December Ask The Commissioner

MeanGreen61 · December 5, 2006

WKU’s decision lends itself to the next issue, the question of whether we should consider a 10th football program or a 14th member. There is a point of diminishing returns, and I think we are there. Our focus should be on improving the quality of our product and trying to build better brand loyalty.

http://www.sunbeltsports.org/ViewArticle.d...CRIBER_CONTENT=

gksmith · December 6, 2006

Personally, I would prefer to have an even number...like 10.

If we were to get 12, we get to have a "conference championship game." Still doesn't get us into the BCS.

Question would be...who would we get to be the 10th team? Any of the basketball schools already in the conference close to D1A football?

MeanGreenBuzz · December 6, 2006

Personally, I would prefer to have an even number...like 10.
If we were to get 12, we get to have a "conference championship game." Still doesn't get us into the BCS.
Question would be...who would we get to be the 10th team? Any of the basketball schools already in the conference close to D1A football?
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I don't think many of the B-Ball schools even field football.

VideoEagle · December 6, 2006

Nine is a great number for scheduling in football. You have an even number of home and away conference games. You can play a round-robin schedule - none of this “the two best teams didn’t play each other” stuff. And, you still have four OCC games.

Basketball and baseball play a LOT more games, so 12 teams works well for this.

Right now, we are going to have 12 for basketball and 9 for football. It’s great. Don’t touch it till someone leaves.

Arkstfan · December 6, 2006

Personally, I would prefer to have an even number...like 10.
If we were to get 12, we get to have a "conference championship game." Still doesn't get us into the BCS.
Question would be...who would we get to be the 10th team? Any of the basketball schools already in the conference close to D1A football?
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9 gives you a 4/4 schedule home and away. 10 means either a 5/4 or skipping one opponent every year and that opens the door to the top two teams not meeting and finishing with identical records.

In football you want odd numbers to get that even home/home split without skipping a team or you want to go all the way to 12 and have a title game.

In basketball even numbers are better because it allows the league schedule to be a week shorter or avoids having to have some three game weeks in order to squeeze the conference schedule into a tight time frame. That's very important for the Belt because we have an early conference tournament due to television and historically try to avoid league play prior to January 1 because being a southern league interest in basketball tends to not come until then.

The best size for the Sun Belt would be 9 football and 12 basketball.

El Paso Eagle · December 6, 2006

I would not mind 10 if that meant the addition of La Tech. I know a lot of people have hard feelings regarding La Tech but I think they would make a good addition. As far as the 5/4 home/away or away/home conference schedule so be it. As far as scheduling I think we can work around that, however I would like to make sure the schedule always splits the Florida schools (one home and one away) each year.

VideoEagle · December 6, 2006

I’m still no to 10 in football. That is one more split in our already small conference TV revenue. I don’t thing the addition of the Ruston TV market is going off set splitting the dollars 10 ways instead of just 9.

Besides, if you’ve read the La Tech board lately, they would rather drop football than rejoin the SBC. Plus, their athletic department is structured in a way that it MUST have larger dollars from their conference than the SBC currently pays since their alums don’t donate enough and their ticket sales are very, very low. In other words, they couldn’t afford to join the Belt even if they wanted to!

badgerwolf · December 6, 2006

I would not mind 10 if that meant the addition of La Tech. I know a lot of people have hard feelings regarding La Tech but I think they would make a good addition. As far as the 5/4 home/away or away/home conference schedule so be it. As far as scheduling I think we can work around that, however I would like to make sure the schedule always splits the Florida schools (one home and one away) each year.
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NOT EVER going to happen per the Prez at La Tech:

Reneau stressed throughout the meeting that Tech will continue to work toward being competitive with schools in the WAC and Conference USA.

When asked what would happen should American Manpower recommend a return to the Sunbelt Conference, Reneau said, “Then they won’t get paid."

http://www.rustonleader.com/news.php?id=2054

NT80 · December 6, 2006

Reneau said the company would look at both structure and dollar figures on what it will take to make the university competitive with other schools in the Western Athletic Conference or Conference USA.

“I believe the bottom line will be the money,” Reneau said.

