C-USA Expansion Rumors

[letsgiveacheer]

A report from Norfolk talks about false expansion rumors...or are they?

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/09/reports-jmu-will-join-conference-usa-appear-false

[forevereagle]

If we do expand, please not JMU. We have over-filled our quota of move-up programs.

[UNTFan23]

The last thing CUSA needs is another FCS move up. It certainly would not help the east get stronger once East Carolina leaves after the end of this season.

[Harry]

Not only that -- we will become an Eastern heavy conference which means they will win all of the votes.

I say lets stick as we are for now.

[MeanGreenTexan]

If we do expand, please not JMU. We have over-filled our quota of move-up programs.

Look at MAC schools if we want to expand now/soon. If none of them want to move over, then wait for a SBC school to rise as the cream of the crop after 3-4 yrs and pick them off (ULL & ASt should have a head start).

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Banowsky strikes again!

Abilene Christian, a school with whom the Banowsky family has many ties, will someday be in the C-USA.

Hear me now, believe me later.

By the way, Abilene Christian will be playing Tarleton State at Frisco football/soccer/futbol stadium this weekend:

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C004AF39D869D91
http://www.tarletonsports.com/news/2013/7/22/FB_0722134219.aspx
https://tix.extremetix.com/Online/?siteID=3340&cartID=2ba455ed-4f29-448f-a710-72e86007ed61&eventid=45208
http://alumniassociation.acu.edu/s/1565/index.aspx?sid=1565&gid=1&pgid=470

Will you vomit if this game sells out, thereby surpassing attendance of the last UNT game at Apogee?

Banowsky...Abilene...C-USA. I'm telling you. You'll probably see a Banowsky or two there in Frisco during the caucasian-fest that will be ACU-Tarleton.

[outoftown]

Banowsky strikes again!

Abilene Christian, a school with whom the Banowsky family has many ties, will someday be in the C-USA.

Hear me now, believe me later.

By the way, Abilene Christian will be playing Tarleton State at Frisco football/soccer/futbol stadium this weekend:

http://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0C004AF39D869D91

http://www.tarletonsports.com/news/2013/7/22/FB_0722134219.aspx

https://tix.extremetix.com/Online/?siteID=3340&cartID=2ba455ed-4f29-448f-a710-72e86007ed61&eventid=45208

http://alumniassociation.acu.edu/s/1565/index.aspx?sid=1565&gid=1&pgid=470

Will you vomit if this game sells out, thereby surpassing attendance of the last UNT game at Apogee?

Banowsky...Abilene...C-USA. I'm telling you. You'll probably see a Banowsky or two there in Frisco during the caucasian-fest that will be ACU-Tarleton.

I get that you don't like Banowsky, i guess that has to do with your second alma mater. I get that he was a bit very quick at backfilling the conference after the first defectors, and that this has cost the conference dearly (others probably might have come back if FIU and UNT, LaTech and UTSA was all he'd gotten). But if the other options are Benson or Arresco, then please give me Banowsky (have you noticed Arrescos awful performance on Bowl and TV stuff). Also even if Banowsky wants this (I honestly got no clue if he does) I just cannot see the school Presidents / ADs going along with it, because there is no reason for expanding right now for C-USA. Thus, nothing will happen.

Also, how can an article that says that C-USA is NOT interested stirr so much uncertainty. To me this looks just like JMU is trying to get better terms in their negotiations with the belt.

Edited September 27, 2013 by outoftown

[Harry]

Reports that JMU will join Conference USA appear false

James Madison University may or may not be on the verge of announcing that it will move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision, but if it happens, it appears the Dukes won’t be joining Conference USA.

Messages boards for JMU, Old Dominion and several conference Web sites lit up with reports on Thursday that the school will announce on Friday, Oct. 5, that it is joining Conference USA.

That’s news to C-USA officials, especially the athletic directors who met on Tuesday in suburban Dallas, Texas and did not discuss expansion.

I asked Courtney Morrison-Archer, a C-USA associate commissioner, if the reports were true. Her response would indicate they are not.

“Conference USA is evaluating future membership but has no plans to expand in the near future,” she said via email.

ODU athletic director Wood Selig said subject of expansion did not come up in Dallas.

