CUSA made a mistake with the FIU invite

[NT03]

Conference USA made mistake with FIU invite | The Herald-Dispatch http://t.co/3tFeBD8Q2s

— Raymond Reeves (@RaymondEReeves)

September 2, 2014

[untbowler]

would trade FIU for ULL in a heart beat and trade FAU for TX State in a heartbeat

[Ben Gooding]

Duh.

[meangreenbob]

Absolutely. Shows the panic of the CUSA commissioner. Should have invited ULL first over LTech and then the conference could have approached LTech and asked, "well do you want in or not?"

Would have made a far better and more respected conference for sure. Too late.

Edited September 2, 2014 by meangreenbob

[Coffee and TV]

Anybody know why NT03's post is empty to me. Is it an adblock error, a java script error? What am I doing wrong?

[Christopher Walker]

Anybody know why NT03's post is empty to me. Is it an adblock error, a java script error? What am I doing wrong?

I'm going to guess you have Twitter blocked at work.

[wardly]

It's about market size, not product on field or court. However, I would let FIU join just to see their dance team at basketball tournament.I also would like to see A-State and ULL if conference expands to 16, but they don't bring enough t.v. sets to the table.By the way, what happened to the successful FIU football coach fired a few years ago?

[Cerebus]

Of course we would want ULL/ASU over FIA/FAU, but the eastern schools didn't. They wanted more regional teams, and more importantly, the chance to play in front of Florida recruits every year.

[THOR]

maybe they will turn it around, but right now, it does look like a bad add...

[UNT90]

If this were basketball season, this article would be about UNT.

[Eagle1855]

FIU made a mistake by firing Cristobal.

[untjim1995]

FIU made a mistake by firing Cristobal.

This.

That guy built them up from absolute Dodge-like garbage to a bowl champion. Then, after he stays at FIU instead of going to Pitt (huge mistake), he has one bad year and gets canned. Pathetic...

I think the mistake was adding FAU after you already had FIU for the Miami market. ULL made a lot more sense, at that point.

[GrayEagle]

Yes, Banowski was trying to put the TV package together and the Miami and West Palm Beach markets were a lot more attractive than Lafayette and a small share of the Austin market. But...just last year we took a Western Kentucky team from a smaller market than Lafayette. In addition, they draw about 8-10,000 less game attendance than Louisiana. Even Arkansas State has an equal TV market compared to Bowling Green and draw at least 5K more per game than WKU.

So, if we absolutely had to have the Florida teams for the TV package we should've taken ULL as our 14th team. Then, if we go to 16 teams, take two from Texas State, Arkansas State or Western Kentucky.

[meangreenbob]

Empty stadiums will always hurt the perception of the conference regardless of the teams success on the field.

[Harry]

I think closing out the Florida market was a big part of this as well. If you took FAU only you leave FIU in the Belt... taking them both was smart from TV and recruiting.

FIU is a damn big, good academic school -- in a great location. I know they are down but they will be back.

[Daddy Dumpsalot]

ULL is a terrible school. CUSA shouldn't have invited any of the FL or LA teams....or Tx. State.

[Mean Green 93-98]

That guy built them up from absolute Dodge-like garbage to a bowl champion. Then, after he stays at FIU instead of going to Pitt (huge mistake), he has one bad year and gets canned. Pathetic...

Mmmm . . . there was more to it than that. Cristobal had several off the field issues, including pummeling a dude in a bar while repeatedly yelling "Panther power!" every time he punched him. But any way you slice it, their firing of Cristobal came back to bite them, and the AD's absolute confidence that they had Butch Davis waiting in the wings absolutely did them in.

[Coffee and TV]

I'm going to guess you have Twitter blocked at work.

Nope. Any other theories.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I think closing out the Florida market was a big part of this as well. If you took FAU only you leave FIU in the Belt... taking them both was smart from TV and recruiting.

C-USA took FIU well before they ever invited FAU.

[Mean Green 93-98]

ULL is a terrible school. CUSA shouldn't have invited any of the FL or LA teams....or Tx. State.

Enlighten us . . . who should they have invited?

[The Fake Lonnie Finch]

Banowsky was a genius. He stole the Sun Belt right out from under the Sun Belt. Then, added some start-ups.

[Harry]

C-USA took FIU well before they ever invited FAU.

Yes I had that backwards. I also forgot to mention there are some travel advantages from having the both of them in as well especially in basketball.

[Cerebus]

Nope. Any other theories.

Ad Block, Ad Block Plus, Disconnect, etc.

Tons of anti ad or anti tracking plugins will do it.

[Jason Howeth]

I think closing out the Florida market was a big part of this as well. If you took FAU only you leave FIU in the Belt... taking them both was smart from TV and recruiting.

FIU is a damn big, good academic school -- in a great location. I know they are down but they will be back.

They're big (50k+ students), but they're a poor academic school. When I visited, I had the pleasure (misfortune?) of seeing their academic performance statistics. All-men's average was around 2.5... YIKES!

[Harry]

Nope. Any other theories.

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