We will all be complaining when we get regulated to Flo Sports for most of our games. Unless we get Liberty to pony up for ESPN and continue to get games on ESPN ++....

(02-14-2022 12:12 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 10:13 AM)GEAUX UL Wrote:  

(02-12-2022 12:14 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  BALONEY!!!

-- loyal member for 32 years (1982-2014)

-- gave full notice

-- paid required exit fee in full

-- was denied bowl game despite a better overall record than the team conf. chose (Ark. St.) to be in said bowl; WKU (8-4), Ark. St.7-5-- WKU also defeated Ark. St. in their last conference game

-- left to go to a conf. with more bowls, much higher media dollars, and rival 100 miles away along with much better FB and BB rankings-- ANY other SBC team at the time would have taken the invite

Just to be clear back then the Sun Belt didn't have any power to choose who went to bowl games. That was the choice of the bowls themselves. We got screwed a couple times because of this too.

In this case that is not what happened because I was with in 5 ft of the Go Daddy rep when he congratulated Western on the win over Ark St and offered the bowl game to Western. Everyone knew the winner of Western vs Ark St was going bowling...

then Ark St threaten to sue and things changed over the next two days. That is 100% what took place and heard it with my own ears from the Go Daddy Rep. While the treat to sue I did not hear with my own ears I got every detail of what took place from Western accepting the bowl game offer to not getting it from Western's President . So as close to first hand as you can get.

As for this thread I'm fine playing in this version of CUSA and a lot of other Western's fans are also. The loud mouths aren't but thats OK they are rarely happy or OK about, anything. They just COMPLAIN and always blame others.

would have took two years before they were blaming the MAC if Western had been invited. Would have also been another awful decision by this Western AD

Fair enough, but I still don't understand where the Sun Belt factors into your story. If you're saying the GoDaddy bowl offered you the bowl game, and then later gave it to A-State after they threatened to sue, isn't that still the GoDaddy Bowl choosing who they want to invite?

Also just curious, but on what grounds did A-State threaten to sue?

(02-14-2022 10:37 AM)FrankyP Wrote:  

(02-13-2022 06:15 PM)Retroview1955 Wrote:  

(02-11-2022 11:54 PM)SouthernMiss3613 Wrote:  

(02-11-2022 11:10 PM)Soaring Eagle Wrote:  

(02-11-2022 11:05 PM)SouthernMiss3613 Wrote:  Who is first?

Seems like it is UL

I was guessing James Madison, but I am too lazy to look it up.

South Alabama is the highest at $560 million. JMU doesn't even come close!
ODU's endowment could go up substantially if all the stuff they are doing with Sentara and EVMS medical school and whether they combine or establish Old Dominion medical center or whatever the end result is.
There's more to it than football that made ODU an attractive pick for the Sunbelt.
They wanna be able to attract higher quality students as well so better athletes in sports.

Sorry, but according to this it seems that while USA’s is indeed impressive, it’s actually $387 million, not $560. JMU is at $116 million.

https://www.nacubo.org/-/media/Documents...-2021.ashx

Also, UL is not listed on that site, we have ~$250 million.

USA actually has two endowment funds. One is controlled by the University and the second is controlled by a Board that has the University President on the Board but is not controlled by the University. This (USA Foundation) had $436 mio net assets at Sept. 30,2021.

(02-14-2022 02:30 PM)GEAUX UL Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 12:12 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 10:13 AM)GEAUX UL Wrote:  

(02-12-2022 12:14 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  BALONEY!!!

-- loyal member for 32 years (1982-2014)

-- gave full notice

-- paid required exit fee in full

-- was denied bowl game despite a better overall record than the team conf. chose (Ark. St.) to be in said bowl; WKU (8-4), Ark. St.7-5-- WKU also defeated Ark. St. in their last conference game

-- left to go to a conf. with more bowls, much higher media dollars, and rival 100 miles away along with much better FB and BB rankings-- ANY other SBC team at the time would have taken the invite

Just to be clear back then the Sun Belt didn't have any power to choose who went to bowl games. That was the choice of the bowls themselves. We got screwed a couple times because of this too.

