Poll: North Texas fan opinions on move to C-USA?

Harry · May 5, 2016

I think now that we have been in the conference for several years it is a good time to assess where the fans are in terms of this conference move.

UNTFan23 · May 5, 2016

Stuck between "It was a great move. Texas opponents, bigger budgets and more bowls." and "It was a good move. Not the same conference we joined but better than Belt."

Edited May 5, 2016 by UNTFan23

Cerebus · May 5, 2016

All change is relative. Is this the best place we could possibly be in? No. Is it better than being the lone Texas team in the SBC? Yes.

I still consider it a great move:

Even the reduced TV payout is going to be 5x higher than the payout we received in the SBC.
More bowl access.
More Texas schools.
Being involved in any way, shape, or form with Rice is a benefit.

I think the only real negative from leaving the SBC was losing the ability to stream away games on ESPN3. Hopefully the new TV deal will either cover that or greatly expand the number of games on cable tv.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Cerebus

Stix · May 5, 2016

25 minutes ago, UNTFan23 said:

Stuck between "It was a great move. Texas opponents, bigger budgets and more bowls." and "It was a good move. Not the same conference we joined but better than Belt."

Agreed.

I would change the wording of the second choice to "...Not the same conference we thought we joined..."

Aldo · May 5, 2016

Obviously the money and exposure thing and more bowls (money) thing tops the list.

But boy do I love having all these Texas teams to play.

DeepGreen · May 5, 2016

20 minutes ago, Aldo said:

Obviously the money and exposure thing and more bowls (money) thing tops the list.

But boy do I love having all these Texas teams to play.

Ah, I like playing Rice and UTEP, but NutsaK is too new to football for me to really care about them.

Ben Gooding · May 5, 2016

It was an upgrade and is still considered an upgrade by every single publication in the nation. Though it is nothing close to what it use to be or what many thought we were joining. If CUSA has any sense, they would break this conference to shreds and make the absolute most out of what each school has to offer.

-Drop both Fl schools.

-Drop UAB

-Keep all Tx schools & everyone else

-Rearrange divsions and create 1 permanent cross division team in football for every team that geographically makes as much sense as possible.

-Create performance requirements to maintain membership in football, bball, and baseball. (This should be developed and implemented for every conference. Then heavily enforce it)

-Force all members to have baseball (As a conference administration, I would consider this as our niche and the conference must make every necessary adjustment to ensure programs are succeeding at a high level)

This would be a good start.

UNTexas · May 5, 2016

It was a good move at the time but it's rapidly become Sunbelt 2.0 now and North Texas athletically is worse off now than it was prior to our joining CUSA.

I say that because I've never seen our football team in the absolutely pathetic state that it's in and our basketball team was destroyed after joining this conference.

Adapt or die. We aren't adapting...

Mean Green 93-98 · May 6, 2016

I picked #2, but #3 is equally true. They seem to be saying about the same thing.

DeepGreen · May 6, 2016

3 hours ago, Ben Gooding said:

It was an upgrade and is still considered an upgrade by every single publication in the nation. Though it is nothing close to what it use to be or what many thought we were joining. If CUSA has any sense, they would break this conference to shreds and make the absolute most out of what each school has to offer.

-Drop both Fl schools.

-Drop UAB

-Keep all Tx schools & everyone else

-Rearrange divsions and create 1 permanent cross division team in football for every team that geographically makes as much sense as possible.

-Create performance requirements to maintain membership in football, bball, and baseball. (This should be developed and implemented for every conference. Then heavily enforce it)

-Force all members to have baseball (As a conference administration, I would consider this as our niche and the conference must make every necessary adjustment to ensure programs are succeeding at a high level)

This would be a good start.

Why drop UAB? Pretty good basketball.

Ben Gooding · May 6, 2016

1 minute ago, DeepGreen said:

Why drop UAB? Pretty good basketball.

Because it sits in between Tuscaloosa and Auburn. There is no potential there to ever materialize into anything, ever. The CITY of Birmingham could get 100% financially behind that university in every aspect and the TOWNS of Tuscaloosa and Auburn would see to it that it NEVER gets any momentum behind it. Never. Ever. They are a product of their in-state environment. The same could be said for UNT quite frankly. But there are so many universities in the state of Texas the powers that be can't keep them all at bay forever. A couple will eventually rise from the ashes and we just have to play the cards dealt to us and hope that UNT is one day one of them. TCU has already done it. Houston is building themselves up to do it eventually. There will be more.

KingDL1 · May 6, 2016

I looked forward to Tulsa, Houston, and Tulane as away games to attend. I don't care at all about San Antonio or really Utep. So this to me, short of Rice, is almost as bad as being in the belt.

DeepGreen · May 6, 2016

For me the kick in the knuts came when Tulane and Tulsa left. Not powerhouses for sure, but have name recognition and academics.

GrandGreen · May 6, 2016

Nothing against the Belt, it is a much better conference than its reputation. CUSA is a small step up in reality, but in perception staying in the Belt would have been disastrous for NT.

