Coach Bill Lewis

Week Three Group of 5 Rankings From Messey Ratings https://ibb.co/hy1fw5

Liberty even offered to open its checkbook. Sources told me that in 2016, Liberty offered Conference USA millions of dollars more than the usual $2 million admission fee for an invitation. How many millions more? One source pegged the offer at $24 million. The offer coincidentally came at about the same time C-USA was learning its TV revenue would soon crater, going from paying $1.1 million per school annually to about $200,000. Read more: https://pilotonline.com/sports/columnist...7fa70.html

Marshall will be starting its own TV network similar to The Longhorn Network as well as SEC Network and BYU. Pretty cool for them and the conference. http://www.herdzone.com/genrel/090717aab.html

Bennett has witnessed it the same as everyone else. The Power 5 conferences — the nickname bestowed upon the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12 — and the Group of 5 leagues, which includes C-USA, have each gravitated toward opposite ends of the financial spectrum in recent years. In 2005, Texas A&M generated $64.2 million in revenue, while Southern Miss hauled in $18.2 million. More than a decade later, Texas A&M’s (which joined the SEC in 2011) total revenue has increased by 203 percent. Over the same span, Southern Miss has seen its number grow by just 42 percent. For Bennett, the gap became vastly more precipitous with the advent of television networks solely dedicated to the coverage of certain leagues and the influx of cash attached to them. “I think it really started when institutions started seeing significant dollars related to TV rights and packages. The ability to market and sell TV rights to organizations in the media really set us on a different trajectory,” said Bennett, the first Southern Miss president to serve as chairman of C-USA's board of directors in its 20-plus year history. The course in question began moving toward the stratosphere in earnest a few years ago. The SEC reported $527.4 million worth of revenue in 2014-15, the first year of the College Football Playoff and the SEC Network. That figure represented a more than 60 percent increase over the previous year and brought in more than $33 million per SEC institution. In fiscal year 2015, the Big Ten made $448.8 million from its media rights agreement. C-USA, on the other hand, is headed into the second and final year of a media rights deal that will net $2.8 million. http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story...589702001/

Hope all our Rice and Houston pals are staying safe during Harvey. This storm is a biatch!! Things are getting worse every hour in Houston, it sounds like it is turning into a Katrina like situation with flooding all over. I have seen some estimates of 50" plus of rain, that is just unreal. Please stay safe, Owls, and update us when you can

Nothing too major but worth the read IMHO. http://footballscoop.com/news/reminder-n...17-season/

Weird timing no? http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/amp/U...760945.php

North Texas “They have a spread offense out of that Larry Fedora tree, and you saw how much better those guys were playing in that system right away.” “They have some talent, and they should be able to get some pretty good players out of Dallas every year.” “They had a junior running back that our staff thought was pretty good (Jeffrey Wilson), probably one of the better guys in the league until he got hurt.” “The freshman quarterback (Mason Fine) was kind of a shorter guy but really moved around the pocket well and created some plays with his feet. I was impressed with him, but he got hurt too at the end of the year.” “When you’ve got the quarterback and running back coming back, that’s a great start. They lost some receivers, but they’ll be solid coming into the second year of that system.” https://athlonsports.com/college-footbal...-foes-2017

2019 and 2023 in Stark 2024 in Hattiesburg Miss.

Kiffen is loading up his roster with lots of talent. This is the way you win in CUSA. They are my darkhorse to win the East. https://www.si.com/college-football/2017...s-pitt-fsu

key signee leaves note on pillow. https://www.minerrush.com/2017/8/4/16099...his-season

Interesting article on transfers. https://heatcheckcbb.com/2017/07/01/coll...mbers/amp/ CUSA tops the list.

Nothing garners as much attention as knocking off one of the big boys. If C-USA, whose 14 members are playing together for the first time this year, is to take the next step , taking down a few more Power 5 schools is an essential part of the formula. “That’s one of the things we need to do is turn the corner on some of our non-conference games: get some big wins for us early in the season,” commissioner Judy McLeod said at the C-USA Kickoff last week. Old Dominion coach Bobby Wilder agreed. “We’re not supposed to beat the P5,” he said. “We don’t have the facilities, we don’t have the resources, we don’t have the five- and the four-star kids, we have the three and the twos. “But if we can pull off a couple of wins there, if we can do well against the other G5s, if the entire league – including us – can get off to a good start, that as much as anything speaks to the reputation of our league.” https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/o...a8228.html

FAU's Lucky Whitehead has been released from the Cowboys after being arrested for shoplifting.

Matt Luke is the interim coach. Looks like there was some new info revealed. He should have stayed at Arky State!

Committee is putting more of an emphasis on away-game wins. http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/medi...uality-win

UNT's Juan Sebastian Muñoz shot a blistering 61 (-9) today to take at 2-stroke first-day lead at this week's PGA Tournament at the venerable Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia. Link: http://golfweek.com/2017/07/06/pga-tour-...r-classic/

Wilson was able to parlay a big payday from his former school. http://www.fbschedules.com/2017/07/lsu-u...-schedule/

http://collegefootballnews.com/2017/bowl...eview-2017

11. NORTH TEXAS Breakdown: With C-USA based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it made sense to add a large public university like North Texas. The program has tons of potential, but fan support is lagging and the football program has been inconsistent. Facilities: Apogee Stadium is one of the nicest football stadiums in the conference, but it doesn’t draw great crowds. UNT Coliseum is a little bigger than necessary for the basketball programs. Fan support: UNT fans have shown up strong at their two bowl games at the Cotton Bowl stadium (2014 and 2016), but crowds at Apogee Stadium aren’t very good. Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/sports/spt-colu...rylink=cpy

Matt Sarzniak reporting on potential G5 media deals: http://mattsarzsports.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-group-of-five-conferences-tv-rights.html?m=1

https://sports.yahoo.com/rick-pitino-sus...11751.html The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions ruled Thursday that the Cardinals will have to vacate victories in which players competed while ineligible from December 2010 to July 2014, but its release did not definitively state that the school’s 2013 national title banner will come down. The punishment is the culmination of an investigation that began in August 2015 when Louisville learned that escort Katina Powell was set to release a tell-all book. Powell’s book alleged that former Louisville basketball staffer Andre McGee paid for strippers and escorts to dance for or have sex with Cardinals players and recruits at parties typically held in the on-campus basketball dorm named for Pitino’s late brother-in-law. The NCAA ruled that Louisville coach Rick Pitino failed to properly monitor his program and suspended him for the first five ACC games of the 2017-18 season. Among the other more minor penalties that Louisville received are scholarship reductions, recruiting limitations and four years of probation.

This subject came up on the CUSA board. They have lots of dough. They also have their own tv network. Seem like they are coming up quickly. Thoughts?

This helps CUSA teams. http://www.cbssports.com/college-footbal...ersigning/