In this case that is not what happened because I was with in 5 ft of the Go Daddy rep when he congratulated Western on the win over Ark St and offered the bowl game to Western. Everyone knew the winner of Western vs Ark St was going bowling...

then Ark St threaten to sue and things changed over the next two days. That is 100% what took place and heard it with my own ears from the Go Daddy Rep. While the treat to sue I did not hear with my own ears I got every detail of what took place from Western accepting the bowl game offer to not getting it from Western's President . So as close to first hand as you can get.

As for this thread I'm fine playing in this version of CUSA and a lot of other Western's fans are also. The loud mouths aren't but thats OK they are rarely happy or OK about, anything. They just COMPLAIN and always blame others.

would have took two years before they were blaming the MAC if Western had been invited. Would have also been another awful decision by this Western AD

Fair enough, but I still don't understand where the Sun Belt factors into your story. If you're saying the GoDaddy bowl offered you the bowl game, and then later gave it to A-State after they threatened to sue, isn't that still the GoDaddy Bowl choosing who they want to invite?

Also just curious, but on what grounds did A-State threaten to sue?

The only thing I was pissed at with the SBC (I still understood the why), they caved and did not back Western when Ark St threated to sue. Other words nothing because the SBC commissioner was OK with Western taking the SBC 2nd bowl bid even with Western leaving. But that changed when Ark St threaten to sue

Ark St threat to sue on the grounds they finished 2nd in the conference. Even if Western had a better record and won head to head and better OOC wins (UK and Navy) and the Go daddy wanted Western...2nd place SBC team should get the bid.

(02-14-2022 12:12 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 10:13 AM)GEAUX UL Wrote:  

(02-12-2022 12:14 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  BALONEY!!!

-- loyal member for 32 years (1982-2014)

-- gave full notice

-- paid required exit fee in full

-- was denied bowl game despite a better overall record than the team conf. chose (Ark. St.) to be in said bowl; WKU (8-4), Ark. St.7-5-- WKU also defeated Ark. St. in their last conference game

-- left to go to a conf. with more bowls, much higher media dollars, and rival 100 miles away along with much better FB and BB rankings-- ANY other SBC team at the time would have taken the invite

Just to be clear back then the Sun Belt didn't have any power to choose who went to bowl games. That was the choice of the bowls themselves. We got screwed a couple times because of this too.

In this case that is not what happened because I was with in 5 ft of the Go Daddy rep when he congratulated Western on the win over Ark St and offered the bowl game to Western. Everyone knew the winner of Western vs Ark St was going bowling...

then Ark St threaten to sue and things changed over the next two days. That is 100% what took place and heard it with my own ears from the Go Daddy Rep. While the treat to sue I did not hear with my own ears I got every detail of what took place from Western accepting the bowl game offer to not getting it from Western's President . So as close to first hand as you can get.

As for this thread I'm fine playing in this version of CUSA and a lot of other Western's fans are also. The loud mouths aren't but thats OK they are rarely happy or OK about, anything. They just COMPLAIN and always blame others.

would have took two years before they were blaming the MAC if Western had been invited. Would have also been another awful decision by this Western AD

Why didn't WKU sue? You were formally offered the bowl and accepted it. Sounds like grounds to me.

I would have loved to have been in the Sun Belt, but I don't think the new CUSA is a total disaster. I like the idea of being in a smaller conference and this will be a solid basketball conference.

The MAC is okay, and if we end up there then I'm good with that. But I prefer a southern based conference.

(02-15-2022 08:37 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  I would have loved to have been in the Sun Belt, but I don't think the new CUSA is a total disaster. I like the idea of being in a smaller conference and this will be a solid basketball conference.

The MAC is okay, and if we end up there then I'm good with that. But I prefer a southern based conference.

We spent 32 years in the SBC and I have no desire to go back there with the abysmal bball. I'm also good that we are no longer in a conference with 14 members. Splitting up the smaller G5 revenue pie 14 ways isn't good.

(02-15-2022 01:54 PM)Luckyshot Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 12:12 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(02-14-2022 10:13 AM)GEAUX UL Wrote:  

(02-12-2022 12:14 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  BALONEY!!!

