TBH, I'm excited about the potential of this CUSA basketball conference.
With the transfer portal and new NIL rules, I think CUSA is well-positioned to take good advantage of the basketball pedigree that will be in the conference in 2023.
There wont be as many bottom feeders as well.

Where do some of you see the conference ranking in basketball after realignment?

IMO, CUSA will rank anywhere from 10-12 as the conference gells.

This should be good for the CUSA brand, which started as primarily a basketball conference. I hope Judy and Co. references some of the history in the basketball branding.

Using the latest KenPom rankings. AAC would be #8, CUSA #12 and SB #15.

If MT and FIU get going it could go to#10.


But-- who cares? FB is god to the media deals and conf. shifts. Might as well be golf.

(11-11-2021 01:28 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  If MT and FIU get going it could go to#10.


But-- who cares? FB is god to the media deals and conf. shifts. Might as well be golf.

The basketball credits would be huge for the conference that is why it's a big deal. Getting two teams and being able to get at least $725,000 a year over a six year period is huge.

I understand totally about the BB credits but have read that it is getting ready to be changed drastically. Also if you divide that between 10-12 schools it is a very small part of the annual budget for each school.

There are proposals to take a large part of those credits and put them toward gender equity. Also to possibly divide out all credits between all D1 schools equally.

(11-11-2021 01:06 PM)TroyTBoy Wrote:  TBH, I'm excited about the potential of this CUSA basketball conference.
With the transfer portal and new NIL rules, I think CUSA is well-positioned to take good advantage of the basketball pedigree that will be in the conference in 2023.
There wont be as many bottom feeders as well.

Where do some of you see the conference ranking in basketball after realignment?

IMO, CUSA will rank anywhere from 10-12 as the conference gells.

This should be good for the CUSA brand, which started as primarily a basketball conference. I hope Judy and Co. references some of the history in the basketball branding.

Not until Middle Tennessee fires McDevitt and hires a bona fide Division 1 college basketball coach.

Don't know much about the prospects for better basketball at FIU but Middle Tennessee will get back to normal and improve the conference NET ranking a lot. One team jumping 100 or more places can move the conference up a few spots, because the differences are slight.

I don't see any reason this conference won't at least contend for a 2nd bid some years and possibly have a couple of teams on the bubble and getting some attention. Assuming there are no defections, after a few seasons, all teams will benefit in recruiting and we'll start producing teams that are just hard to ignore come bid team.