CUSA Stands to Gain ifBig 12 Folds

Harry · August 14, 2011

Conference USA will be affected by any type of movement in the BCS leagues. Houston is considered a serious possibility in any Big 12 expansion along with BYU and TCU. Central Florida and East Carolina appear to be still interested into moving into the Big East.

UTEP's interest in the Mountain West might not be as strong as it was a year ago, but the rivalry with New Mexico remains a strong lure for the Miners.

Houston, SMU and UTEP have been rumored to be on the MWC's wish list. The Mountain West has been an active player in realignment. The MWC lost BYU, Utah and TCU last year but replaced them with Nevada, Fresno State and Boise State.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=203&articleid=20110814_203_B1_Tlacnt716430

eulesseagle · August 14, 2011

Nobody knows how all the possible senarios are going to play out with the various teams/conferences.

The best anyone, presently, can do is guess and state some subjective comment that favors their team.

IMHO, the majority of who stays and goes to BCS conferences is mostly political and the rest determined by attendance, facilities, & financial support. Does the size of the school matter? heck no. Look at "private schools."

However, the politics, attendance, faciities, & ect. may have a more balancing effect on Mid-Major programs. Since getting invited to any BCS conference, from a mid-major program is almost impossible (TCU did it)...the best anyone can do in the mid- majors is play musical chairs like the BCS. If the BCS goes to super conferences then mid-majors will mimic.

Keep guessing.....and.....keep posting rumors and wish lists.

GreenFlag · August 14, 2011

Nobody knows how all the possible senarios are going to play out with the various teams/conferences.

The best anyone, presently, can do is guess and state some subjective comment that favors their team.

IMHO, the majority of who stays and goes to BCS conferences is mostly political and the rest determined by attendance, facilities, & financial support. Does the size of the school matter? heck no. Look at "private schools."

However, the politics, attendance, faciities, & ect. may have a more balancing effect on Mid-Major programs. Since getting invited to any BCS conference, from a mid-major program is almost impossible (TCU did it)...the best anyone can do in the mid- majors is play musical chairs like the BCS. If the BCS goes to super conferences then mid-majors will mimic.

Keep guessing.....and.....keep posting rumors and wish lists.

For us I think we started "growing up" a little too late. Better late than never I guess and I'm glad we started worrying about ourselves rather than the conference company we keep. We are doing what we are doing in the Sun Belt folks. We just need to stay the course and better opportunities will follow.

NCMeanGreen · August 14, 2011

I would love for UNT to get into C-USA. It would kind of stink, though, if we were in and ECU was out....that short drive for me was a big draw...

shaft · August 14, 2011

If the SEC goes to 16 and all the dominoes start to fall in the Big 12, ACC then the Big East and CUSA. It will be CUSA that goes away not the Big 12.

PlummMeanGreen · August 14, 2011

Life is a gamble in so many ways, especially in the area of NCAA conference re-alignment. How will North Texas play its cards in the next year or so as re-alignment certainly seems to be heading beyond the talk stage in this present round.

Would now be the time for North Texas officials to be pro-active and make a strong move toward future Mountain West Conference membership telling their powers "no matter how all this plays out the University of North Texas would still like to be a member of your league, Commissioner Thompson, because we feel we could bring much to the MWC table." (While other schools are talking every league except MWC might be to our advantage to make our move knowing good well that those others who are dreaming Big 12 & beyond may never get the time of day from any such leagues)?

Do we of North Texas really want to be in a hodge podge of Texas schools many of whom are still trying to go other directions to distinguish themselves from each other much like TCU has successfully done with their Rose Bowl appearance and win proving that it worked out pretty darn good for the Horned Frogs. (Granted, they have their gigantic financial endowment which helped push that purple and white train down the tracks a tad quicker, too)

IMO, we just don't need to continue to dummy down our football program to accept & (worse) be fully content with any conference neighborhood & as many of us have seen our alma mater do most our adult lives as we went from one trailer park conference to yet another. And our doing that by getting in bed with schools who had no similar NCAA D1 legacy as ours (modest as it is) whatsoever such as several schools now in the present WAC talking as if they were already at the same level as our own school. Does anyone else ask on that subject...what is wrong with that picture (as it relates to North Texas)?

