stevo
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Posts: 731
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Post by stevo on Apr 1, 2022 7:31:47 GMT -6
What happened to all of you guys who wanted to stay FCS, "So that we can play for National Championships"?
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stevo
Full Member
Posts: 731
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Post by stevo on Apr 1, 2022 7:38:50 GMT -6
I do appreciate them for dredging the bottom of CUSA for new teams. They inadvertently made CUSA better by taking teams nobody wants, the teams that seldom if ever make noise Who would you have dropped (ODU, Marshall, or S Miss) and who would you have added instead?
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Post by Whup Em All on Apr 1, 2022 12:18:23 GMT -6
I do appreciate them for dredging the bottom of CUSA for new teams. They inadvertently made CUSA better by taking teams nobody wants, the teams that seldom if ever make noise Who would you have dropped (ODU, Marshall, or JMU) and who would you have added instead? The AAC took its share of bottom feeders as well, but you have to look at both football and basketball to see which schools qualify as such. Some schools which are horrible in football are great in hoops, and vice versa. And some suck in everything. Honestly, though, I really don't care which conference came out on top. I just care how CUSA does on its own terms. Our new conference may be slightly behind the AAC and SBC in football, but it will be a steep upgrade for JSU. We'll need to step things up to compete. (Hiring CRR is obviously a step in the right direction.) In basketball, we've entered into a hornet's nest. While there aren't any Top 25 teams in CUSA 4.0, yet, there are very, very, precious few bottom feeders. It'll be like facing Liberty, Murray, and Belmont every single game. Many are calling the new CUSA a "basketball conference" and I don't think they're wrong. Next time we make it to the Dance as the conference champ, believe me, we'll be more than a 15-16 seed.
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Post by JSUSoutherner on Apr 1, 2022 12:32:35 GMT -6
Who would you have dropped (ODU, Marshall, or JMU) and who would you have added instead? The AAC took its share of bottom feeders as well, but you have to look at both football and basketball to see which schools qualify as such. Some schools which are horrible in football are great in hoops, and vice versa. And some suck in everything. Honestly, though, I really don't care which conference came out on top. I just care how CUSA does on its own terms. Our new conference may be slightly behind the AAC and SBC in football, but it will be a steep upgrade for JSU. We'll need to step things up to compete. (Hiring CRR is obviously a step in the right direction.) In basketball, we've entered into a hornet's nest. While there aren't any Top 25 teams in CUSA 4.0, yet, there are very, very, precious few bottom feeders. It'll be like facing Liberty, Murray, and Belmont every single game. Many are calling the new CUSA a "basketball conference" and I don't think they're wrong. Next time we make it to the Dance as the conference champ, believe me, we'll be more than a 15-16 seed. It's 100% a basketball conference. That's why I'd like to see SFA brought in to balance the west.
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Post by Whup Em All on Apr 1, 2022 15:52:09 GMT -6
Looking at some football stats...
2019 ATTENDANCE (the final pre-covid season) La Tech 20,439 Liberty 18,272 NMSU 17,905 UTEP 17,093 JSU 16,829 WKU 15,191 MTSU 14,253 FIU 13,874 Sam Houston 4,878
Not great, but not embarrassing. Well, except for Sam.
For some perspective on these numbers, everyone from JSU up would've ranked in the Top 10 in FCS attendance in 2019. CUSA outpaced the Sun Belt by 600 fans per game that season.
W/L Percentage, 2016-2021 (excluding covid-shortened 2020) .774 (FCS) Sam Houston .667 (FCS) JSU .576 WKU .567 overall (.579 FBS; .545 FCS) Liberty .528 La Tech .523 MTSU .444 FIU .279 NMSU .213 UTEP
Again, some perspective. A .500 season makes you bowl-eligible in FBS, so more than half the conference has averaged bowl-eligible wins since 2016. Two of the teams that failed to hit that mark, FIU and NMSU, made high profile hires at head coach this off-season.
And for whatever it's worth, NMSU and UTEP have historically been on islands all alone for years or decades now. Beginning in 2022, they're on an island together. It's easy to suck when your nearest conference neighbor is 800 miles away. But when that neighbor is your historical rival from 30 minutes down the road... it changes things. I don't expect either to accept sub-.500 winning seasons from now on.
Does CUSA have work to do? Yes. But then, so does every other conference at every other level. But I feel the teams at the bottom will at least improve to mediocre. And the teams at the top will be pushing each other, because at least six of these fan bases expect to win championships. There's a lot of upside here. Not every post-realignment-apocalypse conference can say that.
