CAJUN, you are on the right track with the conference you've suggested. I would however exchange Tulane for UAB. I know there are some UAB supporters though. I would put Tulane in as the 12th team. If Tulane hadn't become competitive enough, then choose from the best of Marshall, UCF or UAB.

I think Memphis should be added as a full member next year. I think we should wait until 2010 to add teams 10, 11, 12, if that's the direction we want to go.

"No league with both UAB and ECU as members will earn or keep an automatic BCS bid. That is simply too much dead weight for the other hard working members to over come. I say we add Memphis and move on."

Putting ECU in the same category with UAB is ludicrous. We've had a few bad years. They draw 15k to their games, we draw about 35k....despite our poor record. We've taken more fans to bowl games than they've taken to home games. Yeah, I'm sure Memphis will ride in to save that automatic bid.

Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

ECU has been to more bowl games than half your league.

list them!

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

so you're solution to our "dead weight problem" is to add more dead weight? genius. memphis is the only program that could bring any value (despite their tier 4 ranking) and even that's debateable in football after deangelo leaves.

Mike T. has bluntly said that there are no schools available that are worthy of adding right now, or else they would be added already. I would love to see a split, and Memphis coming in for 9 FT members, i think that would be the ideal situation for the NBE. But sadly it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon.


And by the time the split happens, someone else - a Florida Atlantic, for example - could be a prime expansion candidate. Who knows. VPI was a nothing backwater program until they got into the Big East.

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

Please dont insult UCONN fans by listing UCONN as a dead weight to the BE. Please......

UCONN is a national program with national recognition. UCONN brand name means something in CA as well as CT. We are one of the top programs in both men and women's bball.

In 3 short years in DIA, we had winning season each of the year and went to our first bowl last year. We killed MAC champ at their almost home stadium (39-10). We sell out our football stadiums.

We are one of the top 25 public schools in the country with student applications going through the roof. Our application rate was up 28% last year from year before.

Our athletic budget is on par with many top tier BCS programs in the country. We make a profit in our sports programs with some of the best fan support in the country.


Please dont insult UCONN again. UCONN is an excellent addition to ANY conference, whether it be ACC, B10 or the BE.

SF Husky Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

Please dont insult UCONN fans by listing UCONN as a dead weight to the BE. Please......

UCONN is a national program with national recognition. UCONN brand name means something in CA as well as CT. We are one of the top programs in both men and women's bball.

In 3 short years in DIA, we had winning season each of the year and went to our first bowl last year. We killed MAC champ at their almost home stadium (39-10). We sell out our football stadiums.

We are one of the top 25 public schools in the country with student applications going through the roof. Our application rate was up 28% last year from year before.

Our athletic budget is on par with many top tier BCS programs in the country. We make a profit in our sports programs with some of the best fan support in the country.


Please dont insult UCONN again. UCONN is an excellent addition to ANY conference, whether it be ACC, B10 or the BE.

I have to agree pretty much with his sentiments. And that's scary because I don't agree with the Conn fans much.

USFMike Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

so you're solution to our "dead weight problem" is to add more dead weight? genius. memphis is the only program that could bring any value (despite their tier 4 ranking) and even that's debateable in football after deangelo leaves.

I'm sorry, what bowl have you gone to?? Call us when you can draw more than 25k to your games and you have actual brick and mortar around your coaches offices. Good lord, USF fans talking smack is as bad as the UCF fans talking smack.

fsquid Wrote:

USFMike Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

so you're solution to our "dead weight problem" is to add more dead weight? genius. memphis is the only program that could bring any value (despite their tier 4 ranking) and even that's debateable in football after deangelo leaves.

I'm sorry, what bowl have you gone to?? Call us when you can draw more than 25k to your games and you have actual brick and mortar around your coaches offices. Good lord, USF fans talking smack is as bad as the UCF fans talking smack.

whatever... sounds like sour grapes, don't worry i'm not going to argue with you, i'm happy where usf is and i'm confident of our program's future (can you say the same?).

before you start on the attendance smack (barring any hurricanes), look at our schedule this year famu, where we've already opened the upper deck for rayjay (estimate 50,000), ucf (40,000), louisville (36,000 - attendance last time they were in tampa), west virginia (40,000 homecoming), cinci (30,000 - probably more if we have a winning record) conservative estimates and not bad for a program that has been in div 1 for 3 years, that's still growing their fanbase. not to mention miami coming to tampa next year, which will be a sellout. FYI our inaugural game we sold out the old sombrero (50,000) and we lead div II in attendance for 2 straight years before we made the transition to div I. good luck trying to fill the liberty bowl with your new conference.

in twenty years you made it to bowl a whopping two times and you're trying to start bowl smack? btw how'd you do against bowling green, anyway? we'll see what happens after deangelo leaves, better yet why don't we compare recruiting classes to see which direction each program is going. three years in div I (9-2, 7-4, 4-7) and into a bcs conference, we've done pretty well for ourselves in our short history and we have nothing to be ashamed about.

