None. We donāt play A10 football. The travel issue deals primarily with football.
As to the rest, Iām not debating minutia that ignores the point. CUSA as it exists right now, minus any member to open a slot for us, would be a Texas commuter league to us and weād be as out of place as a 38 year old taking freshman english in a 10 AM class.
We learned the hard way what the realities/tradeoffs were in trying to maximize your profile through conference affiliation when you arenāt an exact fit. It was worth it for hoops because we were playing with much closer geographic rivals with much much more cache than these CUSA football schools have (and we were also a much better match with Cincy, Louisville and other metro schools). And it still sucked cause the league crapped on us constantly.
Let me put this another way, if the PAC 10 came calling tomorrow, would you take it? Even if you did, ask yourself (honestly) if itās much as a slam dunk as your first impressionā¦ the downsides are the same. And the PAC 10 has a ton more credibility than CUSA ever will. Food for thought.
We need to be in a league, both in the initial FCS level and later in the FBS level with favorable geography (and geographical politics) or we are seriously handicapping ourselves.
Thatās all I have to say. Iām not debating this anymore. If I havenāt changed your mind by now, or at least given you something to think about, then no further arguing will do it.
NA wants to be in the best basketball conference possible.
ID wants to be in the best football conference possible.
Our problem is, for us in the forseeable future, neither of those two are likely to be the same conference.
There is no magic button to get into the Big East or a successor conference. Weād even need CUSA to split, not just lose a team or two, to get into that conference as well.
Why ae we debating travel for CUSA??? >:(ā¦UAB, UCF, ECU, Memphis, Marshall, Southern Miss all easier to travel to than most of the A10 and even CAA for footballā¦cmon would you rather drive to New Hampshire for a game or UAB?? I canāt believe we are seriously saying lets stay in the A10 and never go to the NCAA tournament while playing in the biggest and toughest FCS conference and never go to a playoff game and be lucky to go 6-5ā¦horrible scenerio especially for BCS invites. Itās time to choose ladies and gentlemen are we a football school or basketball school?? If we are a football school, CUSA or a New FBS. If we are a basketball school A10/CAA. Drive time?? seriously? Drive to destination on Friday, game on Saturday, drive back Sunday, thats how it works.
History has shown us that Charlotte (and the same Athletice Director of the last 2 decades) either backs their way in or is relegated to a conference. We arenāt a force to to decide where we want to go.
So raise your sails and pray for a good direction of the wind.
There are many scenarios for conference affiliation 10 years from now. The sad truth is that we control very little of it. The only thing that we can control is to make the right baby steps now and in the upcoming 3-4 years and then hope that leads to the Big East or next best thing, which would be a CUSA East/CAA hybrid that many have mentioned. So much of this depends on what the Big East does during the next 7 years. If they wait until that time or afterwards to split up the megaconference, then we may have a fighting chance. Who knows, maybe the BCS will be squashed by then and our good options will actually expand. Our AD just needs to make inroads as best as they can, but I donāt think weāll be under the radar of any conference commishioner on the east coast once the team hits the field and with where we are located.
History has shown us that Charlotte (and the same Athletice Director of the last 2 decades) either backs their way in or is relegated to a conference. We arenāt a force to to decide where we want to go.
So raise your sails and pray for a good direction of the wind.[/quote]
I get your point and Iām not necessarily saying donāt join CUSA. But the basketball in the passenger seat isnāt always true. Ever heard of Duke? Thereās also the Kansas, Butler, Indiana, Baylor, Wake Forest.
All those are BCS leagues except Butler, so it doesnāt stick.
But say Buter, if they had aspirations of being 1A FBS in football, they would join the MAC asap for all sports, and leave the non football MVC.[/quote]
History has shown us that Charlotte (and the same Athletice Director of the last 2 decades) either backs their way in or is relegated to a conference. We arenāt a force to to decide where we want to go.
So raise your sails and pray for a good direction of the wind.[/quote]
This is basically trueā¦however, much of the reason for this has been the fact that we did NOT play football and Judy has stated publically that the reason for starting football was to āprotect the other sports, particularly bballā (ie; the best way to do that is to be a football playing school, since that is where the power is)ā¦aka, football schools run the show, others must react and adapt as best they can.
I get your point and Iām not necessarily saying donāt join CUSA. But the basketball in the passenger seat isnāt always true. Ever heard of Duke? Thereās also the Kansas, Butler, Indiana, Baylor, Wake Forest.[/quote]
We live in the new age of college athletics and itās driven but football and the money ESPN and the networks spend to broadcast that game. The basketball centric conference is a dying breed. Football is the PRICE Duke, Kansas, Indiana and Baylor PAY to keep their basketball programs in relevant conferences. I donāt want our AD playing that same game just to get basketball in a better conference and having shitty football surely will never get us membership in a BCS league no matter how many national championships we could win in basketball.
[quote=āstonecoldken, post:75, topic:23958ā]USF was in FL to replace Miami, FAU, FIU, & UCF werenāt ready yet. Weāre not in FL, & weāre not replacing Miami in the BE.
UConn & Nova were always BE in B-Ball genius.[/quote]
OT: UCF was originally considered as a football-only member for the Big East during the ACC Expansion fiasco. When the decision was made to only invite all sports members the Rutgers contingent asked that UCF be replaced in consideration by USF. No reason for this is documented but UCF was MAC in football but Atlantic Sun in other sports at the time. Iād assume Rutgers felt bringing an Atlantic Sun team into the basketball side of the BE was less desirable than taking a risk on USFās fledgling football program.
History has shown us that Charlotte (and the same Athletice Director of the last 2 decades) either backs their way in or is relegated to a conference. We arenāt a force to to decide where we want to go.
So raise your sails and pray for a good direction of the wind.[/quote]
Ouch. Very ouch.[/quote]
Judy hatred aside, it would be very unwise for us to attempt real FBS aspirations without bringing in someone with some experience and connections to run the football side of things. Probably wouldnāt hurt for that to be new blood either, though Iām a fan of D. Spease.
All those are BCS leagues except Butler, so it doesnāt stick.
But say Buter, if they had aspirations of being 1A FBS in football, they would join the MAC asap for all sports, and leave the non football MVC.[/quote]
Sure it does. If football was completely driving the ship, all of these schools would have a better chance of winning their conference in football by leaving their current conference. Thus also increasing their chances of a better bowl or BCS bowl, kind of like Boise St, Hawaii, TCU, Utah.
All those are BCS leagues except Butler, so it doesnāt stick.
But say Buter, if they had aspirations of being 1A FBS in football, they would join the MAC asap for all sports, and leave the non football MVC.[/quote]
Sure it does. If football was completely driving the ship, all of these schools would have a better chance of winning their conference in football by leaving their current conference. Thus also increasing their chances of a better bowl or BCS bowl, kind of like Boise St, Hawaii, TCU, Utah.[/quote]
What? 4 of the 5 you named are already in BCS conferences making bank (footballās job is to drive you toward a BCS conference) and Butler is a non-scholarship program.
