And so the cuts begin....
- Thread starter MidTennMtneer
- Start date
It wouldn’t be popular, but drop back to FCS would cut the burden of 44 scholarships per year (football plus title 9 women’s non-revenue) and would cut the costs completely from dropping a woman’s sport or 2 to bring those scholarship demands down. Since we now have to subsidize our athletic budget, that change would dramatically save costs.
I would rather see us play OVC/Southern schools than most of our conference now. And the move would probably help attendance.
If they cancel this season then it would not surprise me if we dropped our football program. This would cancel any and all contracts. Then we can start over with a clean slate.
Deliberately moving back to FCS would pretty much be the death of my interest and motivation to follow MT football.
If forced to move down due to circumstances beyond MT's control would not be as disgusting to me, but it would still tremendously lower my interest in keeping up with MT football.
Admittedly before this virus ordeal, Massaro & McPhee have already lowered my interest in MT athletics to a level that I never would have imagined.
If forced to move down due to circumstances beyond MT's control would not be as disgusting to me, but it would still tremendously lower my interest in keeping up with MT football.
Admittedly before this virus ordeal, Massaro & McPhee have already lowered my interest in MT athletics to a level that I never would have imagined.
Care Act
OPEID | School | Total Allocation | Minimum Allocation to be Awarded for Emergency Financial Aid
Grants to Students | Direct to Universities
351000 Middle Tennessee State University $17,299,411 $8,649,706 $8,649,705
200200 Western Kentucky University $10,636,493 $5,318,247 $5,318,246
359400 University Of North Texas $29,018,088 $14,509,044 $14,509,044
353000 University Of Tennessee $19,258,313 $9,629,157 $9,629,156
352300 Tennessee Technological University $8,713,463 $4,356,732 $4,356,731
352200 Tennessee State University $7,214,661 $3,607,331 $3,607,330
350900 University Of Memphis (The) $15,603,749 $7,801,875 $7,801,874
source:
OPEID | School | Total Allocation | Minimum Allocation to be Awarded for Emergency Financial Aid
Grants to Students | Direct to Universities
351000 Middle Tennessee State University $17,299,411 $8,649,706 $8,649,705
200200 Western Kentucky University $10,636,493 $5,318,247 $5,318,246
359400 University Of North Texas $29,018,088 $14,509,044 $14,509,044
353000 University Of Tennessee $19,258,313 $9,629,157 $9,629,156
352300 Tennessee Technological University $8,713,463 $4,356,732 $4,356,731
352200 Tennessee State University $7,214,661 $3,607,331 $3,607,330
350900 University Of Memphis (The) $15,603,749 $7,801,875 $7,801,874
source:
I understand that thought process.
I just get basically no excitement playing in CUSA. Except for Marshall, WKU, UAB or maybe USM, I would just as excited watching us play Chattanooga, Tech or TSU.
I just have not seen much benefit being in a low tier G5 FBS conference vs FCS other than we have to subsidize higher salaries to not win or make the Bottom Feeder Bahama Bowl to give CM a vacation.
I would rather see us trying to get in a playoff game compared to getting into the Nobody Carex Bowl on ESPN Ocho against a 7-5 G5 school.
I went to grad school at top 25 FCS school and follow the league closely. It really is not bad football and would even say the upper tier can certainly compete, if not beat lower FBS programs. Where would MTSU fall in the FCS peeking order is the question? Could they compete with the NDSU or Austin Peay teams or end up like Idaho, which has hovered around .500 since dropping down.
It's all about coaching. Watson Brown was 500ish at UAB and he was about the same at TTU.
Stuckstill wouldn't have any more success if MT fell to 1AA but I fear that is what 7 wood has in mind
2nd tier college football just has no interest to me. Judging by the general lack of sports media coverage, the sports world in general seems to care little for fcs football.
ESPN gives the fcs national champion some attention the last few years, but that is about it, see SDSU & JMU. Most any given week, I couldn't tell you who was playing in fcs, and frankly I wouldn't care.
