CUSA breakup inevitable?

Salsa_Verde · February 25, 2018

An article was posted earlier in the week about ODU wanting to leave the conference. Many dismissed it and called the article a local newsman’s biased perception. This article is similiar but with a Texas view on it. Simply put a lot of these programs don’t belong in the same conference. It’s the off-season so why not speculate on what’s next.

https://swcroundup.com/news/2018/2/24/inevitable

Mean Green 93-98 · February 25, 2018

This is premature and alarmist. C-USA is certainly not "crumbling," nor is its breakup imminent.

And the idea of trying to get UTA and UALR to start football so we could be in a conference with them? That makes no sense on any level.

But a lot of what is said makes sense. What advantage do we gain being in a conference with Charlotte and ODU over Arky State and ULL?

But I'd hate to downgrade. Ideally, the dominoes above us fall again, and we move up to the AAC.

Rudy · February 25, 2018

We're not going to the AAC. We need to focus on the MWC.

meangreenJW · February 26, 2018

The ODU writer that wrote it is trash. He writes inflammatory stuff all the time and it's almost always wrong. No one wants ODU except maybe the 'belt. If they wanna go there, be my guest.

GrayEagle · February 26, 2018

2 hours ago, Rudy said:

We're not going to the AAC. We need to focus on the MWC.

I'd have to disagree with the first part of your statement. Maybe not totally disagree but I do think that's where we could be headed. Part of my reasoning for this is that Commissioner Aresco and Wren Baker are friends. If you recall, the commissioner sent Wren a congratulatory message when he was approved as the athletic director at North Texas.

I believe that if we can stay the course on financial, facility and attendance improvements that we might very well be either an addition or a replacement should a current member drop out.

Not that I wouldn't take the MWC over what we've got in a heartbeat but I believe that for the MWC to accept us that we'd have to be included with UTEP or Rice. Actually, Rice would be good but UTEP would make for a distant travel partner. Air Force would be the closest existing member and we have little history with them (or any other member for that matter).

At least, with Wren Baker, I believe that conference improvement is highly likely and something needs to be started now.

Rudy · February 27, 2018

The AAC already has a place in the DFW market, the MWC doesn't. And I understand the travel aspect, but the MWC is not the Big West.

diehardUNTfan · February 27, 2018

I kind of like the c-usa...

Rudy · February 27, 2018

You kind of like the conference whose bowl tie ins meant our best option was the New Orleans Bowl? The same conference that has a terrible TV deal, forcing us to watch our games via shitty streaming, for the most part?

Salsa_Verde · February 27, 2018

On 2/25/2018 at 3:41 PM, Mean Green 93-98 said:

C-USA is certainly not "crumbling," nor is its breakup imminent

It’s not crumbling but it certainly isn’t thriving....and a break-up is obviously not imminent....but it is inevitable. The future of G5 football may in fact be the splintering off into brand new conferences that make more regional sense.

2 hours ago, diehardUNTfan said:

I kind of like the c-usa...

The C-USA champion went to the Boca Raton Bowl...against Akron. Not exactly a premier matchup.

Harry · February 27, 2018

I don't get why people are so quick to bail on C-USA. We have only been in the conference 4 years now so that means they have been there for 3. It takes time to develop new rivalries etc. He says that C-USA is a drag on them in hoops, but goodness we may have 2 in the NCAA's this season as Muts is likely to go even if they lose the tourney.

I get the regionality card he is playing, and yes in a perfect world we would be in a SWC sort of format ourselves. As a fan who weathered years in the Big West and Sun Belt, I sure like the fact that we have 3 Texas opponents and get games in Houston etc. And the attendance angle is not just a C-USA issue, it is affecting places like Texas and A&M. Technology has made it so damn easy to watch games, you have to think out of the box and figure out ways to get the students back. You can't have shitty internet signals in the stadium anymore. The games are too long. There has to been some adjustments made or the attendance will continue to decline.

The gist of his article is bemoaning the loss of TV revenue when you get right down to it and the fact that ODU can no longer offset travel costs which I understand. But the conference will be as good as we all choose to make it. If we can build ourselves up attendance, and facility wise as a conference and win against the AAC and even some p5 games we could see a brighter future.

BTG_Fan1 · February 27, 2018

Where has it been said students don’t attend because of crappy WiFi? I’ve never once had issues with the WiFi at Apogee

diehardUNTfan · February 27, 2018

16 hours ago, Salsa_Verde said:

The C-USA champion went to the Boca Raton Bowl...against Akron. Not exactly a premier matchup.

