Most recent realignment talk

Most recent meaningless chatter on sunbelt board

 

http://csnbbs.com/thread-665242.html

 

http://csnbbs.com/thread-665800.html

I am not sure if this is gonna be true or not, but I was told by an Lamar Coach today that LU will be in the SBC starting the 2014-15 season. Guess we will see.

With Lamar's budget now at $15 million they already have a larger budget than several Sun Belt schools. I keep reading that the SBC will add one more football school so maybe Lamar is secretly in the running. That might explain the hesitation on keeping Woodard, if they go FBS they'll probably go with a bigger name coach. I won't be holding my breath though.

Same coach told me that SBC was waiting on James Madison to decide. JMU will likely go to CUSA, which would allow LU and SHSU in to SBC. Also said that the LU Football game at A&M would go from $400K to $1 Million if LU goes to FBS.

Is LU and Sam some sort of packaged deal, maybe from the Board of Regents? I have heard that Oklahoma state law requires OU and OSU to be in the same conference.

Is LU and Sam some sort of packaged deal, maybe from the Board of Regents? I have heard that Oklahoma state law requires OU and OSU to be in the same conference.

 

I think they'll move to the SBC as a package deal, but I have no proof to back that up. But I think the SLC expanded to 14 knowing that LU and SHSU will probably leave.

 

With ORU leaving that just means the SLC will pick up another non-football school, like UT-PA (soon to be called UT-RVG since they are combining with UT-Brownswille). Having 11 football schools in the SLC doesn't make much sense, but have 12 schools with 9 football teams makes sense.

Personally I would love to see LU in a more respected conference. Overall I think an FBS conference would be better than FCS from the standpoint of having an opportunity to eventually get some more recognized schools to come here to play. I think many FBS conferences if not the NCAA itself restrict FBS schools from playing at FCS schools. I would never expect Texas, A&M or any major named school to come to Beaumont for football, but you might get La Tech, Rice, Houston, North Texas or some others that would draw more interest than any of our current conference members. The only fear I have of a move to FBS is that it will add three to five more years to the potential of competing for conference championships in the two major sports.

I get what you are saying about competing for conference championships. Technically, it should just be one since Basketball is all Division I - no subdivisions. In basketball, we should already be at the same level as programs in conferences with FBS football.

 

SHOULD BE and ARE are two different things though. :(

The only fear I have of a move to FBS is that it will add three to five more years to the potential of competing for conference championships in the two major sports.

 

You're probably right but I think that the impact it would have on recruiting and getting some of the FBS in the Triangle to stay home would be immediate.

You may be able to keep a few local kids who would go away to play at the FBS level but would that be enough? Watching how the attendance has fallen the last two years will the Golden Triangle area come out to see four or five win seasons in the numbers needed to warrant a stadium expansion? According to current FBS standards a school is supposed to avg 15k in attendance. I know there is some evidence they really don't enforce that, but.

You may be able to keep a few local kids who would go away to play at the FBS level but would that be enough? Watching how the attendance has fallen the last two years will the Golden Triangle area come out to see four or five win seasons in the numbers needed to warrant a stadium expansion? According to current FBS standards a school is supposed to avg 15k in attendance. I know there is some evidence they really don't enforce that, but.

 

That's the main reason I believe it is imperative that we come up with some way to build the fan and support base without relying on the possibility that we will have a 9-10 win minimum winning season. It's not a "chicken or the egg" thing. Both need to be worked on at the same time if we have any plans to move up. Based on past experience, it's important even if decide we should stay where we are.

Kn

 

 

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Georgia Southern was 0-7 in conference play this year.. They averaged about 15k per game which was the lowest in the Sunbelt. It appears that moving up will bring in more fans regardless of number of wins or success. Im sure the admin has done studies on this as well. My first and gut impression of moving up is 'yes', of course, we want to move up and play with the big boys.

 

But, do we really??? I don't think the answer is as cut and dry as it may appear. My question is does playing Georgia Southern, Arkansas St, and Troy make a difference to the normal fan over playing McNeese and SFA?

 

For me the thought of moving up is a nice thought, but if we go winless in conference for several years, the thrill and excitement may soon fade.

 

We are just getting competitive at the fcs level.. Would an extra 22 scholarships improve our athletes that much? Maybe??

 

Folks on this board are saying we may move up next year... Do any of you know when something like this would be announced?

 

 

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Are you kidding me? Yes, it's that cut and dry. When you have an opportunity to move up, you do it. Chances to be able to do that do not come along very often.

No I'm not kidding. I think moving up would be exciting. But i dont have all the facts. Making big decisions comes with alot of thought and planning and are seldom cut and dry. Just because i want to be an entrepreneur and self made millionaire and be independently wealthy doesn't mean i can do it or that i should even try. Maybe i should be happy to make my $10/hr based on my skill and ability. Lots of factors go into making decisions as big as us moving up. Personally i think it would be cool to move up, but i don't know enough to have an opinion either way.

 

 

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Since it appears that the 'big boys' are trying to squeeze out conferences like the Sun Belt, WAC, and other mid-majors; would be worth the trouble if those guys get squeezed out on the big bucks? That would be the only reason to move up. LU would have to at least quadruple the budget to accomplish that. Sure it would be cool to be on that level; but the big conferences are trying to cut away from the NCAA anyway and keep the goodies for themselves.

 

Also, are the opportunities for playing a Texas A&M or Baylor going away due to the playoff? There are different thoughts to that too. I hope the opportunities are still there, but it might go away; which will hurt the mid-majors.

I don't think the opportunity to play the A&Ms or LSUs are going away. The BCS moving to the four team playoff shouldn't change much of anything, except that filling the #4 slot will be the point of contention especially if the committee starts selecting teams that don't win their conference no matter how it is decided. I'm probably in the minority but I don't see how a school can claim to be the national champion if they didn't win their conference. Which conference is so elite that it should get more than one into the final four and is it always the same conference. In my lifetime at one time or another each of the following Big Ten, PAC Ten, SEC, Big and their successors have been considered the number one conference but with the realignments the ACC probably has a real argument today. If you played the four team scenario this year and Alabama was included what do you think the two of the five conferences listed that would be left out would say.

Just remember the arrogance of the BCS schools and you will see why I think they might want to do their own thing. Its been talked about before. I do think that they want at least one 'easy' team on the schedule for what amounts to an exhibition to them.

 

As for the playoff next year - in JerryWorld no less - there will be someone left out and complaining. There is no perfect system, but this might lead to an 8-team playoff and even then somebody will gripe...the nature of the beast

At four teams with one of the big five conferences left out every year at least their will be pressure on the selection committee to not pick a non-conference champion. If you go to eight or more, you can almost bet that there will be multiple teams from one or two of the "power conferences" in the playoff. I feel bad for the other five conferences and the independents other than Notre Dame which will probably never make it into the final four. The only way I would be in favor of expanding it further would be to guarantee all BCS conferences a place in the playoff and making bracket such that conferences with two or more teams would have to play conference foes before the final four. If the SEC wants an Auburn vs Alabama rematch and the Sunbelt gets their champ a shot I could see that.