Rebuilding C-USA

Aldo · October 26, 2018

Here's a short article I wrote for CUSA Report way back in August that kind of covers (from a 30k foot perspective) what has been making us sad lately: parity in this league.

It sucks we are not going to make a repeat championship appearance. But it also speaks to how competitive this league has become, compared to how top heavy it was just a few years ago. As a whole, that is good for the league when we get lots of attention.

The focused effort by C-USA schools on bringing in coaching talent has paid dividends throughout the league. All new coaches hired since 2016 made a bowl appearance in their first year (we are counting UAB’s Bill Clark’s Return Year as a Year One because of the circumstances).

“In this conference you better be ready to play. First of all, there’s excellent coaches,” FIU’s Butch Davis said when asked about the influx of new coaches. “The competitiveness: they recruit well, there’s a lot of talent…if you don’t show up and you’re not prepared to play on Saturday, you’re going to get your butt beat.”

https://cusareport.com/2018/08/10/rebuilding-conference-usa/

greenminer · October 26, 2018

Would you say the rest of the league has risen to match the top tier, or that the top tier has fallen into the pool of the rest of the league? We really seem to be struggling to get into the same perception the media held of the league when it was TCU/Cinci/etc...

Something that's been on my mind the last few years: does a single dominating program - one that effectively is the face of the league - hurt or help the respect of the conference as a whole? Does the respect carry over into the rest of the league, or does perception get narrow and media tend to more easily disregard anyone that is not that team?

Aldo · October 29, 2018

On 10/26/2018 at 6:21 PM, greenminer said:

Would you say the rest of the league has risen to match the top tier, or that the top tier has fallen into the pool of the rest of the league? We really seem to be struggling to get into the same perception the media held of the league when it was TCU/Cinci/etc...

Something that's been on my mind the last few years: does a single dominating program - one that effectively is the face of the league - hurt or help the respect of the conference as a whole? Does the respect carry over into the rest of the league, or does perception get narrow and media tend to more easily disregard anyone that is not that team?

When you have a top heavy league, you generally see articles praising that team (I'm recalling many WKU or LaTech articles) and then dismissing the rest of the conference.

The rest of the league is moving up. In any league you'll have a couple teams in each division that are bad, couple that are really good, and many average mid-major level teams. I think there's a lot of competition in the West. FIU's potential had been written about for a while as preseason sleepers many years running. They've had some talented rosters with coaches not able to fully take advantage.

It's all about maintaining consistency. MTSU and WKU were beating P5s for a stint, but have not been able to regain that level of play. FAU disappeared. It remains to be seen what happens to UAB and North Texas.

As long as the league has good ADs hiring good coaches, we'll garner attention regardless of the league's administrative competency.

Harry · October 29, 2018

1 hour ago, Aldo said:

When you have a top heavy league, you generally see articles praising that team (I'm recalling many WKU or LaTech articles) and then dismissing the rest of the conference.

The rest of the league is moving up. In any league you'll have a couple teams in each division that are bad, couple that are really good, and many average mid-major level teams. I think there's a lot of competition in the West. FIU's potential had been written about for a while as preseason sleepers many years running. They've had some talented rosters with coaches not able to fully take advantage.

It's all about maintaining consistency. MTSU and WKU were beating P5s for a stint, but have not been able to regain that level of play. FAU disappeared. It remains to be seen what happens to UAB and North Texas.

As long as the league has good ADs hiring good coaches, we'll garner attention regardless of the league's administrative competency.

C-USA has been a good league for us. It isn't perfect. I know there are issues with refs and TV contracts etc. I just don't seem to see the angst we had being on an island in the Sun Belt for those years.

untjim1995 · October 29, 2018

1 hour ago, Harry said:

C-USA has been a good league for us. It isn't perfect. I know there are issues with refs and TV contracts etc. I just don't seem to see the angst we had being on an island in the Sun Belt for those years.

Exactly.

