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And so the cuts begin....


I really had no idea D2 schools had 102 player rosters, even if most are non-scholarship that seems expensive, especially when only playing in front of 5,000 or even way less per game.

Western Michigan just cut their athletic budget by $6 million, with the HC taking a 25% pay reduction.

IMO, the COVID outbreak is not the only reason college athletic programs are struggling. Nearly all of them have been operating on thin margins or deficits for years. COVID is just highlighting how college athletics stretch university and state budgets very thin as there are now less ways to "hide" spending and revenues.
 
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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.
that speaks volumes about stuckstills coaching ability
 
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.

Name me more than 2 G5 teams that do that 10 years straight? Any coach that wins 10 games or more for 2-3 years in a row gets poached. Your argument is very flawed. It's been tried. G5 teams just don't garner the interest when trying to run like a P5. Proximity of opponents is the key.
 
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.

Who the hell has done that in the G5 for many years straight other than Boise? UCF did it for 2-3 years straight but went like 0-12 the year before they popped off. Appy st. has won a lot and just got a top 25 ranking last year. If any G5 team wins like that, their coaches get poached. i.e. Memphis.

So let's look at WKU. In 2015-16, they won like 11-12 games per year and won 2 conference titles. They couldn't even sell out their own stadium that holds maybe 20k. Their coach got poached and then they bottomed out for 2 years until they got a better coach. FAU had Lane. Won 11 games in 17 and a title. Then last year won another and Lane got poached. They still couldn't come close to filling their stadium. The issue is much more complex than just "winning at a high level". LOL. Only one G5 has done it for more than 3 years at a time.

We won 10 games in 2009 and beat a P5 while playing Clemson well and only got close to selling out once that year. Guess who the opponent was.... Memphis (29,500 I think), a local opponent. This is not hard. Schedule OOC teams close by and push for a re-org to have teams who are close by be in the same conference.

Another issue that we have is that we schedule our games with nowhere east tx st. the same exact time key SEC games are being played. How the hell is anyone gonna come to our games when UGA, UT, Bama, etc are playing? They're not. Solution? Play when they aren't like we did in the Sun belt. I loved Tuesday and Thursday night games. We got on TV and we were the only ones playing on Tuesday. We had big numbers in attendance during those games too. Gotta get creative and make it easy for fans to make these games.
 
Name me more than 2 G5 teams that do that 10 years straight? Any coach that wins 10 games or more for 2-3 years in a row gets poached. Your argument is very flawed. It's been tried. G5 teams just don't garner the interest when trying to run like a P5. Proximity of opponents is the key.

Who the hell has done that in the G5 for many years straight other than Boise? UCF did it for 2-3 years straight but went like 0-12 the year before they popped off. Appy st. has won a lot and just got a top 25 ranking last year. If any G5 team wins like that, their coaches get poached. i.e. Memphis.

So let's look at WKU. In 2015-16, they won like 11-12 games per year and won 2 conference titles. They couldn't even sell out their own stadium that holds maybe 20k. Their coach got poached and then they bottomed out for 2 years until they got a better coach. FAU had Lane. Won 11 games in 17 and a title. Then last year won another and Lane got poached. They still couldn't come close to filling their stadium. The issue is much more complex than just "winning at a high level". LOL. Only one G5 has done it for more than 3 years at a time.

We won 10 games in 2009 and beat a P5 while playing Clemson well and only got close to selling out once that year. Guess who the opponent was.... Memphis (29,500 I think), a local opponent. This is not hard. Schedule OOC teams close by and push for a re-org to have teams who are close by be in the same conference.

Another issue that we have is that we schedule our games with nowhere east tx st. the same exact time key SEC games are being played. How the hell is anyone gonna come to our games when UGA, UT, Bama, etc are playing? They're not. Solution? Play when they aren't like we did in the Sun belt. I loved Tuesday and Thursday night games. We got on TV and we were the only ones playing on Tuesday. We had big numbers in attendance during those games too. Gotta get creative and make it easy for fans to make these games.

Well, I think all of these things are factors. But I maintain winning is the biggest part.

Of course we should also schedule regional teams and play on weeknights. Those things are great ways to get eyes on the program too. But you have to win when you're on TV for it to matter.

And to your reorganization theory, I think the CUSA is going to just that. Especially in a post pandemic world. McLeod has already mention only playing in your division and rescheduling OOC games so that you only play teams closest to you.

It's very likely we might see Vandy, Peay and Tennessee State or Memphis as the OOC games.
 
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USM beat writer for the Sun Herald writes his opinion about cusa post chinese virus

https://www.sunherald.com/sports/college/conference-usa/article242750786.html

I like his conference realignment idea. It just makes sense. If that happened, we would be in New Conference North Division with WKU, Marshall, ODU, App St & Charlotte. South Division would be Coastal, Georgia St, Ga Southern, Troy, F_U schools. Football we get our 5 division, I hope 1 cross division permanent (Troy) & rotate the others.

If we stay FBS, that’s about as good a situation as we could be in right now.
 
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article in the Monroe News Star with the LATech AD quoted heavily:

https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/s...tball-key-money-not-driving-force/3110304001/

...C-USA formed the Future Planning Committee, a seven-person task force exploring money-saving options for members schools, back on March 26. McClelland along with Rice Athletic Director joe Karlgaard, Middle Tennessee AD Chris Massaro, UTEP AD Jim Senter, Old Dominion Athletic Director Wood Selig as well as UTSA athletic faculty representative and Charlotte senior women’s administrator make up the committee. They have met virtually close to 20 times in the last two months and is charged with forming official recommendations to send to the rest of Conference USA’s ADs before the board meeting for university presidents in early June.....

