(03-11-2013 09:50 AM)CalallenStang Wrote:  $7M + $2.5M does not equal $8.5M.

But that is worth it for Tulsa (and the "CUSA defectors"), because ending up where you started is better than ending up behind where you started.

I firmly believe that if CUSA had not aggressively back filled and expanded like they did, the CHSA "defectors" would just go back and things would continue as they were. However, in CUSA's expansion, they have taken steps back that will take a few years of program development to make up for.

How quickly people forget and change the narrative of the past to suit their goals.

The CUSA "backfilled" to keep ECU happy and hopefully shut them up about their need for travel partners and help to potentially stave off further potential defections to the MWC. No one could agree on 2 teams, so they brought in 4.

The problem is that to justify moving the former CUSA teams sold it to their fanbases that it will be a boatload of cash and "better" teams to boot. Now since the boatload of cash is not true, 6 members are coming directly from the CUSA and 3 others are looking to leave ASAP and the fact that some comments where made to position the move, more than justifiably at the time with the expected payout looming, it is has left most of the schools leaving to the BE in a conundrum. Either go back, which the CUSA has said they are more than willing to accept, and essentially lose face with their donor and alumni base that they sold the move to and to apologize for what was publicly stated or to continue on with a move that is starting to look doomed from the start.

SMU is stuck. They refuse to be in a conference with UNT and the BE is the only option. Money or not, they cannot politically cover the move back. It is somewhat funny to hear the concerns of the alumni base when I was at Ford last weekend for the Patriot Cup on the 3rd. None are as happy as people here try to spin it and the common thread was why are we playing a bunch of school on the East coast that as just as no named as the schools we left.

ECU, UH, Tulane, UCF and Memphis could all come back, but some of those schools will be hard pressed to not have to eat some significant crow as well. I think UH and Tulane could do it easiest, but I think they are the least likely to do so after SMU.

Things are too far down the line to change now. The utter failure of the BE bid was not anything anyone fully though out, for either the CUSA or the leaving schools. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the BE, the TV negotiations took so long that CUSA filled their slots. It seems to me that Aresco sold you guys a billl a goods he could not deliver knowing full well that people would jump at the offer and by the time the deal was official it would be impossible to go back. The classic bait and switch so to say.