Nightmare Scenario for CUSA

[casual fan]

What if Tulane beats Rice?

The west division could end in a 4 way tie.

UNT, Rice, Tulane, and UTSA would all be 6-2.

Head to head in a tie breaker UNT and Rice would be 1-2 vs the other 3 teams.

Leaving Tulane and UTSA at 2-1.

Since UTSA beat Tulane they would play the east champion.

If they somehow win, they would be the CUSA champion with no bowl to play in.

That would be a total train wreck for CUSA.

Rice needs to beat Tulane for the good of the conference.

[Rudy]

I know CUSA is not an AQ conference, but there is no way the powers that be will let this happen. Notice the refs in the Tulane and Rice game, and I believe they were the same as yesterday. Somone post the names of that crew and lets see where they officiate next week, and how they do.

[shaft]

That's not how the tie-breakers work. If all the conference records are tied, you look to divisional records and rankings which would favor Rice.

[2centsworth]

It's being reported in San Antonio papers that if Tulane beats Rice and UTSA beats LA tech, UTSA plays for the conference championship. Would be the biggest football accomplishment in the history San Antonio Sports. Sad that the 7th largest city has only UTSA football, but good for an upstart program to be the only team in town.

As far as C-USA, would bring national attention, and I'm not saying all positive, to a conference that's ignored.

btw, been a fan of the MG since they beat spike dykes in the early 90s and took the eric metcalf led horns to the limit, so no offense.

[casual fan]

That's not how the tie-breakers work. If all the conference records are tied, you look to divisional records and rankings which would favor Rice.

Rice would have 2 division losses to UNT & Tulane. UTSA has one division loss and a loss to Marshall in the east.

Rice needs to beat Tulane to stop UTSA from going to the title game.

[Digi368]

CUSA confirmed the scenarios and its Rice unless they lose and UTSA wins. If both Rice and UTSA lose its Tulane.

The worst case scenario should be if Tulane wins since they are leaving the division next year. The true nightmare scenario would be Tulane vs ECU. The new American conference mates would never let CUSA forget that.

[Rudy]

The City of Allen conference is a punchline during their own boradcasts on ESPN. If it surivives, it will be an afterthought in the conference pecking order.

[Mean Green Matt]

CUSA confirmed the scenarios and its Rice unless they lose and UTSA wins. If both Rice and UTSA lose its Tulane.

The worst case scenario should be if Tulane wins since they are leaving the division next year. The true nightmare scenario would be Tulane vs ECU. The new American conference mates would never let CUSA forget that.

That sounds like a fantastic thing to discuss on Rowdy Talk. Edited November 24, 2013 by Mean Green Matt

[Rudy]

Digi is one of the few who actually have anything to offer. I don't mind him posting here, at least he seems to know how to win with dignity.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Rudy

[wardly]

CUSA confirmed the scenarios and its Rice unless they lose and UTSA wins. If both Rice and UTSA lose its Tulane.

The worst case scenario should be if Tulane wins since they are leaving the division next year. The true nightmare scenario would be Tulane vs ECU. The new American conference mates would never let CUSA forget that.

I hope UTSA and Tulane both win. I would love to see Roadrunners in Championship game as they just flat beat us,as opposed to the Tulane loss where we gave the game away.Plus we would be in 3 way tie for 1st in West, which may[big may] improve our bowl position. I think we just played our way out of H.O.D. Bowl, as well as West winner and CUSA championship. Just an old mans opinion, but give UTSA the credit they deserve.

[MeanGreenRoadrunner]

CUSA confirmed the scenarios and its Rice unless they lose and UTSA wins. If both Rice and UTSA lose its Tulane.

The worst case scenario should be if Tulane wins since they are leaving the division next year. The true nightmare scenario would be Tulane vs ECU. The new American conference mates would never let CUSA forget that.

You hit right on the head, there, Digi. We need to not let the cusa title go to future AAC teams.

[UNT 90 Grad]

I hope UTSA and Tulane both win. I would love to see Roadrunners in Championship game as they just flat beat us,as opposed to the Tulane loss where we gave the game away.Plus we would be in 3 way tie for 1st in West, which may[big may] improve our bowl position. I think we just played our way out of H.O.D. Bowl, as well as West winner and CUSA championship. Just an old mans opinion, but give UTSA the credit they deserve.

So what scenario would have put us in the HoD Bowl then in your opinion? If we won the West, then it's either the Liberty Bowl or Hawaii Bowl. Only other possibility without a loss to UTSA would have been a loss to Tulsa. Seems like that would have been worse.

[wardly]

So what scenario would have put us in the HoD Bowl then in your opinion? If we won the West, then it's either the Liberty Bowl or Hawaii Bowl. Only other possibility without a loss to UTSA would have been a loss to Tulsa. Seems like that would have been worse.

It's my understanding that the bowls that CUSA are affiliated with get their choice of teams based upon pecking order. Liberty gets the 1st choice,Hawaii the 2nd,etc. It doesn't mean that the 2nd ranked team in CUSA automatically goes to Hawaii, as I think Rice at #2 will end up in Dallas,[ assuming they lose to ECU] which we probably would have if we had won the West.There is a lot of horse trading that goes on between the bowls and CUSA. In my opinion we won't go to either New Orleans[although playing ULL would make for a good game] or hopefully Hawaii, and of course we won't go to Liberty Bowl. Again,its just an opinion. Until Saturday I saw us projected to go everywhere except New Orleans.We will know for sure in a week, but our stock certainly dropped.

