Brett McMurphy: MAC “likely” to add Western Kentucky & Middle Tennessee, perhaps by end of week
- Thread starter Chris McLaughlin
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I hope this happens, would make it a better decision to schedule them as OOC if they were in the MAC than the new C-USA, which may have to make a decision as to what level of football they commit to playing in. Now is C-USA does it right, which they haven't done much right in the last decade, they could take a bunch of FCS schools and replicate what the SunBelt has done over the last decade. For many of the FCS schools that could join C-USA, what we've moaned about in media would be a big step up to them.
This is a smart move for WKU and MTSU; and a smart move for the MAC, which WILL lose historical teams when the ESPN $$ expire.
As to scheduling either non-conference, no interest. Not really that local, no bump in interest or rankings by playing them, who cares about either ?
Hopefully, there is some clause in the CUSA contract that says that is X%age leave, it just dies, no buyouts or whatever.
As to duplicating what the SBC did and grabbing 8 to 12 I-AAs and building up into legitimacy, are there really that many I-AAs out there that have the ability and desire to move up? And, does the market, which is to say our lords and masters at ESPN, really need I-A to have more teams?
As to scheduling either non-conference, no interest. Not really that local, no bump in interest or rankings by playing them, who cares about either ?
Hopefully, there is some clause in the CUSA contract that says that is X%age leave, it just dies, no buyouts or whatever.
As to duplicating what the SBC did and grabbing 8 to 12 I-AAs and building up into legitimacy, are there really that many I-AAs out there that have the ability and desire to move up? And, does the market, which is to say our lords and masters at ESPN, really need I-A to have more teams?
Feel bad for Louisiana Tech. They have decent sports programs, and wish the Sun Belt would somehow forgive them and allow them back in. Liberty would be an ideal team to make it 16, but too many people in suits don't like them.
Sort of makes you wonder how bad it got when LT left initially, same with WKU and MTSU.
Did LT's AD really burn so many bridges the Sun Belt just said, "hell no!" to them?
If Louisiana Tech is going to melt down, I hope we can somehow vulture the corpse.
FIU needs to drop down a level. UTEP needs to join a Western conference or do the same.
FIU needs to drop down a level. UTEP needs to join a Western conference or do the same.
It does seem Louisiana Tech has burned some bridges, and it seems did a lot of trolling of the SBC Louisiana teams. But consider how much competition for attention there is in Louisiana.
Only 4.6M people, by no means a large state.
It has the NFL and NBA, in what is TV market #50, or the 45th largest Census metro area, very small by pro sports standards.
Of course you start with LSU, which is going to get 99% of the attention. If you are stupid enough to to buy the AAC snake oil, then Tulane comes next, but for our purposes, it is obvious Tulane has some fans. Then you have three more I-A teams, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, and Louisiana-Monroe. Then, in a state that is 30% black, two large HBCUs, Southern and Grambling. Then 4 more I-AAs, McNeese State, Nichols State, Northwestern State, and Southeastern Louisiana, And a basketball only member of Div I, New Orleans.
That is a lot. Probably the most Div I teams per capita of any state. Very easy to simply be ignored.
As to FIU, it just needs to drop football, no one cares, and find a geographically logical basketball league. UTEP belongs in the MWC, but the MWC doesn’t want UTEP.
Only 4.6M people, by no means a large state.
It has the NFL and NBA, in what is TV market #50, or the 45th largest Census metro area, very small by pro sports standards.
Of course you start with LSU, which is going to get 99% of the attention. If you are stupid enough to to buy the AAC snake oil, then Tulane comes next, but for our purposes, it is obvious Tulane has some fans. Then you have three more I-A teams, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana, and Louisiana-Monroe. Then, in a state that is 30% black, two large HBCUs, Southern and Grambling. Then 4 more I-AAs, McNeese State, Nichols State, Northwestern State, and Southeastern Louisiana, And a basketball only member of Div I, New Orleans.
That is a lot. Probably the most Div I teams per capita of any state. Very easy to simply be ignored.
As to FIU, it just needs to drop football, no one cares, and find a geographically logical basketball league. UTEP belongs in the MWC, but the MWC doesn’t want UTEP.
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FIU should drop down to FCS and join the ASUN.
UTEP "should" be working with New Mexico State to beg their way into the Mountain West as travel partners (whether or not the MWC has any interest, who knows).
Louisiana Tech may be the most screwed team in modern college sports history -- CUSA is going under/disbanding... The Sun Belt doesn't want them... They don't fit geographically in the MAC or the Mountain West... They have no media market for the AAC.
UTEP "should" be working with New Mexico State to beg their way into the Mountain West as travel partners (whether or not the MWC has any interest, who knows).
Louisiana Tech may be the most screwed team in modern college sports history -- CUSA is going under/disbanding... The Sun Belt doesn't want them... They don't fit geographically in the MAC or the Mountain West... They have no media market for the AAC.
I could see CUSA following the pattern of the WAC. Fading away then coming back as an FCS conference. UTEP and LaTech are going to be begging the MWC to take them.
