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Daily News Record (covers JMU): Want realignment answers? First, let's ask the right questions

Chris McLaughlin

Grammar Snob
Staff
Feb 14, 2006
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marshall.rivals.com
Interesting piece here.

Couple takeaways:

* Writer claims the SBC told JMU and App State they were were by far the most visible and valuable brands in the Sun Belt.
* If Memphis and Tulane leave the AAC the SBC's leadership is poised to make a push to move the SBC up the G5 food chain.
* ECU is a top target and would listen if the tv money worked out (or dried up with the AAC).
* UTSA, South Florida and UAB mentioned as other SBC expansion targets from the AAC.

 
It’s crazy how far we’ve fallen. 10-15 years ago no one would’ve ever wanted App State or JMU over us.

Except MU got selected to join the premiere G5 conference...to add to the brand established by one of the teams you mentioned...🙄🙄🙄

If you really want to just dwell on life 15 years ago, log off of here.
 
Except MU got selected to join the premiere G5 conference...to add to the brand established by one of the teams you mentioned...🙄🙄🙄

If you really want to just dwell on life 15 years ago, log off of here.
So expressing disappointment in not even being on the same level as our conference mates (JMU and App) is dwelling on life 15 years ago?
 
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Interesting piece here.

Couple takeaways:

* Writer claims the SBC told JMU and App State they were were by far the most visible and valuable brands in the Sun Belt.





Already having a nice discussion about this on the Sunbelt board. No one, including myself, is buying it.

According to the author:

I'm going to get more in depth on that in another article, but the Sun Belt presented a very detailed report on this with data it got from a third-party firm. The total media value of the conference -- looking at all platforms -- was $892 milllion. Almost a quarter of that was JMU and App, both with valuations more than $100 million. There wasn't another school at more than $73 million.
Which I responded:

Based on? What ESPN value? Potential value? You are not telling me much. All platforms meaning?
I have a hard time seeing that any one media outlet will give JMU,App, or anyone in the Sunbelt 100m a year.

From SI: Notre Dame currently receives around $26 million annually from a combination of its TV revenue from NBC and its ACC agreement.

He is basing it on:

Based on a lot of different factors. Essentially the value of the media exposure generated by each football program and Sun Belt football as a league. There is a formula that factors in viewership of live games, other coverage on TV, coverage online and in print, social media, etc.
 
Except MU got selected to join the premiere G5 conference...to add to the brand established by one of the teams you mentioned...🙄🙄🙄

If you really want to just dwell on life 15 years ago, log off of here.
15 years ago I was 7 and had no bills, so yes please.

Also, 15 years ago, App State nor JMU were FBS, so being mentioned as lower than them is embarassing
 
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So expressing disappointment in not even being on the same level as our conference mates (JMU and App) is dwelling on life 15 years ago?

Ole Gill is crying about how JMU and App State were somehow below MU 15 years ago. He was probably right...15 years ago.

MU was never going to remain on top forever, given the leadership in all facets, the economy of the city/state, and the landscape of college football...it was inevitable MU would bow out. Plenty of teams will not be relevant by their standards in, not even 5 years from now.
He makes it as some sort of catastrophe, I see it as a shift in the dynamics of the sport and college in general.
Can MU come back?
Sure. Just apply it to now and not 15 years ago.
 
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15 years ago I was 7 and had no bills, so yes please.

Also, 15 years ago, App State nor JMU were FBS, so being mentioned as lower than them is embarassing


It does suck. We went from “We play for chips’” to a 6-6 season is unacceptable tweet. If those who built the program and started winning big had NIL it is hard to tell where MU would be.

Those guys didn’t make excuses. They built stadiums, bent the rules and WON. They wouldn’t have been whining and making excuses.


Rant over
 
It does suck. We went from “We play for chips’” to a 6-6 season is unacceptable tweet. If those who built the program and started winning big had NIL it is hard to tell where MU would be.

Those guys didn’t make excuses. They built stadiums, bent the rules and WON. They wouldn’t have been whining and making excuses.


Rant over
Give me a rule bending coach who makes us win. Who cares what other people think of us. Winning cures all
 
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* Writer claims the SBC told JMU and App State they were were by far the most visible and valuable brands in the Sun Belt.
JMU is trying to convert from a I-AA power to a good story in I-A. Something only one school has ever done. Marshall.

Can JMU follow in our footsteps? Sure. But it takes a lot of skill and courage. The main difference is that JMU has a very wealthy state to draw upon for its mega-subsidized sports program.

ASU is a nice school in a pretty part of the country, and is a nice second choice for kids UNC and NCSU turned down. Probably, in lifestyle terms, the best choice. But that is all it is.
* If Memphis and Tulane leave the AAC the SBC's leadership is poised to make a push to move the SBC up the G5 food chain.
Since the SBC is already the top conference in the Group of Six, that will be hard to do. The AAC is a joke.
* ECU is a top target and would listen if the tv money worked out (or dried up with the AAC).
ECU never belonged in the AAC. The AAC is based on a basic lie. Being IN a big city is the same as being SIGNIFICANT IN a big city. This just isn't true, but whatever, ECU isn't in a big city in the first place. It is much more of a fit in the SBC.

