A better conference may not want us, which is why I suggested restructuring conferences. Which is a thread all to itās own.
Itās not an easy fix right now. Most universities have the same issues. You suck, no one cares. You suck and play schools no one cares aboutā¦you get 4000 people at a football game. Hereās a question: would you rather be great in a crappy conference, or bad in a great conference? Iāll take bad in a great conference. Think Vandy students/alums care about getting smoked by Bama? Doubt it. But I sure as hell would show up to see if we pull an upset. Iām not showing up to see UTSA. Sorry.
Where David Scott, Gerry V, and other fanbases get it wrong is treating us as a university that has never done anything good on an athletic field. In reality the situation is much worse.
Every student/fan/alum of Charlotte sees that final four banner and knows what we are capable of. Problem is we havenāt even been in the ballpark of that kind of success in almost two decades.
People donāt show up because they expect better than .500 here, and thatās okay with me.
I wouldnāt quite agree with you. I graduated in 2011. I know for a fact that none of my buddies in school had any idea we ever made a final 4 appearance. And for kids in school today, who were born in the very late 90ās or early 00ās, a single Final 4 appearance in 1977 may as well be a national title awarded by a newspaper from 1934.
We have had quite a bit of success since 1977. Unfortunately I think most of our fans come exclusively from alumni compared to ACC schools who have thousands of fans who have never taken a college class. If we had better local coverage & some strong regional rivalries I think we could generate more excitement for our sports teams. Of course we need to win too.
I would rather be Boise State than Vanderbilt. Boise State competes for conference championships every season and allows you to have pride in your program. Vanderbilt is a constant loser than may upset a conference team once in a blue moon.
I think Hill has about a decade at the most to move us up to a big money league or we will have to bust up the smaller conferences and play regionally. The writing is clear that the money in sports is drying up. The limited funds will go to the big conferences if they donāt combine in one big super league. Whatās left over will be driven primarily by student funds. There will be a lot of teams that go away because in about a decade college enrollment will be down as well.
If Iām mike hill, I look at like this. Conference change isnāt happening for awhile. Unless a bunch of University presidents get together and realize regional conferences, in the age of P5, is the only way for sustainable interest to continue.
If that doesnāt happen, which I donāt think it will, push all your chips into MBB. IMO, that has a higher ceiling than FB. Dominate CUSA. Mix in a rebrand, upgrades in facilities (Halton) and call it a day. FB is too young to cause a significant change during his tenure.