That's because they chose to play at home.

wardly · February 27, 2018

17 hours ago, Rudy said:

You kind of like the conference whose bowl tie ins meant our best option was the New Orleans Bowl? The same conference that has a terrible TV deal, forcing us to watch our games via shitty streaming, for the most part?

The MWC bowl tie ends were a little better, but not much. Albuquerque,Tucson,Ft. Worth, and Honolulu. Also, I think the MWC opted out of their T.V. contract because it was so crappy. No one paid attention to TCU when they won the both the WAC and MWC because of the time zones. I can hardly wait to watch UNT kickoff at SDSU about 10:00 pm. during a weeknight.

Salsa_Verde · February 28, 2018

21 hours ago, diehardUNTfan said:

That's because they chose to play at home.

I still don’t understand why C-USA let their conference championship opt to play in that bowl, against a questionable opponent. This further underscores why the long term longevity of this conference is in doubt. It would have been great for C-USA to get FAU a better opponent and a better bowl. But I guess as it stands all of C-USA bowl tie-ins are pretty bad.

Salsa_Verde · February 28, 2018

20 hours ago, wardly said:

I can hardly wait to watch UNT kickoff at SDSU about 10:00 pm. during a weeknight.

Well thanks to the internet and streaming you can watch pretty much anything at whatever time you want now.

MeanGreenTexan · February 28, 2018

27 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

I still don’t understand why C-USA let their conference championship opt to play in that bowl, against a questionable opponent. This further underscores why the long term longevity of this conference is in doubt. It would have been great for C-USA to get FAU a better opponent and a better bowl. But I guess as it stands all of C-USA bowl tie-ins are pretty bad.

You & me both. Sleepy MacLeod.

UNTLifer · March 17, 2018

On 2/26/2018 at 10:23 PM, Rudy said:

You kind of like the conference whose bowl tie ins meant our best option was the New Orleans Bowl? The same conference that has a terrible TV deal, forcing us to watch our games via shitty streaming, for the most part?

What was the MWC's best bowl? The New Orleans wasn't CUSA's, just where our team chose to play.

The MWC dumped their television contract. How many MWC games did you watch this year?

The MWC isn't the answer.

wardly · March 17, 2018

12 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

What was the MWC's best bowl? The New Orleans wasn't CUSA's, just where our team chose to play.

The MWC dumped their television contract. How many MWC games did you watch this year?

The MWC isn't the answer.

Albuquerque is closest MWC program.Our fans don't even travel to La. Tech,UTSA, or Rice, let alone to New Mexico. The difference in time zones is also an issue. Who watched TCU when the won the WAC and MWC? In fact, were many of their games televised? With the TV golden goose dead for G5 programs such as North Texas, reducing expenses should be a priority. In my opinion real realignment will happen in about 2025 when NCAA national contracts expire. I would expect the Big 12 to dissolve , and those left behind to cherry pick the AAC. We then would replace SMU, and find ourselves in same position we are now, as the new AAC would be made up primarily of leftovers and CUSA/SBC members. At present the CUSA has two original members,UAB and So. Miss.The other dozen are former WAC and SBC schools plus a start up. I just don't see much difference between the conference we left and the one we joined, except we are strung out from El Paso to Virginia.

UNTLifer · March 18, 2018

On 2/26/2018 at 6:27 PM, Rudy said:

The AAC already has a place in the DFW market, the MWC doesn't. And I understand the travel aspect, but the MWC is not the Big West.

Does the MWC care about having a place in the DFW market? They never really expressed an interest, plus it is way out of their geographic footprint.

TreeFiddy · March 18, 2018

If the MWC goes to 16 teams and we are somehow included, there will most certainly be 2 divisions, which means we would be playing very few far west teams per year and half of the time those games would be in Apogee.

Someone must have been paying attention to TCU while in the MWC because they used their success to land an invite from the Big 12.

The MWC isn’t that great but it is viewed as a step up from CUSA so you probably have to take the offer if invited.

meangreenJW · March 18, 2018

2 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

If the MWC goes to 16 teams and we are somehow included, there will most certainly be 2 divisions, which means we would be playing very few far west teams per year and half of the time those games would be in Apogee.

Someone must have been paying attention to TCU while in the MWC because they used their success to land an invite from the Big 12.

The MWC isn’t that great but it is viewed as a step up from CUSA so you probably have to take the offer if invited.

To me this is about perception. The MWC is only negligibly better if at all. But I think it's perceived as the #2 conference in the Group of 5. TCU basically took every opportunity to "upgrade" whether it made sense geographically or not. Honestly, I'd rather play the CUSA teams. I think as we become more competitive we'd build better rivalries, travel better, etc. But I think if given the opportunity to go to the MWC, we should go purely because it's regarded as a better conference nationally.