CUSA needs two conference challenges in basketball. I would like to see them reach an agreement with the CAA & WWC. CUSA could play against seven of the schools in each conference each year. It would expose the conference to recruits on the east coast and west coast.

In football I would like for CUSA to reach and agreement with the MWC conference for their teams to annually play against each other at the start of the season. I would really like to reach an agree with the Pac10, but that would be a stretch.

I am sure there are many that would disagree with this choice of conferences. But I was trying to think "best available with a degree of possibility." If you feel you have a better conference selection with some degree of it being a possibility to reach an agreement with that conference please feel free to share it.

First, I would not do anything with CAA or any other FCS conference. That is just not a sign of strength from C-USA. Second, I realize, that the CAA traditionally is a strong basketball conference, but you have to remember that the three strongest teams responsible for that reputation (ODU, VCU and George Mason) have all left the CAA.

I don't think going out west for basketball would be wise. How many players from CUSA schools are from west of the Rockies? It would be a huge drain to travel budget, and if you're going to recruit out there, then you have to make visits on the regular and that costs more money than its worth too. There are plenty of players in our own footprint (Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Tidewater, Carolinas, Gulf, Florida and to a lesser extent PA, OH, the plains, DC/MD). What we need to do is prove that our schools are good destinations for recruits.

I'd really like to see something going forward with the bottom 8 of the Big East and then a mid level conference like the SB. The BE would play the top portion of the conference. The SB would play the bottom. The middle of our conference would benefit greatly by playing two winnable games against some strong teams (at least in name). It would look something like this:

Southern Miss-Providence
Louisiana Tech-Xavier
Middle Tennessee-St Johns
UTEP-Marquette, Ga St
WKU-Georgetown, ULL
Old Dominion-Seton Hall, Arky St
UAB-Butler, UTA
Charlotte-Depaul, UALR
FIU-Ga So
UNT-ULM
FAU-Troy
Marshall-So Alabama
UTSA-Appy St
Rice-Texas St

What about the a-10? The SBC used to have something with the SEC. MWC? MVC? I know you said no to fcs conferences, but a-10 and MVC are be all centric leagues.

ODU already plays all the CAA teams they want to and a bunch of former CAA teams.

These are made for TV events that need to generate viewership, otherwise it will not happen. I think the A-10 might make sense, although I am not sure how we would fare against them. Two years ago Charlotte won the Great Alaska Shootout, and last year we won the Puerto Rico Challenge. This year we are playing in the Charleston Classic. I would be for a C-USA/A-10 Challenge, but I am hesitant to mess with our early season game plan. It is the best part of our year.

A-10 already has a limited agreement with ACC. The Best East just signed an agreement with the B10. The why I chose CAA.

And I would love a shot at playing BYU, Gonzaga, & few of the other teams out west.

Honestly, the best conference challange for CUSA would be against the SEC. I know there is a 99.9999999% chance of it never happening but the potential matchups could be awesome:

WKU vs UK
Charlotte vs South Carolina
UAB vs Auburn
USM vs Ole Miss
MTSU vs Tennessee
Rice/UTSA vs T A&M
FIU/FAU vs Fla
UNT vs Arkansas
UTEP vs Mizzou

(05-05-2014 05:16 PM)Rabonchild Wrote:  A-10 already has a limited agreement with ACC. The Best East just signed an agreement with the B10. The why I chose CAA.

And I would love a shot at playing BYU, Gonzaga, & few of the other teams out west.

Having a CUSA - CAA challenge would give us no opportunities to boost either our OOC SOS's or our visibility, so IMO there really then is no reason to do it.

(05-05-2014 05:51 PM)BamaScorpio69 Wrote:  Honestly, the best conference challange for CUSA would be against the SEC. I know there is a 99.9999999% chance of it never happening but the potential matchups could be awesome:

WKU vs UK
Charlotte vs South Carolina
UAB vs Auburn
USM vs Ole Miss
MTSU vs Tennessee
Rice/UTSA vs T A&M
FIU/FAU vs Fla
UNT vs Arkansas
UTEP vs Mizzou

Any deal will include exclusions. UK will not play WKU, and I would say your top few SEC schools will demand to play at home 11 out of 10 years.