AlexFAU06 said

Captain said

Agree with all of you, that UCF most likely won't be joining the Belt in any capacity; however, since we are exploring the possibilities; how about this:

UCF football goes to the Big East and all other UCF athletics go to the Belt. This means there is now a spot available in C-USA for all sports programs.

C-USA would probably be interested in filling that void with another Florida University (FAU or FIU), and since the Belt already has an odd # of teams in football, the Sun Belt could afford to lose a football program within the conference, while maintaining the same # of teams in all other sports with the addition of UCF.

I would think FIU has an advantage here because their soccer team is part of C-USA.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be a factor, but I seriously doubt CUSA would take FIU on the basis of soccer.  Non-revenue sports won't have much to do with the decision.

I still think that UCF would be a good addition to the Big East, but thats just my opinion from a spectator's viewpoint.  The northern BE teams love to travel down here, especially during the cooler months, and you already have a heated rivalry in UCF/USF.  Yes, the record is skewed towards USF, but the atmosphere around those games compares I think to any other major rivalry games in the country.  But, again, since i'm not involved in any of the decisions, I just look at things strictly from an enterainment point of view.

And also, for future reference, I read that article by Bianchi on Saturday morning, and as always he's full of crap.  According to him, UCF has always been the best football program in the world and that will never change.  Sometimes the stuff he writes just cracks me up.

The biggest problem with BIGEAST expansion is staying competitive and not having a watered down conference. The BIGEAST is currently the weakest BCS conference and any additions need to be strategic so as to add value to the conference. TCU and Notre Dame would add value. Unfortunately adding UCF, FAU, or FIU would weaken an already weak BIGEAST conference.

GO OWLS!!!

As an FAU fan, I would be more than happy to leave the Belt and join CUSA.  We would play against better competition and some pretty good programs, Houston, ECU etc.

FAU said

As an FAU fan, I would be more than happy to leave the Belt and join CUSA.  We would play against better competition and some pretty good programs, Houston, ECU etc.

If I were FAU I would not be in such a hurry to join CUSA, unless your program has the $ to increase your budget and fanbase to match, CUSA is not a good move.  Yes there are more bowls but so is the competition.  Marshall is example of a program which was successful in the MAC but does not have the $ to put into recruiting and facility improvements to keep up with the “Jones”.

FAU athletic budget is around 15M while most CUSA budgets are 25M.  The difference in BCS money and bowls is less then a million more from SBC to CUSA, where does FAU get the extra 9M.  Most of your tickets sales from your new stadium will go to servicing the hefty debt.  Half to 3/4 of your concession money goes to the vendor if FAU strikes up a sweetheart deal at best.  Don’t plan on increase in ticket sales due to CUSA opponents bringing fans bc only 2 teams in conference bring more then 300 fans to a given game.

There is a huge difference between a football program and football team.  FAU has a good team but program it does not have much of. The upside to FAU is in a aging coach, there is no evidence to suggest your program can produce the amount of fans and money required to compete year over year in CUSA. There are cellar dwelllers in CUSA (in terms of football teams) but when you look at their programs either their facilities, financial support or academics dwarf FAU's.