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Fire up the rumor mill: Missouri St to CUSA???

I have been doing some additional thinking on these things if anyone wants me to go into it. Willing to take a deep dive analysis into this if the interest is there.
Absolutely, from my end. You ALWAYS have Insightful thoughts and comments, whether I always agree is irrelevant.
 
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SMU does this after going to ACC for free...https://footballscoop.com/news/smu-raises-100-million-in-a-week-after-acc-move
 
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SMU does this after going to ACC for free...https://footballscoop.com/news/smu-raises-100-million-in-a-week-after-acc-move
I read an article that when the AD approached the boosters for the approximately $250m needed for the 9yrs in the ACC that the combined worth of that room was over $15 billion.

Un freaking real.
 
SMU is going to buy a winning team. Take it to the bank, they will be a really good team in 5 years. They have the money to pay recruits big money so they will just buy talent. It’s a terrible reflection on college athletics.
 
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SMU is going to buy a winning team. Take it to the bank, they will be a really good team in 5 years. They have the money to pay recruits big money so they will just buy talent. It’s a terrible reflection on college athletics.

I've said and complained about this from the start. Transfer portal and NIL money is a double whammy for a school like MTSU.

Schools that have deep pockets are going to just buy their way into championships and competing on the big stage, and part of that will be just paying better players from programs like ours to migrate over. That's really bad news for MTSU and schools like us. We are one of the poorest D1 schools in the country when you look at our endowment combined with our lack of community support and lack of big booster $$$. We just don't have it. We are perpetually broke, pinching pennies, and playing SEC road games just to stay afloat.

If we are being honest with ourselves, we are right where we belong. We might have had a chance in the old days when kids had to sit a year and you couldn't just offer someone 100k to leave MT and come play for you. This allowed us to keep the talent we have and, in the right circumstances, develop a very talented roster that could possibly run the table (We never did it, but some MWC, AAC, and MAC schools did).

But now that kids can transfer for free, and schools can just buy our players, we are no more than a glorified JUCO. Same goes for other G5's I guess (I don't like this argument)....but it hurts us even more IMO because of just how broke we are. We can't even get a collective going for our guys for crying out loud. Nobody cares. At least some other G5's can pay their players SOMETHING. Many MWC and AAC schools are getting their players paid. Even some SBC.
 
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Relegation. I've said before the lower conferences need to think outside the box to survive.
Long way from fruition but nice to see they are trying.


What if the Pac-12 and Mountain West changed the way college conferences operate by borrowing an idea from European soccer leagues?
 
I've said and complained about this from the start. Transfer portal and NIL money is a double whammy for a school like MTSU.

Schools that have deep pockets are going to just buy their way into championships and competing on the big stage, and part of that will be just paying better players from programs like ours to migrate over. That's really bad news for MTSU and schools like us. We are one of the poorest D1 schools in the country when you look at our endowment combined with our lack of community support and lack of big booster $$$. We just don't have it. We are perpetually broke, pinching pennies, and playing SEC road games just to stay afloat.

If we are being honest with ourselves, we are right where we belong. We might have had a chance in the old days when kids had to sit a year and you couldn't just offer someone 100k to leave MT and come play for you. This allowed us to keep the talent we have and, in the right circumstances, develop a very talented roster that could possibly run the table (We never did it, but some MWC, AAC, and MAC schools did).

But now that kids can transfer for free, and schools can just buy our players, we are no more than a glorified JUCO. Same goes for other G5's I guess (I don't like this argument)....but it hurts us even more IMO because of just how broke we are. We can't even get a collective going for our guys for crying out loud. Nobody cares. At least some other G5's can pay their players SOMETHING. Many MWC and AAC schools are getting their players paid. Even some SBC.
No doubt being a traditional / historical “normal” school, without the professional schools that help bring in $$$, grow endowment, etc, hurts MT

But MT has also been hurt by having an academic (like McPhee) for 20 years. McPhee has done some good things on the academic side (not perfect, but no president is), but his liabilities as a promoter have hurt MT over a 20 year period. MT needs someone like Keith Carver (formerly of UTM) or Randell (retired WKU president).
 
But MT has also been hurt by having an academic (like McPhee) for 20 years. McPhee has done some good things on the academic side (not perfect, but no president is), but his liabilities as a promoter have hurt MT over a 20 year period. MT needs someone like Keith Carver (formerly of UTM) or Randell (retired WKU president).
The biggest problem that MT has had, exacerbated by our poor leadership, is a marketing problem. We don’t create any buzz, we can’t raise money from donors, despite being so close to Nashville and in one of the fastest growing areas of the country. Nashville does have Vandy, but I don’t think average people connect with them. So the area is ripe for the taking if MT would just put some significant resources behind marketing, which in turn would bring $ and hopefully a better product.

