FOOTBALL New conference realignment rumblings

[MT01]

BYU, Cinci are now P4's. The Big12 is a P4 conference. They are legit teams with legit fan bases which is why they moved up.

No one outside of us gives 3 sh!ts about Marshall, San Diego St. or Marquette. LOL. Memphis is whatever. Seems to dance on the outside edge.

Boise St. Football and Ganzaga BB are relevant but I can't think of many others that would move the needle in terms of the casual fan base. Especially in the backyard of the SEC.

G5's are deck chairs on the Titanic and I for one won't get bent too out of shape trying to rearrange them.

You keep digging a hole on this. Yeah, there's a bunch of programs that took care of their business, developed their programs and their fan bases, and built brands. That was the whole point to this issue. You sit here and say no one cares, blah blah it can't be done from our level then use the very examples of it being done. You just keep disproving your own argument. You've been given many examples when you asked for examples and then discount them in spite of their validity.

As for Marshall? They have beaten Notre Dame, South Carolina, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Kansas State, etc. Those are the ones I can recall. I'm pretty sure those programs cared. No one cares about us because we haven't done shit.

 

[BlueraiderSC]

Name some G5 brands that SEC, Big Ten and casual fans really recognize. Go ahead, I got time.

You’re also ignorant or just think most people are stupid if you dont think college football fans know the names like: Miami Oh, Toledo, Kent, Ohio, Eastern Michigan, Ball State etc etc More than they know sam Houston tarelton and Jax state. The MAC among college fans, especially betters, has a strong brand recognition.

 

[ewglenn]

You keep digging a hole on this. Yeah, there's a bunch of programs that took care of their business, developed their programs and their fan bases, and built brands. That was the whole point to this issue. You sit here and say no one cares, blah blah it can't be done from our level then use the very examples of it being done. You just keep disproving your own argument. You've been given many examples when you asked for examples and then discount them in spite of their validity.

As for Marshall? They have beaten Notre Dame, South Carolina, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Maryland, Kansas State, etc. Those are the ones I can recall. I'm pretty sure those programs cared. No one cares about us because we haven't done shit.

To be fair, we’ve beaten Miami, Georgia Tech, Vandy, Syracuse and Maryland. The reason Marshall is relevant on the national stage is because they had a movie made about them.

 

[mtfblue]

Then they'd just push the G5 out of the CFP all together. May not be as simple as a vote, but they'd figure out a way to do it, especially if it means another spot for a SEC/B1G team.

That's when they would get hit with an lawsuit. So either give more money to G5 or just split and form their own league.

 

[MT01]

To be fair, we’ve beaten Miami, Georgia Tech, Vandy, Syracuse and Maryland. The reason Marshall is relevant on the national stage is because they had a movie made about them.

Marshall was brand relevant before the movie. They won conference titles, received multi year top 25 rankings, had multiple legit Heisman candidates. That was all before the movie. We’ve beaten one P5 with a winning record. We’ve done jack squat compared to Marshall.

 

[ewglenn]

Marshall was brand relevant before the movie. They won conference titles, received multi year top 25 rankings, had multiple legit Heisman candidates. That was all before the movie. We’ve beaten one P5 with a winning record. We’ve done jack squat compared to Marshall.

That must have been before I was alive because I don’t recall that.

 

[mtfblue]

That must have been before I was alive because I don’t recall that.

Randy Moss and Chad Pennington days for the Heisman candidates.

 

[MT01]

Byron Leftwich too. He finished sixth.

 

[mtfblue]

Byron Leftwich too. He finished sixth.

yep, forgot about him.

 

[blueraiderJT]

So if Marshall is so relevant, why didn't we sell out our stadium when we beat them 3 times here and once in their house? How many Marshall sweaters have you seen casually here in the south. I've seen maybe 3-4. Why didn't our credibility go up after beating them? They have had success. No sh!t. So have we. So have a lot of G5's. It doesn't put them on the same footing as p4 schools and it never will. They would have been scooped up if that were the case.

