Appalachian State a possibility for CUSA?

[Keith Fever]

Buddy of mine at work is an App State fan so he is excited about the potential of this. See their President's letter to their alumni in this article. He's pretty frank about why they aren't an ideal candidate but still in the mix. Apparently East Carolina might be their SMU though.

http://www.sbnation....ate-realignment

[LakeTravis]

With .VCU going to a-10, I expect ODU to pick up and leave for CUSA.

I'd like to see App State over any other SBC for the 14th team though

[PlummMeanGreen]

Smack board fodder. What else? This one is also getting lots of play on other conference boards.

If CUSA were really looking at App. State then there are are a dozen others (give/take) with much larger markets they should look at before ASU. I know the east division of CUSA needs some more teams but for heaven's sake, we have our FCS additions already.

Come on folks, we just left a conference whose motto seemed like one so familiar to us all as in "give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to............(slight alteration here) be in a conference that rather they might need to start out in the same darn "starter kit" conference North Texas had to join post-Big West implosion and our still coming out of those 12 most forgettable years in NCAA D1-AA."

What some of these school are doing would be tantamount to North Texas leaving the Sun Belt with a senseless entitlement or expectation that we should jump immediately to the Big 12. Sorry, but rare are the UTSA's and USF's and the UCF's who get to jump over a conference that in a normal situation they'd be in like the Sun Belt and/or CUSA to land in much higher profile conferences.

North Texas had to pay its dues and more............everyone else should have to do the same. Just sayin'...

GMG ! !

Edited May 15, 2012 by PlummMeanGreen

[drex]

Well said, Jim. While it only counts in horse shoe and grenade tossing, just think of the 'near misses' against the 'big boys', too. We may not have the number of wins we would like, but we never shyed away from scheduling the 'big boys', even when we were I-AA. Our players consistently have played in front of tens of thousands of fans in major major stadium atmospheres, so we certainly are not novices.

[Mark Gommesen]

I like Appy State but it is extreme long shot. C-USA is looking for schools in large fast growing media markets.....that ain't Boone, Tennessee NC.

http://www.townofboone.com/

Boone is a beautiful town. But, it is located 100 miles Northwest of Charlotte, NC. For reference, Baylor is about 100 miles south of Dallas.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Mark Gommesen

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

My original thought was NOOOO. But then again, they probably have more history, tradition, and recognition than the Sunbelt schools.

[island eagle]

I like Appy State but it is extreme long shot. C-USA is looking for schools in large fast growing media markets.....that ain't Boone, Tennessee.

I hate to be the first to mention this....but its Boone, North Carolina. A nice town nestled in the mountains near some ski resorts.

[GrayEagle]

I was going to say that Boone is in North Carolina, not Tennessee also. Another point is it is in the Charlotte TV market even though it's a pretty good bus ride away. Since CUSA (I hate that hyphen) is now to be a part of the Charlotte market I have serious doubts that Appalachian State will be included anytime soon.

On the other hand, it would be a big plus for the Belt.

[HerdZone]

Just say no to Appy...Its 3 hours from Charlotte once you get off the plane transfer your equipmant and get loaded up. And 2 hours if you fly into a much smaller airport in Hickory. Even if Appy had an airport near by they don't have the infrastructure to support a IA program very well. Marshall fans have already done their time in Boone NC and I don't know many that are looking forward till the day we do it again. Marshall was in the Southern Conference with Appy from 1978 to 1996.

Edited May 15, 2012 by HerdZone

[greenpie]

There are other factors too such as endowments and university classifications. Universities want to be with their "peers". The lowest endowments right now in C-USA are hovering over $80M, Southern Miss, Marshall, and of the new members Louisiana Tech and UTSA. The only school of the old and new that is "Regional" is Marshall. Long story short, I think there are other schools that would better fit the C-USA profile.

These two schools are more apples to apples.

ODU, National classification, Hampton Roads Market, $170M endowment.

MTSU, National classification, Nashville Market, $60M endowment.

Oranges

App State, Regional classification, Boone, NC, $50M endowment.

[foutsrouts]

^{I like Appalachian State, but personally I'm not going to cast my vote for ANY move ups from FCS period. I feel that way for purely selfish reasons, because the more that join the club the more that it dilutes the top level of college football. Somehow I think that dilution cannot be a good thing for us down the road.}