Here you go squid, is that good enough for you? if you can whip that tier 4 community college into shape you might have a chance next go around, till then have fun in cusa.

:laugh:

USFMike Wrote:

fsquid Wrote:

USFMike Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

so you're solution to our "dead weight problem" is to add more dead weight? genius. memphis is the only program that could bring any value (despite their tier 4 ranking) and even that's debateable in football after deangelo leaves.

I'm sorry, what bowl have you gone to?? Call us when you can draw more than 25k to your games and you have actual brick and mortar around your coaches offices. Good lord, USF fans talking smack is as bad as the UCF fans talking smack.

whatever... sounds like sour grapes, don't worry i'm not going to argue with you, i'm happy where usf is and i'm confident of our program's future (can you say the same?).

before you start on the attendance smack (barring any hurricanes), look at our schedule this year famu, where we've already opened the upper deck for rayjay (estimate 50,000), ucf (40,000), louisville (36,000 - attendance last time they were in tampa), west virginia (40,000 homecoming), cinci (30,000 - probably more if we have a winning record) conservative estimates and not bad for a program that has been in div 1 for 3 years, that's still growing their fanbase. not to mention miami coming to tampa next year, which will be a sellout. FYI our inaugural game we sold out the old sombrero (50,000) and we lead div II in attendance for 2 straight years before we made the transition to div I. good luck trying to fill the liberty bowl with your new conference.

in twenty years you made it to bowl a whopping two times and you're trying to start bowl smack? btw how'd you do against bowling green, anyway? we'll see what happens after deangelo leaves, better yet why don't we compare recruiting classes to see which direction each program is going. three years in div I (9-2, 7-4, 4-7) and into a bcs conference, we've done pretty well for ourselves in our short history and we have nothing to be ashamed about.

Just skimming through your defensive crap,....

the only things that stick out to me are Div 1A for 3 years & in a BCS conf. :snore:

The cellar stinks in any conference.

ecu92 Wrote:"No league with both UAB and ECU as members will earn or keep an automatic BCS bid. That is simply too much dead weight for the other hard working members to over come. I say we add Memphis and move on."

Putting ECU in the same category with UAB is ludicrous. We've had a few bad years. They draw 15k to their games, we draw about 35k....despite our poor record. We've taken more fans to bowl games than they've taken to home games. Yeah, I'm sure Memphis will ride in to save that automatic bid.

Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

ECU has been to more bowl games than half your league.

Whats interesting about the so called "dead weight" BE programs, is that neither of the 4 (Uconn, Cincy, Rutgers, USF) that you mentioned have to bring up relative ancient history to state their fb credentials as you have to do.
Two of the programs that you refer to as dead weight have been to bowl games just last year, and they both won by very good margins.

The point that really sticks out in my mind is that each of the BE "dead weight" programs have won more fb games in the last 2-3 years than ECU.

ecu92 Wrote:"No league with both UAB and ECU as members will earn or keep an automatic BCS bid. That is simply too much dead weight for the other hard working members to over come. I say we add Memphis and move on."

Putting ECU in the same category with UAB is ludicrous. We've had a few bad years. They draw 15k to their games, we draw about 35k....despite our poor record. We've taken more fans to bowl games than they've taken to home games. Yeah, I'm sure Memphis will ride in to save that automatic bid.

Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

ECU has been to more bowl games than half your league.

Deadweight? What the hell has East Carolina done lately? You can bring up crap from a decade ago, that doesn't mean squat now. You're and idiot if you think that ECU has been to more bowl games then half the league. You're looking dumber and dumber everyday.

cuseroc Wrote:

ecu92 Wrote:"No league with both UAB and ECU as members will earn or keep an automatic BCS bid. That is simply too much dead weight for the other hard working members to over come. I say we add Memphis and move on."

Putting ECU in the same category with UAB is ludicrous. We've had a few bad years. They draw 15k to their games, we draw about 35k....despite our poor record. We've taken more fans to bowl games than they've taken to home games. Yeah, I'm sure Memphis will ride in to save that automatic bid.

Let me revise your quote a little bit: "No league with Rutgers, Cinci, USF, and UConn as members will keep an automatic bid." That's the reality. If you're looking for dead weight, start there.