North Texas cannot advance our cause if we are constantly encouraging schools who have not spent the last 30 plus years with the roller coaster ride we have all witnessed with our school's athletic fortunes. So now we have schools who are (seemedly) getting a free pass to miss the same experience that we (unfortunately) had by receiving instant FBS acceptance, ie, UTSA and TSU-San Marcos? (Who ever said life was fair)? LOL! Sorry R'Runners and Bobcats, albeit our NCAA D1 legacy is not comparable to many, we still do have our Abner Haynes/Sun Bowl Era in the 50's, the Mean Joe Greene Era of the 60's & the Hayden Fry Era of the 70's when Mean Green football was on the cusp of moving up the NCAA totem pole until UNT leaders post all those eras chose to retreat and go other directions while many other programs we'd even been in conferences with ran by us like a road runner.

Yes, the new stadium we are all proud is for the moment giving many of us some very heady thoughts about our future, but if we will all look back the last 3 plus decades, we've had those heady thoughts before only to be disappointed with where our Eagle (which has seen most every shade of green)...... would land.

Just one more opinion among many that will be expressed the next several months on the subject of how can we of North Texas also improve our standing and conference affiliation which only makes us one of a very large crowd of other Texas-based universities all doing the same concerning each of their respective athletic programs, specifically football. I (like I know many of you) just hope it is now time for us to catch our break with maybe a little Lady Luck finally smiling on our bid to move up in the NCAA.

For what it's worth and being a bit bias of course, but no other group I know of as our group, ie, our school would be as deserving of such a break this time around.

GMG!

Edited August 14, 2011 by PlummMeanGreen

Mean Green 93-98 · August 14, 2011

With our luck, we will get a CUSA invite, but SMU and Houston will be gone.

I'd still jump on it without a second thought.

Mean Green 93-98 · August 14, 2011

Life is a gamble in so many ways, especially in the area of NCAA conference re-alignment. How will North Texas play its cards in the next year or so as re-alignment certainly seems to be heading beyond the talk stage in this present round.

Would now be the time for North Texas officials to be pro-active and make a strong move toward future Mountain West Conference membership telling their powers "no matter how all this plays out the University of North Texas would still like to be a member of your league, Commissioner Thompson, because we feel we could bring much to the MWC table." (While other schools are talking every league except MWC might be to our advantage to make our move knowing good well that those others who are dreaming Big 12 & beyond may never get the time of day from any such leagues)?

Do we of North Texas really want to be in a hodge podge of Texas schools many of whom are still trying to go other directions to distinguish themselves from each other much like TCU has successfully done with their Rose Bowl appearance and win proving that it worked out pretty darn good for the Horned Frogs. (Granted, they have their gigantic financial endowment which helped push that purple and white train down the tracks a tad quicker, too)

IMO, we just don't need to continue to dummy down our football program to accept & (worse) be fully content with any conference neighborhood & as many of us have seen our alma mater do most our adult lives as we went from one trailer park conference to yet another. And our doing that by getting in bed with schools who had no similar NCAA D1 legacy as ours (modest as it is) whatsoever such as several schools now in the present WAC talking as if they were already at the same level as our own school. Does anyone else ask on that subject...what is wrong with that picture (as it relates to North Texas)?