Texas State deals with what dealt with for our tenure on the SBC. You don't play any conference games against Texas teams. It will always be viewed as the bottom of the barrel, conference wise. Its really a shame, too, because the top of their conference with Troy, Arkansas State, ULL, Appy State, and Georgia Southern each having had some great seasons in the recent past. BUt its the Belt--nobody gives it any of the respect it probably deserves...

Aldo · October 29, 2018

1 hour ago, Harry said:

C-USA has been a good league for us. It isn't perfect. I know there are issues with refs and TV contracts etc. I just don't seem to see the angst we had being on an island in the Sun Belt for those years.

All things considered yes it was as good as we could have hoped for coming up from SBC.

Whether we like it or not, the AAC is the most prominent mid major. Can we get there? I think we can. The schools are doing their part by hiring quality coaches.

GreenTexan13 · October 29, 2018

4 hours ago, Aldo said:

All things considered yes it was as good as we could have hoped for coming up from SBC.

Whether we like it or not, the AAC is the most prominent mid major. Can we get there? I think we can. The schools are doing their part by hiring quality coaches.

2 things come to mind when reading this thread.

CUSA needs a little work, AAC is kicking our butt with team recognition this year and UCF leading the charge. Definitely counting our blessings as I feel like the sun belt is a step down. But CUSA's tv contract sucks and the refs need to be evaluated.

Secondly, does anyone know if it would ever be possible to join the AAC? Or does SMU lock the door on that while they are stinking it up in that conference. If that's the case, cheers to CUSA surpassing the AAC in the future.

Edited October 29, 2018 by GreenTexan13

untjim1995 · October 30, 2018

3 hours ago, GreenTexan13 said:

2 things come to mind when reading this thread.

CUSA needs a little work, AAC is kicking our butt with team recognition this year and UCF leading the charge. Definitely counting our blessings as I feel like the sun belt is a step down. But CUSA's tv contract sucks and the refs need to be evaluated.

Secondly, does anyone know if it would ever be possible to join the AAC? Or does SMU lock the door on that while they are stinking it up in that conference. If that's the case, cheers to CUSA surpassing the AAC in the future.

Right now, with TV dominating the agendas of these conferences, no more overlap of markets will occur.

DeepGreen · October 30, 2018

All I know is on any given Saturday during football season, the American Athletic Conference has at least 5 games telecast on "real TV". Yes, that includes all the ESPN cable/satellite channels, plus CBS Sports network. For me, that's real TV.

I know many like the streaming of games on a PC, phone, iPad, whatever. The games I have seen on ESPN3, streaming quality and play by play announcers are.........sketchy at best. Just plain terrible. And that's not how I want to view North Texas football. And the absurd amount of revenue(?) of $200,000 from ESPN(I think) is a joke. Whatever her name is (McLoed?) over Conference USA should be fired for accepting that kind of deal. $200K is not enough to wad a shotgun!

And if CUSA has slipped that much then we sure as hell should be trying to get into a new conference!

meangreenlax · October 30, 2018

8 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

Troy, Arkansas State, ULL, Appy State, and Georgia Southern each having had some great seasons in the recent past. BUt its the Belt--nobody gives it any of the respect it probably deserves...

I know this would never happen, but if we had to make CUSA a long term home, I'd be in favor of dumping the bottom half of the conference, and taking on all of those schools. I much rather watch Ark St and Troy play than piddly Charlotte or ODU.

NT93 · October 30, 2018

36 minutes ago, meangreenlax said:

I know this would never happen, but if we had to make CUSA a long term home, I'd be in favor of dumping the bottom half of the conference, and taking on all of those schools. I much rather watch Ark St and Troy play than piddly Charlotte or ODU.

I've never given this any thought, but you might be on to something. While we would obviously like to move up the conference chain, this would be an improvement over what we have now.

GMG_Dallas · October 30, 2018

On 10/26/2018 at 6:21 PM, greenminer said:

Would you say the rest of the league has risen to match the top tier, or that the top tier has fallen into the pool of the rest of the league? We really seem to be struggling to get into the same perception the media held of the league when it was TCU/Cinci/etc...

