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At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

Just wanted to say that I never really said we should be an independent.  Only asked the question.  If the Sun Belt improves and gets that second bowl tie-in and is doing better against OOC teams then there is no reason to leave.  However if we dominate it year after year and the only thing stopping us from getting to a BCS game is our strength of schedule (due to Sun Belt competition) we would have to consider leaving.

I hope that Troy and FAU can get some good OOC wins and maybe everyone else can pull something out of their hats as well.  If this means that we have to schedule more MAC and CUSA as a conference then so be it, but the conference needs the OOC wins period.

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

I would never want to be independent, all that would do is place us in a catagory similare to ND where either we can sch good teams or we get some horrible games, with the lack of history of this program it would never survive as an independent
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

SeminOWL2006 said

Just wanted to say that I never really said we should be an independent.  Only asked the question.  If the Sun Belt improves and gets that second bowl tie-in and is doing better against OOC teams then there is no reason to leave.  However if we dominate it year after year and the only thing stopping us from getting to a BCS game is our strength of schedule (due to Sun Belt competition) we would have to consider leaving.

Understood, but even if the Sun Belt doesn't improve, we're still better off there than trying to do it on our own.  However, if we dominate it year after year, I think we will get some attention from other conferences.

SOS isn't as bad as you think, as long as we continue to play quality OOC competition.  Look around the BCS conferences and you'll probably find a comparable SOS because many BCS teams schedule a bunch of non-conference money games.  The Big Televen got away with murder last year; Ohio State had Youngstown St., Akron, Washington and Kent.  Penn State lined up FIU, Notre Dame, Buffalo and Temple.  Wisconsin had Washington St., UNLV, The Citadel and Northern Illinois.  So it often balances out.
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

Times are certainly different then when HS was at Miami.

The one thing that holds the Belt back is attendance, which plays a big part of Bowl games.
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

I agree being an independent would be very difficult, but still would be worthwhile investigating. Obviously, football fans in South Florida don't care at all about Arkansas State. Scheduling Arkansas would appeal to many more people, thus increasing attendance and finances. But I do realize that as of now, we could not handle competitively a schedule of 8 big six BCS games. That is twice what we had last year, and face it, Minnesota (1-11) sucked!

But we should study the alternative, and if say in three or four years, we 1)stay strong competitively and, 2)the Sun Belt remains lame in terms of bowl opportunities and, 3) we have no offer from a better conference (Big East or even CUSA), be prepared to take to step away from the Sun Belt if needed.

Face it, even the MAC (ie…Bowling Green, blow out losers to Tulsa!), have three bowls minimum! Not only is the Sun Belt the bottom of the BCS barrel, it is the scum of the bottom of the barrel to the bowl community, primarily because of the attendance issue!
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

Another alternative to consider is pushing for the Sun Belt to expand to 12 teams but only having say 6 conference games (5 in your division and 1 in the other rotating).  This would let the whole Sun Belt get more OOC games, more money, a conference championship and more bowl tie-ins.

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

Strange I just saw that Louisville was an independent under HS also.

As much as the consensus may state that being an independent is not the way to go, HS sure seems to enjoy it (and excel at it).

Florida Atlantic University Owls
2007 Sun Belt Football Champions 2007 New Orleans Bowl Champions 2008 Motor City Bowl Champions 2011 Sun Belt Basketball Champions No Bowls without Owls
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

Wasn't UCF an independant for a long time?

Teambeer is the most knowledgeable FAU sports fan I know, way smarter than me.
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

SeminOWL2006 said

Strange I just saw that Louisville was an independent under HS also.

As much as the consensus may state that being an independent is not the way to go, HS sure seems to enjoy it (and excel at it).

First of all, that was a long time ago.  Being an independant now would be death.  Unless you are ND, you need to be in a conference to get TV package revenue, bowl ties, for scheduling purposes, etc.

Second, I think HS has been on record saying that he is grateful to be in SBC because without them, we wouldn't be able to be in D-I.

So enough with the talk of going independant.  It's not going to happen because it can't happen.  There is no way for a program like FAU's to survive without a conference.  As much as we may not like the current state of the SBC, we need them right now and should just embrace it until the time comes for another conference shakeup. 
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Re: At what point is FAU better off as an Independent?

fauowls44 said

SeminOWL2006 said

Strange I just saw that Louisville was an independent under HS also.



So enough with the talk of going independant.  It's not going to happen because it can't happen.  There is no way for a program like FAU's to survive without a conference.  As much as we may not like the current state of the SBC, we need them right now and should just embrace it until the time comes for another conference shakeup.

Fauowls44 has hit the nail on the head.  Until we can dominate the Sunbelt for 3-4 years in a row, we have no business thinking we are too good for it.  Yes, we had a great year, and we have lots of momentum for this season, but we still have a lot to prove.  Going independent would be the death of this program.  We need the SBC, and the SBC may even need us to ensure their success, we are kinda like a cinderalla story team and we gave the conference a lot of attention they would not have otherwise gotten.

FAU - We got Bowls!
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