“The mutual feeling was that we’re going forward with 14 schools,” Selig said. “We’re in good position. Our focus is how to make Conference USA the best conference we can be with those 14 institutions.”

Read more: http://hamptonroads.com/2013/09/reports-jmu-will-join-conference-usa-appear-false

[Rudy]

Send them to the Sun Belt. It still pisses me off the conference bowed to East Carolina, only to have them bolt.

[BillySee58]

If we do expand, please not JMU. We have over-filled our quota of move-up programs.

I can see why you'd say that, but please JMU. My cousin goes there and they're a darn good team. But Va Tech a few years back.

You have a very good point, but I personally would like it.

[forevereagle]

I can see why you'd say that, but please JMU. My cousin goes there and they're a darn good team. But Va Tech a few years back.

You have a very good point, but I personally would like it.

Harry's point from earlier is part of my logic. The conference is too east heavy. We need to balance back to the west. JMU just doesn't add enough to make them a good add.

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Send them to the Sun Belt. It still pisses me off the conference bowed to East Carolina, only to have them bolt.

After all the schools that marched out of the C-USA into a failing Big East, you thought Banowsky would magically be able to save East Carolina from leaving as well?

Banowsky is in no way a proactive commissioner. He is the ultimate in reactive.

And, as to the question of having Banowsky versus Benson...whey does the choice have to be between those two? Are these the only two people in the country qualified to be conference commissioners? I doubt it.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Brit: Just Say No!

[outoftown]

After all the schools that marched out of the C-USA into a failing Big East, you thought Banowsky would magically be able to save East Carolina from leaving as well?

Banowsky is in no way a proactive commissioner. He is the ultimate in reactive.

And, as to the question of having Banowsky versus Benson...whey does the choice have to be between those two? Are these the only two people in the country qualified to be conference commissioners? I doubt it.

Sure there are other options ( I would argue that Benson has proven to be singularly unqualified, Arresco is about to do the same, Banowsky to me is a between ok and failing, I think he did good jobs on TV and particularly on the bowls, but I do agree he got played by ECU and it was forseeable at the time).

Maybe the problem is psychology. I think the problem is that when you are a program that is new to the conference and that has just been brought on board by one of those comissioners you a) really want to belive they know what they are doing, and b ) you are not gonna thank them by immeadiately lobbying to kick them out.

So with all those new programs in C-USA Banowsky is actually probably safe for some time.

Edited September 27, 2013 by outoftown

[casual fan]

Stand pat. But...... If CUSA decides to expand the west should lobby for Texas State.

1. Large school with 34,229 students.

2. In the middle of the other 4 Texas schools which helps ballance east and west in CUSA.

3. Helps with attendance having 5 Texas schools in the same conference.

4. Hurts the Sunbelt Conference in recruiting as they are left without any Texas ties.

5. Helps our recruiting as the 5 Texas schools in same conference would get more Texas media coverage.

Where do we recruit? Texas.

How do we gain relevance on the national stage? Beat the other Texas teams on the field and then in recruiting.

If we can become the dominant school in CUSA, we can become a recruiting force in Texas.

Do that and in 5 years we might do more than scare some ranked teams. (Think like Boise)

[PlummMeanGreen]

I fear too many Texas based schools in one conference will begat us too many things of which the negatives outweigh the positives. Arkanasas AD Frank Broyles took the Hogs out of the SWC because of several things but toward the top of his list was his saying "there are just too many Texas schools in one conference." Seems TAMU has a new lease on NCAA FBS level life away from the rest of our Texas schools, too, now doesn't it? Seems their over 100 year rivalry with UT didn't stop them, either.

This "let all of us Texas schools unite" attitude did not get TCU where they are today. They made themselves exclusive "away" from a hodge-podge of Texas schools (including SMU) and then they created a coveted (by the Big 12) product that did not come from a league that looked like the old CUSA or the old Southland (1-AA) or even the Lone Star Conference--all quite top heavy with Texas-based schools.

If we water ourselves down with schools we've always thought ourselves a cut above our forever perception-driven public would see North Texas as no better than those we dipped down to get in bed with. I did not like Brit Banowsky's almost panic driven choices of schools he later added to the new CUSA truth be known. I think he could have held out a little longer and had 1 or 2 better choices (or even those who may have stiffed the AAC and stayed in the new CUSA).

