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Conference USA on the verge of collapse?

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Guest #1Stunner

http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/it-s-inevitable-conference-usa-as-we-know-it-is/article_19e86f15-f21e-53f4-8868-505de84abcf2.html

FROM THE ARTICLE:

There are big changes coming to Conference USA and most of the rest of the Group of Five, as the mid-major Football Bowl Subdivision leagues are known, that many league officials are understandably hesitant to embrace.

But like it or not, more change is coming. When your expenses are rising and revenue is falling, simple economics demand that you become leaner and more efficient. And that’s the situation facing C-USA.

“Conference USA’s current financial model is unsustainable,” said an athletic director who asked not to be named.

I’m not picking on C-USA, which is a pretty good football league. The problem here isn’t on-the-field performance. It’s the bottom line.

C-USA’s TV revenue cratered from $1.1 million per school in 2015-16 to $200,000 this year. Costs have also risen, in part because the NCAA adopted new policies such as paying stipends to athletes for costs not covered in scholarships. Paying the so-called full cost of attendance has cost ODU $600,000 this year.

The elite Power 5 conferences, including the ACC and SEC, continue to be fat and happy. The ACC shared $26.2 million per school in TV and other revenue last season, and thus can afford the travel costs that come from a footprint extending from Miami to Syracuse.

The far-flung C-USA is another matter. The league’s 14 schools are scattered from the Texas-New Mexico border to the Atlantic Ocean, and the league has far fewer resources. Old Dominion received $3.4 million in TV, NCAA and C-USA revenue in 2015-16, and that number likely will drop by $1 million in the current fiscal year.

Anything that would help our student-athletes and is more responsive to budgetary concerns deserves a look,” he said.

...

I love Texas and enjoyed the football team’s four trips to the Lone Star state the last three seasons. But it’s ludicrous for mid-major schools from Virginia and Texas to play in the same league.

...

ODU spent $3.7 million on travel, nearly 10 percent of its $44 million athletic budget, in 2015-2016. Three years earlier, in ODU’s last season in the Colonial Athletic Association, travel cost $2.2 million.

 

 

(More in the full article.  They are basically try to see if the can make more compact, regional conferences, or divisions, to save money.....)

 

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Guest #1Stunner
11 minutes ago, fanhood said:

"Collapse" is a dramatic word.

They said their league is "unsustainable".

They are basically talking about breaking up their league into smaller, more regional conferences.   Or alternatively, combining conferences, to make pseudo "small conferences", by playing in regional divisions in a large conference.

This would save them a lot of money on travel.  

Basically says there is no reason for a G5 conference, with much less money, to have teams in Texas and teams in Virginia.  That model of covering a huge area only makes sense in leagues like the ACC, B1G, or SEC, which have a lot more money.  

It's interesting, though because the American and MWC has that spread out geography.

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This idea of creating football only conferences has been percolating for awhile..I would suspect the presidents of the MW have heard proposals like that.  This would allow MW members to group up in regional conferences for their OLY sports..I don't think they would do it but it is not as far fetched as it seems..

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Guest #1Stunner
9 minutes ago, FormerFrog said:

The MWC should annex Texas from CUSA. It would give the MWC much needed population and viewership at more appropriate times to watch football. It would also make the CUSA a more manageable 10 team conference.

The article says what you are saying (G5 expansion) is a mistake.  Contraction into smaller regional conferences, not expansion, is what they are talking about.  Even the Big12 avoided expansion because of geographic proximity.

If the MWC contracted into smaller leagues, with easier travel, it'd look something like this.

 

PACIFIC COAST CONFERENCE (would lose the front range for a focus on CA, ID, NV, and UT)

1--UNLV

2--NEVADA

3--SDSU

4--HAWAII

5--SJSU

6--FRESNO

7--BOISE

8--USU

9--?

 

MOUNTAIN SOUTHWEST CONFERENCE (Texas , NM and Colorado/WY focused)

1--WYOMING

2--CSU

3--AFA

4--UNM

5--NMSU

6--UTEP

7--TEXAS ST

8--UTSA

9--RICE

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Guest #1Stunner
5 minutes ago, nvspuds said:

This idea of creating football only conferences has been percolating for awhile..I would suspect the presidents of the MW have heard proposals like that.  This would allow MW members to group up in regional conferences for their OLY sports..I don't think they would do it but it is not as far fetched as it seems..

That's also a very interesting idea.  Something like the Missouri Valley Football Conference.  And then smaller, much more regional conferences for basketball and everything else.

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8 minutes ago, FormerFrog said:

The MWC should annex Texas from CUSA. It would give the MWC much needed population and viewership at more appropriate times to watch football. It would also make the CUSA a more manageable 10 team conference.

So your troll ass just didn't read how having a spread out conference causes schools to spend a lot of money in travel? 

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Guest #1Stunner
4 minutes ago, Wyobraska said:

So your troll ass just didn't read how having a spread out conference causes schools to spend a lot of money in travel? 

For some reason he wants to save CUSA at the expense of the MWC.  He's arguing for the MWC to expand with 4 CUSA schools, so that a new, lean 10-team CUSA can emerge?   Doubtful.