North Texas cannot advance our cause if we are constantly encouraging schools who have not spent the last 30 plus years with the roller coaster ride we have all witnessed with our school's athletic fortunes. So now we have schools who are (seemedly) getting a free pass to miss the same experience that we (unfortunately) had by receiving instant FBS acceptance, ie, UTSA and TSU-San Marcos? (Who ever said life was fair)? LOL! Sorry R'Runners and Bobcats, albeit our NCAA D1 legacy is not comparable to many, we still do have our Abner Haynes/Sun Bowl Era in the 50's, the Mean Joe Greene Era of the 60's & the Hayden Fry Era of the 70's when Mean Green football was on the cusp of moving up the NCAA totem pole until UNT leaders post all those eras chose to retreat and go other directions while many other programs we'd even been in conferences with ran by us like a road runner.

Yes, the new stadium we are all proud is for the moment giving many of us some very heady thoughts about our future, but if we will all look back the last 3 plus decades, we've had those heady thoughts before only to be disappointed with where our Eagle (which has seen most every shade of green)...... would land.

Just one more opinion among many that will be expressed the next several months on the subject of how can we of North Texas also improve our standing and conference affiliation which only makes us one of a very large crowd of other Texas-based universities all doing the same concerning each of their respective athletic programs, specifically football. I (like I know many of you) just hope it is now time for us to catch our break with maybe a little Lady Luck finally smiling on our bid to move up in the NCAA.

For what it's worth and being a bit bias of course, but no other group I know of as our group, ie, our school would be as deserving of such a break this time around.

GMG!

Not sure I understand your shot at Texas State--they've certainly done their time in 1-AA ("FCS").

And if you are suggesting we put all our eggs in the MWC basket to such a degree that we would turn down a C-USA invite, I couldn't disagree more. Even if you aren't crazy about C-USA, it's a shorter road from there to better conferences than it is from the Belt.

PlummMeanGreen · August 15, 2011

Not sure I understand your shot at Texas State--they've certainly done their time in 1-AA ("FCS").

And if you are suggesting we put all our eggs in the MWC basket to such a degree that we would turn down a C-USA invite, I couldn't disagree more. Even if you aren't crazy about C-USA, it's a shorter road from there to better conferences than it is from the Belt.

SMU + CUSA probably still ='s no North Texas invite. History will tell us much about what we can expect as far as some things in our future. The MWC has a team that goes to BSC bowl games and last time I checked, CUSA has not come close to having such a team. Sure the CUSA proximity would be great for rivalries, but as I posted this MWC would be a gamble that could pay off by giving us a better FBS conference home just as TSU and UTSA seem to think the WAC will for them (although I don't see the present day WAC line-up of schools as TSU-SM'ers and UTSA'ers see it).

The MWC would be light years ahead of the WAC and even the SBC and being in a league with BCS bowl potential makes it that way. Probably not likely to happen with our present crowd in Denton, but who knows, maybe something to shoot for in the future. Seems we do things in 25 "belated" year increments at UNT, so probably the MWC idea is something some of us would not be around to see if it happened at all. My junior year we beat Tennessee, UH and others and that happened so long ago that it sometimes seems that it never happened at all.

Texas State-San Marcos? Maybe TSU-San Marcos has that FCS experience, but they've done no time in the FBS and if you look at their attendance numbers at their stadium since it opened, there are no impressive home conference or OOC home attendance figures to speak of. North Texas has room to improve but now we have a true major college football stadium to improve in, but even at Fouts we had some impressive teams come to Denton as we drew some impressive attendance numbers most times when we hosted those teams. We only sucked wind at the gate when we played our conference foes most years. NOTE: We also hosted TAMU at Texas Stadium one season with almost 50,000 at that game among other big name schools through the decades at the former home of the Cowboys.

Especially in light of re-alignment talks which seem more serious than ever before, we cannot afford to dummy down with the likes of TSU-San Marcos or UTSA no matter how damn great the Road Runners already think they are w/o playing one down. I'm afraid we are already type-cast with those we're with now as it is which could hurt us in advancing ourselves. I just wish the sayin' "your known by the friends you keep" did not apply in the NCAA but they do. Just sayin...

Edited August 15, 2011 by PlummMeanGreen