Y'all can get as butt hurt as you like but the AAC did not call them up and they went to the belt and have done nothing there. We don't have their following for one simple reason. They are in the middle of nowhere with nothing else happening for 200 miles. We are in the SEC's backyard with BAMA, UT, UGA, Miss st., OLE MISS and even Vandy getting all the attention in the Nashville area. Plus we have an NFL and NHL team playing during our season not to mention all of the major concerts and big venues along with tourism to compete against. We won 10 games in 2009 and had one of the best attended games in our history and yet it didn't seem to factor. Nashville has grown exponentially since then. I just don't ever see it improving.

As for that MAC comment, you can't be serious. MAC attendance is the one conference we are on par with. LOL Sports radio is always talking about Toledo and Ohio. I mean just the other day, a Buffalo fan called in and they spent 3 hours breaking down the MAC. LOL. GTFOH

G5's are being squeeezed out for a reason. You can argue program relevance all you want but it's still happening and it's not gonna get better for any of us. It's just what it is. I bleed blue but I'm only one body. I no longer care what conference we are in or who we play. I'll show up and I'll root for us against whoever. ME or MT vs. everybody. I'll just roll that way.

 

[blueraiderJT]

That's when they would get hit with an lawsuit. So either give more money to G5 or just split and form their own league.

If they do that and they will certainly try, they gotta do that for every sport, not just FB. That's the only reason why it hasn't happened yet. If I'm a G5 conference commish, I'm getting every G5 and FCS conference together and we boycott them in Basketball, Baseball, Women's bowling, swimming, whetever else. The P4's that barely dance and bowl now will LIVE on the bottom forever. Good luck to em. That's why that won't ever happen. It's the nuclear option we actually still have.

 

[MT01]

JT moving the goal posts now.

 

[mtfblue]

If they do that and they will certainly try, they gotta do that for every sport, not just FB. That's the only reason why it hasn't happened yet. If I'm a G5 conference commish, I'm getting every G5 and FCS conference together and we boycott them in Basketball, Baseball, Women's bowling, swimming, whetever else. The P4's that barely dance and bowl now will LIVE on the bottom forever. Good luck to em. That's why that won't ever happen. It's the nuclear option we actually still have.

alot of the P4 schools are affiliate members of G5 and FCS conferences for Olympic sports

 

[MidTennMtneer]

If they do that and they will certainly try, they gotta do that for every sport, not just FB. That's the only reason why it hasn't happened yet. If I'm a G5 conference commish, I'm getting every G5 and FCS conference together and we boycott them in Basketball, Baseball, Women's bowling, swimming, whetever else. The P4's that barely dance and bowl now will LIVE on the bottom forever. Good luck to em. That's why that won't ever happen. It's the nuclear option we actually still have.

That's what the B1G/SEC want though. Same for basketball. They want us out of there and most likely want their own bottom feeders gone. Just like this quote from Sankey, the SEC commish. Talking about expanding the NCAA tourney and mentioning UCLA making the F4 and Syracuse making S16, both from 1st 4 play-in games.

"That just tells you that the bandwidth inside the top 50 is highly competitive," Sankey said. "We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers [from smaller leagues], and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion."

In this same article they talk to the America East conf. 55% of their budget comes from NCAA credits, and Sankey essentially wants them gone.

Despite the fact the fans don't want it, the $ is there and the big wigs want to eliminate blow out games to create "parity". If Sankey had his way there would be no FCS games or G5 buy games. They'd rather have a 17-15 Miss St. team in the tourney instead of a VCU or FDU. Schools that don't have that football $ to lean on. By the same token even we rely on those buy games. We got over $1m for playing Bama last year. We spend almost $5m of our $35m budget on travel. We need that buy game $.

It's pure greed driving this. I mean the SEC/B1G have actually proposed they each get 4 auto qualifiers in the CFP (now looks like it'll be 3), but they also proposed that the top two seeds MUST go to them. That didn't fly but that is what they are pushing for. Control.

Care only for their leagues that are already the richest and screw everyone else (including us) just because we aren't them. It pisses me off as even though we aren't the same, we still are all D1/FBS schools and should all be treated the same. But unfortunately I'm not making the decisions. Being an alum/fan of a non-power school is hard.

'It's a treasure': Inside the battle for the soul of the NCAA tournament

As conference realignment continues, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain the balance between big and small schools that has made the tournament so compelling.

www.espn.com

 

[MidTennMtneer]

The Group of 5 commissioners have been in a difficult position without any negotiating power, but sources indicate they won't choose being excluded from the CFP.

