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And so the cuts begin....

MidTennMtneer said:
This article has a letter the G5 conferences sent to the NCAA asking for waivers on requirements for non revenue sports. Just the beginning.


https://sports.yahoo.com/with-budgets-tightening-will-more-college-sports-be-cut-204423901.html

After Cincinnati axed its men's soccer program, the foreboding feeling around college sports is that it's only the beginning. The financial impact of the coron...
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espn article as well:
https://www.espn.com/college-footba...ac-c-usa-ask-ncaa-relax-division-requirements
Five FBS conferences, including AAC and C-USA, ask NCAA to relax Division I requirements

Five FBS conference commissioners have asked the NCAA to relax requirements to compete in Division I for four years, including the minimum number of sports a school must sponsor.

The letter from the commissioners of the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West, Mid-American Conference, Sun Belt and Conference USA to NCAA president Mark Emmert also asked for temporary relief from requirements regarding financial aid, average football attendance and scheduling. The request was made on behalf of all Division I schools.....

...NCAA rules require Division I schools to sponsor at least 16 varsity sports.

"We have been working closely with our membership for the past few weeks developing potential options to address the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic," Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said in a statement. "Other conferences are engaged in the same process and this collaborative request from the Group of Five is intended as the sort of creative alternative these unprecedented times demand."
 
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Report: Major public colleges could lose more than $4 billion if college football season canceled

...All of these financial strains are the reason why it’s hard to see the college football season being canceled outright despite the various challenges ahead. Without a singular voice (like a commissioner for professional leagues), it’s going to be difficult to get everybody — from conference to conference and state to state — on the same page. Many contingency plans are being kicked around, and some have even floated the idea of starting the season in the spring.

No matter how it’s done, athletic directors and college sports administrators will do everything in their power to make sure a football season is played, even if the season doesn’t start on time. The financial implications are far too great.
 
I know I'm hoping that some sensible conference realignment among the G5 might be one of the good things that comes out of this terrible national ordeal.

If there isn't already movement towards such changes, I suspect that financial realities will come crashing down on most if not all key players over the next few months. Those financial realities will likely exert a great amount of pressure for institutions to set aside pride and resistance and get something moving that will save money on conference travel expenses.

Really, it would undoubtedly save some money to travel to games vs Ga State instead of traveling all the way out to UTEP especially when racking up those miles for non-revenue sports. Texas St traveling to Appalachian St makes no sense while MT travels to UTSA.

While I generally like the idea of MT trying to position itself in the conference with the best brand recognition possible, there just doesn't seem to be much of any difference amongst the G5 conferences any longer. Mediocre MT and the watered down C-USA just isn't keeping up any significant differences like may have existed years ago.

It would be good to get conference play straightened out so that MT could resume 2 conf bball games a season vs WKU and other decent rivals like UAB.
 
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C-USA has a hodge-podge assortment of media deals to try to maximize media revenues. I get trying to maximize revenues. For the small amount of revenue increases, I'm not so sure it is really worth it when your games are so spread out across various outlets that your fans don't even know where to look for you on game night.

In recent years, I found myself watching more ovc bball games than C-USA bball games. It's not that I'm more of a an ovc fan. Not at all. It's just when looking for more local games, I knew exactly where to find ovc games. If looking for local or regional bball games of C-USA, it would require hunting across providers on various devices just to find a game or two. It wasn't worth it for casual viewing of non-MT conference games to try to hunt them down. The ovc made it much easier & simpler on most any device.
 
mtfblue said:
Are they requesting waivers?
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They aren't at this time. The money coming in from the B12 being a smaller conference makes up for the extra travel. If football gets canceled though, that could change.

WVU would love to be in ACC or SEC but they said no. Well, ACC said he'll no. SEC said yes but Vandy said no and they offered Mizz first. If they said no, we probably would've been next.

But anyway, back to MT. I think the waiver request will be honored. There is some chatter too that CUSA is pushing for realignment as part of this. If this causes a more geographic footprint for us, I'd be all for it. But this is far from over.

If the football season is canceled, after losing BALL tournament $, you'll see even P5 schools scramble in panic mode. Eapecially those on the bottom of the P5 totem pole.
 
I snooped on Marshall's board. They are hearing the same thing we are about the bad shape of CUSA and many are hoping for a combo of USA and the Belt, us with Marshall. They fully are expecting some non-revenue sports to get killed.

I saw a map projection from the University of Washington on when states should open up. A lot of the blueblood state schools are included in states projected to open after June. Not to mention the G5 schools in those states. There's gonna be a lot more cuts if it goes on that long.
 
Proximity is the key. It would help on every front. I think it's why we had better attendance in the belt. If we could re align with the aac, belt and CUSA, it would help everyone not only survive but thrive.
 
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MT
WKU
UAB
Charlotte
App St.
Ark St.
Marshall
Troy
Memphis
Cincinatti
Ga Southern

All of these schools are 6.5 hrs or less.

You could do micro conference play like 4-5 core members in that division and then the others are all proximity based. Tx, La, and Fla schools need to be on their own. UTSA, UNT, Rice, UTSA, Tx St., UTEP, ULM, La Tech, Tulane and ULL are there own conference right there.
 
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blueraiderJT said:
MT
WKU
UAB
Charlotte
App St.
Ark St.
Marshall
Troy
Memphis
Cincinatti
Ga Southern

All of these schools are 6.5 hrs or less.

