Unt's Place After The Next Expansions Are Done

NT80 · December 22, 2009

When CUSA loses its east coast members, CUSA could realign a west division team to the east (Tulane).

Tulane will not want to leave their division with other privates Smut and Tulsa and be forced into far more travel in the east division. The best hope for UNT would be if the Big East would take three from CUSA as in East Carolina, UCF and Memphis. That would leave more room for a UNT invite.

Edited December 22, 2009 by NT80

UNTflyer · December 22, 2009

Tulane will not want to leave their division with other privates Smut and Tulsa and be forced into far more travel in the east division. The best hope for UNT would be if the Big East would take three from CUSA as in East Carolina, UCF and Memphis. That would leave more room for a UNT invite.

As I said in my previous post, "when CUSA loses its east coast members..." Plural.

I think Memphis will not be invited to the Big East. Marshall makes more sense - they can tap into that old Marshall-West Virginia rivalry. Throw ECU in there and you renew another old rival of West Virginia. UCF and USF would become a natural rival game.

NT80 · December 22, 2009

As I said in my previous post, "when CUSA loses its east coast members..." Plural.
I think Memphis will not be invited to the Big East. Marshall makes more sense - they can tap into that old Marshall-West Virginia rivalry. Throw ECU in there and you renew another old rival of West Virginia. UCF and USF would become a natural rival game.

Got it, didn't see the (s) plural. Memphis brings a larger media market, good basketball plus a travel partner for Louisville. Marshall is small, not easy to get to and lousy basketball.

untjim1995 · December 22, 2009

As I said in my previous post, "when CUSA loses its east coast members..." Plural.
I think Memphis will not be invited to the Big East. Marshall makes more sense - they can tap into that old Marshall-West Virginia rivalry. Throw ECU in there and you renew another old rival of West Virginia. UCF and USF would become a natural rival game.

There is NO CHANCE that Marshall will move up to the Big East. Let me repeat--NO CHANCE. Not only do they provide no viewership whatsoever, WVU would put a stop to that in a second. East Carolina--maybe. Memphis is going to move up because of what they have to offer--big city, bowl game, big-time hoops program. Central Florida is really the wild card here because they have Orlando, a bowl game city, and a large enrollment. It would be interesting to see if USF would be on board with them moving up, though. I could see them blocking their efforts. Very similar to UNT being blocked out by some of the other Texas schools when CUSA expansion talks go on, which I don't blame SMU or anyone else for doing. They are just protecting their turf. It appears that a lot of our fans feel that way about Texas State and UTSA, too.

Again, my guess here is Big Ten gets a Big East team. The Big East then gets Memphis to get back to 16 for hoops and 8 for football. BTW, this is a win-win situation for both conferences if the Big Ten chooses Rutgers. The Big East gets better in their prized sport--mens hoops--with Memphis, while the Big Ten gets whatever NYC market share that Rutgers will bring. CUSA then has to figure out where to go, which I believe will be either MTSU or FAU. Then then SBC replaces them with South Alabama when they get up to FBS, which I believe is in a few years. That gets the SBC back to nine.

houstonmeangreen · December 22, 2009

There is NO CHANCE that Marshall will move up to the Big East. Let me repeat--NO CHANCE. Not only do they provide no viewership whatsoever, WVU would put a stop to that in a second. East Carolina--maybe. Memphis is going to move up because of what they have to offer--big city, bowl game, big-time hoops program. Central Florida is really the wild card here because they have Orlando, a bowl game city, and a large enrollment. It would be interesting to see if USF would be on board with them moving up, though. I could see them blocking their efforts. Very similar to UNT being blocked out by some of the other Texas schools when CUSA expansion talks go on, which I don't blame SMU or anyone else for doing. They are just protecting their turf. It appears that a lot of our fans feel that way about Texas State and UTSA, too.
Again, my guess here is Big Ten gets a Big East team. The Big East then gets Memphis to get back to 16 for hoops and 8 for football. BTW, this is a win-win situation for both conferences if the Big Ten chooses Rutgers. The Big East gets better in their prized sport--mens hoops--with Memphis, while the Big Ten gets whatever NYC market share that Rutgers will bring. CUSA then has to figure out where to go, which I believe will be either MTSU or FAU. Then then SBC replaces them with South Alabama when they get up to FBS, which I believe is in a few years. That gets the SBC back to nine.