My preference is to compete at the highest level, in any sport or area. I think college basketball and March Madness is a reflection of the American people's preference for competition at the highest level. Despite so many smaller schools in D1 basketball, most everyone loves to see some of the better teams from smaller schools take on the power elites in March for that chance to knock off the giant and lay hold of that winning glory that makes March so special.
2nd tier college basketball, ie DII etc, is an afterthought. Who could name who even plays in their tournament? I have no idea and really couldn't care less. Unless you are involved with a DII school and program, I doubt much of anyone knows much about their college basketball division.
I also think most G5 schools & fans resent the P5 & G5 divide because it is an almost relegation of half the D1 teams to a pseudo (or de facto) tier 2 league. I know it irritates the tar out of me especially since it is so much rooted in monopolistic greed.
ESPN gives the fcs national champion some attention the last few years, but that is about it, see SDSU & JMU. Most any given week, I couldn't tell you who was playing in fcs, and frankly I wouldn't care.
My preference is to compete at the highest level, in any sport or area. I think college basketball and March Madness is a reflection of the American people's preference for competition at the highest level. Despite so many smaller schools in D1 basketball, most everyone loves to see some of the better teams from smaller schools take on the power elites in March for that chance to knock off the giant and lay hold of that winning glory that makes March so special.
2nd tier college basketball, ie DII etc, is an afterthought. Who could name who even plays in their tournament? I have no idea and really couldn't care less. Unless you are involved with a DII school and program, I doubt much of anyone knows much about their college basketball division.
I also think most G5 schools & fans resent the P5 & G5 divide because it is an almost relegation of half the D1 teams to a pseudo (or de facto) tier 2 league. I know it irritates the tar out of me especially since it is so much rooted in monopolistic greed.
I meant to "piggy back" on your post days ago.
Troy, Ak. St., and Murray all have a "sphere of influence" due to their locations. This was showed by research quoted on this board (or perhaps The Zone) several years ago. Not only do they have little competition for entertainment dollars they also are all covered extensively in their local media which is important to reach potential fans in their area.
MT (and the two Florida schools) are so close to major media markets that their local media does little to make up for the influence of being overwhelmed by the major market. Do you think that WGNS and the DNJ come close to making up for influence of Nashville media (Tennessean, TV stations, Sports talk radio) in Rutherford Co. The Rutherford Co. media can't help us and we're so far down on the list of sports covered in Nashville to be nonexistent. As for the M'Boro media, barely has any influence past the city limits, much less in the mid-state area where we need to solicit support. As a frame of reference, UT-C gets as much media in Chattanooga as UT-K and UGA. They at least have a small "sphere of influence".
It's all about "location, location, location". MT's location is good if all you are concerned about is growing the enrollment. But, the location does little to remove the "commuter school / suitcase college" image. It does little to elicit support from alumni, backing from businesses, loyalty from students, or attendance at athletic contests. We're in a bad location (and financial situation) for the athletic program to continue on as it is, much less grow.
This problem is exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis. We were already swimming upstream against a surging river and the dam above us just broke. In another thread someone posted wondering if we made changes to a few high-profile positions would support come back and could we see average FB attendance of 25,000. I would bet you a dollar to a doughnut, change that, I'll bet a thousand dollars to a doughnut that we'll drop FB before we ever see 25K in Floyd again. It's all a function of where we are, literally and financially. It is what it is, and it ain't good.
Since the state seemingly has a different idea for the school than MT alums do (law school twice denied, contract extension and raise for 7 wood, additional undergrad offerings with TSU/Meharry, no name change) I think you are right unless we can get a MT friendly governor who wants what we do.
Until then, we're screwed
This is why markets don't mean sh!t. No one cares about us here. I say we go on a quest for proximity only. It's how we survive.
I agree with you. Markets only matter when a lot of people in the market watch, which isn’t happening in CUSA.
The Big East, Atlantic 10 & CAA are going to a partnership for temporary regional combined scheduling for all “secondary” sports. See the article here
C-USA, Sun Belt and OVC/Southern/Whoever should do the same thing for the next few years. we could make a competitive schedule in every sport within driving distance for like 3-5 years. Save money and if after that time the regional model is looking better, then keep it permanently. If things pick back up, go back to original conferences.