"It's like the Godfather's offer you can't refuse," one Group of 5 athletic director told ESPN on Thursday.

SEC/B1G $21m per school
ACC $13m
B12 $12m
ND $12m
G5 $1.8m

Sources: CFP closer to expected 14-team field

The CFP is on the brink of moving one important step closer to an expected 14-team playoff that would begin in 2026, as the 10 FBS conferences and Notre Dame are pushing to meet a Friday deadline to agree to the next contract.

www.espn.com

 

[Brew_Raider]

If they do that and they will certainly try, they gotta do that for every sport, not just FB.

There’s no requirement to have a D1 football team to play D1 in every other sport.

A power school could choose to drop scholarship football and hire employees to play football. All other schools remain scholarship D1. As long as they offer as many or more scholarships for women as men, they will remain compliant with title IX.

That’s not the issue. The issue is having the capital and planning for the logistics & media rights revenue sharing that will immediately occur when the now employee players can unionize and collectively bargain. UTK is already fundraising for football to leave. The article said 11 other SEC schools are raising funds preparing for the football split. Football will split when the SEC/Big10 feel they have a plan in place and reserve capital to support the initial split.

Those that can’t pay for football will remain student scholarship driven in some version of D1. Scholarship football will be to the pay college football like club sports are to scholarships sports now. If D1 is smart, the leftover G5 and FCS combine with reduced scholarship numbers and have innovative and fun playoffs because any decent talent will be hired by the football pay league. I give it less than 5 years.

 

[blueraiderJT]

JT moving the goal posts now.

I'm sure it seems that way. I think there are 2 measuring sticks for this and there always have been.

Reality and Perception.

From a reality viewpoint those schools that have been mentioned are VERY credible and meaningful brands to their local communities and college sports in general. Many of those schools have competed and have beaten bigger name teams and all of that. There are academic and athletic contributions made and all that as well. Yada yada. It's legit.

However, I've been speaking from a brand perception standpoint. The perception of G5's in general is that we play in a totally different league in comparison to P4's. It's just how it is. I have heard this said to me 100's of times in the last 15 years alone when people ask me what team I'm a fan of. I remember sitting in a sports bar watching MT beat Marshall in 2018 and I was really into it having fun. A few dudes walk up to me and ask who's playing and I tell them. Then they say, "they are pretty decent even though they are not in the same league or brand of football as "real schools". One dude even called it minor league ball. Fellas, that's how G5's are viewed by the majority of college football fans and more importantly, byt the networks and higher ups.

We on this board feel differently but we are also way more knowledgeable than the casual fan. That's what I've been speaking about. Personally, I do feel that it no longer matters what conference we are in because G5's are being grouped as one now and G5's are being pushed aside by the P4's and TV networks as well. I guess that's where I was coming from.

 

[blueraiderJT]

There’s no requirement to have a D1 football team to play D1 in every other sport.

A power school could choose to drop scholarship football and hire employees to play football. All other schools remain scholarship D1. As long as they offer as many or more scholarships for women as men, they will remain compliant with title IX.

That’s not the issue. The issue is having the capital and planning for the logistics & media rights revenue sharing that will immediately occur when the now employee players can unionize and collectively bargain. UTK is already fundraising for football to leave. The article said 11 other SEC schools are raising funds preparing for the football split. Football will split when the SEC/Big10 feel they have a plan in place and reserve capital to support the initial split.

Those that can’t pay for football will remain student scholarship driven in some version of D1. Scholarship football will be to the pay college football like club sports are to scholarships sports now. If D1 is smart, the leftover G5 and FCS combine with reduced scholarship numbers and have innovative and fun playoffs because any decent talent will be hired by the football pay league. I give it less than 5 years.

I know that. I was talking about P4's starting their own football league scheduling only other P4's. To combat that, the G5's and FCS can leverage their other sports against those schools to keep that from happening because many P4's rely on G5's and FCS teams to go bowling and play postseason in all of the other sports. If We and FCS go away. Schools like VANDY, Iowa St., Miss st. Ole Miss, Florida, UT, etc go to the bottom in a lot of sports not just football. That's the leverage that works and only 20 or so teams are really pushing for this split anyway. We'll see what happens.