[JesseMartin]

Actually we'll know in 2 weeks. Some bowls may offer before the championship game, but not likely, and that's on the 7th. But I agree that I'd rather Rice or UTSA go to the game than Tulane. Great school and all, but they're leaving so screw 'em. Hope the AAC implodes and they come back to CUSA but until then, they can just go back to their usual fail.

I doubt Rice loses, and La Tech is also surging, but UTSA in the championship game could be...interesting. They've beaten some decent teams and hung with some great ones. Plus, even with Coker as their coach, this is Soza's last year so there's a good possibility they won't be this good again for a while. I think UTSA at ECU would be a really weird game and actually one I might be interested in seeing. Also, unless vetoed, a UTSA win over ECU would send them to the Liberty Bowl, and could leave us with extra bowl teams if a few bowl committees decide to omit some really bad choices (like Central Michigan).

And as I mentioned before...if things work in CUSA's favor and we get extra bowl teams, UNT gets more money. So we need to hope for a few eligible teams being left out in those bowls where the committees or opposing conferences can choose to elect for some wheeling and dealing for a better team, and also hope they consider our conference mates to be the better teams.

As excited as we've been to have more televised games and higher caliber opponents, we're about to reap yet another reward that our first year in CUSA has brought us...bowl money. We can expect to get pretty close to a million bucks from our share of bowl payouts. Even when our team was the one going to the New Orleans Bowl (and therefore getting a larger share), after expenses we were hardly netting any money. An extra team or two edging their way in (and especially winning) will be a huge benefit to our budget.

[wardly]

According to SB Nation Bowl Projections, UTSA can go to a bowl if all 6&6 teams have been selected first and a slot is still open, or if they petition NCAA and are granted an exception. If they make it to CUSA championship, my money says they get a bowl bid.

[Texas Stranger]

If there are enough 6-6's (some of the 6-6's will be AQ's) an exception being granted will replace another 6-6 with UTSA. Just can't see the NCAA doing that, there would be some awful bad ill will. On the other hand, the NCAA certainly isn't exempt from making bad decisions.

[Texas Stranger]

A small part of me wants UTsa to get to the CUSA Championship game and win it. Banowski and staff need to have the lesson smeared in their faces as to why you don't invite teams that are not fully a member of FBS yet.

[emmitt01]

I would rather the league invite Idaho on a one day basis to face ECU than see the roadkill in the title game.

[Christopher Walker]

We want Rice and LaTech to win this week. Period.

[meangreener]

Rice and Marshall. Heard it here first.

[JesseMartin]

If it's Rice and Marshall, the game would be in Houston, wouldn't it? Without checking records I think that's right.

[GrayEagle]

If Rice beats Tulane this week it's game, set and match for the West crown. Tulane has a good defense their offense is offensive. Rice is the better team and I hope that they play like it.

And, wardly, I must've lost something in the translation. Our prestige is higher if Tulane wins? If Rice is the West Division champion and their only conference loss was to us...that's to our benefit? UTSA could go to a bowl only if the conference didn't have enough qualified teams. We do, so the question is moot.

[Harry]

If Rice beats Tulane this week it's game, set and match for the West crown. Tulane has a good defense their offense is offensive. Rice is the better team and I hope that they play like it.

And, wardly, I must've lost something in the translation. Our prestige is higher if Tulane wins? If Rice is the West Division champion and their only conference loss was to us...that's to our benefit? UTSA could go to a bowl only if the conference didn't have enough qualified teams. We do, so the question is moot.

Coker is playing their chances up which is to be expected. If I was Hickey I would ask him to pipe down a bit because as Gray has stated there just aren't enough spots this year for them to get a special exemption. Coker is setting up the fan base to be disappointed.

[PlummMeanGreen]

Jumping About....

Shouldn't we hope as many CUSA schools could go bowling as possible since its revenue for all our member schools?

UTSA fans have to be chomping at the bits for their fine season to not be rewarded. Upstarts may sometimes have its downfalls, but they are building something down there. Just not sure if UTSA not having an on-campus stadium will eventually be a negative; or their eventually having to emulate U of Houston who felt they had to get out of the Astrodome (miles from their campus) to have any chance to get their students involved and (eventually) alumnus. At about that very same time in UH's football history as far as the Coog's last few years in the Dome, they were averaging around 15K or so fans per home game with W/L records having much to do with that.

If UNT gets the HOD Bowl, I don't care where the rest of CUSA's schools go. The only downer for this college football fan is that we don't have our best inside a Top 25 poll--hope that is not an omen of things to come. I cannot visualize Coach DMAC building this thing as to not be a Top 25 worthy program at some point, though. NOTE: I think our team this Fall was closer than we'll ever know. Now if we only had the MAC pollster voters who put one of their teams in a Top 25 poll at the drop of a hat.

>>>>>>> Ball State would have been Top 25 during part of this season if not for their loss to North Texas.

Still............amazing what hiring a HFC with prior P5 HFC'ing experience can do for a program. Hope we

of UNT don't forget this lesson learned, too.

I think hiring one with age (maturity) and HFC'ing experience from a major P5 conference is the right formula for UNT (and always have felt that way).

GMG!

Totally unrelated but this is a UH Band Day from the past--and that's all I'm going to say about that. And yeah, I know.....GREAT !.....I just gave UTSA another Game Day promotions idea that they would have no problem giving the good ol' college try. (There were 13,000 bandsmen on the field that afternoon in the Astrodome & I was in the stands watching them).

Edited November 26, 2013 by PlummMeanGreen

[wardly]

I just thought it might be best to be tied for 1st in West than to be 3rd behind UTSA and Rice. Also, UTSA can go to bowl if there are not enough 6&6 schools, or if they are granted a waver, which could happen if they are in CUSA championship game. Just an old man's opinion.