Nothing makes one think more of the open spaces of the inter mountain west, Marlboro Country (am I allowed to say that any more?) than a wide spot town on I-20, halfway between Vicksburg and Shreveport.
Assuming UTEP gets in the MWC, it would be their nearest partner. Only 890 miles away.
They are really screwed.
I feel for their fans... They are reaping years and years of poor leadership that has been sown in their administration. Enrollment at LT, which was over 12,000 pre-Covid is now 11,000 and headed the wrong direction. Athletics have no home and are withering. The schools they made fun of for being in the Sun Belt are now passing them by.
Their message board is like reading a Dear John letter from fans to their athletic leadership... There is talk of staying in CUSA and making a go of it with FIU, Liberty, UTEP, New Mexico State, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and some combo of Jackson State, Missouri State and/or Houston Baptist. Good luck getting fans to invest in that lineup.
Their message board is like reading a Dear John letter from fans to their athletic leadership... There is talk of staying in CUSA and making a go of it with FIU, Liberty, UTEP, New Mexico State, McNeese State, Sam Houston State and some combo of Jackson State, Missouri State and/or Houston Baptist. Good luck getting fans to invest in that lineup.
I could see UTEP going down a divison or just dropping football altogether.
Maybe they'll just want to focus on basketball, bring back Glory Road.
I doubt they are the last.
The bad thing there is they are currently having their best season in years... It's hard to shutter a program that for the first time in a long time is showing signs of life. They need a buddy or two in the Mountain West to lend them a lifeline, maybe as a packaged deal with NMSU.
The LT AD allegedly said something things when LT was leaving the Sun Belt, that gave a new meaning to "burning down bridges." lol
UTEP’s only issue is that, way back when, it was a drag on what today is called the MWC.
Back when it was called the WAC, UTEP just could not compete. Had long losing streaks. Then Texas and Oklahoma engineered the Big 12 1.0 and those not selected formed a mega-sized WAC, which made no sense geographically or in the TV markets of that time. After a few years the majority of the old WAC, behind UTEP’s back, got together and formed the MWC. Leaving it in the dying WAC, causing it to find CUSA.
The MWC is going to have to be convinced that UTEP can compete. It has a .398 overall record, which is a one of the worst. It is having a good year, but it was 1-11, 1-11 and 0-12 in 19, 18 and 17, and has had 2 winning seasons since joining CUSA. Back in the 70s and 80s, when it was in the original WAC, more or less today’s MWC, it never had more than two or three wins per year. The MWC already has some teams with issues. UNLV is awful on a long term basis; Hawaii is playing on its practice field, USAFA has threatened to go independent. It does not need another (or two more, if you count NMSU) bottom feeders.
Back when it was called the WAC, UTEP just could not compete. Had long losing streaks. Then Texas and Oklahoma engineered the Big 12 1.0 and those not selected formed a mega-sized WAC, which made no sense geographically or in the TV markets of that time. After a few years the majority of the old WAC, behind UTEP’s back, got together and formed the MWC. Leaving it in the dying WAC, causing it to find CUSA.
The MWC is going to have to be convinced that UTEP can compete. It has a .398 overall record, which is a one of the worst. It is having a good year, but it was 1-11, 1-11 and 0-12 in 19, 18 and 17, and has had 2 winning seasons since joining CUSA. Back in the 70s and 80s, when it was in the original WAC, more or less today’s MWC, it never had more than two or three wins per year. The MWC already has some teams with issues. UNLV is awful on a long term basis; Hawaii is playing on its practice field, USAFA has threatened to go independent. It does not need another (or two more, if you count NMSU) bottom feeders.
I’m sorry to see Tech get the shaft. They always put forth a decent team and I enjoyed the games we played.
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I doubt it. 1 season is simply that, 1 season.
I think the G5 are trying to look for either large media markets or teams with sone consistency in on field performance.
MU had the latter. Not sure about UTEP with either one.
Once you announce that you're leaving you forfeit the right to vote in conference matters.
To paraphrase my old friend Mickey Matthews when talking about his time coaching at UTEP
“It ain’t easy when your southern recruiting area is Mexico”.
“It ain’t easy when your southern recruiting area is Mexico”.
Sun Belt has a few bigger names at the top of the conference, but it also has a lot of schools that end in "State"
Yeah, cannot have those teams ending in “State”. If only the Big 10 could get rid of Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan State.
It does not take more than a few butterfly wing flaps for this institution to have ended up being called either Huntington State, Marshall State, or WV State. When the school was taken in as a state institution in 1867, the legal name was “The State Normal School of West Virginia, at Marshall College”. WV State wasn’t called that until the 1930s.
I bet Huff would read that and say "Hold my beer."
Give the man ten minutes and I bet he could turn up a quality recruit there. Lol
We used to have packages that were given to HS coaches to send in film of their players, Perry Moss allegedly had them printed with a return address of "Marshall State University," supposedly so HS coaches would think the school was bigger. I recall one year when OU's fund-raising company printed return envelopes with "The University of Ohio" as the return address.