The move was obviously not the upgrade NT anticipated, but staying in the Belt, the way it turned out, would have been actually a big step down. However, it doesn't matter much what conference NT is in if it continues to be at the bottom in major sports.

I think being in a conference with other Texas schools helps in recruiting versus being isolated as the only Texas team in a league. However, as attendance indicates there is not a lot more fan interest in playing CUSA teams than the Belt. Significantly more visitor fans, but overall disappointing support from NT fans. In general, winning is much more important in selling the program versus who NT plays.

greenjoe · May 6, 2016

I'm with Deep. I like CUSA better than the Sun Belt but it's not as good without Tulsa and Tulane. I really like being in a conference that includes Southern Miss and La Tech and Rice. These are schools we should be competitive with year after year. the 2013 season not withstanding, I think we've squandered most of our opportunities so far in CUSA. We should have been a top contender right from the start. I'm sorry were a homecoming opponent and a sure win for SEC and Big 12 schools.

GO MEAN GREEN

MeanGreenTexan · May 6, 2016

50 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

For me the kick in the knuts came when Tulane and Tulsa left. Not powerhouses for sure, but have name recognition and academics.

Add ECU and I agree.

NTXCoog · May 6, 2016

2 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

I looked forward to Tulsa, Houston, and Tulane as away games to attend. I don't care at all about San Antonio or really Utep. So this to me, short of Rice, is almost as bad as being in the belt.

Tulsa and Tulane I understand because they didn't leave until later, but Houston had already announced it was leaving, so why would you have looked forward to playing UH?

MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF · May 6, 2016

Better than the Belt, even though it has become Belt 2.0 and Belt has become Southland 2.0.

New TV contract will not be great. As bowl contracts expire, you have to wonder how many will be renewed.

Other thought: ESPN and FOX losing money, Hulu-type going into sports...is there a possibility of being able to strike deals with both? My guess is, no, in that ESPN/FOX will deny reality for as along as possible - as all dying/faltering corporate giants do when other entities begin to outflank them and killing them with death by a thousand cuts - and, thus, fight dual contracts.

Edited May 6, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

KingDL1 · May 8, 2016

On 5/6/2016 at 10:55 AM, NTXCoog said:

Tulsa and Tulane I understand because they didn't leave until later, but Houston had already announced it was leaving, so why would you have looked forward to playing UH?

Because I had wanted us to move to CUSA long before the announcement, I was never a fan of the Belt.

So my wish was a bit tarnished from start.

rcade · May 8, 2016

It was a good move because it gave us more conference foes in Texas and took us out of the weakest FBS conference. But CUSA has proven to be a weak conference to be in, and under RV we're making it weaker.

Got5onIt · May 9, 2016

Better than the Belt, no question.

untjim1995 · May 9, 2016

This is the single best conference affiliation we have had in the last 50 years. I'll always be thankful for SMU leaving to go after their Big East dreams and giving us their spot. Otherwise, we are still in the SBC. Just imagine for a moment if SMU, Tulane, and Tulsa hadn't left for the AAC, but everyone else had left (like UH, Memphis, ECU, UCF, USF, and Temple). CUSA would look like this right now: SMU, Rice, Tulsa, Tulane, UTEP, La Tech, UTSA, USM, Marshall, one F_U, UAB, MUTS, and probably still ODU and Charlotte just because of ECU's insistence that would have still backfired. That leaves us with this: UNT, Texas State, ULL, ULM, Arkansas State, Troy, South Alabama, WKU, one F_U, and probably Georgia State, Georgia Southern, and NMSU. This would depress anyone to think about, compared to what we have today.

People have heard of Rice, UTEP, La Tech, and Southern Miss. UTSA gives us a team that is easy to travel to see in a destination city that can also bring fans here, plus it should help you with recruiting other Texas HS kids. Tulsa and Tulane are solid names, but they have are not as attractive as Rice within Texas circles, just from the SWC history and its academic prestige, not to mention its location in a huge Texas city.

The hard part about CUSA is the East. Having both Florida Airport schools, as well as Charlotte and ODU doesn't do anything for attracting viewers to watch us play them. UAB, MUTS, WKU, and Marshall are all solid names for both revenue sports, but we only needed one of the F_Us, and giving us Charlotte and ODU as a way to placate ECU was just plain stupid, as they were always going to leave when given the chance.

Cerebus · May 9, 2016

9 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

giving us Charlotte and ODU as a way to placate ECU was just plain stupid, as they were always going to leave when given the chance.

ODU is going to be a star in this conference. They are in a talent rich area with not a ton of instate competition. They have the highest athletic budget in CUSA, by a lot. They need to upgrade their stadium, but fundraising is going very well.

They have almost five times as many season ticket holders than we do, and they played a seven home game schedule last year. If this program doesn't turn around soon other CUSA teams are going to start wondering why they keep NT around, not ODU.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Cerebus