CUSA Statement on SBC 3 leaving early

(Unless you want to pay your full exit fee)

Sooner the better for the conference. None of those 3 would excite me as a conference mate. AAC is taking the more desirable members and SBC is taking what App wanted, closer members and one bone to the west USM.

CUSA still hasn't released their schedules so they aren't confident in anything.

Dont believe any going to the SBC are much of a threat to win any championships, maybe USM in baseball.

Appears the SBC may have to wait for the 3. Just a few days ago the SBC folks and leaving 3 said CUSA had no say in the matter, now they are delaying the announcement. Sure more nego going on and hopefully they can exit this year. JMU appears to be going to the SBC this year.

The leaving 3 and SBC folks are still trying hard to sell their new lineup as being something great. While they will be close together the quality will not be going up unless JMU is a huge success. CUSA, if they leave, will be tougher next year with very few gimme games.


Also, anyone have any insight on the rumor of TUNA, EKU and NDSU turning down CUSA? Reasonable to believe NDSU would turn down CUSA but EKU and TUNA. No way EKU would if they are truly desiring FBS. And why was Kennesaw or UTC not invited? No west teams?, would make one believe if true UTEP and NMSU are leaving ASAP and CUSA will be more eastern in the future.

Addressing the rumor: I'm with Slim... I'd believe CUSA *spoke* to them all. But I don't for a second believe an invitation was given, and I especially don't believe any of them turned it down, except, maybe, NDSU. (And their reasons, if so, would've centered around their remoteness in the frigid north.)

Even more especially, I don't think UNA was invited over several other candidate schools. KSU? UTC? NCAT? There's a reason why the Lions hardly ever come up in discussions about the next CUSA expansion.

There are a surprising number of UNA fans who claim they'd prefer the Belt to CUSA. I mean, it makes sense for JSU fans to feel that way -- we're right on the GA border, so you have troy state and USA in state, then Ga State right down I-20, and Ga Southern's a familiar school to most of our Georgia-based fans. But UNA? Take those "attractive" schools and add 3 hours of travel time to each. UNA doesn't have anywhere near the number of Georgia students. They have no history with Ga State, Ga Southern, App, Coastal, Marshall, or any of the Virginia schools. They know Southern Miss... that's about it. They complain about travel in CUSA, but they're closer to the Texas teams than we are, they're already in an OLY conference with Liberty, and CUSA would give them MTSU (effectively in their backyard), WKU and JSU at about 3 hours each, and LT at only 6-7 hours. Sure, west Texas, New Mexico, and Miami are a haul, but c'mon. That's 3 teams. It's not that terrible. Moot point anyway, of course, but sheesh... I just don't think they've thought this through.

Exactly.

And to clarify what I meant by NDSU being believable, if CUSA approached them for full membership, I could see the ungulates turning them down for travel reasons (for OLY sports). Everyone always looks at costs going *to* Fargo and never considers that NDSU would also have to travel *from* Fargo. It's unlikely CUSA would issue a football-only invitation, since the conference bylaws currently prohibit that. (Bylaws can be re-written/waived, of course, but so far the conference hasn't done this.)

It's also remotely possible CUSA approached NDSU to gauge their interest in football-only membership, but NDSU said no because they WANT to have all sports in the same conference when/if they make the move up.

Bottom line: The ungulates have a case for saying no. EKU and UNA? Not so much. Their quickest route to the Sun Belt, if that's their dream destination, would be via CUSA. And honestly, I don't see EKU turning them down at all, if an invitation were issued. As others have hypothesized, EKU was probably conditional on WKU moving.

I doubt an invitation was even issued for UNA -- at this time -- simply because transitional D-II to CUSA is a mighty big leap. If they want to move up, they need to spend the next 3-5 years putting facility and staffing upgrades into overdrive. (And even then, they'll have to overcome the same "too many FBS schools in Alabama" stigma that kept JSU mired in FCS for so long.) If the Lions DID get some stronger interest from CUSA, it was probably for the same reason as EKU: If MTSU left, UTC would likely be the first choice to replace them. If the Mocs weren't interested (vaguely plausible because they're idiots and also because the SoCon is pretty good at hoops but mostly because they're idiots) then UNA would be the next closest school to that geographical area which had a stated goal of moving up to FBS.