(12-22-2012 05:31 PM)eager eagle Wrote:  -----------------------------------------------------------------

BB did NOTHING to preserve or improve Cusa. He was aware of the changing winds and shrewdly manipulated the administrators into bringing in those six newbies prior to letting matters settle down and settling the business with our outgoing members. His was a proactive move to basically gut the Sunbelt thus giving him the upper hand when going back to them for more members to fill the upcoming gaps. If he had not taken the Sunbelt group at that time then Sunbelt would be in the drivers seat, cusa would be gone, and he would have been out of a job.

I don't know who you are referring to as "you kids" but I appreciate the compliment since I am about 60 years olds and can remember going to my first football game in 1959. I also went to Southern Miss and studied Sports Admin. and Coaching with teaching emphasis in Math and speciality in football. I have coached for a paycheck so if you are directing that at me, I appreciate the youthful comment but if you question my knowledge of sports, then maybe you better come up with some proof that you are beyond me.
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I dont know who you are addressing, obviously responded to my post but I made no mention of "you kids". By the way, I notice you joined the Louisiana Tech crusade or bandwagon in providing red marks against my reputation. Welcome aboard, they have flooded the negative votes against me but due to a lot of sane and sensible folks on the board I stay pretty close to even. And, congratulations on your background as coach, teaching math and football, etc which you obviously feel has bestowed upon you the level of an expert in evaluating B B.
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Eagle215 made the reference "you kids" and unless that is also your id then the comment was NOT directed to you. I will add to your statement though that having a formal education in sports admin. and coaching at USM (which has a fine reputation in the field) does in fact give a level of knowledge that is beyond the normal level of most is pretty much a fact. To evaluate a conference commissioner does in fact take in part of coaching since coaches normally are consulted in a team becoming part of a conference so we were taught how to look at such. So yes, I do have some insight due to my education that USM provided me.

(12-22-2012 05:31 PM)eager eagle Wrote:  -----------------------------------------------------------------

BB did NOTHING to preserve or improve Cusa. He was aware of the changing winds and shrewdly manipulated the administrators into bringing in those six newbies prior to letting matters settle down and settling the business with our outgoing members. His was a proactive move to basically gut the Sunbelt thus giving him the upper hand when going back to them for more members to fill the upcoming gaps. If he had not taken the Sunbelt group at that time then Sunbelt would be in the drivers seat, cusa would be gone, and he would have been out of a job.

Banowsky was also never really fully supportive of the Alliance (because he knew he'd lose his job). That was led by Cowen and a couple of other presidents. But as you pointed out, BB manipulated sufficient presidents to kill the Alliance and decide to kill the sunbelt instead with large expansion.
It's hard to say what would have happened had C-USA stayed still. They would have had been down to 6 after Tulane and ECU left. So they would have needed more teams anyway. Not 14, but more. Could they have gotten them from the sunbelt with only 6. Probably.

(12-22-2012 05:11 PM)PEO16 Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 04:07 PM)CurveItAround Wrote:  What if when the smoke clears in all this, CUSA loses all 4 of it's original small private schools (SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, Rice)? While some have nice programs in various sports, and all are excellent academic institutions, is the upside really there? Especially when you consider the recent on field/court success of some of these schools, yet no real uptick in support.

If CUSA lost Tulsa and Rice as some suspect, if they were replaced with another 20k-30k student university in a decent sized metro (ULL, WKU, TxSt, ArkSt, USA, NMSU, etc...), Initially I don't think any current member would like it at first, but I wonder what the real impact on the media deal would be. There was one article about the MWC maybe inviting UH, but not SMU. Maybe their is something to it.

It is not like the power conferences are chocked full of small private schools (even their private schools have pretty high enrollments). Just saying the sky may not be falling as fast as some want the remaining CUSA member to believe. I really hope CUSA can just stick with the current lineup for a few years and see what happens.

How was the sunbelt TV deal all these years with those schools and no privates? The privates are national universities with national names in big cities and and get good TV ratings, despite attendance when they are bad teams. The attendance of the sunbelt schools is good as long as they win, which they are doing now, but that's true with everyone. Note that when C-USA expanded, it picked sunbelt teams that could help with a TV deal, not the currently best teams.
Your argument is for another version of the sunbelt. And I can see the appeal; but it brings in no money.