I think sometimes those of us here on this board somehow think a large group of MT alums think like we do as your statement implies. I wish it were so that many alumni supported the school through donations and attendance at sporting events. In my experience that's just not so.
In my relatively normal (IMHO) group of friends who are alumni only one is close to being as dedicated to the school as I am. The others lost interest in sports, became hard-core fans of "Big-Time" schools or pro sports (often through marriage), or only take note when we play a big-time school or have the infrequent huge win.
I blame a large part of the problem being so little media coverage. Alumni in Davidson, Sumner, Williamson, and Wilson counties (where most alums outside of Rutherford live) rarely get MT sports news therefore our teams are never discussed in work lunchrooms, between Sunday school and worship services at church, or other places where groups gather.
Out of sight, out of mind. Hard to keep interest when you're on an island as a MT fan/supporter.
I think most active alums are on the same page (name change, law school) but most MT alums don't care...
Heck, I have around 10 close relatives who graduated from MT (one teaches at MT but doesn't like sports) and only two watch MT sports. The others couldn't care less about the school.
I worry that the current admin is driving away active alums.
It's almost like their intentions are that...
Quite frankly our way of thinking (fans and admin) has gotten a bit twisted. The train of thought that the only way to attract alums was to act like we were on a P5 level and that Alums should just flock to us and the sole reason that they weren't supporting us was because they didn't know about our new status somehow. We blamed it on the admin for not reaching out to them. To me this is lunacy. The core problem is proximity.
Why the hell would a local alum show up to watch us play East Texas Nowhere State or Old Dominion or F?U? They have no familiarity with those programs at all. They don't even know who they are let alone what their history is. They aren't that good and we're not playing a P5 schedule so who cares when it's outside of proximity? At least with the proximity of these local nearby schools, you get more travel attendance, more local rival media, and you can schedule off peak and veer away from playing when the bigger local schools are playing.
Check the attendance from the last 10 years. Best attended games. Memphis, Vandy, WKU, Ga Tech, and TSU. Even our APSU game in 2010 was better attended than our championship game in 2018. That towers over the other opponents we've had. All of those schools are 4 hours or less in proximity. Fill a whole schedule with that and there you go. Saves money, increases attendance and helps with familiar interest. Might not solve everything but it's light years better than what we have now which is a conference full of nowhere states.
Why the hell would a local alum show up to watch us play East Texas Nowhere State or Old Dominion or F?U? They have no familiarity with those programs at all. They don't even know who they are let alone what their history is. They aren't that good and we're not playing a P5 schedule so who cares when it's outside of proximity? At least with the proximity of these local nearby schools, you get more travel attendance, more local rival media, and you can schedule off peak and veer away from playing when the bigger local schools are playing.
Check the attendance from the last 10 years. Best attended games. Memphis, Vandy, WKU, Ga Tech, and TSU. Even our APSU game in 2010 was better attended than our championship game in 2018. That towers over the other opponents we've had. All of those schools are 4 hours or less in proximity. Fill a whole schedule with that and there you go. Saves money, increases attendance and helps with familiar interest. Might not solve everything but it's light years better than what we have now which is a conference full of nowhere states.
If CUSA and Sun Belt get together it would be fairly easy to fix the proximity issue. There are 24 schools that play football between the two conferences. 12 teams each and keep it this way.
Conference A:
FAU
FIU
Ga. St.
Ga. So.
Coastal Carolina
ODU
APSU
Charlotte
Marshall
WKU
MTSU
UAB
Conference B:
Troy
USA
USM
LTU
ULL
ULM
Rice
UNT
UTSA
UTEP
Tx. St.
Ark. St.
Conference A:
FAU
FIU
Ga. St.
Ga. So.
Coastal Carolina
ODU
APSU
Charlotte
Marshall
WKU
MTSU
UAB
Conference B:
Troy
USA
USM
LTU
ULL
ULM
Rice
UNT
UTSA
UTEP
Tx. St.
Ark. St.
As long as MT has an average or poor team, attendance will be poor and will fluctuate depending on opponent and weather.
Attendance would be consistently high with an excellent MT team as more people want to see a great team play regardless of the opponent or weather.