UNT being blocked out by some of the other Texas schools when CUSA expansion talks go on, which I don't blame SMU or anyone else for doing. They are just protecting their turf. It appears that a lot of our fans feel that way about Texas State and UTSA, too.

I think aligning with UTSA and Tx state has more to do with wanting to assoc with bigger,stronger programs, not weaker, smaller programs....the whole point about moving to a different conference.

untjim1995 · December 22, 2009

UNT being blocked out by some of the other Texas schools when CUSA expansion talks go on, which I don't blame SMU or anyone else for doing. They are just protecting their turf. It appears that a lot of our fans feel that way about Texas State and UTSA, too.
I think aligning with UTSA and Tx state has more to do with wanting to assoc with bigger,stronger programs, not weaker, smaller programs....the whole point about moving to a different conference.

Which is why SMU, Houston, and UTEP probably have no interest in having us in a conference with them--it works the same way.

houstonmeangreen · December 22, 2009

Which is why SMU, Houston, and UTEP probably have no interest in having us in a conference with them--it works the same way.

SMU is a failure....this is the first yr they have shown anything. anyway, things are changing big time at UNT...once we get past this TD deal....anyone from the outside should be able to see this and the commitments we are making to athletics.

I also don't think the Big 12 wants the small private schools...but who knows, I didn't think TD could keep his job with his crappy record either.

TIgreen01 · December 22, 2009

Good points but South Florida had no reputation to fix. We have 100 years of football in our yearbooks with about 50% of it being absolutely terrible, another 20% being "ok", about 10% being pretty damn good, and another 20% in the category of "who cares"...
South Florida started from the ground up and never suffered from decades of apathy. South Florida alumni never watched their school moved down to Div IAA and play in the Southland for 15 years. South Florida has never had attendance problems - they started out with 40K+ a game and have stayed there. You can't compare North Texas to anybody but North Texas - because we are our own worst enemies. Until our fans learn to be PROUD of our team and our conference, no matter how good or bad it is, we will never be a target for any other conference. We will always be that pissed off little boy that gets picked on every day. You can see it in the posts on this board some days, the "everyone is out to get us" attitude... the "RV is a terrible athletic director" comments... We have lost good fans to these types of idiotic statements because they didn't want to be associated with morons.
Moving to CUSA would be nice, we would play SMU, Tulsa, Rice, Houston, etc... but guess what - we have scheduled SMU, Tulsa, and Rice for OOC games over the last few years and for years to come - so that excuse is taken away. We have to beat the teams that we play and we play in the Sun Belt. I just don't understand the statement "The Sun Belt Sucks" when we can't win in the Belt. The only way to get back on our feet is to win. How great would a 10 win season be for North Texas? That can happen in the Belt, it isn't a far fetched idea. I don't see the Belt holding Troy, FAU, FIU, or MTSU back. The MUTS got to 10 wins last night and I bet that Troy gets there this season, too...
Until we win and pack the stands with what we have and who we play - we will never get into a better conference. NT fans need to learn pride.

We have a saying here at work that applies to this scenario: "Pressure and time, or just throw money at the problem."

Can we get where we want to be if we build up and do things the right way (by winning our current conference and slowly build up our fanbase, as you describe above)? Possibly. As you said, going that route would require that we are able to defeat 100 years of apathy. We'd also have to have consistent leadership that was committed to carrying out this type of effort.

But for just a minute think about the dream scenario. To somehow, someway, get inclusion to a big powerful auto-qualifier conference. Instantly, you have the entire alumni base paying attention to what is going on. Marketing and advertising budgets would absolutely explode. In fact, just from TV and bowl money the athletic budget would more than double overnight. Every elite athlete in the region would suddenly have us on the radar (doesn't mean we'd land them, but the door would be opened nonetheless), not to mention just the everyday high school senior looking for a place to go to college. At this point, you can kiss 100 years of apathy goodbye. It's gone. Doesn't matter anymore b/c we're CLEARLY not playing by the same old status-quo.