You are the one that brought up the Sunbelt. I just listed teams that potentially might be willing to move. Feel free to substitute whatever school you you want. My argument is for things to stay the way they are currently. However, if schools like Tulsa and Rice are intent on leaving, as most of their posters on their message boards say they are, I am wondering aloud if it will truly affect the TV deal that much for CUSA.

As we have seen with the teams that left for the nBE, some schools may not be as important they think they are with the networks and you better be careful what you wish for.

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

BB has indeed been entirely too unbothered by getting poached by the BE, as though he was admitting that the whole rape was inevitable, and tacitly admitting that the departing schools were obviously improving their lot in life by an order of magnitude.

it's just a defeatist frame of mind. if C-USA had held together, they would be a CLEARLY superior conference that whatever the nBE could have cobbled together.

(12-22-2012 06:57 PM)EagleX Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

BB has indeed been entirely too unbothered by getting poached by the BE, as though he was admitting that the whole rape was inevitable, and tacitly admitting that the departing schools were obviously improving their lot in life by an order of magnitude.

it's just a defeatist frame of mind. if C-USA had held together, they would be a CLEARLY superior conference that whatever the nBE could have cobbled together.

I don't know if Thompson just had it easier because the MWC has less geographic competition than CUSA did, but I totally agree that I couldn't stand the defeatist, spineless attitude of Banowsky in regards to teams leaving.

Even when it was just rumors of teams possibly leaving he had his "it's understandable when schools want to better themselves" attitude broadcast for all to hear. Meanwhile, Thompson met every rumor with a completely different, competitive attitude. He acted like he believed his conference was just as good, if not better. Banowsky acted like he knew he had an inferior product.

Fast forward to today & maybe if Banowsky had Thompson's attitude, CUSA could've weathered the storm & would be in a position of power today.

I dont think CUSA has ever been in a position of power.

Its always been full of teams looking to move up and move on.

CUSA is what it is. Britt does a pretty good job given what hes got.

(12-22-2012 03:07 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  overreacting to ECU and Tulane's departures and inviting FAU and MTSU will probably prevent UCF, Memphis, and likely ECU's return.

That's fine with me. Just find a way to get ECU back and i'm good. Don't care about the other two either way.

(12-22-2012 04:03 PM)The WEST is the BEST Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

Just proves how much you kids have no knowledge about what has transpired behind the scenes but post off of your emotions.

BB has a great reputation for his leadership of CUSA. He has worked behind the scenes to keep schools on board. When schools are offered a choice of a stronger conference he has little power to sway them to stay. Expansion was driven by the school presidents. If you have an issue with expansion, then blame it on them. BB and the presidents have made solid moves to replace departing schools. FIU and FAU keep CUSA in Florida and strengthen the south Florida market. UNT and UTSA maintain/add strong markets in Texas. MTSU brings in Nashville. The only questionable addition is ODU. And that was done to placate TH and ECU. With ECU departing CUSA in the long run.

I agree with most of what you posted, except for ODU. Watching them play against Ga.Southern they had a good crowd that were excited, more that you can say about UAB, SMU or Tulane.

(12-22-2012 10:26 PM)panicstricken Wrote:  I dont think CUSA has ever been in a position of power.

Its always been full of teams looking to move up and move on.

CUSA is what it is. Britt does a pretty good job given what hes got.

In reality there are only 3 conferences at best that don't have the problem of schools looking to move up and we aren't one of them. Britt can control very little. I think he has done about as well as possible.

I get the arguments, but let's not be so hasty to crucify Banowsky.

Consider what in "implosion" of the big east means. Presume Houston and Smu go west and UCOnn and Cincy go ACC. (I'm just considering schools already announced as leaving. That leaves a BIg East with

USF
Temple
UCF
ECU
Memphis
Tulane
Navy ...maybe, maybe not.

Don't you think it MUCH more likely that the BE invites Tulsa, USM, Marshall, UAB, Rice to form an even better Big East, rather than come crawling back? If you believe that more likely, then you can understand Barnowsky's strategy, like it or not.