Attendance would be consistently high with an excellent MT team as more people want to see a great team play regardless of the opponent or weather.
Well it does not work out for proximity purposes. Throw in the AAC and they are still in our conference.
Conference A: Ark St., Memphis, MTSU, UAB, Troy, USA, USM, WKU, FIU, FAU, UCF, USF
Conference B: UCONN, Cincy, Marshall, ODU, Navy, Temple, Charlotte, APSU, ECU, CCU, Ga. St., Ga. So.
Conference C: Rice, UNT, UTSA, UTEP, Tx. St., SMU, Houston, Tulsa, ULL, ULM, LTU, Tulane
In the last 15 years or so MT has brought a fair share of P5 programs to Floyd Stadium, better number than most G5 schools have had to their own stadiums. None of them were major powers or considered to be good teams. Without looking it up, but I think the only time we have beaten one of those teams at home was in 2008 against Maryland. Those games were lost opportunities and we can't even expect an attendance bump from playing those games at home now. Pile on to those games our poor record against local rivals wku and vandy, home and away, the last five or six years, that has killed our attendance. And apathy has set in due to no one being held accountable for that poor record and crashing the attendance. Not the coach, not the AD, not the President. We should change our name to Deep State U. because no one ever gets fired.
"22 athletic department employees furloughed through July; men's indoor track and field dissolved."
IIRC, in the late 80's, MT president Ingram dissolved women's track. It was reinstated a few years later...
I'm waiting for 7 wood to drop the hammer
IIRC, in the late 80's, MT president Ingram dissolved women's track. It was reinstated a few years later...
I'm waiting for 7 wood to drop the hammer
I agree, realignment with all three conferences would be my choice but....
from the AAC member standpoint, I don't see it as beneficial... If they were to accept a change, I feel it would be detrimental for their programs....
I think there's a chicken or the egg conundrum here.
I tend to believe it has been overblown to this point that Nashville is so close. However, if MTSU were to start winning I think being close to Nashville would be a major selling point.
Everything comes back to success. Win and all of a sudden players who wouldn't consider MTSU now will because their parents can fly in easily. I talked with a QB prospect whose parents basically said just that.
Also, just to add to my post above, Nashville and the surrounding area is for the taking simply because Vanderbilt is so bad in football and keeps screwing up basketball hires.
A couple of 9-10 win seasons strung together would go a long way to MT. It'll never surpass UT, no, but only 100K fit in those stands 2.5 hours away every Saturday. MT can win the rest.
A couple of 9-10 win seasons strung together would go a long way to MT. It'll never surpass UT, no, but only 100K fit in those stands 2.5 hours away every Saturday. MT can win the rest.
WVU atheltuc dept just announced 60 day furlough for 65 employees as well as 10% pay cuts for the AD, men's and women's basketball, football, and baseball head coaches.
MT had 8 bowl eligible seasons in a row until last season. Winning in G5 is not enough to make people care unless you are in a remote area like Jonesboro or Boone. We have 4 SEC schools within 4 hours of us. Our plight is way different. TV Markets are stupid. Proximity is the key.
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This is so off base and wrong. First of all Nashville doesn't just have UT and VU fans and alums in it. We're talking BAMA, Ole Miss, MSU, UGA, and even UF fans are all in Nashville. We could go undefeated and it ain't stacking up to any of those teams on a Saturday. We have lived this experiment for over 20 years now. Doesn't matter how many VU wins, who are most fans picking to see in Novemeber? UT vs. VU on West End or MT vs. Nowhere East Tx state? Come on. It ain't even close.
Bowl eligibility doesn’t register for G5 teams. Gotta win 10 games and be consistently in the Top 25. Also need to consistently compete with the Power 5 teams on the schedule.
Eh, I think a winning program fills seats. Maybe not when UT comes west to Nashville once every two years, but otherwise.
High level winning is the key. But another thing that would help would be to really focus on recruiting the midstate. Get those guys, and get their families and friends.
Just looking at the last couple of years, the average star rating for the guys MTSU has signed is not that far off from the competition around them. Just haven’t got it done on the field.