 

[blueraiderJT]

That's what the B1G/SEC want though. Same for basketball. They want us out of there and most likely want their own bottom feeders gone. Just like this quote from Sankey, the SEC commish. Talking about expanding the NCAA tourney and mentioning UCLA making the F4 and Syracuse making S16, both from 1st 4 play-in games.

"That just tells you that the bandwidth inside the top 50 is highly competitive," Sankey said. "We are giving away highly competitive opportunities for automatic qualifiers [from smaller leagues], and I think that pressure is going to rise as we have more competitive basketball leagues at the top end because of expansion."

In this same article they talk to the America East conf. 55% of their budget comes from NCAA credits, and Sankey essentially wants them gone.

Despite the fact the fans don't want it, the $ is there and the big wigs want to eliminate blow out games to create "parity". If Sankey had his way there would be no FCS games or G5 buy games. They'd rather have a 17-15 Miss St. team in the tourney instead of a VCU or FDU. Schools that don't have that football $ to lean on. By the same token even we rely on those buy games. We got over $1m for playing Bama last year. We spend almost $5m of our $35m budget on travel. We need that buy game $.

It's pure greed driving this. I mean the SEC/B1G have actually proposed they each get 4 auto qualifiers in the CFP (now looks like it'll be 3), but they also proposed that the top two seeds MUST go to them. That didn't fly but that is what they are pushing for. Control.

Care only for their leagues that are already the richest and screw everyone else (including us) just because we aren't them. It pisses me off as even though we aren't the same, we still are all D1/FBS schools and should all be treated the same. But unfortunately I'm not making the decisions. Being an alum/fan of a non-power school is hard.

'It's a treasure': Inside the battle for the soul of the NCAA tournament

As conference realignment continues, it will become increasingly difficult to maintain the balance between big and small schools that has made the tournament so compelling.

www.espn.com

Vandy has a kick ass law program and they will sue the sh!t out of the SEC along with many other schools if they tried to push out founding members like Vandy. They also have acess to a couple billion dollars to use to fight it too. It's not gonna be east for them to do this. It's gonna get messy.

alot of the P4 schools are affiliate members of G5 and FCS conferences for Olympic sports

Excatly cuz they need them. IT's what you leverage. F us in 1 sport and you are out in all of the others too.

 

[sWiley]

There’s no requirement to have a D1 football team to play D1 in every other sport.

A power school could choose to drop scholarship football and hire employees to play football. All other schools remain scholarship D1. As long as they offer as many or more scholarships for women as men, they will remain compliant with title IX.

That’s not the issue. The issue is having the capital and planning for the logistics & media rights revenue sharing that will immediately occur when the now employee players can unionize and collectively bargain. UTK is already fundraising for football to leave. The article said 11 other SEC schools are raising funds preparing for the football split. Football will split when the SEC/Big10 feel they have a plan in place and reserve capital to support the initial split.

Those that can’t pay for football will remain student scholarship driven in some version of D1. Scholarship football will be to the pay college football like club sports are to scholarships sports now. If D1 is smart, the leftover G5 and FCS combine with reduced scholarship numbers and have innovative and fun playoffs because any decent talent will be hired by the football pay league. I give it less than 5 years.

One thousand percent not interested.

The NFL is infinitely more interesting if I want to watch professionals play football. Salary caps, forced parity, drafts, free agency, players actually staying with a team for more than a few seasons....amongst many other better benefits.

Why would I want to watch a bunch of amateurs chasing a bag, changing teams every year when coach won't play them, masquerading as a wannabe college team when there's nothing collegiate about them anymore ??? The biggest pocketbooks are winning and at the top. Shocker. So thrilling....

Every passing year I have watched less and less and less. I might be in the minority here but I don't care. The product is stale and will continue to become more stale with each passing year. Give it time. There's nothing interesting about watching Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and Georgia battle it out every year. Probably why their desperate asses went and expanded the product. Ratings might be good but they know it's getting stale.

There will come a day when there's not much they can do anymore to expand or reinvent their shitty product. I guarantee people are going to grow tired of watching the biggest pocket books win every year. I'm shocked people still enjoy it, but I do understand there's not much to do in back wood states like Alabama, Michigan, etc. so they cling to college football like their life depends on it.