Granted, I don't think for a second that the Big 12 would consider any school from the Dallas area. Texas and Oklahoma already deliver a huge chunk of this media market with Tech and Tamu bringing in pieces as well. Now, do they keep talking to us in the crazy case that Texas or OU ever left the Big 12? Maybe...and that's probably the only reason we're getting any kind of a sniff from the Big 12 north--as is rumored here on the board. Private schools, at least Baylor, TCU or SMU, have NEVER drawn all that well in Texas...and particularly Dallas. The culture here just doesn't really support them far beyond their actual alumni-base. So it's feasible to assume that the Big 12 conference would look toward a large public school with hundreds of thousands of alumni to draw on rather than a small private school for possible expansion.

untjim1995 · December 22, 2009

We have a saying here at work that applies to this scenario: "Pressure and time, or just throw money at the problem."
Can we get where we want to be if we build up and do things the right way (by winning our current conference and slowly build up our fanbase, as you describe above)? Possibly. As you said, going that route would require that we are able to defeat 100 years of apathy. We'd also have to have consistent leadership that was committed to carrying out this type of effort.
But for just a minute think about the dream scenario. To somehow, someway, get inclusion to a big powerful auto-qualifier conference. Instantly, you have the entire alumni base paying attention to what is going on. Marketing and advertising budgets would absolutely explode. In fact, just from TV and bowl money the athletic budget would more than double overnight. Every elite athlete in the region would suddenly have us on the radar (doesn't mean we'd land them, but the door would be opened nonetheless), not to mention just the everyday high school senior looking for a place to go to college. At this point, you can kiss 100 years of apathy goodbye. It's gone. Doesn't matter anymore b/c we're CLEARLY not playing by the same old status-quo.
Granted, I don't think for a second that the Big 12 would consider any school from the Dallas area. Texas and Oklahoma already deliver a huge chunk of this media market with Tech and Tamu bringing in pieces as well. Now, do they keep talking to us in the crazy case that Texas or OU ever left the Big 12? Maybe...and that's probably the only reason we're getting any kind of a sniff from the Big 12 north--as is rumored here on the board. Private schools, at least Baylor, TCU or SMU, have NEVER drawn all that well in Texas...and particularly Dallas. The culture here just doesn't really support them far beyond their actual alumni-base. So it's feasible to assume that the Big 12 conference would look toward a large public school with hundreds of thousands of alumni to draw on rather than a small private school for possible expansion.

My dream scenario would be something like that happening--UNT gets into the Big XII. The ONLY way that would happen, though, is for the two bell-weather Texas schools that are joined at the hip (UT and A&M) to join the SEC. This scenario plays out if the following occurred--the Big 10 takes Mizzou, and the Pac-10 took Colorado, which then starts the domino rolling fast. The Big XII looks at who to replace them with and go to Memphis, Utah, BYU, and UNT to fill out the remainder of the equation. They take UNT over TCU because of UNT's size and potential and both Tech and Baylor block TCU (both hate TCU now). Then out of nowhere, UNT plays in a south division that looks like this:

UNT, Memphis, OSU, OU, Tech, Baylor and the North is BYU, Utah, K-State, KU, Nebraska, and Iowa State.

Meanwhile, the MWC loses its two flagship teams, so they add Boise State and Fresno State--which pisses TCU off, so they join CUSA to replace Memphis.

The WAC decides that La Tech is out of their footprint at this point, so they get the Montana schools to agree to move up to replace BSU and FSU, while La Tech is forced to take UNT's spot in the SBC.

Again, folks, its just a dream...

BeanCounterGrad'03 · December 22, 2009

Again, folks, its just a wet dream...

Fixed it for ya

TIgreen01 · December 22, 2009

My dream scenario would be something like that happening--UNT gets into the Big XII. The ONLY way that would happen, though, is for the two bell-weather Texas schools that are joined at the hip (UT and A&M) to join the SEC. This scenario plays out if the following occurred--the Big 10 takes Mizzou, and the Pac-10 took Colorado, which then starts the domino rolling fast. The Big XII looks at who to replace them with and go to Memphis, Utah, BYU, and UNT to fill out the remainder of the equation. They take UNT over TCU because of UNT's size and potential and both Tech and Baylor block TCU (both hate TCU now). Then out of nowhere, UNT plays in a south division that looks like this:
UNT, Memphis, OSU, OU, Tech, Baylor and the North is BYU, Utah, K-State, KU, Nebraska, and Iowa State.
Meanwhile, the MWC loses its two flagship teams, so they add Boise State and Fresno State--which pisses TCU off, so they join CUSA to replace Memphis.
The WAC decides that La Tech is out of their footprint at this point, so they get the Montana schools to agree to move up to replace BSU and FSU, while La Tech is forced to take UNT's spot in the SBC.
Again, folks, its just a dream...

