MGB: Arkansas State AD: UNT has made a "huge commitment"

Brett Vito · March 14, 2017

MGB: ASU official talks about financial commitment UNT is making to its basketball program

http://meangreenblog.dentonrc.com/2017/03/arkansas-state-ad-unt-has-made-huge-commitment.html/

Green92 · March 14, 2017

Ok, which one of you are going to post the CUSA coaches salaries?

GreenFlag · March 14, 2017

Bawhahaha! The ASU AD saying that GM said ASU was the better job.

GM being nice as he exited that craphole called Jonesboro. I've been. That place is terrible.

emmitt01 · March 14, 2017

Anyone else notice he looks like a much older Eddie Munster?

southsideguy · March 14, 2017

hope he is on campus tomorrow earning his money

Ryan Munthe · March 14, 2017

Wow. This A-State AD sounds seriously small time. Whine a bit more.

ADLER · March 14, 2017

Here's the Arkansas State AD press conference: http://www.953theticket.com/?p=17615

BillySee58 · March 14, 2017

We almost doubled the salary they could offer, and we are located in DFW vs. Jonesboogie while being in a better conference but A-State is the better job

VideoEagle · March 14, 2017

Guys, what's the Arkansas State AD supposed to say? A State has lost a bunch of football coaches to SEC schools over the past decade. Now they lose a coach to a peer institution. In basketball the SBC and CUSA both only get a single team into the NCAAs. A State won twenty games last year and we've only won about twenty in the last three or four combined. A State has much better attendance at their games. They have their home town solidly behind them. We don't have those things, at least not yet.

Does anyone know the story behind the family member who is ill? That would give him a reason to consider moving but he also needs to take care of the rest of his family. Thus not moving without a significant raise.

A State has found a way to replace coaches who depart, but it's easier on their fans when the coach goes to a P5 school rather than one that was in their own conference just a few years before.

oldguystudent · March 14, 2017

16 minutes ago, VideoEagle said:

CUSA...only get a single team into the NCAAs.

Funny that since Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, and now SMU all fled to the AAC that College Insider still doesn't consider CUSA to be a mid-major conference.

CUSA has a pretty serious identity crisis going on in both football and basketball right now.

Nonetheless, I refuse to believe that a conference led by Karl "Kill ALL the football" Benson is ever better than CUSA in any sport. Ever. Nope.

VideoEagle · March 14, 2017

6 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Funny that since Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, and now SMU all fled to the AAC that College Insider still doesn't consider CUSA to be a mid-major conference.

CUSA has a pretty serious identity crisis going on in both football and basketball right now.

Nonetheless, I refuse to believe that a conference led by Karl "Kill ALL the football" Benson is ever better than CUSA in any sport. Ever. Nope.

I've written before the last round of conference realignment had a net weakening of most of the conferences involved. The old SBC was stronger than the new one, the old CUSA was stronger than the current one and the AAC/Big East football schools were stronger then the current one. There is still a scale and still differences, but the distance between the conferences closed a lot the last time around. We are all closer than most members would like to admit.

And as far as the rest of the country is concerned, both the SBC and CUSA are single team conferences that are going to have their champions seeded at 10 or above.

We are now taking steps to show we will put resources into winning our conference. I'm hopeful this is the start of a long term commitment to growing the program. First, you win with the schedule we have. Let's face it, we don't play strong teams and we still don't win! Let first win with this level of competition, THEN upgrade the schedule and learn to win that schedule. Repeat and eventually we reach the point we actually can be competing for at large NCAA berths. But that is years away.

In the mean time, let's start by getting 20 wins. Very few people will care now about WHO we beat for those as long as we get them. Let's make 20 wins the standard and slowly upgrade the competition agains whom we are getting those wins.

BillySee58 · March 14, 2017

1 hour ago, VideoEagle said:

Guys, what's the Arkansas State AD supposed to say? A State has lost a bunch of football coaches to SEC schools over the past decade. Now they lose a coach to a peer institution. In basketball the SBC and CUSA both only get a single team into the NCAAs. A State won twenty games last year and we've only won about twenty in the last three or four combined.