ECU has been to more bowl games than half your league.

Whats interesting about the so called "dead weight" BE programs, is that neither of the 4 (Uconn, Cincy, Rutgers, USF) that you mentioned have to bring up relative ancient history to state their fb credentials as you have to do.
Two of the programs that you refer to as dead weight have been to bowl games just last year, and they both won by very good margins.

The point that really sticks out in my mind is that each of the BE "dead weight" programs have won more fb games in the last 2-3 years than ECU.

Not only that, Cincinnati has beaten ECU the last 3 times they have played with 2 of those wins coming on ECU's home field. UC has also been to bowl games 4 of the last 5 years and missed going 5 out of 5 years by a game or two.

"List them."

Independence Bowl
Peach Bowl
Liberty Bowl (twice)
GMAC/Mobile Bowl (twice)
Alamo Bowl

We've been to other bowls, but those were before we joined Div. IA.

My goal was not to insult anyone's school, but I'm going to defend my school when someone describes us as "deadweight." If your school has been in the top 25 lately, sure I'll stand and take it, but not from programs that have only scraped a couple of 6-5 records together.

ecu92 Wrote:"List them."

Independence Bowl
Peach Bowl
Liberty Bowl (twice)
GMAC/Mobile Bowl (twice)
Alamo Bowl

We've been to other bowls, but those were before we joined Div. IA.

My goal was not to insult anyone's school, but I'm going to defend my school when someone describes us as "deadweight." If your school has been in the top 25 lately, sure I'll stand and take it, but not from programs that have only scraped a couple of 6-5 records together.

With the new BCS criteria there is no way we could add a ECU or UCF IMO. Memphis is much more appealing if we split and add a 9th school.

If the Big East can't swallow a little pride and do what needs to be done in terms of expansion, they are leaving the door wide open for a "best of" CUSA/MAC merger that will cause problems for the Big East.

Also, rest assurred, the MWC will nor sit on their haunches. They are sure to add to their lineup, a lineup that challenged you last season and will only get better. Doing what I said earlier would put an end to all of that .

CAJUNNATION Wrote:If the Big East can't swallow a little pride and do what needs to be done in terms of expansion, they are leaving the door wide open for a "best of" CUSA/MAC merger that will cause problems for the Big East.

Also, rest assurred, the MWC will nor sit on their haunches. They are sure to add to their lineup, a lineup that challenged you last season and will only get better. Doing what I said earlier would put an end to all of that .

You see, unlike the MWC the Big East can pick and choose who we want. No reason to go to 12 at this moment in time. We are still the 6th best league in the country and we are now the best basketball league.

Maize Wrote:

CAJUNNATION Wrote:If the Big East can't swallow a little pride and do what needs to be done in terms of expansion,  they are leaving the door wide open for a "best of" CUSA/MAC merger that will cause problems for the Big East.

Also, rest assurred, the MWC will nor sit on their haunches. They are sure to add to their lineup, a lineup that challenged you last season and will only get better.  Doing what I said earlier would put an end to all of that .

You see, unlike the MWC the Big East can pick and choose who we want. No reason to go to 12 at this moment in time. We are still the 6th best league in the country and we are now the best basketball league.

And what everyone seems to forget that expansion is only worthwhile if you have to do it and/or if the programs added are worthy. What we need to concentrate on for now is improving from within, to make our conference attractive and strong enough to pull a Maryland out of the ACC and entice BC back and with Penn State and the Big Ten's flailing marriage maybe get them to come home. Thats expansion thats worthwhile.

brista21 Wrote:

Maize Wrote:

CAJUNNATION Wrote:If the Big East can't swallow a little pride and do what needs to be done in terms of expansion,  they are leaving the door wide open for a "best of" CUSA/MAC merger that will cause problems for the Big East.

Also, rest assurred, the MWC will nor sit on their haunches. They are sure to add to their lineup, a lineup that challenged you last season and will only get better.  Doing what I said earlier would put an end to all of that .

You see, unlike the MWC the Big East can pick and choose who we want. No reason to go to 12 at this moment in time. We are still the 6th best league in the country and we are now the best basketball league.

And what everyone seems to forget that expansion is only worthwhile if you have to do it and/or if the programs added are worthy. What we need to concentrate on for now is improving from within, to make our conference attractive and strong enough to pull a Maryland out of the ACC and entice BC back and with Penn State and the Big Ten's flailing marriage maybe get them to come home. Thats expansion thats worthwhile.

Dreaming at your own peril.