(12-22-2012 05:03 PM)SgtGoldenEagle Wrote:  As an USM fan and alum I have to say I am not happy with this commissioner. He didn't stand up for USM when we EARNED our way into the Liberty Bowl, and I know it was a stand that would have taken courage, but he didn't and we got left with the Hawaii Bowl. Not that a trip for our folks to Hawaii wasn't a nice vacation, and Nevada was a tough opponent, but it did leave us fans feeling a little embarrassed. Since we have been around from the start and seen change in the conference, I can understand the hardship of stopping teams from moving on, but I am not sure he couldn't have done better on that. I am thinking the conference will be ok but I feel we could make a big bold move and try to establish our conference as the top mid-major conference.

YOUR AD and YOUR president and YOUR coach made the choice on that bowl and you blame BB. You guys are too much.

(12-23-2012 08:30 AM)bladhmadh Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 05:03 PM)SgtGoldenEagle Wrote:  As an USM fan and alum I have to say I am not happy with this commissioner. He didn't stand up for USM when we EARNED our way into the Liberty Bowl, and I know it was a stand that would have taken courage, but he didn't and we got left with the Hawaii Bowl. Not that a trip for our folks to Hawaii wasn't a nice vacation, and Nevada was a tough opponent, but it did leave us fans feeling a little embarrassed. Since we have been around from the start and seen change in the conference, I can understand the hardship of stopping teams from moving on, but I am not sure he couldn't have done better on that. I am thinking the conference will be ok but I feel we could make a big bold move and try to establish our conference as the top mid-major conference.

YOUR AD and YOUR president and YOUR coach made the choice on that bowl and you blame BB. You guys are too much.

You are absolutely correct, the USM administrative community is totally responsible for the Hawaii Bowl debacle and you can bet we have paid the price many times over. We will overcome it though, there is a light at the end of this tunnel.

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

(12-22-2012 03:08 PM)Comet Wrote:  I think his biggest mistake was giving as many invites as he did. Sitting tight a bit would have shown that the Big East is about to crumble and CUSA might have had its pick of Cincy, UConn, USF, UCF, Temple, Tulane, etc.

(12-23-2012 08:29 AM)Cnelson203 Wrote:  I get the arguments, but let's not be so hasty to crucify Banowsky.

Consider what in "implosion" of the big east means. Presume Houston and Smu go west and UCOnn and Cincy go ACC. (I'm just considering schools already announced as leaving. That leaves a BIg East with

USF
Temple
UCF
ECU
Memphis
Tulane
Navy ...maybe, maybe not.

Don't you think it MUCH more likely that the BE invites Tulsa, USM, Marshall, UAB, Rice to form an even better Big East, rather than come crawling back? If you believe that more likely, then you can understand Barnowsky's strategy, like it or not.

I think that it's likely that the nBE will try. Look at that list. Only Temple hasn't been in CUSA. Okay, it's been a long time since South Florida was here so maybe you can consider that the nBE has a base of two and they are the surviving conference? Of the CUSA members only Memphis departed knowing that the Big East was going to be demoted so every one else that has gone or will go to that conference is snubbing their roots (CUSA) and Banowsky.

If BB is the great commissioner then he should pull everyone back together. He made that extremely difficult though by adding non-FBS teams. Yes, the three added have a lot of potential but he jumped the gun. They would have still been ready as soon as they were truly needed.

I can just imagine the threads on here if C-USA had lost five members and no one had been selected to replace them... "Why is our commissioner asleep on the job?! He's vacationing while the conference is falling apart!!!"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

(12-23-2012 08:07 AM)BkGold Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 04:03 PM)The WEST is the BEST Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

Just proves how much you kids have no knowledge about what has transpired behind the scenes but post off of your emotions.

BB has a great reputation for his leadership of CUSA. He has worked behind the scenes to keep schools on board. When schools are offered a choice of a stronger conference he has little power to sway them to stay. Expansion was driven by the school presidents. If you have an issue with expansion, then blame it on them. BB and the presidents have made solid moves to replace departing schools. FIU and FAU keep CUSA in Florida and strengthen the south Florida market. UNT and UTSA maintain/add strong markets in Texas. MTSU brings in Nashville. The only questionable addition is ODU. And that was done to placate TH and ECU. With ECU departing CUSA in the long run.