By what math? We won 12 games last year and 8 games this year. That's 20 in the last two years. Not 20 in the last three or four.

As for what he's supposed to say, how about something along the lines of "it's an opportunity he wanted to pursue and the location was something he couldn't pass up given his background and family situation."

To make it sound like his father is the only reason he would ever consider going from Arkansas State to UNT makes him sound ridiculous, when it's public knowledge that we gave him 188% of the salary they would've given him, and we undeniably are in a location that is more advantageous for recruiting.

TheReal_jayD · March 14, 2017

12 minutes ago, BillySee58 said:

By what math? We won 12 games last year and 8 games this year. That's 20 in the last two years. Not 20 in the last three or four.

As for what he's supposed to say, how about something along the lines of "it's an opportunity he wanted to pursue and the location was something he couldn't pass up given his background and family situation."

To make it sound like his father is the only reason he would ever consider going from Arkansas State to UNT makes him sound ridiculous, when it's public knowledge that we gave him 188% of the salary they would've given him, and we undeniably are in a location that is more advantageous for recruiting.

Eastwood Eagle · March 14, 2017

14 hours ago, GreenFlag said:

Bawhahaha! The ASU AD saying that GM said ASU was the better job.

GM being nice as he exited that craphole called Jonesboro. I've been. That place is terrible.

I read it as McCasland saying ASU is a better job (by telling Mohajir that). From Vito's article:

“Purely family,” Mohajir said. “I am going to be candid with you. He said this is a better job, a top three job in the Sun Belt. He has family in Texas. His dad had a stroke a couple of years ago. He wants to be there to support his family.

Due to poor grammar by Vito it's unclear if Vito is saying the bold or if Mohajir is saying the bold. Vito did not provide end quotes, so it is unclear if the bold is Vito speaking or Mohajir. We don't know who the "he" pronoun is.

In any event, if it was McCasland speaking, and if accurate, that is not really exciting news.

Edited March 14, 2017 by Eastwood Eagle

Army of Dad · March 14, 2017

2 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Nonetheless, I refuse to believe that a conference led by Karl "Kill ALL the football" Benson is ever better than CUSA in any sport. Ever. Nope.

You're way ahead of most on here on college baseball, but where do the current iterations of the two rank in comparison on the diamond?

oldguystudent · March 14, 2017

15 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

You're way ahead of most on here on college baseball, but where do the current iterations of the two rank in comparison on the diamond?

The absorbtion of Coastal Carolina definitely brings instant prestige to the conference. ULL is always a force.

CUSA has the perennial Rice along with the up and coming F_U schools, and Southern Miss. The whole conference looks pretty good in OOC record right now. I'll have to go look up year over year conference rankings a little later.

untjim1995 · March 14, 2017

2 hours ago, oldguystudent said:

Funny that since Memphis, Cincinnati, Houston, Tulsa, and now SMU all fled to the AAC that College Insider still doesn't consider CUSA to be a mid-major conference.

CUSA has a pretty serious identity crisis going on in both football and basketball right now.

Nonetheless, I refuse to believe that a conference led by Karl "Kill ALL the football" Benson is ever better than CUSA in any sport. Ever. Nope.

Its kind of funny--the folks at UConn want out of the AAC to go back to the Big East because they believe the conference is run down now--which is true.

The folks at Southern Miss and Marshall don't like CUSA because its become SBC 2.0, but they can't do much about it because they have no TV market to sell the AAC.

And the folks at Arkansas State and ULL can't believe they are stuck still in the SBC while UNT, MUTS, WKU, and the F_Us got away.

Until these conferences realize that geographic realignment is their only way to move forward, it will continue to be this way--too many people in the AAC and CUSA look down their noses at other schools being aligned with them in conferences...it really is cutting off your nose to spite your face, in most cases.