Category: CUSA Stuff

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CUSA Stuff

CUSA To Have 14 Members in 2013 *UPDATE*

This post was obviously oudated as soon as Tulane and ECU decided to bold to the Big East. Whereas CUSA will have them as members briefly, the future of the conference is as Sun Belt 2.0. 

 

This report by CBSSports is making the rounds. No doubt you’ve heard all that there is to hear. No doubt you’ve done some perusing of the message boards to try to figure out what you think of this. For all the prestige that we thought was coming with the move we are in a glorified Sun Belt.

When completed, Conference USA’s new 14-team league is expected to be split into two divisions: East – East Carolina, FIU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, Charlotte and ODU; West – Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Rice, Texas San Antonio, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP.

That isn’t a knock. It is glorified for a reason. Namely ECU, Marshall, Southern Miss, UAB, LaTech, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa and UTEP.

Big jump over the fare in the Belt. Admit it. You are excited about playing Rice and Tulsa for conference supremacy and not just as non-con fodder. The most unfortunate thing about this move is that Tulsa has owned us over the last decade, outscoring us by an average of 31 points. The closest we’ve come is 17.

Rice? Sure we almost beat them in Denton a couple years ago, but they also demolished us 77-20 in Houston the year prior. Yep. I remember checking the score from work and seeing 56-20 at the half.

Now, I don’t believe a repeat of the past is in store for us in the new league. I am just reminding those wearing dark green tinted glasses of what we face and how we are probably the fourth in our projected division.

Pardon.

That is just good old North Texas pessimism taking over. We are CUSA-ers now. Things are looking up. We have four Texas teams. That is if you consider El Paso part of Texas and not Mountainous Uninhabited Wasteland, like I do. Every road game will be within driving distance save for Tulane and UTEP. I can live with that. We should see green in at pretty much every road stadium. If we can get the sweetest setup, where we never play both Tulane and UTEP at home or on the road in the same season, each year we should have two division road games within reasonable driving distance and one to fly to.

I can dig it.

Ah the beauty of living in a transportation hub of a city.

The move is a long way away, and even this coming year will not tell us much about what Dan McCarney will make this team into in 2013.

It still is hard looking at that without gauging our chances of winning the thing . . .

UTSA? Win

LaTech? Depends on if we can rustle up a secondary in time. Loss

Rice? Eek. Win.

Tulane? Win

Tulsa? Loss. Not there yet.

UTEP? ….. Win … ?

The Eastern side:

FIU, Charlotte, ODU? Wins

Marshall, ECU, UAB, SMiss? Losses.

It will be interesting to see how the scheduling partnerships with the MWC work out. It will be a fun last ride in the ‘Belt. Can’t look too far ahead. We still have a season to play this fall.

gmg.

Categories
CUSA Stuff Sunbelt Stuff

CUSA Thoughts

Well, although nothing has been made official, it looks like we are going to the CUSA with UTSA in tow. There is still lots of complaining about the situation, with the best comment being this from gmg.com:

It’s like busting your ass for years to get that big executive promotion. The day finally comes, only you find out some 19-year-old intern was just named VP as well.

It feels like that is true, but the circumstances are markedly different. This isn’t 1998, anymore. In this soon-to-be-post-BCS world, where Boise St, TCU, UConn and Hawaii got into the Fiesta, Sugar, Rose Bowls.

There is a ton of money floating around that split open old conference allegiances. It is much easier to move up and around than ever. UTSA, UNC Charlotte and Texas State would never have been able to make the jump in the old-pre internet era.

Now, with technology fueling the popularity of college football and even more money to be spread around causing more shifts, we have moved up. Finally.

As much as we hate the situation, we can only embrace the good. Use the resentment of the young bucks as fan hate fuel. Unleash it when UTSA makes a trip up to Apogee sometime in Fall 2013.

The move, in comparison to the Roadrunners, doesn’t minimize the awesome improvements Rick Villareal and company have made. We didn’t do very well for most of the history under the old rules, under these new television-money-driven ones? Well, we are doing better.

We have an awesome on-campus stadium with very good facilities in a fertile recruiting market. We don’t need to compete with Texas, Oklahoma for recruits, and we already have a leg up on the second tier SMUs of the world.

Remember Tony Mitchell? Yeah. How about George Odufuwa? Roger Franklin?

We have a nice little tradition of bringing in DFW guys after their first choice fell through. There is even another one to speculate about. Hint.

Everything is looking up. We are going to a slightly more prestigious conference and angling for a nice little television deal that could bring in enough money to even do baseball, yo.

—

In tangentally related news, we could have been in MTSU’s position. Apparently, their president was all-but sabotaging what looked like a certain move, which may have paved the way for UTSA to step in. It is all speculation at this point, so I won’t link to anything.

If true, it would explain the seemingly inexplicable UTSA invite. However, as Coach Dan McCarney’s nephew, Dan McCarney says, nothing is absolute until we get official announcements.

Categories
CUSA Stuff General Sunbelt Stuff

Board of Regents gives Lane Rawlins Permission to Move to CUSA

Via Bret Vito:

The North Texas board of regents delegated authority to president Lane Rawlins to examine the school’s options in conference alignment and quickly move to a new league should the opportunity present itself Wednesday night.

That is the official line. We all know that there would not have been any special teleconferences called to address this matter if there weren’t an offer made behind the scenes, though.

Everyone is betting that CUSA was going to offer UNT a spot in the league and most scenarios and predictions include us, as well. I heard whispers about this from the athletic department with no official statements to back anything up.

This is the most we’ve heard on these rumors from the school yet. Rick Villareal like to play it close to the vest, huh?

Stay tuned for more.