I agree with most of what you posted, except for ODU. Watching them play against Ga.Southern they had a good crowd that were excited, more that you can say about UAB, SMU or Tulane.

Is that comment really necessary? Every program outside of the Big conferences is flawed in some way. We are all aware of ours flaws. We don't need our fellow conference mates pointing them out for us.

And BTW there is a big f'ing difference between a playoff game at your stadium and a game between 3-7 UAB and 2-8 Memphis.

(12-22-2012 03:07 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  I agree that Banowsky screwed up big time and the remaining schools should honestly look to fire him. I do not blame his reaction to the defectors - he should be helping member institutions better themselves. However, overreacting to ECU and Tulane's departures and inviting FAU and MTSU will probably prevent UCF, Memphis, and likely ECU's return. Just like Tulane was a fatal error for the Big East, I think the impulse to immediate replace ECU and Tulane will significantly cost the conference millions and the future it could have had.

From the outside looking in, I think that Banowsky has been the worst commish in the last two years. Unlike Benson at the WAC or Sun Belt, he had something to work with. Here's where he screwed up.

1) He expanded by taking too many schools, thus reducing the ability of CUSA to get teams to return if the Big East doesn't work out.

2) He freaked out after Benson invited Georgia State, and then took a bunch of moveups (3 of them, no less) as he was afraid that the Belt was going to take UNCC, ODU, and UTSA. Even if the Belt had done so, it would have solidified the Belts reputation as a moveup conference and would have left CUSA with a better product reputation. Regardless of how those newbie invites turn out, it was a dumb move for CUSA and dramatically weakened the reputation of the conference. You know, if UNCC and UTSA were in the Belt, you could have taken them when you wanted to. And let the Belt take the reputational hit as those schools migrate.

3) Instead of recognizing that the MWC was a competitor of CUSA, and that CUSA had the upper hand last year, he dithered and let the MWC regroup. Now the MWC may be the preferred destination of three of the existing CUSA teams. And part of the angst on the part of the Western CUSA teams was fed in by issue number 2.

4) With every Sun Belt team looking to jump, due to the fact that you have a better TV contract and bowl access, he picked two teams with virtually no fan support, a team that hasn't had a winning Sun Belt record in 7 years, and finally a team that actually has a winning pedigree. There is something worse than basically living in the ESPN bottom ten. Its repeatedly being in the ESPN bottom ten and being lumped in with another school repeatedly (F_U) as if the school doesn't even have its own identity.

5) He didn't think ahead when it came to expansion strategy. If ECU was demanding adding UNCC and ODU, he should have demanded ECU come up with an extra exit fee in case they leave as a condition of taking UNCC and ODU. Now ECU left (as everyone knew they would be) and CUSA is left with two newbie schools near no one else. The Belt learned that lesson the hard way, when we took Denver to provide NMSU with a travel partner and they then left, leaving us with an outlier team.

Banowsky has been played by just about every other conference in the last year or so. I think he even got played by Benson. And unlike the MWC and the Belt (which both had serious problems), the CUSA was operating from a position of relative strength. They are still stronger than at least the Belt as far as money and bowl slots go, but Banowsky isn't helping you guys.

(12-24-2012 11:38 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(12-23-2012 08:07 AM)BkGold Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 04:03 PM)The WEST is the BEST Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

Just proves how much you kids have no knowledge about what has transpired behind the scenes but post off of your emotions.

BB has a great reputation for his leadership of CUSA. He has worked behind the scenes to keep schools on board. When schools are offered a choice of a stronger conference he has little power to sway them to stay. Expansion was driven by the school presidents. If you have an issue with expansion, then blame it on them. BB and the presidents have made solid moves to replace departing schools. FIU and FAU keep CUSA in Florida and strengthen the south Florida market. UNT and UTSA maintain/add strong markets in Texas. MTSU brings in Nashville. The only questionable addition is ODU. And that was done to placate TH and ECU. With ECU departing CUSA in the long run.

I agree with most of what you posted, except for ODU. Watching them play against Ga.Southern they had a good crowd that were excited, more that you can say about UAB, SMU or Tulane.

Is that comment really necessary? Every program outside of the Big conferences is flawed in some way. We are all aware of ours flaws. We don't need our fellow conference mates pointing them out for us.