 

[MTLynn]

Every passing year I have watched less and less and less.

Me too, and I only watch the Blue Raiders

 

[Brew_Raider]

Vandy has a kick ass law program and they will sue the sh!t out of the SEC along with many other schools if they tried to push out founding members like Vandy. They also have acess to a couple billion dollars to use to fight it too. It's not gonna be east for them to do this. It's gonna get messy.

Excatly cuz they need them. IT's what you leverage. F us in 1 sport and you are out in all of the others too.

One, SEC commissioner has told member schools there is no plan to exclude anyone if they break off.


Second, small schools have no leverage because they have no money. See Washington St and Oregon St.

Third, the power schools don’t need G5. They can make a schedule with no G5 if they want. The Covid year taught them that. Also, i have been told by way more Mississippi St fans than I thought they would rather be bottom feeders in a power breakout with a best hope for .500 than win a national championship in a G5/FCS leftover conference.

We have no leverage when they decide to break off and many schools will need the money from buy basketball and baseball games to meet athletic department budgets.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

One thousand percent not interested.

The NFL is infinitely more interesting if I want to watch professionals play football. Salary caps, forced parity, drafts, free agency, players actually staying with a team for more than a few seasons....amongst many other better benefits.

Why would I want to watch a bunch of amateurs chasing a bag, changing teams every year when coach won't play them, masquerading as a wannabe college team when there's nothing collegiate about them anymore ??? The biggest pocketbooks are winning and at the top. Shocker. So thrilling....

Every passing year I have watched less and less and less. I might be in the minority here but I don't care. The product is stale and will continue to become more stale with each passing year. Give it time. There's nothing interesting about watching Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, and Georgia battle it out every year. Probably why their desperate asses went and expanded the product. Ratings might be good but they know it's getting stale.

There will come a day when there's not much they can do anymore to expand or reinvent their shitty product. I guarantee people are going to grow tired of watching the biggest pocket books win every year. I'm shocked people still enjoy it, but I do understand there's not much to do in back wood states like Alabama, Michigan, etc. so they cling to college football like their life depends on it.

I honestly think your minority is becoming the majority. I feel like I'm in the minority continuing to watch it regardless.

Unless WVU or MT is playing then, I always would watch the 330 SEC game. Will miss it being on CBS but I probably still will. Love B12 games because they matter to me as a WVU fan. Same for CUSA games. I enjoyed the heck out of late P12 and MWC games.

And I think you are right, a lot of it is what else is available. For MT there are other things to do in the area, other pro sports. WV doesn't have that. WVU is our pro sports team. I mean heck, Morgantown becomes the largest city in the state on football game days. Places like that will continue to thrive regardless of what college football becomes.

Now other places, sure I think it will hurt it. To an extent. Good thing with MT is we will never be in that pay group. Just won't happen.

But even when people get disenfranchised, as you said, the ratings will be there and it really won't matter what we think.

 

[blueraiderJT]

One, SEC commissioner has told member schools there is no plan to exclude anyone if they break off.


Second, small schools have no leverage because they have no money. See Washington St and Oregon St.

Third, the power schools don’t need G5. They can make a schedule with no G5 if they want. The Covid year taught them that. Also, i have been told by way more Mississippi St fans than I thought they would rather be bottom feeders in a power breakout with a best hope for .500 than win a national championship in a G5/FCS leftover conference.

We have no leverage when they decide to break off and many schools will need the money from buy basketball and baseball games to meet athletic department budgets.

How many 6-6 type P4 schools exist? A lot. When we talk about the power schools like BAMA, there are 20 schools like that. That's it. All of the others hover closer to 6-6, 7-5 and 8-4. Some may flirt with the higher level but never stay there every year. Now, go look at who they play in non conference games and then tell me they don't need us and FCS to get those wins. In all of the other sports. G5 and FCS are WAY more mixed in. If the P4 or 2 make their own league, all of the hover schools go straight to the bottom with no postseason play. Forever. Those schools have a vested interest to protect the current structure as much as us.

If they did it anyway, the money is gone so G5's and FCS schools might as well be exclusive in everything. It won't ever happen but there would be some leverage there but who knows? It's the only card to play if the fit hits the shan.