If the Big 12 loses both UT and Tamu, why would Houston not be the next logical move over either UNT or Memphis?

wardly · December 22, 2009

our best bet for cusa/west is if mountain west adds 3 school, such as boise from wac, utep and houston from mt.west. i think theyare just waiting to see what pac 10 does, as they could take byu&utah from mt.west. regardless , we need 2 existing cusa /west teams to go away, as we are their 2nd choice behind la.tech.

MeanGreen61 · December 22, 2009

our best bet for cusa/west is if mountain west adds 3 school, such as boise from wac, utep and houston from mt.west. i think theyare just waiting to see what pac 10 does, as they could take byu&utah from mt.west. regardless , we need 2 existing cusa /west teams to go away, as we are their 2nd choice behind la.tech.

You keep saying that Tech is the first choice for CUSA. Can you link any legit source that states that ? Very doubtful that Tech is anywhere near the top of the CUSA wish list.

Edited December 23, 2009 by MeanGreen61

stebo · December 23, 2009

Fixed it for ya

lol, that would definitely be fantasy land. You can't even throw enough money at it to fix it... if we DID have someone like T Boone Pickens, he has already shown that even a billionaire cannot change the history of a school. Our best chance to move up would be the same way that Memphis and Boise will move up, produce a good product - work hard - fill the stands - have good football AND basketball - and it all starts with PRIDE at home with our own fans. How can you ask anyone else to believe in your school when your own alumni don't believe in it? If you want to really help North Texas, I mean truly make a difference, you will proudly tell anyone and everyone that will listen how proud you are of your school and encourage them to do the same. If you get even 10% of the alumni in the metroplex involved and PROUD of this school, we would finally be the Sleeping Giant woken up that is always mentioned. Until that happens, we will be wondering why we can't win in the Belt. Yes, the money from the athletic fee is going to make life easier on our administrators but it will not buy pride and pride will be our only salvation.

Edited December 23, 2009 by stebo

wardly · December 23, 2009

You keep saying that Tech is the first choice for CUSA. Can you link any legit source that states that ? Very doubtful that Tech is anywhere near the top of the CUSA wish list.

everything i read regarding csua/west has la tech 1st in. they might have gotten in originally, but smu wanted tulsa and rice. they have tulane as their" post katrina" sponsor, a baseball program, and nationally known womens basketball program.additionally, their football team has on occasion beaten a bcs out of conference opponent. hope i am wrong, but i still think our chances of cusa/west improve greatly with 2 openings instead of one. just my opinion.

MeanGreen61 · December 23, 2009

everything i read regarding csua/west has la tech 1st in. they might have gotten in originally, but smu wanted tulsa and rice. they have tulane as their" post katrina" sponsor, a baseball program, and nationally known womens basketball program.additionally, their football team has on occasion beaten a bcs out of conference opponent. hope i am wrong, but i still think our chances of cusa/west improve greatly with 2 openings instead of one. just my opinion.

I doubt that Tulane would sponsor Tech for CUSA.

Edited December 23, 2009 by MeanGreen61

GrandGreen · December 23, 2009

everything i read regarding csua/west has la tech 1st in. they might have gotten in originally, but smu wanted tulsa and rice. they have tulane as their" post katrina" sponsor, a baseball program, and nationally known womens basketball program.additionally, their football team has on occasion beaten a bcs out of conference opponent. hope i am wrong, but i still think our chances of cusa/west improve greatly with 2 openings instead of one. just my opinion.