And BTW there is a big f'ing difference between a playoff game at your stadium and a game between 3-7 UAB and 2-8 Memphis.

You know, I actually was surprised at how USA struggled with attendence as they moved from FCS to FBS. We didn't do that badly (15-16k real butts in the stands - and the early season games were problematic as they had hurricane reschedules and awful weather) but attendence went down as the team started to lose, even though we were playing big boy football. I think ODU may experience the same problems as they likely will experience some losing seasons.

(12-24-2012 11:13 AM)SouthGAEagle Wrote:  I can just imagine the threads on here if C-USA had lost five members and no one had been selected to replace them... "Why is our commissioner asleep on the job?! He's vacationing while the conference is falling apart!!!"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

No way.

90% of posters here are GD geniuses when it comes to running athletic departments and NCAA sports conferences and know the ins and outs of conference realignment and TV deals.

I can point to multiple threads were posters have put together lists of schools that should be in a conference together that make so much sense, you have to wonder why NBE, C-USA and MWC commissioners have never thought of them. Posters here are just adept at running athletic departments better than the ADs themselves (except Terry Holland of course, UNDAUNTED, NBE AT ALL COSTS!!! WOLVERIIIINES!!!(<$2 million a year, $10 million in entrance & exit fees))

Just look at the track record and you can see how most of the posters have accurately predicted every step of the way.

(12-24-2012 11:13 AM)SouthGAEagle Wrote:  I can just imagine the threads on here if C-USA had lost five members and no one had been selected to replace them... "Why is our commissioner asleep on the job?! He's vacationing while the conference is falling apart!!!"

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Although UNT has a long way to go to improve on its $11 million total revenue and less than $1 million in ticket revenue, the Mean Green, La Tech, and MTSU were solid additions based on their history and potential after getting the move-up call.

The rest of the additions are a little mystifying based on the lack of success or history of sustainability in FBS football. I'm sure that he and the conference presidents felt the need to reload back to enough members to qualify for a FB championship game. I'm not sure how much any of the non-big conferences make of the championship game, but every conference seems to think that the game is worth expanding into some uncharted territory.

Even though I've defended BB pretty significantly in the past, Tom in Lazybrook makes some compelling points.

(12-24-2012 11:38 AM)blazers9911 Wrote:  

(12-23-2012 08:07 AM)BkGold Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 04:03 PM)The WEST is the BEST Wrote:  

(12-22-2012 02:58 PM)eagle215 Wrote:  MWC had the balls to tell remaining MWest schools to stay and that it will work out for them if they did stay put. Guess what, it is working out for the MWest schools that stayed put. What did the CUSA Commish do? NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING. He actually gave the departing schools his blessing. This is why CUSA will and forever be a failing prospect. Even the higher ups don't believe in making CUSA a better league. They are ok with it being a stepping stone for it's members. Does the MWC Commish operate this way? Hell no!!!

Just proves how much you kids have no knowledge about what has transpired behind the scenes but post off of your emotions.

BB has a great reputation for his leadership of CUSA. He has worked behind the scenes to keep schools on board. When schools are offered a choice of a stronger conference he has little power to sway them to stay. Expansion was driven by the school presidents. If you have an issue with expansion, then blame it on them. BB and the presidents have made solid moves to replace departing schools. FIU and FAU keep CUSA in Florida and strengthen the south Florida market. UNT and UTSA maintain/add strong markets in Texas. MTSU brings in Nashville. The only questionable addition is ODU. And that was done to placate TH and ECU. With ECU departing CUSA in the long run.

I agree with most of what you posted, except for ODU. Watching them play against Ga.Southern they had a good crowd that were excited, more that you can say about UAB, SMU or Tulane.

Is that comment really necessary? Every program outside of the Big conferences is flawed in some way. We are all aware of ours flaws. We don't need our fellow conference mates pointing them out for us.

And BTW there is a big f'ing difference between a playoff game at your stadium and a game between 3-7 UAB and 2-8 Memphis.

Everyone has to get their shots in while they can.

We've all got work to do in some areas or we'd be in the ACC, SEC, etc. Not sure why some have to consistently throw grenades at their neighbors.