99Tiger Wrote:

DW4uconn Wrote:99Tiger,

Many say that Memphis is just a Community School. They say that Memphis is a Tier 4 school and does not fit in the BE. From your comment, I take it the Memphis topic must be somewhere else. The Bigeastboards.com has been overrun by ECU Pirates who think they deserve to be in the BE. Just wondering what your thoughts were?

DW

Well, many can say whatever the hell they want. Academic rankings are a load of crap...do you really want me to start listing reasons I feel that way? To name a few...(1) alumni giving is a factor in the rankings, (2) the list of what schools are good has been engraved in stone for quite some time, (3) urban public universities are often treated harshly for serving their stated purpose of educating the public, (4) I've attended Memphis and a school ranked in the top 10 (or is it 15) and found Memphis to be considerably tougher. Anyway...I hate the academic ranking BS...Louisville was a Tier 4 school, they get invited to the BE, then suddenly they go up to Tier 3. Hell, isn't Free Shoes University a Tier 1? That alone proves that the system is flawed.

With regards to Memphis and the BE, the BCS access and rejoining Louisville and Cincinnati is quite appealing to me. Losing the ability to drive to games (yes, I can drive to a few in CUSA) does not appeal to me. Overall, I would be mildly excited to join the BE, but disappointed if we somehow lost our annual game against Southern Miss.

ECU fans have been on their knees, lining up to kiss anyone's @ss because they somehow have a collective delusion that appealing to someone on the internet is going to get the Pirates into a BCS conference. I bet they all spout off the "ECU will bring the Tidewater market" argument. Horsepoop. I grew up in Tidewater and never heard of ECU. They may get coverage, but they certainly don't bring the market. Maybe they should try going out and getting coaches that could potentially make them attractive to recruits and possibly become more competitive. I digress (again?)...in the end, I'm not going to pucker up for anyone's rear on here (or Bigeastboards.com) for something that may or may not happen down the road.

Oh, and my comment on the LB. The Liberty Bowl does rely heavily on locals to fill their seats. Memphis fans are collectively scratching their heads on how we lost out to a school whose athletic offices were in trailers at the time they were selected. The Liberty Bowl is tied to the Tigers (who have never played in the bowl game) and the committee has openly stated that they wish to maintain a relationship with whatever conference Memphis resides and they ultimately hope that Memphis does the unthinkable and actually qualifies for the LB. They would piss a lot of people off by agreeing to take a BE team...and it would cost them ticket sales and possibly hurt sponsorships.

That was probably a little more of a rant than you were expecting.