Yet Another Realignment Thread

[DJstars21]

I'm hoping that UNT is invited but I do have a question for you folks. Since UNT has been in the Sun Belt for quite a while now, do you believe that moving to CUSA without the presence of SMU and Houston is still a positive move for UNT?

That my friend, is a great question.

These conferences and universities are for all intents and purposes a business. The rock on which a business stands is its market share. Con U and MWC have lost their biggest assets. These programs are in essence a product, and their geographic location is their market share. For a business to remain competitve in a monopolistic market such as FBS football it must maintain market power or your long run profits will eventually be driven to zero and you will be pushed out. CUSA/MWC are merging to increase their market power in an attempt to make up for their losses. There are only 3 DFW market teams, they've lost SMU and TCU to competing cons. Given the AQ staus those schools now have there are no other legit programs available to aquire that would be competitive against those two for the DFW market.

The only way MWC/CUSA regains overall market share is in numbers. UNT is the only logical choice for them to re-aquire a portion of the share they lost in DFW. AQ is a better product with a higher demand, the only way to compete is to aquire small portions of more markets(cheaper product-higher supply).

Having said that, all the other AQ conferences have potentially lost whatever portion of the DFW market they had as well because other AQ conferences aquired SMU and TCU. This makes UNT an asset, a real asset. The only way for any of the other conferences (AQ and non) to aquire market power in DFW is through UNT. These are the most basic business principles.

So, Im not totally sold on moving to another non-aq just yet, and I'm betting the UNT admin. isn't convinced either. Hence their silence...

[PlummMeanGreen]

I don't have any inside sources concerning realignment but it really would make a lot of sense that Tulsa, Rice and UTEP would want to add UNT to CUSA. Losing SMU means we lose whatever foothold, in their case maybe it was a toehold, in the DFW area. UNT sits in perfect position to take advantage of that. The area is needed for market and recruiting. UNT is a large, public university with a good number of alumni where as SMU is a small, private univ with few alumni. Your FB stadium is brand new which really shows your school's committment to athletics. I'm hoping that UNT is invited but I do have a question for you folks. Since UNT has been in the Sun Belt for quite a while now, do you believe that moving to CUSA without the presence of SMU and Houston is still a positive move for UNT?

Not only yes, but hell yes! (but thanks for asking that question).

[rcade]

the fact that SMU is getting play to go to the Big East vs UNT when we are much larger..new stadium and better attendance show you just how poorly the program has been managed at UNT and the lack of influence...

Teams don't get to skip rungs on the conference ladder very often. The biggest reason SMU's getting more realignment love than us is because they were in two better conferences -- the SWC and CUSA.