But ECU has the worst case of "little brother" I have ever seen. No matter what they do, all their fans can think about is UNC and NCSU. They will never understand that they are never going to get in the ACC, and that 20 or 30 miles from Greenville, the unwashed locals that never darkened the door of any college are going to be wearing baby blue, even if UNC is 3-9 and ECU is 10-2.
* UTSA, South Florida and UAB mentioned as other SBC expansion targets from the AAC
UTSA. Pass. Classic AAC school. In a city. Insignificant in said city.
USF. Same.
UAB. After Auburn and Alabama suck 99.999999% of all the possible college football fandom energy out of the state of Alabama, you really want to fight USA, Jacksonville State, and the HBCUs for the remainder? Pass.
 
MU was never going to remain on top forever, given the leadership in all facets, the economy of the city/state, and the landscape of college football...it was inevitable MU would bow out.
Great excuse making. Winners win. Losers make excuses. MU's rise from ashes to glory was fueled by 100s of people, from great coaches and administrators, to ordinary fans and students that would not let this program die and wanted to see it grow.

It was killed by KO Marcum. There was nothing "inevitable" about any of it. Don't hire Marcum and Snyder and continue to win as before.
 
Great excuse making. Winners win. Losers make excuses. MU's rise from ashes to glory was fueled by 100s of people, from great coaches and administrators, to ordinary fans and students that would not let this program die and wanted to see it grow.

It was killed by KO Marcum. There was nothing "inevitable" about any of it. Don't hire Marcum and Snyder and continue to win as before.
I'm not mad at the Snyder hire in retrospect. Pruett left us little time and he kinds of read off like Pruett did on his resume. Former player who was the DC for a recent national champion(LB Coach when the title was won).

However giving him an extension without ever posting a winning season was horrible decision. Then our AD going on TV during one of our ESPN games with a list of all-time great coaches that started off slow claiming Snyder was on that same trajectory was asinine.

Marshall's mentality once Marcum took over went from "We Play for Championships" to "We do with what we got."

Somewhere along the line we decided to adopt the mentality of just accepting our lot instead of always being unsatisfied and wanting to get better and be better than everyone else. Listen to the players from the 90s and early 00s talk. They were absolutely offended by the thought of a team believing they could win.

I also partly blame the bowl system. In I-AA play it's win or go home. That was the same in the first years of the MAC. If you wanted to play in a bowl game you had to win your conference. It would have been nice for the 2nd place team to get one too, but the point is you had to push yourself every day and every season. Now 5-7 teams are going in because they have higher APRs. Coaches like Doc can become complacent because they can just fall back on "we made/won a bowl game."
 
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I also partly blame the bowl system. In I-AA play it's win or go home. That was the same in the first years of the MAC. If you wanted to play in a bowl game you had to win your conference. It would have been nice for the 2nd place team to get one too, but the point is you had to push yourself every day and every season. Now 5-7 teams are going in because they have higher APRs. Coaches like Doc can become complacent because they can just fall back on "we made/won a bowl game."
And this is why playoffs are such a bad idea. ESPN is the focus of evil in the sports world.

Give me a sheet of notebook paper. I can write down 20 teams and, leaving out the sacrificial lamb Group of Six team, I will have no worse than a 95% accuracy rate in who makes the playoffs. I can write down 10 teams and have every team that will win the national championship. Not for this year. Forever.

For decades teams like, leaving out MU, but places like UK or WVU, have sold their fanbases on going to, or winning, a bowl game as a good season. Now 132 losers, one winner. And, unlike the NFL (sorry Browns fans) where it is cyclical and eventually its your turn to be good, it doesn't work that way at all in college. There are 100 teams, including the MAJORITY of the P4, that will NEVER make the playoffs. Never. Never ever.

Selling "we were 8-4 and won the Gator Bowl" is a much easier sell than "we were 8-4 and missed the playoffs, again".

Evil.
 
And this is why playoffs are such a bad idea. ESPN is the focus of evil in the sports world.

Give me a sheet of notebook paper. I can write down 20 teams and, leaving out the sacrificial lamb Group of Six team, I will have no worse than a 95% accuracy rate in who makes the playoffs. I can write down 10 teams and have every team that will win the national championship. Not for this year. Forever.

For decades teams like, leaving out MU, but places like UK or WVU, have sold their fanbases on going to, or winning, a bowl game as a good season. Now 132 losers, one winner. And, unlike the NFL (sorry Browns fans) where it is cyclical and eventually its your turn to be good, it doesn't work that way at all in college. There are 100 teams, including the MAJORITY of the P4, that will NEVER make the playoffs. Never. Never ever.

Selling "we were 8-4 and won the Gator Bowl" is a much easier sell than "we were 8-4 and missed the playoffs, again".

Evil.
Disagree. A true playoff would be best. That's how we did it in I-AA and how every level of football except FBS does it.

No stupid committees. Either we're all playing on the same level or we aren't.
 
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