 

[Brew_Raider]

How many 6-6 type P4 schools exist? A lot. When we talk about the power schools like BAMA, there are 20 schools like that. That's it. All of the others hover closer to 6-6, 7-5 and 8-4. Some may flirt with the higher level but never stay there every year. Now, go look at who they play in non conference games and then tell me they don't need us and FCS to get those wins. In all of the other sports. G5 and FCS are WAY more mixed in. If the P4 or 2 make their own league, all of the hover schools go straight to the bottom with no postseason play. Forever. Those schools have a vested interest to protect the current structure as much as us.

If they did it anyway, the money is gone so G5's and FCS schools might as well be exclusive in everything. It won't ever happen but there would be some leverage there but who knows? It's the only card to play if the fit hits the shan.

As crazy as it sounds, a surprising number of Mississippi St fans have stated they would rather be bottom feeders in the power pay conference than win a national championship in a G5/FCS level. These schools are already competitive in other sports, so that doesn’t really hurt. It’s only football and with money and an eventual salary cap, it may actually be more competitive than now.

I don’t think G5 schools have much leverage at all. I think both sides are just trying to plan the best financial and viability models they can for when this dam breaks.

 

[Brew_Raider]

I will add, if G5 lose access to buy football games, how can they sustain scholarship levels? Many rely on buy games to balance the budget.

So if you take away buy football games, but then decide to refuse basketball and even baseball in some cases, then you are hurting yourself. The buy basketball game probably becomes even more critical.

I am sure FCS schools will step in to take those buy basketball games because a football split doesn’t really hurt them.

I just don’t see leverage for the left behinds.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

There is zero leverage for the G5s and they know it. The new TV deal was just approved today for the CFP and even articles about it stated the G5 commissioners had to go along with it or be left out. Antitrust or not, it's just the way it is. Aresco of the AAC tried to fight but the other G5 commissioners didn't join due to being afraid essentially.

I've said it before and this solidifies it in my mind. The whole highest ranked G5 is a farse. The conferences should come together and develop a system for a true G5 champ that gets that CFP spot. Make it a mini G5 playoff that leads to the CFP. Lots of options to make it work if the conferences can truly work together.

 

[blueraiderJT]

As crazy as it sounds, a surprising number of Mississippi St fans have stated they would rather be bottom feeders in the power pay conference than win a national championship in a G5/FCS level. These schools are already competitive in other sports, so that doesn’t really hurt. It’s only football and with money and an eventual salary cap, it may actually be more competitive than now.

I don’t think G5 schools have much leverage at all. I think both sides are just trying to plan the best financial and viability models they can for when this dam breaks.

If they don't ban together with FCS, they have no leverage and it won't matter anyway. No one can agree on the color of an orange anymore so they would never ban together to have any which is what has really led up to this anyway. So it is what it is. I was speaking more "in a perfect scenario is they all got together and took a stand" way. I know that will never happen and no one unites about anything anymore so they will be conquered divided.

 

[ewglenn]

Personally I don’t care about anyone except MT. I think for G5 schools the most important thing is having familiarity with opponents that are nearby. I have no doubt that as JSU and KSU continue to play us our fans will start to get more invested in those games. The issue I see is no one is ever going to be that fired up to play UTEP or SHSU. I would honestly love if we just created our own conference and took teams like WKU, MTSU, LT, JSU, KSU and some other teams we can drive to. I would be open to the MAC if it meant WKU, JSU, KSU and someone like EKU came along for the ride. I just think we were too far of an outlier with just us and WKU.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

 

[FranklinRaider315]

Any changes to our conference affiliation will be discussed in closed BOT sessions in accordance with a new bill with legislation pertaining to discussion of “sensitive subjects” proposed by our Grand Chairman Poohbah once it’s passed by the legislature.

 

[Sommy]

Such a critical time for MT. Clemson and FL State are looking to get out of the ACC. That leaves the ACC probably trying to backfill those spots by poaching other conferences. That potentially sets up the dominoes for MT for a conference change.

I will keep screaming from the mountain tops that we really need to try and get out of CUSA. It is clearly the worst conference and I don’t see us ever elevating the program if we are stuck in this hodgepodg group of lower tier, wannabe big boy schools. Sorry but that’s what it is.