The potential has been sitting there for so long, but leadership has never truly leveraged it. Athletics are the front porch of the university and it’s basically been ignored for too long.

Hire a top quality marketing firm and rethink everything. M&M are absolutely terrible in this area so they need to recognize it and go outside. They will see significant returns.
 
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The biggest problem that MT has had, exacerbated by our poor leadership, is a marketing problem. We don’t create any buzz, we can’t raise money from donors, despite being so close to Nashville and in one of the fastest growing areas of the country. Nashville does have Vandy, but I don’t think average people connect with them. So the area is ripe for the taking if MT would just put some significant resources behind marketing, which in turn would bring $ and hopefully a better product.

The potential has been sitting there for so long, but leadership has never truly leveraged it. Athletics are the front porch of the university and it’s basically been ignored for too long.

Hire a top quality marketing firm and rethink everything. M&M are absolutely terrible in this area so they need to recognize it and go outside. They will see significant returns.
I think a lot of what you have said has been true in the past but is no longer the case. I have been told that our athletic dept has raised over 20 million in private funds in the past year and is currently investing about 100 million dollars in new facilities. Not sure we can really ask for much more?
 
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This is a somewhat rehashed statement, but I think those that hired the current president knew exactly what they were doing. They wanted the exact opposite of Dr Walker. He was too frightening an obstruction to the other fbs schools in Tennessee. After making a headway in the right direction Dr Walker sensed the overpowering opposition from the powers above him. This led him to leave for greener pastures. When the decision came about to replace Walker those people wanted more of an easily led YES man. Now 15 years later after the damage is done our administration gets to play the CYA game by supporting athletics growth. Is it too late? That's what a few of the power brokers within the state are counting on.
 
I think a lot of what you have said has been true in the past but is no longer the case. I have been told that our athletic dept has raised over 20 million in private funds in the past year and is currently investing about 100 million dollars in new facilities. Not sure we can really ask for much more?

Yes, the donations seem to have been improved and the facility upgrates are a move in the right direction. However there are significant issues that I don't see being addressed in terms of marketing our athletic program.

I don’t live in Nashville but it sounds like we get little to no coverage from the media.

We have a stadium that is empty for home games. Why are we not giving away stacks of free tickets to schools in the area?

A lack of major companies backing the program. Is Nissan still not involved at a major scale? Maybe they are but I’m not aware.

We have been left out of conference realignment 2 times now. Remember we didn’t get the invite the first go around to CUSA.

Our Pegasus logo looks like a bad 1970‘s style drawing.

Still can’t shed the “state” name.

I could keep going. We are poorly marketed, and need a major improvement in that area.
 
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A lot of chatter going on that Delaware is positioning for a move to CUSA. Thoughts?
 
Just another startup we would schedule as a season opener, only to get boatraced again. Aka JM.
Mostly Twitter and Forum talk right now but I’ve talked to a couple of people and it seems to have some legs. UMASS is being lumped together with Delaware which I hope is not true.

Redshirt Sports:

Local paper (a month ago):

Delaware Board Conversation:
 
At least you can find Delaware on a map, unlike Kennesaw State. I would take Delaware over them to CUSA.

This is big for perception. Unless your a civil war buff or regularly sit in Atlanta traffic, there's simply no way anyone has even heard of Kennesaw anything.

Also, Delaware has a history of being competitive.
 
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Also, while not exactly competitive, UMass would be a fantastic road trip. I worked for a company that sent me to Hartford from time to time. There's not likely very many places in the country more beautiful than New England in fall.

Unless your visiting someone at the state pen, you're never going to go to Huntsville TX. Or half the places with programs we find ourselves in a conference with.
 
Also, while not exactly competitive, UMass would be a fantastic road trip. I worked for a company that sent me to Hartford from time to time. There's not likely very many places in the country more beautiful than New England in fall.

Unless your visiting someone at the state pen, you're never going to go to Huntsville TX. Or half the places with programs we find ourselves in a conference with.
I’ve toured the museum in that Huntsville TX prison. 😂
 
Also, while not exactly competitive, UMass would be a fantastic road trip. I worked for a company that sent me to Hartford from time to time. There's not likely very many places in the country more beautiful than New England in fall.

Unless your visiting someone at the state pen, you're never going to go to Huntsville TX. Or half the places with programs we find ourselves in a conference with.
Very true.
 
FWIW:



For the 2021-22 school year, Delaware had $41.6 million each in athletics revenue and expenses, according to the DOE data. Liberty was at $57.4 million in each category. The next biggest spender on sports among C-USA schools was FIU with $39.2 million in revenue and $35.6 million in expenses.

New Mexico State and Middle Tennessee were the only others with more than $30 million in revenue and expenses, according to the DOE charts.
 
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Any road trip to UMass that brings us closer to Tree House or Trillium breweries or Delaware and Dogfish head is a win for this brew raider.
 
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