Something that's been on my mind the last few years: does a single dominating program - one that effectively is the face of the league - hurt or help the respect of the conference as a whole? Does the respect carry over into the rest of the league, or does perception get narrow and media tend to more easily disregard anyone that is not that team?

Pure opinion but i think to build up the perception of a conference you need 2-3 really strong consistent 10 win teams and for those ten win teams to win some big bowl games. The Mountain West started with Boise State and TCU in the mid-2000s really taking off and that's what has kept the Mountain West looking good despite Boise State dropping off a bit. The AAC has followed with UCF and Blake Bottles a few years ago and now still mostly UCF. Those conferences are still riding the major successes that just a few programs sustained over the course of 2-3 seasons.

If C-USA could get 2 or 3 teams to win 10 games straight over the course of 2-3 years with big bowl games the perception of the entire conference would be elevated.

VideoEagle · October 30, 2018

2 hours ago, GMG_Dallas said:

If C-USA could get 2 or 3 teams to win 10 games straight over the course of 2-3 years with big bowl games the perception of the entire conference would be elevated.

This is the formula for conference success. Look at the best - the SEC. They have Alabama and then usually one, never more than two, other very strong teams and the rest are middle of the road or poor. The B1G has Ohio State and one other most years. When they have multiple good teams and show parity, those are the years they are left out of the play off or before that National Championship picture. The PAC 12 has had parity more years than not since the playoffs began. The years they had a really dominant team, the got in. And the Big XII. When one team is dominate they get in but when they have two or more teams beating each other up they get left out. Just see what happened the TCU and Baylor a few years back - either of them wins one more game and they would have been in.

untjim1995 · October 30, 2018

11 hours ago, meangreenlax said:

I know this would never happen, but if we had to make CUSA a long term home, I'd be in favor of dumping the bottom half of the conference, and taking on all of those schools. I much rather watch Ark St and Troy play than piddly Charlotte or ODU.

This will eventually happen, as the G5s have to become more regionalized in the future to control costs and increase gate revenue. The MWC and MAC do it right, for the most part. The AAC, CUSA, and SBC do it all wrong.

Again, right now, TV controls the day, but as these contracts continue to dwindle for this level of play, at some point the proximity of games for travel will become the number one priority for the G5's, even if there are still some conferences that won't share markets anymore.

UNTLifer · October 30, 2018

14 hours ago, meangreenlax said:

I know this would never happen, but if we had to make CUSA a long term home, I'd be in favor of dumping the bottom half of the conference, and taking on all of those schools. I much rather watch Ark St and Troy play than piddly Charlotte or ODU.

I am with you, but I would replace Troy with U-Lala

Salsa_Verde · October 30, 2018

Apparently it’s just Louisiana now 🤷🏽‍♂️

Edited October 30, 2018 by Salsa_Verde

UNTLifer · October 30, 2018

2 minutes ago, Salsa_Verde said:

Apparently it’s just Louisiana now 🤷🏽‍♂️

I thought so as well until I checked their university website, which is confusing because the web address is louisiana.edu yet on the homepage it shows Louisiana Lafayette.

https://louisiana.edu/

Aldo · October 30, 2018

YEAH BUT LOUISIANA DONT GOT NO LANE KIFFIN

Ahem. Excuse me.

We need more Jeff Brohms and CUSA has better access to the Jeff Brohms.

Time for a burger.

UNTexas · October 31, 2018

On 10/29/2018 at 11:32 AM, Harry said:

C-USA has been a good league for us. It isn't perfect. I know there are issues with refs and TV contracts etc. I just don't seem to see the angst we had being on an island in the Sun Belt for those years.

The problem was we should have been in CUSA when it was good. Timing was off. However, the university is moving in the right direction now. CUSA has been good for us but UNT is really putting together top notch facilities and exponentially improving the Athletic Department. You aren't seeing that in other CUSA schools IMO. I'd like to see us shoot for the AAC. Not sure if that would ever happen but it is a good football conference anyway. Perception anyways. One could always dream for the Big 12 but we aren't there yet...