Still, we need our present and future leadership at North Texas who understands the decades long and basic Texas intercollegiate pecking order. Few outsiders are going to change that which has been set in stone for decades, either.

Scattershootin':

Moving Forward No Matter Who We're With: All we really have to go on even now are results of plans whose foundations have already been laid. If ever a football program needs 6 or 7 wins this season it is our alma mater's.

All in all, I think most of us like the direction we see at UNT, but a few bonehead moves here and there can negate all of that in just about a New York minute.

GMG!

Edited September 28, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[casual fan]

PlumMeanGreen you make some points, but we were in a conference with no Texas ties. How did that work out?

We need wins and a full stadium if we want other conferences to take notice.

I just don't see many other schools that could be added that would help us get there.

My point was if, if, if CUSA adds 2 schools, one needs to be located near other west division schools.

That's why I led off saying we should stand pat.

[NT91]

NMSU or CO.St

[NT91]

When Tulane and Tulsa go.. Who will take their place in the west?

[Mean Green 93-98]

When Tulane and Tulsa go.. Who will take their place in the west?

UAB is moving to the West.

[UNTflyer]

Let's try harder. Isn't Army and Navy still out there? MAC schools Ball State and Ohio can easily be split between East and West.

And there is still a chance that if the Big 6 expands further, it will likely destroy the American conference as the ACC back fills after their best members split for the SEC and Big 10. SMU, Houston, Tulsa and Tulane may come crawling back.

[untjim1995]

If CUSA expands, it will be a centrally located school that opens up a new tv market. Texas State, nor JMU, do not provide that advantage, since we already have two schools who should have spent their first years in the SBC instead of CUSA in ODU and UTSA. But tv markets drive expansion these days, then name recognition. I'm wiling to bet that UL-Lafayette will be at the top of the next CUSA addition, with Tulane leaving. I suspect that UAB will get forced to drop football down to the fcs level or that a school like FAU might get poached if UCF or USF get pulled away in the future from the AAC. ULL has a decent tv market and can probably open up some connections to Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

I doubt any MAC team will ever leave their conference to join any

Other conference that's not the AAC. Those schools really like their setup for rivalries and easy travel. They aren't gonna see Ball State or northern Illinois leave to join CUSA. NIU will

Probably get an AAC invite when UConn or Cincy get

Picked away.

[Andrew]

I am confused... Are you saying FAU would be wanted in the AAC? Because they are already on conference USA

Edited October 25, 2013 by Andrew

[GrayEagle]

Let's try harder. Isn't Army and Navy still out there? MAC schools Ball State and Ohio can easily be split between East and West.

And there is still a chance that if the Big 6 expands further, it will likely destroy the American conference as the ACC back fills after their best members split for the SEC and Big 10. SMU, Houston, Tulsa and Tulane may come crawling back.

[/quote

Army...You betcha!

Navy...Supposed to go to the AAC in 2014

Ball State...No way, Jose. Struggles to get 15,000. Small stadium. Very up and down teams.

Ohio...Needs to expand stadium. Will be solid as long as they have Solich.

No FCS moveups. Let the Belt take those. Louisiana and Arkansas State have earned moving up. New Mexico State hasn't been relevant in years but they are long-standing Division 1-A and cna draw decently with good teams. Maybe Toledo although they only have a 25,000 seat stadium which they do a decent job of filling. Northern Illinois would be ok, Anyone that wants to defect from the AAC or MWC.

Had only La Tech and UNT been added I believe that there would've been a better chance of getting some of the defectors back (given the loss of the Catholic schools) but I believe that to be a moot point now.

Edited October 25, 2013 by GrayEagle

[PlummMeanGreen]

Ditto, Ditto...

U of Louisiana lost out on this CUSA expansion and I still have no idea why as I compare their recent success, larger than most CUSA school's football stadiums and attendance with the last wave of expansion schools and that even compared to some who left or will leave for the AAC--one of those from way down there in New Orleans.

And since the Rajun Cajuns are apparently a shoo-in for the NO's, Bowl, they will also most likely kick whoever their NO's Bowl opponent's butt, too, since they have a well coached team and will have the home crowd as they bring 45K (+/-).

Think Halloween Night At Apogee Stadium!

Edited October 25, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen