[quote=âGassman, post:30, topic:31231â]I agree with you about the importance of conference affiliation.
But I believe that ship has sailed.
Even if the AAC decides to expand they just are not going to be looking at us do to our poor performance.
We really donât offer anything anymore with the weakness of our basketball program.
The simple truth is that a lack of vision by our Leadership back in the metro and early CUSA years has caused this.
They were a day late and a dollar short with Football.
And the next big mistake was leaving the A10 to play FBS football.
And guess what? There is no hope moving forward.
Our leadership is completely clueless.
There is no hope of improvement until the AD is gone.
Thatâs the bottom line.
And probably we need the chancellor gone as well.
His tolerance of mediocrity is shocking. He obviously doesnât give a damn about athletics, which is fine but he should at least want us to be average.
We are not even average!
This AD and our university leadership missed the boat completely.
Our only hope now is for a major financial shakeup in FBS that causes geographic realignment and divides the P5 and G5.
If that happens we might be able to stabilize in a regional conference and start competing at the newly established second tier level.
Some of you may not agree with the idea of competing in what will essentially be a new FCS, but itâs plain to see (to me at least) that we are never going to be able to compete at the highest level in FBS. Whatâs the point? Some mediocre bowl game in Orlando or Texas?
You can keep it.
I would rather have a chance at the FCS or equivalent playoffs.
The entire FBS and P5/G5 structure is
Bottom line for me is Iâm sick of this BS college sports landscape and the pathetic nature of our leadership makes it even tougher to take.
I donât expect any big turn around any time soon. I donât believe we have hit rock bottom yet.
Our current AD CAN take us lower.
It all starts at the top, and we have been poorly served for over 20 years.
I really feel for the students having to foot that athletics fee to recieve this garbage. Itâs unconscionable.[/quote]
There is still a chance that each P5 conference goes to 14 schools. This would set up a max of 6 teams that could be raided from the AAC. In order to move up to the AAC we would have to be one of the best 6 teams currently not in the AAC or Mountain West at the time this happens. Each of these is incredibly unlikely, but still theoretically possible. I just wanted to actually write out what the best case scenario for us to have a chance at moving to the AAC.
All of this has changed my mind greatly on the subject of college sports, conferences, etc. I still understand the argument that players at big time schools such as Notre Dame or Clemson should receive payment. That being said, this argument that football generates revenue for the rest of the school is nonsense for the majority of schools, even at the D1 level. Sports Talk Radio will never mention this because they make most of their money off of broadcasting those same minority # of schools.
Iâm not sure how I would feel if every FBS program began paying their players. We are heavily subsidizing football with student fees. I would really like to see how some of the students feel about that. You will feel it even more heavily once you graduate and start paying on your student loans.
That being said, I am truly worried at this point that any move away from CUSA would be even worse; that is, unless something major happens and everything realigns based off geography or the P5 separates from the rest.
At one time I was very much against the P5 pulling away from everyone else, but due to a plethora of issues (chiefly funding) I think it may actually be best for us (at least in football). But so long as teams like UCF, Houston, and Boise State continue to have successful years Iâm sure those programs will be very much against this idea.
Judy should not be congratulated for bringing us football. She should have brought us football 10-15 years prior. That is the crux of all of our issues with conference realignment. We showed up to the party way too late.
We need a new chancellor as well as a new AD if anything positive is to be done about our situation.