...So far, the committed has reportedly looked at cost saving options like trimming regular-season schedules for some programs, changing championship tournaments to potentially decrease the number of teams that qualify as well as shortening the length of the formats.

Arguably the most notable reported discussions have been whether the league could compete based on divisions and conduct some home-and-homes during football season as well as whether or not C-USA could partner with other regional leagues to form scheduling alliances and if it’s possible that those contests to be counted as conference competition.

The group is still working through myriad of options, but McClelland did say that he didn’t think it were possible for Conference USA to run home-and-homes or teams play teams in different conferences and it count toward league play even in a cost-saving case.

“I think that’s just pie in the sky. I don’t think that would even work. It’s not realistic and it’s very problematic with football,” McClelland said. “Heck, we’ve got games scheduled out to 2032. It’s not like other sports, which you schedule from year-to-year and you have the ability to change the format quicker. There’s so much value in those games. Now, that doesn’t mean we can’t get out of them, but for the whole system to move forward that way, it’s not practical.

“There are other ways within sports to save money. It’s not just simply how you schedule and who you play, there’s other things we can do to create efficiencies and cost savings.” .....

The reality is that each school within Conference USA will ultimately at its own decision that’s most efficient for it within how it operates its individual sports. Last week, ODU’s athletic director lofted the question of whether it would be better to not have football season this year.

When he looks at Louisiana Tech’s current situation, McClelland said he believes football will happen and having the season is the most optimal result.

“I think each school has its different set of pressures and stresses. That doesn’t mean what (Selig) said not valid or applicable to them. But that’s not applicable to me,” McClelland said. “I’m not in position to make that statement.”

For McClelland, his major concern is cutting too deep as he and his department sift through the best ways to cut back costs. The money is crucial, but it can’t be at the top priority for Tech.

“How do you reconcile between cutting and maintaining and understanding? You can’t do something so damaging that it kills the organism and it can’t do what it’s meant to do,” he said. “Where’s that happy medium? Conferences can’t solve budget issues at every school; the schools are doing that. It’s up to them how they’re continuing to exercise those issues.” .....
 
have to say during this down time several cusa beats are being covered pretty well, Marshall, USM, ODU, North Texas, wku, latech. Their local papers are have had articles on athletics during this chinese virus outbreak.
 
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I assume we drop a men’s sport, to get to the 16 sport minimum.

If we do, which sport would be in most danger?

Football
Basketball
Baseball
Golf
Tennis
Cross Country
Indoor T&F
Outdoor T&F
 
East Carolina dropping swimming, tennis in attempt to stem athletic budget deficit

East Carolina will cut four sports — men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s tennis — as part of a plan to address a substantial athletic department budget deficit exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cuts, along with other cost-cutting measures, are expected to save $4.9 million over an unspecified period of time, the school said. In a statement, the school said sport cuts had not been considered before March, when the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic became apparent.

East Carolina had sponsored 20 sports, the most in the American Athletic Conference after Connecticut’s departure, and will now be at the NCAA Division I minimum of 16.

The cuts effect 68 athletes and nine coaches. East Carolina said it will honor the scholarships of the affected athletes, who are also now free to transfer without penalty.

Along with the abandoned sports, East Carolina is implementing budget reductions of 10-20 percent throughout the athletic department, eliminating a number of vacant positions and cutting back on sport and staff travel......

 
Honestly you do have to consider which sports “carry” others financially. There is very little revenue in women’s athletics, but title IX hurts for a cost standpoint when it comes to net gains. Alabama could carry their entire program off of men’s football, but MT can’t... yet they are strapped with the same NCAA regulations. $ is the name of the game right now considering the Covid junk.
 
What I found pretty interesting is if they hit the 30K season ticket threshold, there didn’t seem to be any appetite to allow students in. No idea if students at other schools pay the exorbitant fees students at MT do. Would have to believe students at most SEC/Big 10 schools would have a reasonable expectation of attending a few games. The article all but said opposing teams fans were SOL.
 
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What I found pretty interesting is if they hit the 30K season ticket threshold, there didn’t seem to be any appetite to allow students in. No idea if students at other schools pay the exorbitant fees students at MT do. Would have to believe students at most SEC/Big 10 schools would have a reasonable expectation of attending a few games. The article all but said opposing teams fans were SOL.

Students at bigger schools pay for tickets
 
Students at bigger schools pay for tickets
Regardless, the article said if the 30K season ticket threshold was met, there would be no individual game tixs sold. It said not one thing about student attendance. Whether students get in free, or pay, I find it hard to fathom no ISU students could attend games on their campus.
 
Regardless, the article said if the 30K season ticket threshold was met, there would be no individual game tixs sold. It said not one thing about student attendance. Whether students get in free, or pay, I find it hard to fathom no ISU students could attend games on their campus.

From their message boards, it looks the 30,000 will include some allotment of student season ticket packages.
 
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Did you attend any home games last year??? Our student body was way ahead of the Covid-19.

To be fair student turnout was pretty good in the first two home games (tsu and the Duke game) but after the disappointing blowout administered by the Blue Devils, students, alumni, season ticket holders and casual fans fell by the wayside, as they do every year. As regular as leaves turning orange and falling from the trees in the grove in late fall.
 
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It is a predicable cycle at this point. The duke game was ugly.

To be fair student turnout was pretty good in the first two home games (tsu and the Duke game) but after the disappointing blowout administered by the Blue Devils, students, alumni, season ticket holders and casual fans fell by the wayside, as they do every year. As regular as leaves turning orange and falling from the trees in the grove in late fall.
 
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