DUH!

Tech wants a Big12 program on a High School budget. Can't be done. And if you've ever been to Ruston the local term Rust-On the campus is very accurate. Good luck with 1/10 of any funding and upgrades they hope to make.

Arkstfan · December 7, 2006

The rumor has been around that Tech actually put out feelers about returning to the Belt shortly after UTEP was accepted to CUSA and UNT rejected the WAC. The story is the guys who represent the bulk of their donations threatened to pull 100% of their money if they went to the Belt. Of course we know universities won't do something stupid just because some loud-mouth big money donor demands it.

It's been reported on the Tech board that they have less than 500 athletic donors TOTAL.

When I was on the booster club board at ASU we had right at 1,000 and that was when football was really sucking and basketball was so-so. After last year we bumped our minimum donation for numbered parking spots for football up to $1250 a year and have over 200 members at that level or greater.

Per the reports submitted by each school to the federal government, ASU and Tech had nearly identical budgets last year but Tech took in a ton more in game guarantees and league revenue. That means their ticket sales, donations and sponsorships were significantly smaller than ASU's.

badgerwolf · December 7, 2006

Saw this Nevada article on the Tech Board and thought some of you might be interested as you have a few fans who push for a move to the WAC:

Louisiana Tech probably should go back to the Sun Belt. Several of the schools are right in their backyard - Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana-Lafayette, Troy and North Texas. Those schools are a short drive or flight away. It would make more sense geography wise and financially.

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/200612...PORTS/112060061

Arkstfan · December 7, 2006

If they or anyone can't pay their bills without heavy reliance on game guarantees they've got serious issues and they will have to have a large stroke of luck to be successful.

When you play three money games on a 12 game schedule you lock in 3 losses and to get in a bowl you really need a 7-5 record. The WAC is tied to three bowl games and 6-6 won't get in you in a bowl unless the league has no available 7-5 teams. In the WAC you will play 13 games every other year. In those seasons you are bowl eligible at 7-6.

To get to 7-5 on a three money game schedule you've got win one non-conference (this year a I-AA) and then finish 6-2 in league play. That means win all of your home games and split your road games. In a 13 it means go 2-3 in non-conference and 6-2 in league.

To get to 6-2 in conference you've got to win your home games and split the road games. To avoid losing more than two you've got to beat one of Hawaii, Boise and Fresno. Since joining the WAC, Tech is 1-5 vs. Boise (five consecutive losses), 2-4 vs. Fresno, and 1-3 vs. Hawaii.

Now let's say you do that and get a 7 win season. The WAC only guarantees bowls to teams finishing 1 or 2. A 6-2 record may very well get into one of those slots but it could be a tie and if you've lost to a team you tied you could fall out of the 1-2. So if you don't snag a 1 or 2 seed then what happens? Well you cross your fingers because you know Hawaii is staying home if they've won 7 (which is just as well, you can't make money or take any real number of fans playing a bowl there). So you are between the New Mexico and MPC Computers bowls. Odds are that if you aren't 1 or 2 and don't have a dressy record (ie ranked or on the verge) that each bowl committee is going to pass on Tech if they can. For example Tech at 7-5 this year would have almost certainly been passed for any available WAC team in New Mexico except Idaho and maybe Utah State, likewise Tech would get passed in Boise for anyone except maybe San Jose.

So unless you are 1-2 or the WAC is short of being able to meet obligations, you won't get a WAC tied bowl. That means needing an at-large spot.

Well there were two at-large spots this year but if Pitt stops UConn from making a two-point conversion in the second overtime, there is only one available slot. If Indiana doesn't throw a pick for TD against UConn or doesn't lose to I-AA Southern Illinois, Indiana is in the Motor City Bowl. If Kansas doesn't drop one of the three games they lost by a TD or less they go to bowl. If Boise loses one game they probably miss the BCS and the WAC has more teams than bowls and probably sends San Jose to the Poinsettia.

Tech is backed into a corner because the top of their conference is very tough and their scheduling means a bowl berth is only available by placing 1-2 against that tough top or by making it to 7 wins and praying something is open without an available BCS team or an available regional team.