Owl_Ranger said

Jab979 said

walty12 said

I've got $5 on it - bad rap group from 90's

Haha, are you talking about I Got 5 On It, by Luniz? lol

Hahahahahah. Memories from my childhood man! Walty do you know what Luniz has $5 on?

Office lunch??

Haha, of course I do.  I'm 32 not 75.

It's funny how to some of you, the Sun Belt was fine and good and growing and getting more respect and better than CUSA, but now suddenly it just sucks now that FAU is leaving.

MTSU got left out of the bowl because it badly managed its announcement and snubbed the league. The dominos did not fall correctly to get a fifth team in a bowl and soon-to-be-gone MTSU was snubbed back by its own conference. Aaaw, what a shame!

Oh, and MTSU lost to a I-AA team, got shellacked in its conference "championship" game and drew an embarrassingly bad season-long attendance total.

And they waxed GA Tech

I'm only starting to dislike the SunBelt because of this thread. Quit being like Sigep77  ;D

BMarkey said

It's funny how to some of you, the Sun Belt was fine and good and growing and getting more respect and better than CUSA, but now suddenly it just sucks now that FAU is leaving.

I noticed this too - maybe people are picking up on the "Karl Benson is a conference killer" vibe going around. That and nobody seems real impressed by the FCS schools getting offers to join the SBC.

That said, I don't think the SBC is suddenly crap now since we obviously have a record number of teams going to bowl games and two teams getting SEC upsets earlier in the season. Troy just built that great new basketball facility, Ark State has plans for the new football facility (which may be up in the air now that Malzahn left) and the recruiting classes have more three star guys coming in.

So I think one or more SBC teams will get a new conference invite by the time we formally matriculate to CUSA.

At the basketball game last Thursday, as play began, one or more students tried to start a "Sun Belt sucks!" cheer, but it got nowhere. How ignorant they appeared.

The Sun Belt was far superior this year to CUSA, has been close to it for years and probably will be better in at least the next couple of years. The uninformed might not realize this, but the tide is (at least was) turning in perception. Lucky for the Belt, the majority of the core of its best performing athletics programs remains intact and will likely remain "stuck" together because of the schools' "small" markets.

Regarding the FCS comment, I would take the two FCS schools already admitted and the two (App State and Ga. Southern) reported to be coming in over the FCS schools take by CSAU any day. Well, actually, CUSA can have Ga. State. ;-)

The thing that can't be argued against is the TV revenue sharing. It's not even close.

For FAU it was a no brainier, and that got lost in the shuffle initially.

Not to mention the Bowl ties…….

Is the SBC still a stronger league play wise now that FIU, MTSU, and FAU have left?

Time will tell.

But the economics truth is with all those small markets the Belt will only get small media deals, not enough potential viewers to draw advertising revenue which pays for everything. I still hope CUSA goes after Ga. St. JUST for the media market Atlanta offers. And someday pretty soon Ga. St. will be good!

The TV revenue and bowl deals will be renegotiated (likely down) when the time comes, unless the new CUSA teams suddenly become top-25 makers. If they aren't, good for FAU.

But to stay on the topic, I am fine with the Sun Belt having strong winning, David-type programs with good attendance. It appears that is its destiny - great atmospheres, nice wins, minor and medium bowl appearances (and a few BCS years) and increasing its reputation with a continued rise in knocking off the big boys. I believe USA will improve quickly and if Appy and GSU come on, they will be winning I-A games much more quickly than many of the current CUSA programs.

Our bowls this year will be packed (New Orleans Bowl will have more than 50,000 -probably better attendance than the Orange Bowl!) and next year maybe we'll have five bowl teams.

I remember a few days before we left the SBC when Hootin' and I were debating whether moving to C-USA is a good move. I made the case for the move with things like TV revenues and bowl tie-ins being my main points. I'm glad that most of you see it my way now. It really was a no-brainer for us to get out of the Bum Belt Conference

Come on BMarkey… Troy is still in the belt.    :-[