 

[MidTennMtneer]

Such a critical time for MT. Clemson and FL State are looking to get out of the ACC. That leaves the ACC probably trying to backfill those spots by poaching other conferences. That potentially sets up the dominoes for MT for a conference change.

I will keep screaming from the mountain tops that we really need to try and get out of CUSA. It is clearly the worst conference and I don’t see us ever elevating the program if we are stuck in this hodgepodg group of lower tier, wannabe big boy schools. Sorry but that’s what it is.

You are right.

CUSA has been better than what I thought it would be after the great exodus though, with the new TV deal and especially in football. But there is no one left to help the conference grow except more FCS jumps and I'm not sure that is good.

We absolutely should have our ears to the ground ready to go for the best opportunity (I'll never give up hope for a SBC return).
I have zero doubt the athletic dept is doing that. My worry is if McP and the Board see the importance of conference affiliation. I've said before I think CM and his team have had their hands tied for a lot of years. "Some" things seem to have improved. Let's see if this is one of them.

 

[ewglenn]

Such a critical time for MT. Clemson and FL State are looking to get out of the ACC. That leaves the ACC probably trying to backfill those spots by poaching other conferences. That potentially sets up the dominoes for MT for a conference change.

I will keep screaming from the mountain tops that we really need to try and get out of CUSA. It is clearly the worst conference and I don’t see us ever elevating the program if we are stuck in this hodgepodg group of lower tier, wannabe big boy schools. Sorry but that’s what it is.

I have no desire to head to the AAC without Memphis, USF and ECU. I think those three will be gone soon. It wasn’t that long ago everyone was complaining about adding UTSA and Charlotte to CUSA but now we’re dying to get back with them? I would need to see how it falls but I really think the AAC fell into the same trap that CUSA did with their recent adds. I see that as a very unstable group, maybe even more unstable that CUSA. They should have taken some of the SBC schools when they had the opportunity.

 

[mtfblue]

Such a critical time for MT. Clemson and FL State are looking to get out of the ACC. That leaves the ACC probably trying to backfill those spots by poaching other conferences. That potentially sets up the dominoes for MT for a conference change.

I will keep screaming from the mountain tops that we really need to try and get out of CUSA. It is clearly the worst conference and I don’t see us ever elevating the program if we are stuck in this hodgepodg group of lower tier, wannabe big boy schools. Sorry but that’s what it is.

Not the worse conference, just went the NY6, the ACC will take USF, Tulane, Tulsa for now, if the other 4 leave(Pitt, NCST, VT, UL) for the Big 12. Then its a crap shoot of who will fit with the academic schools left. American will be devastated, that the eastern schools may have to come back to CUSA.

 

[sWiley]

It would be so funny if FAU had to come back to CUSA after losing all those final 4 credits they earned and gave away when they left for AAC

 

[MidTennMtneer]

If , well when, the AAC gets raided, it would be just our luck that they come together with the SBC somehow leaving CUSA high and dry.

Murphy's Law.

 

[Noogaraider1]

CUSA has the only ranked G5 team currently and if they can keep that going into next year then they have an AAC (ECU) and SBC (App State) test. Winning those games will certainly help the perception of the conference.

If we dont add any more scrubs like Tarleton State then Im ok with staying and growing by beating weaker conference opponents. I dont know that going to the AAC or Belt will help us win any more games and winning is what grows a brand.

 

[MT01]

As has already been proven twice most conferences don't want anything to do with us. We've been a last resort.

And why would they. We have an athletics institution that will hold onto a .500 football coach for two decades as he drives attendance and giving into the ground.

We hold onto a basketball coach who wins about 30 to 40% of his Division ! games and produce one decent season out of six. One out of six. That's 17% of his seasons that's would meet almost every other school's expectations. Compare us to wkcc. They would never stand for this in either sport. But here it's ok.

 

[MTTim]

My thought is Clemson and FSU will not win this lawsuit. They knew the terms of the agreement and signed on the dotted line. The ACC may change how their money is distributed, however that will require the approval from the other schools.
FSU and Clemson may have the money to leave under the current terms but that would be a financial disaster.