Conference USA bowl games extended

[orangeandbrown]

http://conferenceusa.collegesports.com/ ... 05aad.html

Conference USA Commissioner Britton Banowsky announced today that the conference has future commitments with all five of its current bowl partners, the AutoZone Liberty Bowl, GMAC Bowl, Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, Wyndham New Orleans Bowl and the Fort Worth Bowl, beginning in 2006.

[04forheisman]

5 bowls that is why it is better to be in conference USA than the MAC. BG could make a bowl game every year. Toledo-BG-Miami would be great additions to CONF USA.

[professorjackson]

Doesn't the conference use part of its fees to basically bribe these bowls -- so they payout to the teams is just conference money coming back? I heard something like that and wonder if anyone knows more than me. well, that is virtually certain, but I mean on this topic...

[Germainfitch1]

I wouldn't be so sure on the it being better to be in conference USA thing. I thought so but after I actually looked into it that conferecne is in one way better than ours. Conference tie ins to the bowls.

[1987alum]

Doesn't the conference use part of its fees to basically bribe these bowls -- so they payout to the teams is just conference money coming back? I heard something like that and wonder if anyone knows more than me. well, that is virtually certain, but I mean on this topic...

I don't know if bribe is the correct word, but IIRC C-DOA does some sort of Enron-type work on the financials to make it more attractive for the bowls to take its teams.

That being said, the fact that only one D-IA conference has fewer bowl tie-ins than the MAC speaks volumes about where we are in the pecking order.

As for joining C-DOA, the bowl tie-ins are nice, but let's keep the big picture in perspective. Remember the final haiku on GoodbyeHerd?

Ding! You are now free
To fly your volleyball team
Across the country.

Imagine our athletic department's travel budget if we added baseball road trips to SMU, volleyball road trips to Houston, cross-country meets in Southern Mississippi and swim meets in El Paso. I can't imagine making that ROI scenario work.

[Schadenfreude]

5 bowls that is why it is better to be in conference USA than the MAC. BG could make a bowl game every year.

The thought of flying our cross country team to meets at Southern Methodist, Alabama-Birmingham and Texas-El Paso makes me all tingly inside.

[Rightupinthere]

Schad, if I remember correctly, we had a discussion on the MAC bulletin board regarding how monies from TV and bowl games were not just a wash, but a loss when considering the new travel expenses for a school entering CUSA.

I couldn't find the info or even when we had the discussion. You made some awesome point and I would love to see some of what you stated posted here.

[1987alum]

Schad, if I remember correctly, we had a discussion on the MAC bulletin board regarding how monies from TV and bowl games were not just a wash, but a loss when considering the new travel expenses for a school entering CUSA.

I couldn't find the info or even when we had the discussion. You made some awesome point and I would love to see some of what you stated posted here.

Who needs to make a point when just stating that something makes you feel all tingly inside pretty much says it all!

[Schadenfreude]

Schad, if I remember correctly, we had a discussion on the MAC bulletin board regarding how monies from TV and bowl games were not just a wash, but a loss when considering the new travel expenses for a school entering CUSA.

I couldn't find the info or even when we had the discussion. You made some awesome point and I would love to see some of what you stated posted here.

If I remember right, based on what Marshall was saying publicly and considering:

1. Conference USA's more generous revenue sharing plan, which is based largely on NCAA basketball tournament units and television revenue.

2. The additional expense of flying non revenue sports around Conference USA locales such as Houston, Dallas, Hattiesburg, Miss., Orlando, etc.

... that Marshall was only going to clear maybe $100,000 in additional revenue each year by joining Conference USA.

This revenue figure does not account for the $3 million expansion fee, paid by a booster whose name now apears on Marshall's football stadium.

In other words, it appeared to me that Marshall would need 20 or 30 years to account for that expansion fee (if they would have had to pay for it) before they would actually making money off the move.

The footnotes: There were some questions on both sides of the ledger that were tough to answer:

1. Did Marshall's scenarios take into account the additional revenue Marshall was assuming through better home attendance? (Still not sure).
2. Did they deal with the fact that NCAA tournament revenue is going to start dropping with the departure of virtually every good basketball program? (Still not sure).
3. Did they accurately project television revenue because of renegotiations for a TV deal (this question has been answered. They did. CSTV is paying them a whole lot of money).