-- loyal member for 32 years (1982-2014)

-- gave full notice

-- paid required exit fee in full

-- was denied bowl game despite a better overall record than the team conf. chose (Ark. St.) to be in said bowl; WKU (8-4), Ark. St.7-5-- WKU also defeated Ark. St. in their last conference game

-- left to go to a conf. with more bowls, much higher media dollars, and rival 100 miles away along with much better FB and BB rankings-- ANY other SBC team at the time would have taken the invite

Just to be clear back then the Sun Belt didn't have any power to choose who went to bowl games. That was the choice of the bowls themselves. We got screwed a couple times because of this too.

In this case that is not what happened because I was with in 5 ft of the Go Daddy rep when he congratulated Western on the win over Ark St and offered the bowl game to Western. Everyone knew the winner of Western vs Ark St was going bowling...

then Ark St threaten to sue and things changed over the next two days. That is 100% what took place and heard it with my own ears from the Go Daddy Rep. While the treat to sue I did not hear with my own ears I got every detail of what took place from Western accepting the bowl game offer to not getting it from Western's President . So as close to first hand as you can get.

As for this thread I'm fine playing in this version of CUSA and a lot of other Western's fans are also. The loud mouths aren't but thats OK they are rarely happy or OK about, anything. They just COMPLAIN and always blame others.

would have took two years before they were blaming the MAC if Western had been invited. Would have also been another awful decision by this Western AD

Why didn't WKU sue? You were formally offered the bowl and accepted it. Sounds like grounds to me.

Because the rules of the conference required the 2nd place team in the Sun Belt to be placed in a bowl before any of the other teams could be placed. Ark State even though they lost to WKU still finished with a better conference record and ended up in 2nd place and the conference bylaws required them to be placed before any one else.

I'm guessing the Mobile Bowl rep didn't know or wasn't familiar with the bylaws and made an offer that he wasn't actually able to follow through on.

Well, WKU ended up announcing a schedule that was as fictional as the OP's subject line announcement...

(02-15-2022 08:37 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  I would have loved to have been in the Sun Belt, but I don't think the new CUSA is a total disaster. I like the idea of being in a smaller conference and this will be a solid basketball conference.

The MAC is okay, and if we end up there then I'm good with that. But I prefer a southern based conference.

A lot of WKU fans thinks its a disaster. You will also probably have a different opinion once we see what media deal we are getting. Pitchforks will be out soon just as it was when Todd had to make a statement to calm WKU fans down. Even our AD wants out ASAP.

(02-12-2022 12:14 AM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  WKU left to go to a conf. with more bowls, much higher media dollars, and rival 100 miles away along with much better FB and BB rankings-- ANY other SBC team at the time would have taken the invite

I certainly would have liked to have seen Troy in CUSA when it looked like this:

East Carolina
Marshall
Southern Miss
Rice
Tulane
Tulsa
UAB
UTEP
La Tech
UTSA
North Texas

But CUSA wound up adding FIU... which was strange.... and then UNC-Charlotte which had just started football, wasn't even winning, and had awful attendance... and that was strange.

And then Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa bolted... and next thing you know, CUSA is just a weird, geographically unfriendly version of the Sun Belt. It became unattractive pretty quickly.

The fact the Sun Belt was able to hang on to their best football programs, and add App State, Georgia Southern, and Coastal on top of that created a new beast. After that point, no Sun Belt school had any desire to move to CUSA... and now we're here, where the script has flipped, and the Sun Belt has actually taken from CUSA.

I can't help but believe that if CUSA had taken the more established programs (Arkansas State, Troy, WKU, MTSU, La Tech, App State, Georgia Southern, Louisiana), that would have kept the geography complaints down, kept revenue up, and it would've kept schools happy. If we're being honest, this past CUSA/SBC realignment would not have occurred if CUSA looked that way. The divisions would have been very centralized, with many traditional rivalries. Would not have been a league that leaned overly toward Texas.

As we all know, CUSA instead chose a markets route, and it was one of the worst realignment moves ever.

But again, I hated to see WKU leave... they were the biggest loss for the SBC. I'm sure their admin left on good terms. Most of their fans here did. I respect WKU and what they did in the SBC.