7 CUSA teams going bowling.

Shoulda been us too, if only… http://conferenceusa.com/

As a conference we need a strong showing. Especially rooting for WKU over Memphis.

[size=1em]Listed them in the order of finish in C-USA with their overall record just to give an idea what to expect if we ever qualify.[font=verdana] ODU at 9-3 wanted the New Orleans Bowl, but they chose a 6-6 USM team just to sell tickets. [/font][/size]

2016-17 C-USA BOWL SCHEDULE

BOCA RATON BOWL (Boca Raton, Florida)
Tuesday, December 20
WKU (10-3, Conference Champs) vs. Memphis (ESPN)

POPEYES BAHAMAS BOWL (Nassau, Bahamas)
Friday, December 23
Old Dominion (9-3) vs. Eastern Michigan (ESPN)

LOCKHEED MARTIN ARMED FORCES BOWL (Fort Worth, Texas)
Friday, December 23
Louisiana Tech (8-5) vs. Navy (ESPN)

HAWAI’I BOWL (Honolulu, Hawai’i)
Saturday, December 24
Middle Tennessee (8-4) vs. Hawai’i (ESPN)

GILDAN NEW MEXICO BOWL (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Saturday, December 17
UTSA (6-6) vs. New Mexico (ESPN)

R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Saturday, December 17
Southern Miss (6-6) vs. Louisiana-Lafayette (ESPN)

ZAXBY’S HEART OF DALLAS BOWL (Dallas, Texas)
Tuesday, December 27
North Texas (5-7) vs. Army (ESPN)

EDIT:
Link to ODU article: http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/odu-officials-say-bahamas-is-ideal-site-for-players-but/article_6f8a5cf4-309d-594b-b972-9ce1f62df17d.html

That makes me sick to look at. This team should have gone bowling.

YES! I’m sick every time I think how we blew the fiu and rice games. DAMMIT!!! >:D >:D >:D

clt hopes for turkeys.

Underdogdynasty.com: Bowl Conclusions: Conference USA proves they are still trending up

I liked the statement about Charlotte being the team to beat in the future because of the leadership in the athletic department.

Is this our ceiling for the foreseeable future? I guess I’m just one of the few sports fans who do not understand the affliction for these bowls. To see basketball struggling to find a footing, largely because we are in a forgotten conference at the bottom of D1 bball, just so we can hopefully go to one of these bowls one day, is not something I can get excited about.

The most popular sport in the country is football. College basketball is becoming less popular.
http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2016/03/16/Media/CBB-viewers.aspx?

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. We were bad in the A10 before we made the shift. It isnt because of the conference. Sure CUSA isn’t helping us, but for the love of God it isn’t the reason why we cant play defense. We recruited Woods and Dorn to CUSA. It isn’t the conference - it is us.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. We were bad in the A10 before we made the shift. It isnt because of the conference. Sure CUSA isn’t helping us, but for the love of God it isn’t the reason why we cant play defense. We recruited Woods and Dorn to CUSA. It isn’t the conference - it is us.[/quote]

You don’t remember when we started FBS football back in 2005-2006? It really destroyed our basketball program back then.
Mama said foosball is for the devil.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. We were bad in the A10 before we made the shift. It isnt because of the conference. Sure CUSA isn’t helping us, but for the love of God it isn’t the reason why we cant play defense. We recruited Woods and Dorn to CUSA. It isn’t the conference - it is us.[/quote]

It’s not the reason we suck, but it’ll damn sure be a difference in us ever gaining our way back to relevance.

But no one has really answered my question. Is our ceiling for the foreseeable future some nondescript CUSA affiliated bowl game? And if so, how is that anything to be that excited about?

If I try to look beyond the next decade, the only thing that would truly be exciting is to be invited to a conference that can help make both football AND basketball relevant again, but what are the odds of that?

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. We were bad in the A10 before we made the shift. It isnt because of the conference. Sure CUSA isn’t helping us, but for the love of God it isn’t the reason why we cant play defense. We recruited Woods and Dorn to CUSA. It isn’t the conference - it is us.[/quote]

It’s not the reason we suck, but it’ll damn sure be a difference in us ever gaining our way back to relevance.

But no one has really answered my question. Is our ceiling for the foreseeable future some nondescript CUSA affiliated bowl game? And if so, how is that anything to be that excited about?

If I try to look beyond the next decade, the only thing that would truly be exciting is to be invited to a conference that can help make both football AND basketball relevant again, but what are the odds of that?[/quote]

I wouldn’t say our ceiling for the foreseeable future is just a CUSA affiliated bowl game, as you mentioned, but rather a stepping stone to where you and all of us want to be. No matter what conference we are in, we are not moving anywhere, if we don’t win where we are now. It’s going to take winning bowl games, conference tournys in bball, etc to ever have a chance to move conferences. Win and no matter what conference you are in, you will be noticed imo.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. [/quote]

We have absolutely dug our own hole…but the Conference affiliation is making it more difficult to climb out.