Again, I wonder what authoritative sources that you are reading; surely not fan message boards. I frankly doubt the private school dominated Western CUSU is going to give much support to La Tech. SMU probably would support Dallas Bapist over NT, but other than that; I don't see a lot of enthusiasm for an underfunded, small market, Northern Louisiana University with mediocre academics. This by the way, is an opinion; not supported by any documentation.

wardly · December 23, 2009

I doubt that Tulane would sponsor Tech for CUSA.

why not?

wardly · December 23, 2009

Again, I wonder what authoritative sources that you are reading; surely not fan message boards. I frankly doubt the private school dominated Western CUSU is going to give much support to La Tech. SMU probably would support Dallas Bapist over NT, but other than that; I don't see a lot of enthusiasm for an underfunded, small market, Northern Louisiana University with mediocre academics. This by the way, is an opinion; not supported by any documentation.

their have been several national articles published in recent months regarding possible conference realignments, one of which was given a link by whoeverposted it, which said the same thing i have been suggesting regarding latech. there also is a web site dedicated to conference realignment possibilities. by the way, what does rice bring to cusa that they don't get with houston?

wardly · December 23, 2009

check out" collegesportsinfo.com/conference-realignment-grid", as they discuss each team in each conference. their most recent update is december 09'. it's a good site to follow, as they may have more facts than opinions, such as mine.

houstonmeangreen · December 23, 2009

If we are not going to be included on any expansion, but the SBC loses one of its teams to the East, like MUTS, FAU, or WKU, how does that make you feel for our athletic department? We will be adding USA soon, so a replacement would already be in the works if we were to lose one of them, but what would it mean to UNT? Obviously, we all want to be in CUSA, but it appears that they will not add a Texas team, unless one leaves. Even with a new stadium on the way, how much "potential" do we have if the SBC is the only conference that we can be a member of for the next 10-15 years, especially if we lose a school like one that I mentioned above? I have always appreciated the SBC for what it is, a place where we could go and build up our program at the D-1 level. But, at this point do we as a university owe it to ourselves to talk with UTSA and Texas State about combining forces (once they get up and running at the FBS level) to look into the WAC ? That would create a league with 12 teams, which would include La Tech, UNT, UTSA, Texas State, NMSU and USU to the East, while San Jose State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho to the West would be the other division. It would seem the WAC would get huge markets to expand to and get some possible bowl matchups in the Southwest. We would finally get Texas schools that we are similar to as conference mates and have some other schools with which we have some history of playing, all while getting to cut down on the major costs of playing lots of those western schools every year. Just curious to hear your thoughts. I would love trips to some of those places.

If the BIG 12 loses one or more teams, Dr b and RV should be knocking at their door and asking what kind of commitment UNT would have to make to get in BIG 12....we are a very large expanding school with a system, med school, developing law school in the DFW market....we have a lot to sale and being in the right conf would prob increase football support by 50% right out the door....money, affiliation and winning...thats what it would bring and this needs to be sold at the president levels, otherwise, it stands no chance....we need to shoot higher than conf USA...we need higher expectations....athletics at UNT is changing....alot.

MeanGreen61 · December 23, 2009

their have been several national articles published in recent months regarding possible conference realignments, one of which was given a link by whoeverposted it, which said the same thing i have been suggesting regarding latech. there also is a web site dedicated to conference realignment possibilities. by the way, what does rice bring to cusa that they don't get with houston?

I havn't seen an article from a credible source that designates Tech as the candidate of choice for CUSA. A website dedicated to realignment possibilities is just that, possibilities/what ifs/my choice/etc and not actual knowledge or fact.

wardly · December 24, 2009

I havn't seen an article from a credible source that designates Tech as the candidate of choice for CUSA. A website dedicated to realignment possibilities is just that, possibilities/what ifs/my choice/etc and not actual knowledge or fact.

define credible source.

stebo · December 24, 2009

define credible source.

