Frankly, I’ve been disappointed since our move to C-USA and not really sure if it is any better than the Sun Belt now approaching six years later since move in big picture. The good is periodic matchups with Marshall, UAB, Southern Miss, and Louisiana Tech versus SBC newbies in football we would have endured had we stayed behind. It’s six and one-half dozen the other in most other aspects related to conference affiliation.
Unfortunately, Basketball hasn’t generated significantly better national cachet other than what we did for ourselves by being briefly ranked last season and making/winning in NCAA’s couple seasons earlier. C-USA membership didn’t gain enough credibility to be at large with our two late season losses to Marshall and USM. We are still one bid league as Tournament Champion and basically endured same postseason fate Murray State did a few years ago in OVC after winning 25 consecutive and ranked, which caused Steve Prohm to seek greener pastures (and $$) at Iowa State. Kermit got a similar type of reward at Mississippi.
For visibility, think C-USA has taken at least one step in the wrong direction in television, and that’s also been well documented from revenue cuts from last year. MT compounded this by reducing its radio footprint with the loss of 89.5, a 100,000 watt FM signal. Yes, streaming works, but it not as convenient for many car radios as pushing your favorite preset button. Maybe this media deal works out in the end...or maybe not. But, the dwindling fan base was on display at Homecoming and other games to where visibility and fan engagement is reaching critical mass to where one asks does the student body and community care anymore when MT plays anyone from conference or G5? Are we going UAB route did in football and would the fans respond likewise? I’m not so sure it would work out for us in dropping and coming back if it ever got to that scenario; I see an Idaho FCS type of answer if it reached that scenario in the football calculus. A football loss on November 24 would certainly hurt in more ways than one, but then again most fans would just put it in the rear view mirror provided that they cared in the first place.
It’s a go big or go home mentality that exists these days. The conference office and university leadership is rather slow to recognize and respond because we are trying to bake a different flavor cake with the same ingredients or sometimes we reduce an egg to optimize cost without consideration of the long term consequences of our decisions to the fan base. Trying something might catch on, such as Troy and South Alabama and Tuesday’s, but the cake ingredients are largely the same. The product must genuinely improve to obtain more repeat and loyal customers that fill the stands whenever we play.