CUSA 2.0 is basically dumping the dirt back on top of us.

CAN WE PLEASE STOP THIS LINE OF THINKING! Our basketball sucks because we suck, not because of the conference. We were bad in the A10 before we made the shift. It isnt because of the conference. Sure CUSA isn’t helping us, but for the love of God it isn’t the reason why we cant play defense. We recruited Woods and Dorn to CUSA. It isn’t the conference - it is us.[/quote]

It’s not the reason we suck, but it’ll damn sure be a difference in us ever gaining our way back to relevance.

But no one has really answered my question. Is our ceiling for the foreseeable future some nondescript CUSA affiliated bowl game? And if so, how is that anything to be that excited about?

If I try to look beyond the next decade, the only thing that would truly be exciting is to be invited to a conference that can help make both football AND basketball relevant again, but what are the odds of that?[/quote]

Our ceiling in football right now would be to win our division, win a C-USA Championship game, and play in a decent bowl game. The Conference championship would be more meaningful to me than any bowl game.
With the exception of a few elite programs that play for a chance at the playoff, everyone is playing for conference championships and an invitation to a meaningless bowl game.

Down the road, if we somehow were in the AAC or a similar future conference, maybe our ceiling gets a little bit higher, but not much. Maybe a very slim shot of going undefeated and being in the playoff discussion. The big boys are starting to further separate themselves from the little guys so it doesn’t look promising.

We put ourselves in this basketball hole by not starting a football program years before we did. You could say that putting the Football Study back on the shelf after 9/11 put us in this situation. We get the ball rolling then and have a team on the field in 2005 or 2006, at worst we stay in C-USA with Memphis. Then we could have been in line for the AAC when they came calling again.

The most popular sport in the country is football. College basketball is becoming less popular.
http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2016/03/16/Media/CBB-viewers.aspx?[/quote]

Thanks for the link. I always like seeing stats. For me, it’s not fully about what’s most popular, and with football, there are much fewer games, so even then, larger numbers doesn’t always (but yeah, usually) equate to more popularity.

For me, being successful is most important. I would rather win a national championship in soccer than go to a football bowl game - and I watch wayy more of our football than our soccer. I have always felt that it would be easier to be successful in basketball than in football - until this year. College football is the opposite of the NFL, there is very little parity. I went to Mississippi State, and even there, I felt we had very little chance of consistently being in contention for the conference, or winning the national championship; and I was in school when we had Dak Prescott. I absolutely loved the run we had with Dak, but at the end of the day I felt like that was just something special, a special run and that the more storied programs would consistently be on top.

If we can reach App’s level (I know many of you are cringing at me saying that) I will be happy. That is the level of football that I would be happy with being at. Or maybe even ECU. Recently App > ECU. But, if we are more often than not a less than 500 program with 15,000 fans or less, then I will not be happy. I like to win, and I like for people to care (ok, so I do care about popularity, but it’s 2nd). It’s pretty simple.

Its also why I would much rather see us have women’s ice hockey or lacrosse than women’s swimming. There are 300+ women’s swimming programs but only like 30? ish ice hockey and lacrosse programs. This is a minor thought that I’ve had, but it illustrates my overall point. I am tired of being dog *** at everything and I’d rather us do something exciting and worthwhile. If we are going to pour money into athletics, we need to actually be on the better side of decent, or I’d rather streamline things and be successful at only a select few athletic programs and focus even more on academics. Right now we are not known as an academic school (maybe as a research institute), or as an athletic school. If you look at student reviews on sites and apps where kids rate colleges we are known as a commuter school. This has to change.

Returning to what I originally said, I’m beginning to think that maybe it will not be easier for basketball than football to become a respectable program. I will be consistent in again saying that I think there is a clear division between A 10/WCC/etc. level and CUSA. Just being in the A 10 or WCC or similar level conference won’t make you good, but it does provide the opportunity.

You are correct, at the end of the day it is on the AD and on the coaching staff; but the part that you are missing is that conferences provide different levels of opportunity. It is exceedingly rare for a program in a conference this bad to have any consistent run of being a postseason presence. No one is asking for us to go back to the A 10. What we are saying is that CUSA is so absolutely abysmally bad that our chances at returning to relevancy have essentially been completely shat on. It’s like comparing growing up in an ok middle class neighborhood to growing up in Grier Heights. Where would you rather raise a family?

You like stats and I like analogies. That’s a damn good one there.

To the point above about our ceiling being winning a conference championship over going to a random bowl game, that’s a good point and not something I’ve thought about. With that would come, I believe, a primetime game on a national network, which isn’t too shabby for a program seeking relevance.