But I think the article is right.  Not sure what will happen, but G5 conferences work better when they are smaller, and more geographically compact.  It's all because of money.

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37 minutes ago, FormerFrog said:

The MWC should annex Texas from CUSA. It would give the MWC much needed population and viewership at more appropriate times to watch football. It would also make the CUSA a more manageable 10 team conference.

Texas breeds sissies and the frail.  No need for that.

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1 minute ago, wolfpack1 said:

I saw an article the other day about how the future will be merging of conferences and then realignment of those conferences and people should be accepting of that fact because that is what is coming soon

There has been enough shakeup to the historical structure and rivalries of college sports that I wish they would do a huge realignment of D1 conferences based on geography and trying to keep most of the old rivalries.  I  also wish that all TV money went into a giant pot so each conference didn't have it's own deal and then it was spread out equally to all schools.  I know both are pipe dreams but it would be nice.  Go back to 10 team conferences so you played everyone in football and everyone twice basketball.  They would also need to institute a hard ban on teams moving up and set true minimum requirements for teams to stay D1.  

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CUSA went from a TV deal of 1.1 million per team, per year, with programs like Memphis basketball and Houston football...to a TV deal that pays under 250k per team, per year...I just don't see the attraction for the Sun Belt schools anymore.

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All of these mid major programs betting on increasing funds from future TV deals will fall by the wayside.  They simply can not compete financially.  The P5 conferences are splitting college football with out facing a law suit ( smart ).  The MW will lose some members that can not compete here financially, but we will be stronger for it.  It is coming, and there is nothing we can do about it.  

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If I were CUSA, I would break apart. The conferences would look like this.

Southwest Conference

UAB

La Tech

Southern Mississippi 

UTSA

Rice

North Texas

UTEP

(New Mexico State)

(UT Arlington) - Basketball and other sports

(UT Rio Grande) - Basketball and other sports

East Coast Conference

Western Kentucky

Old Dominion

Middle Tennessee 

Florida International

Florida Atlantic

Charlotte

Marshall

(UMASS)

(Liberty)

 

The conferences are more regionally aligned, and they can still play championship games.

As far as the MW is concerned, I would support dropping Hawaii and SJSU. Hawaii will be able to succeed as an Independent, as they can play the teams from the P5, Mountain West, and the new Southwest Conference. SJSU would be able to drop football and move back to the Big West. This way, the Mountain West could realign into two five team divisions for football (shift Boise State and New Mexico to the West), and could go back to a sixteen game basketball schedule that is a true round robin where each team gets a Home and Home.

 

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"All of these mid major programs betting on increasing funds from future TV deals will fall by the wayside. "

I do not agree. If I'm ESPN I would rather give the MAC, AAC, and MWC small bumps in pay to air their cheap inventory on ESPN2/U/News as they still draw viewers...I would start cutting back on these obnoxious P5 TV deals...that's where you can save your money.

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20 minutes ago, Wyobraska said:

There has been enough shakeup to the historical structure and rivalries of college sports that I wish they would do a huge realignment of D1 conferences based on geography and trying to keep most of the old rivalries.  I  also wish that all TV money went into a giant pot so each conference didn't have it's own deal and then it was spread out equally to all schools.  I know both are pipe dreams but it would be nice.  Go back to 10 team conferences so you played everyone in football and everyone twice basketball.  They would also need to institute a hard ban on teams moving up and set true minimum requirements for teams to stay D1.  

Commie.

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2 minutes ago, fanhood said:

As far as the MW is concerned, I would support dropping Hawaii and SJSU. Hawaii will be able to succeed as an Independent, as they can play the teams from the P5, Mountain West, and the new Southwest Conference. SJSU would be able to drop football and move back to the Big West. This way, the Mountain West could realign into two five team divisions for football (shift Boise State and New Mexico to the West), and could go back to a sixteen game basketball schedule that is a true round robin where each team gets a Home and Home.

 

I believe we will see more than two teams give up on the dream.

 

1 minute ago, UofMTigers said:

"All of these mid major programs betting on increasing funds from future TV deals will fall by the wayside. "

I do not agree. If I'm ESPN I would rather give the MAC, AAC, and MWC small bumps in pay to air their cheap inventory on ESPN2/U/News as they still draw viewers...I would start cutting back on these obnoxious P5 TV deals...that's where you can save your money.

Yes, I would like it too.  But its not what we are hearing or seeing.  Reality is we will get pinched. 

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1 minute ago, slappy said:

Yes, I would like it too.  But its not what we are hearing or seeing.  Reality is we will get pinched. 

but didn't the MAC just get a bump in pay from ESPN?

I know CUSA was reduced, but that was expected as all of their money making programs left for the AAC.

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34 minutes ago, UofMTigers said:

CUSA went from a TV deal of 1.1 million per team, per year, with programs like Memphis basketball and Houston football...to a TV deal that pays under 250k per team, per year...I just don't see the attraction for the Sun Belt schools anymore.

TV Coverage.......Sun Belt doesn't get that much. They get a lot on ESPN 3 and such but other than games against big schools you very rarely see Sun Belt games on TV anywhere. Meanwhile for C-USA you see them on TV quite often. That in itself is probably enough for a team to make the jump from Sun Belt if someone came calling.

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