A credible source would be a University President from a school in CUSA being quoted as saying that the school in question (Loser Tech) would be a good fit for the conference.... or a conference commisioner... or a credible news source that isn't speculating for the sake of guessing. Anybody can put together a website, it costs about 10 bucks for the domain name, about $100 bucks a month for hosting, and anything from $0 - $millions to build it out and maintain it. La Tech once had a very good chance at being an expansion candidate and that is why they were invited to the WAC to join the Eastern side with SMU, Rice, and Tulsa. But that was then and this is now. Those schools left and Tech was stuck over 1000 miles away from their closest conference opponent. They simply cannot keep up with the money being spent in Div I now. They play in a dump of a stadium that is so worn down that sections of it have been layered with tarps to cover up broken (and empty) seats. It's better than Fouts but not much. 2009 was the first year that La Tech was able to build a jumbotron, almost a decade after most Belt schools had installed one.

It all comes down to money. CUSA has a requirement that La Tech will never meet - athletic department budget. The conference bylaws have a requirement of $20 million a year dedicated to athletics. When NT was in the last rounds of talks, passed over for UTEP (along with La Tech) - the folks from CUSA gave us some things to work on for any possible "next" reallignment. Contrary to popular opinion, facilities were not our biggest downfall. At the very top of the list was funding and attendance. We either had to increase fundraising or get more money from the students. We did both.

Even still, that doesn't mean that we would get an invite, there would need to be a space and the Eastern teams will likely push for a school like FAU or Troy or MTSU. In order for NT to get into CUSA, there will have to be a major migration away from CUSA (like Flyer stated). I would guess that a minimum of 3 teams would need to leave in order for us to get the nod. CUSA would scramble to keep their championship game and we might squeak in as #2 or #3.

In my opinion - our best chances for the immediate future (the next 10 years or so) is to build the Belt, be proud of it, and hope that a program like Troy or Middle rises to the level of a Boise. We can regain our thunder and rise to the level of a Boise or a Hawaii... anything can happen. Remember when the MAC used to be so terrible? Well, they still are - but there was a time when the MAC was even worse than the Big West. Marshall came along and became that conference's "legitimate card"... when Marshall left, that legitimacy didn't leave completely but it went down. La Tech was in a good place when the Belt was first formed - they had done the next to impossible in that they had success as an Indy Div I football program. There were some good wins back then and those wins carried over into their first year of the WAC - but those days are gone.

NT, as bad as our football team is right now - has raised our dedicated athletic budget to about $15 million now and the second that the stadium is complete, the student fee will kick in making us a $25 million dollar a year school. And we can raise that fee 10% a year until it maxes out at DOUBLE what it is now with NO student vote. La Tech can't do that, their state will not let them, it's against the law. Schools like Rice and SMU can make their athletic budgets "look" higher because the tuition is so high and they write that off but "count" it as money spent on athletes - La Tech can't do that. They are in a poor state that has made it illegal to charge student athletic fees, with no media market, and mediocre fan support. They basically have peaked. They have to cut corners - like having their football head coach be their AD so that they could afford a quality hire. Talk about a conflict of interest. That was a normal practice from the 1970's but in Ruston, it is reality in 2010.

Finally - they are pricks. La Tech isn't going anywhere but a possible return to the Belt - and that is if they could get the votes. Quite frankly, the bridges that they have burned would probably even prevent that. They blocked UL from getting into the Indy Bowl last year by threatening to pull out of the game. The Indy Bowl had a total of 3 schools to choose from that were eligible, Arkie State, Louisiana, and Northern Illinois. Instead of going for a huge in state packed house game, the Indy Bowl was forced to invite a far flung MAC team that brought nobody because Tech threatened to turn down the invite if any Sun Belt school was invited to play against them. The Indy Bowl's hands were tied as Tech had 7 wins and UL only had 6. The bowl got out of our conference's "MOU" with a technicality to avoid a court battle. Should I keep typing? Tech fans just feel that are better than they really are. If you ever want to see the most idiotic group of fans on the planet, go visit their message board. Idiots and a-holes. Anytime that I feel like our fans are too dramatic or over the top - I just visit their board, those posts make our fans look like geniuses.