You could do micro conference play like 4-5 core members in that division and then the others are all proximity based. Tx, La, and Fla schools need to be on their own. UTSA, UNT, Rice, UTSA, Tx St., UTEP, ULM, La Tech, Tulane and ULL are there own conference right there.
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Hard to argue with what you put together. Though it’s likely a pipe dream Memphis & Cincy would be enthusiastic about it. Financial stress/distress could certainly alter their thinking.
The only change I would like to see on your list is to drop Ark St and replace with GA St. It’s a pretty good academic school, decent sports programs, in a great media market. Their fan support is tepid, especially given their enrollment. Just think long-term they have more upside than Ark St.
 
I would be ok with that. Ga State would be nice to have a drive down to Atlanta, however, I really enjoyed the rivalry with Arkansas State. The only school that I am iffy on is Troy. They have a good drive time but seemed like their academic recruiting seemed to be loose compared to other schools.
 
blueraiderJT said:
MT
WKU
UAB
Charlotte
App St.
Ark St.
Marshall
Troy
Memphis
Cincinatti
Ga Southern
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I would swap Ga Southern with Ga State (more upside IMO). Swap Ark St and Troy with Southern Miss and ULL so they could be travel partners.
 
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blueraiderJT said:
MT
WKU
UAB
Charlotte
App St.
Ark St.
Marshall
Troy
Memphis
Cincinatti
Ga Southern

All of these schools are 6.5 hrs or less.

You could do micro conference play like 4-5 core members in that division and then the others are all proximity based. Tx, La, and Fla schools need to be on their own. UTSA, UNT, Rice, UTSA, Tx St., UTEP, ULM, La Tech, Tulane and ULL are there own conference right there.
Click to expand...
Hell will freeze over before Memphis and Cincinnati would ever be a part of that group.
 
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FranklinRaider315 said:
Hell will freeze over before Memphis and Cincinnati would ever be a part of that group.
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They all gonna feel the pain brother. Proximity is the key. If they aren't thinking that way now, they will soon enough. this Covid deal is gonna kill this season. Wave 2 will make sure no football gets played. Then where's the money at? We'll see.
 
BlueAlpha said:
Hard to argue with what you put together. Though it’s likely a pipe dream Memphis & Cincy would be enthusiastic about it. Financial stress/distress could certainly alter their thinking.
The only change I would like to see on your list is to drop Ark St and replace with GA St. It’s a pretty good academic school, decent sports programs, in a great media market. Their fan support is tepid, especially given their enrollment. Just think long-term they have more upside than Ark St.
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Ga St.and Ark st too. Proximity. If they are under 4.5 hrs away, they are in the gold zone. 6 hrs, silver and 8 hrs bronze.
 
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blueraiderJT said:
They all gonna feel the pain brother. Proximity is the key. If they aren't thinking that way now, they will soon enough. this Covid deal is gonna kill this season. Wave 2 will make sure no football gets played. Then where's the money at? We'll see.
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Exactly! As I said in my post Sunday, financial stress/distress could alter their thinking. It’s actually the heighth of arrogance for any school to assume their world going forward looks like last year. Even SEC schools will feel the pain. The NCAA landscape by 2022-23 could be almost unrecognizable from what it looked like last year. That may not be all bad.
 
BlueAlpha said:
Exactly! As I said in my post Sunday, financial stress/distress could alter their thinking. It’s actually the heighth of arrogance for any school to assume their world going forward looks like last year. Even SEC schools will feel the pain. The NCAA landscape by 2022-23 could be almost unrecognizable from what it looked like last year. That may not be all bad.
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You had D2 Urbana University in Ohio shut it doors for good yesterday.
 
It's been very interesting to see how many of these schools (and large corporations) were on the precipice of financial ruin before the virus pushed them over the edge.

Also, for the schools that survive this, I highly doubt we'll see many coaching changes in the near future. No chance of paying a large buyout.
 
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jtp0000 said:
It's been very interesting to see how many of these schools (and large corporations) were on the precipice of financial ruin before the virus pushed them over the edge.

Also, for the schools that survive this, I highly doubt we'll see many coaching changes in the near future. No chance of paying a large buyout.
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our budget was tight already. Our department will definitely change.

We couldn't buy out our coaches if we wanted too before this.
 
BlueAlpha said:
Hard to argue with what you put together. Though it’s likely a pipe dream Memphis & Cincy would be enthusiastic about it. Financial stress/distress could certainly alter their thinking.
The only change I would like to see on your list is to drop Ark St and replace with GA St. It’s a pretty good academic school, decent sports programs, in a great media market. Their fan support is tepid, especially given their enrollment. Just think long-term they have more upside than Ark St.
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Maybe, maybe not. C-USA went with similar assumptions in the last big realignment. It didn't work out too well. Particularly with football, it seems the left behind Sunbelt teams in football performed better in general than C-USA in about that 5+ year span.

C-USA went with the big media markets and large universities. Unfortunately, these large universities with massive student bodies view sports almost as an afterthought. Meanwhile, smaller schools in smaller cities seem to embrace their sports teams with a decent level of attendance.

FIU has about 50,000 students last I checked, but they can't hardly put 5,000 fans in their football stadium. Smaller schools like Troy and Ark St put decent crowds in their stadiums for G5. They haven't done too bad in football at the G5 level.

Murray St has made a huge name for themselves in basketball with similar qualities. The smaller school and town helps create their culture of success by supporting and embracing their team. Enough recruits are attracted to that small town family type environment to help keep the success going.

At this point, I'd rather MT play Troy and Ark St instead of playing FAU & FIU, even with Miami factored into the equation.
 
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