Conference USA

[1987alum]

I'm assuming Transfer meant your board designation.

Yeah, That's what I meant to say ...your board designation

Thanks for bailing me out on that one '87!

What are friends for?

[Schadenfreude]

We may not like to admit it but how many times have we sat at home when we should have been in a tournament or at a bowl. Would we have been if we were in CUSA? Thats the past, but thats the recent tradition that is very pertinent to this discussion.

Conference USA is about to become a one-bid league.

Your point is valid on bowl games -- but they do have an advantage of geography, an advantage no MAC school will ever possess. Joining Conference USA may not help, because those bowls may turn up their nose at the northern schools just as bowl games tend to do already.

I don't feel that the MAC will ever gain the notierity we deserve if we are seen as Ohio conference plus 6.

This is why expansion discussions are important. Western Kentucky and Temple -- yes, Temple -- can help.

Now if we cut the fat off the MAC and re-invent ourself in a new conference I think that notiriety would come.

I wouldn't mind cutting a bit of fat. But it is not politically realistic.

I lvoe the idea of creating an Alliance with NIllinois, Miami, Toledo and BG and moving on.

Problem is, this talk gets very dangerous. Of those four, we are the bubble team. The distinction between Bowling Green and say Western Michigan or Ohio or even Buffalo in terms of value to another conference is very, very fine.

CUSa is definately on the way down and the MAC is on the way up. But the progressive actions by CUSA leave me to beleive that the higher ups in Conference USA will never allow the conference to fall below MAC status.

This statement is why I posted.

Conference USA may be SOL when the Big East comes a-raidin'. If we hang together, their best options are all second choices: North Texas, Louisiana Tech or some random set of schools from the Sun Belt.

That is certainly a much more polar analogy than the MAC and CUSA, but i dont think they are that close that the MAC will ever catch it.

We already have, for the most part. They get more TV money (for now) and more bowl games (for now) -- but that aside, the conferences are about even -- and people, including network executives, will catch on quickly.

If they lose Memphis and we add Western Kentucky, we will pass them in basketball.