So in considering whether Conference USA would be a good move for us, here's what it comes down to for me:

Is an additional $100,000 per year in revenue (less any expansion fee) and more bowl possibilities worth having to try to find our "national" TV games on Can't See TV (if they aren't preempted by a debating contest, and assuming that network stays in business) and having to watch our teams play a Conference USA schedule and throw away 50-plus years of tradition in the MAC?

For me, it isn't even close. Hell no.

Conference USA is fine to visit -- I'd like to see more nonconference games -- but I wouldn't want to live there.

My belief is that Bowling Green needs to be in the same league as Miami and Toledo. That's best for us.

It is my hope that the Bowling Green, Toledo and Miami -- along with Ohio and Northern Illinois, at a minimum -- have an understanding that we will try to stick together if realignment again gets crazy in the years ahead.

[1987alum]

Schade:

That post made me all tingly inside.

OK, I'm done.

Seriously, good post and spot on. You've described BG's smartest strategy perfectly.

[Rightupinthere]

Schad, if I remember correctly, we had a discussion on the MAC bulletin board regarding how monies from TV and bowl games were not just a wash, but a loss when considering the new travel expenses for a school entering CUSA.

I couldn't find the info or even when we had the discussion. You made some awesome point and I would love to see some of what you stated posted here.

If I remember right, based on what Marshall was saying publicly and considering:

1. Conference USA's more generous revenue sharing plan, which is based largely on NCAA basketball tournament units and television revenue.

2. The additional expense of flying non revenue sports around Conference USA locales such as Houston, Dallas, Hattiesburg, Miss., Orlando, etc.

... that Marshall was only going to clear maybe $100,000 in additional revenue each year by joining Conference USA.

This revenue figure does not account for the $3 million expansion fee, paid by a booster whose name now apears on Marshall's football stadium.

In other words, it appeared to me that Marshall would need 20 or 30 years to account for that expansion fee (if they would have had to pay for it) before they would actually making money off the move.

The footnotes: There were some questions on both sides of the ledger that were tough to answer:

1. Did Marshall's scenarios take into account the additional revenue Marshall was assuming through better home attendance? (Still not sure).
2. Did they deal with the fact that NCAA tournament revenue is going to start dropping with the departure of virtually every good basketball program? (Still not sure).
3. Did they accurately project television revenue because of renegotiations for a TV deal (this question has been answered. They did. CSTV is paying them a whole lot of money).

So in considering whether Conference USA would be a good move for us, here's what it comes down to for me:

Is an additional $100,000 per year in revenue (less any expansion fee) and more bowl possibilities worth having to try to find our "national" TV games on Can't See TV (if they aren't preempted by a debating contest, and assuming that network stays in business) and having to watch our teams play a Conference USA schedule and throw away 50-plus years of tradition in the MAC?

For me, it isn't even close. Hell no.

Conference USA is fine to visit -- I'd like to see more nonconference games -- but I wouldn't want to live there.

My belief is that Bowling Green needs to be in the same league as Miami and Toledo. That's best for us.

It is my hope that the Bowling Green, Toledo and Miami -- along with Ohio and Northern Illinois, at a minimum -- have an understanding that we will try to stick together if realignment again gets crazy in the years ahead.

Thank you, brother. Perfectly stated as always.

[NWLB]

The five CUSA bowl bids are also not all they are promoted as.

Each bowl bid typically places the CUSA team at a disadvantage to their opponent. The MAC on the other hand is either on an equal footing or holds an advantage to the teams we are matched against. This is in part because in the case of the Motor City Bowl, and the eventual Toronto Bowl, the MAC was the first conference considered, and the “brand name” leagues are sending their mid-level teams against us. The GMAC bowl has the same virtue of giving the MAC a stronger footing than most CUSA teams do each year. The clear evidence of this lies in the horrible bowl record CUSA has.

We need to remember the MAC is still improving and working towards something it hasn’t achieved yet. We have gotten a bit giddy in recent years with success against OOC teams and a few bowls. However the recent OOC slide and mixed bowl results last year indicate that the world knows the MAC is coming.

Thankfully sensible minds still run the MAC and most of its member schools. I’ll take the MAC and its bowls, present and future, over having our teams sent to play the sacrificial goat for other conferences. I would rather make the argument that what we have is worthy of the worlds respect and appreciation, than to pine for greener pastures in some other conference. That’s why I go to the games, wear the shirts, and take pride in the MAC and BGSU.