't think the money was worth it, I doubt they would pay. If anyone is hurt it is the mid-tier bowls the ones paying $1 million or more the bowl proliferation hurts their product, but they wouldn't talk to us any way so I don't know that I care that it hurts their product. A ton of post-season exhibitions for the benefit of as many fans and schools as possible is positive. On the other hand raising the bar for bowl games to conference champion or winning 75% of your games (8 on a 12 game schedule) with maybe a waiver for 7 wins culls the herd and makes the remaining games more valuable. I guess I'm fatalistic. I think that the pressure for success on the richest leagues is such that the 6 win waiver will remain and as long as it does, having enough bowls so no 7 win or better team gets left out is a good thing.

Keep hearing 09 for sure with a maybe third bowl when contracts start expiring.

Woman goes to a doctor and says, "Doctor I have horrible farts all the time but fortunately they don't smell and they are silent." Doctor says take these pills and come back in a week. Woman comes back and says "The gas is just as bad but the farts are still silent, but now they smell awful." Doctor says OK we've fixed your sense of smell, now let's get you fitted for a hearing aid.

I was just looking at an article about Bowling Green, it appeared they were going to have to cut a check for nearly $300,000 for unsold GMAC tickets unless there was a late run on tickets.

Depends on what you do with it. Feed it back in 13 pieces and it isn't much. Keep it bundled together and it is buying power. When Troy made the Silicon Valley Bowl the only available teams were a MAC rematch or Troy. When MT made the Motor City they were the only available team left. In each case there were other opportunities that could have been pursued but the Sun Belt didn't have the money. The MAC ended up paying the Silicon double what the Sun Belt did because they locked their spot up weeks earlier. When the MAC got in the I-Bowlthe payout was $1.2 million. My understanding is that the MAC guaranteed that their team would buy 10,000 tickets at $40 each so that leaves an $800,000 profit before travel expenses right? Wrong. The MAC "hired" the Independence Bowl to "market" the MAC in the Ark-La-Tex region for around $700,000. The trip was a real money loser because they didn't sell tix for jack. The money from this NCAA run means that the Sun Belt can hold back $200,000 and any time a bowl contract is up for renegotiation (almost all expire in 2009) or if a bowl is short a team and looking for someone to fill in, the Sun Belt can walk in with whatever offer they used to make and up it by 5,000 tickets at $40 each. My understanding is that the MAC agrees to buy 7,500 tickets for the GMAC at $45 each. That contract expires I think after the 2009 game. So what happens if the Sun Belt members sit down with pen to paper and make the decision that they will offer to buy 8,000 tickets from the GMAC? The school making the game will be on the hook for the first 3,500 tickets at $45 each with the conference guaranteeing the purchase of the next 4,500 tickets. If the school sells all 8,000 tickets, awesome no need to tap into the money. If the school sells 5,000 tickets then the conference writes a check for $135,000 to cover the unsold 3,000.

No. The NCAA gets part of the money from ticket sales but most from TV and marketing rights. CBS doesn't pay the NCAA say $300 million that the NCAA doles out one-sixth at a time each year. There isn't $250 million sitting in an account waiting to be sent out in the future. What happens is that the NCAA pays out the entire amount of money allocated for revenue sharing each year the amount going to a particular conference is based on the number of units owned. If the NCAA signs more lucrative sponsorship deals for next season, the value of a share rises. If Pontiac and Coke suddenly went bankrupt and didn't pay their sponsorship money, the value of a unit falls. The current deal the NCAA has with CBS guarantees a minimum amount will be paid every year through 2014 with the minimum payment rising every year. The amount paid can increase because CBS handles the sales of the corporate sponsor deal (corporate champion for the really big players) if the amount brought in is greater than anticipated, the NCAA gets a little extra juice on the deal. This is one of the positives of the six year payout. Let's say this year's money to the NCAA available for distribution based on basketball is around $136 million. Under a BCS type payout the Sun Belt would get $1.14 million per unit with nothing guaranteed next year except one unit. We potentially would fall from $4.56 million this year to the value of one unit next year. Here's the beauty of the deal. Under the NCAA system, a unit might very well rise next season from $190,000 to $200,000. If we are one and done next year we would have 9 units (5 one and done and 4 this year). Total payout would be $1.8 million. Under a BCS style arrangement if we were one and done next year we would get $1.2 million. The unit system buys you into the future growth of the contract. Success today means you get a greater share in the future as the value of the contract grows.

Buy an ASU season ticket and donate at least $250 and you can park on the pavement.

I don't know why the decision was made to spread it over six years but it brings stability. If it were done as an annual lump sum, a unit would be worth $1,140,000. If the value of a unit remainded stable (it tends to rise) last year would have gotten that amount and assuming UCLA upsets WKU the conference would get $4,560,000 this year. If we went back to one and done next year that number would fall back to $1.14 million. Under the current unit system the Sun Belt would have received $1.14 million last year (1 unit per year over six years = 6 units). This year will receive $1,710,000 and if we go back to one and done will receive that figure for a total of six years before the number falls. My guess is that most conferences would rather have the current system because it makes it easier to budget long-term.

Can't believe anyone who has been the bathrooms at Fouts would make an outhouse joke.

This is one place where the NCAA gets it right. With the BCS, you get your money but a lot of it is one time money so you can't make long-term plans with it and pretty much just need to spend it now. With the NCAA, a good year provides benefits for six years making long-term budgeting easier to do.

Why would steal the name of UNT's football stadium?

Make up your mind. Do you want to piss on the Sun Belt for not having as many bids as CUSA? Or do you want the bids and struggle to find opponents and sell tickets to those games like CUSA? Memphis was reported to have sold 2,000 tickets for the New Orleans Bowl and "hoped" to sell as many as a 1,000 more.

If Texas and Texas A&M joined the Sun Belt the media in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston would rave about what a great league it is and how the affiliation will make national championship dreams come true.

Pay better attention then. Rice got cut because they never developed a fan base. Let's talk Houston why don't we. 1995 Last year of SWC. Averaged 19,972 hosting Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, SMU and La.Tech. Top crowd 32,520 for Texas. Averaged 16,835 for the games other than Texas. 1996 First year of CUSA. Averaged 17,551 host USC, UNC, Sam Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss, and Louisville. Top crowd 21,035 for USC. Averaged 16,854 for the games other than USC. 2006. Averaged 20,507, hosted Tulane, Grambling, Oklahoma State, ULL, UTEP, UCF, Tulsa. Top crowd 28,260 for Oklahoma State narrowly edging out Grambling. I discarded the CUSA championship even though it drew 31,818. Averaged 19,215 for games other than Oklahoma State and the CUSA championship. Going back to the last winning SWC season. 1990. 26,589, hosted TAMU, Rice, Arkansas, TCU, UNLV, and Eastern Washington. Top crowd 45,141 for TAMU. That was a 10-1 squad coming off a 9-2 record and their biggest crowds were for TAMU and Arkansas, schools noted for bringing a lot of fans. Throw out the TAMU game and they drew.... 22,879. Conference affiliation didn't have a huge impact other than a few big crowds that didn't come back. It goes back to developing your own fan base.

Sun Belt will add a bowl in 2009 and if things go well could have a third in 2010.

We've been promised that the helmet will not change. It only took nine years of complaining to get them to change back to the stAte helmet.