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Post by JSUSoutherner on Apr 1, 2022 17:10:17 GMT -6
Looking at some football stats... 2019 ATTENDANCE (the final pre-covid season) La Tech 20,439 Liberty 18,272 NMSU 17,905 UTEP 17,093 JSU 16,829 WKU 15,191 MTSU 14,253 FIU 13,874 Sam Houston 4,878 Not great, but not embarrassing. Well, except for Sam. For some perspective on these numbers, everyone from JSU up would've ranked in the Top 10 in FCS attendance in 2019. CUSA outpaced the Sun Belt by 600 fans per game that season. W/L Percentage, 2016-2021 (excluding covid-shortened 2020) .774 (FCS) Sam Houston .667 (FCS) JSU .576 WKU .567 overall (.579 FBS; .545 FCS) Liberty .528 La Tech .523 MTSU .444 FIU .279 NMSU .213 UTEP Again, some perspective. A .500 season makes you bowl-eligible in FBS, so more than half the conference has averaged bowl-eligible wins since 2016. Two of the teams that failed to hit that mark, FIU and NMSU, made high profile hires at head coach this off-season. And for whatever it's worth, NMSU and UTEP have historically been on islands all alone for years or decades now. Beginning in 2022, they're on an island together. It's easy to suck when your nearest conference neighbor is 800 miles away. But when that neighbor is your historical rival from 30 minutes down the road... it changes things. I don't expect either to accept sub-.500 winning seasons from now on. Does CUSA have work to do? Yes. But then, so does every other conference at every other level. But I feel the teams at the bottom will at least improve to mediocre. And the teams at the top will be pushing each other, because at least six of these fan bases expect to win championships. There's a lot of upside here. Not every post-realignment-apocalypse conference can say that. It always boggled my mind how Sam could have such a successful program and literally the worst fan support. 4500 is absymal. I'm hoping Rich Rod comes in and has the team playing right and with the new stadium we start getting a sellout streak going. That would be awesome. It's definitely something that's achievable if the team plays well and the focus on GameDay atmosphere pays off.
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Post by gemofthehills on Apr 1, 2022 18:35:43 GMT -6
I do appreciate them for dredging the bottom of CUSA for new teams. They inadvertently made CUSA better by taking teams nobody wants, the teams that seldom if ever make noise Who would you have dropped (ODU, Marshall, or JMU) and who would you have added instead? I know I wasnt the one asked, I take Liberty over all of the above. I take Sam over ODU and Marshall, not sure about JMU push maybe. Plus over ODU and Marshall, UTC and Kennesaw. EKU, SFA, McNeese, UCA, Missouri St, Tarleton St, TUNA and NC AT over ODU. Of course I take JSU over all of the above.
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Post by Cleburneslim on Apr 1, 2022 19:25:59 GMT -6
There’s no real reason to answer Atlanta Trojans question. He is already aware of the superiority of the sun belt.
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Post by Cleburneslim on Apr 1, 2022 19:27:17 GMT -6
A 20k person sell out should not be too difficult. We’ve already surpassed that when we had quality opponents at Home.
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Post by King_Gamecock on Apr 1, 2022 19:34:07 GMT -6
A 20k person sell out should not be too difficult. We’ve already surpassed that when we had quality opponents at Home. I’ve always said that more casual fans or locals without strong ties will come for home games against USM or La. Tech than games against top 10 FCS teams because of perception. Even if SHSU would monkey-stomp most G5 teams, the average Joe doesn’t know it. They only recognize the name or not…not the quality.
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stevo
Full Member
Posts: 731
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Post by stevo on Apr 1, 2022 20:24:02 GMT -6
There’s no real reason to answer Atlanta Trojans question. He is already aware of the superiority of the sun belt. Asked you a real question and you come back with that?
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Post by gemofthehills on Apr 1, 2022 20:48:29 GMT -6
There’s no real reason to answer Atlanta Trojans question. He is already aware of the superiority of the sun belt. Asked you a real question and you come back with that? Do you think the three you named are some type of superstar institutions?
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Post by Cleburneslim on Apr 2, 2022 12:10:54 GMT -6
There’s no real reason to answer Atlanta Trojans question. He is already aware of the superiority of the sun belt. Asked you a real question and you come back with that? I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist I thought it funny. My apologies. The truth is the things we’re talking about are purely opinions. And I doubt seriously I can or could change your mind. So it seems futile to endeavor to do so.
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Post by Cleburneslim on Apr 2, 2022 12:14:12 GMT -6
A 20k person sell out should not be too difficult. We’ve already surpassed that when we had quality opponents at Home. I’ve always said that more casual fans or locals without strong ties will come for home games against USM or La. Tech than games against top 10 FCS teams because of perception. Even if SHSU would monkey-stomp most G5 teams, the average Joe doesn’t know it. They only recognize the name or not…not the quality. A real problem will be that we will always look 2nd rate even if we won the national championship and had home games against Bama Georgia and Michigan. We will never average more than 20k fans. What do we do if la tech brings 10k fans? Tell some to stay home? What if we play for the conference championship against mtsu or Wku. Easy drive but we’re sorry you might as well stay home.
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Post by King_Gamecock on Apr 2, 2022 12:37:06 GMT -6
I’ve always said that more casual fans or locals without strong ties will come for home games against USM or La. Tech than games against top 10 FCS teams because of perception. Even if SHSU would monkey-stomp most G5 teams, the average Joe doesn’t know it. They only recognize the name or not…not the quality. A real problem will be that we will always look 2nd rate even if we won the national championship and had home games against Bama Georgia and Michigan. We will never average more than 20k fans. What do we do if la tech brings 10k fans? Tell some to stay home? What if we play for the conference championship against mtsu or Wku. Easy drive but we’re sorry you might as well stay home. Our stadium appears to be somewhat designed with future expansion considered. If we progress to the degree it is needed, we won’t stay at 20k. troy state enlarged their stadium shortly after moving up. Taking their online students out of the equation, troy state is smaller than JSU. That matters in the discussion of athletics because military service members taking online classes will never attend a game…and their capacity is over 30,000. I could be wrong… but I suspect that number is where we will be before long.
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