Sorry for the rant, we were just discussing La Tech on the Sun Belt board. They are all up in arms because the CUSA board has been buzzing about inviting MTSU if a spot were to open up.

wardly · December 24, 2009

A credible source would be a University President from a school in CUSA being quoted as saying that the school in question (Loser Tech) would be a good fit for the conference.... or a conference commisioner... or a credible news source that isn't speculating for the sake of guessing. Anybody can put together a website, it costs about 10 bucks for the domain name, about $100 bucks a month for hosting, and anything from $0 - $millions to build it out and maintain it. La Tech once had a very good chance at being an expansion candidate and that is why they were invited to the WAC to join the Eastern side with SMU, Rice, and Tulsa. But that was then and this is now. Those schools left and Tech was stuck over 1000 miles away from their closest conference opponent. They simply cannot keep up with the money being spent in Div I now. They play in a dump of a stadium that is so worn down that sections of it have been layered with tarps to cover up broken (and empty) seats. It's better than Fouts but not much. 2009 was the first year that La Tech was able to build a jumbotron, almost a decade after most Belt schools had installed one.
It all comes down to money. CUSA has a requirement that La Tech will never meet - athletic department budget. The conference bylaws have a requirement of $20 million a year dedicated to athletics. When NT was in the last rounds of talks, passed over for UTEP (along with La Tech) - the folks from CUSA gave us some things to work on for any possible "next" reallignment. Contrary to popular opinion, facilities were not our biggest downfall. At the very top of the list was funding and attendance. We either had to increase fundraising or get more money from the students. We did both.
Even still, that doesn't mean that we would get an invite, there would need to be a space and the Eastern teams will likely push for a school like FAU or Troy or MTSU. In order for NT to get into CUSA, there will have to be a major migration away from CUSA (like Flyer stated). I would guess that a minimum of 3 teams would need to leave in order for us to get the nod. CUSA would scramble to keep their championship game and we might squeak in as #2 or #3.
In my opinion - our best chances for the immediate future (the next 10 years or so) is to build the Belt, be proud of it, and hope that a program like Troy or Middle rises to the level of a Boise. We can regain our thunder and rise to the level of a Boise or a Hawaii... anything can happen. Remember when the MAC used to be so terrible? Well, they still are - but there was a time when the MAC was even worse than the Big West. Marshall came along and became that conference's "legitimate card"... when Marshall left, that legitimacy didn't leave completely but it went down. La Tech was in a good place when the Belt was first formed - they had done the next to impossible in that they had success as an Indy Div I football program. There were some good wins back then and those wins carried over into their first year of the WAC - but those days are gone.
NT, as bad as our football team is right now - has raised our dedicated athletic budget to about $15 million now and the second that the stadium is complete, the student fee will kick in making us a $25 million dollar a year school. And we can raise that fee 10% a year until it maxes out at DOUBLE what it is now with NO student vote. La Tech can't do that, their state will not let them, it's against the law. Schools like Rice and SMU can make their athletic budgets "look" higher because the tuition is so high and they write that off but "count" it as money spent on athletes - La Tech can't do that. They are in a poor state that has made it illegal to charge student athletic fees, with no media market, and mediocre fan support. They basically have peaked. They have to cut corners - like having their football head coach be their AD so that they could afford a quality hire. Talk about a conflict of interest. That was a normal practice from the 1970's but in Ruston, it is reality in 2010.
Finally - they are pricks. La Tech isn't going anywhere but a possible return to the Belt - and that is if they could get the votes. Quite frankly, the bridges that they have burned would probably even prevent that. They blocked UL from getting into the Indy Bowl last year by threatening to pull out of the game. The Indy Bowl had a total of 3 schools to choose from that were eligible, Arkie State, Louisiana, and Northern Illinois. Instead of going for a huge in state packed house game, the Indy Bowl was forced to invite a far flung MAC team that brought nobody because Tech threatened to turn down the invite if any Sun Belt school was invited to play against them. The Indy Bowl's hands were tied as Tech had 7 wins and UL only had 6. The bowl got out of our conference's "MOU" with a technicality to avoid a court battle. Should I keep typing? Tech fans just feel that are better than they really are. If you ever want to see the most idiotic group of fans on the planet, go visit their message board. Idiots and a-holes. Anytime that I feel like our fans are too dramatic or over the top - I just visit their board, those posts make our fans look like geniuses.
Sorry for the rant, we were just discussing La Tech on the Sun Belt board. They are all up in arms because the CUSA board has been buzzing about inviting MTSU if a spot were to open up.thanks for info.did you read bleacher report on sunbelt, "expand or die?" also, how do i get to "sun belt board?"