I agree with Bmarkey.
FAU is still part of the SunBelt and few weeks back most of us were saying how the conference was improving… blah… blah.
Now some act like we are better because we got invited by C-USA.
Yes, there is more recognition and more money, but we are still a very mediocre team that few fans around the nation know about.
Respect the SunBelt and act with class during the transition.

FAU fans disrespect themselves and their school when they ridicule the conference they are in.

BMarkey said

FAU fans disrespect themselves and their school when they ridicule the conference they are in.

I respectfully disagree, and the fact that an 8-4 MTSU of the BELT sits home while not one but TWO (2) CUSA 6-6 teams are playing, not to mention a 6-6 MAC Central Michigan. The Belt failed to place all bowl eligible teams again and 8-4 is WAY above the cut in my opinion. And this was a down year with many teams with bowl eligible records aeither out by the NCAA or by self-imposed punishments. Without that 7-5 WKU and definately another of our top teams sits the bowl season out and the Belt has its usual 2 teams irregardless of league record improvements.

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.

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.

Bob, I could not help but feel compelled to dispel a little bit of darkness on your already made-up biased mind on the events that transpired around Benson and Middle Tennessee State.

If anyone was foolish, it was Karl Benson desiring to schedule a surprise meeting to raise the Sun Belt's exit fee to an unreasonable and astronomical amount while working with unarguably the FBS's most financially strapped institutions.  Benson undermined FAU and Middle Tennessee in order to make this meeting happen. . . . .which just so happened to be days before MTSU's scheduled game against Arkansas State.  What was Middle Tennessee supposed to do, Bob??  And FAU for that matter?

Karl Benson had ZERO negotiations for any new financial incentives via media and television packages for its new membership.  Karl Benson's conference would only see TWO guaranteed bids to bowl games.  You think the Sun Belt will sniff Detroit with a 14 member Big Ten Conference looming in the next two years and a probation-free Ohio State eligible next year?  When Miami, North Carolina, and others are able to secure bowl bids, that's less bids for your two-bid league.  So Karl Benson with no promises or even halfway decent attempts at increasing the Sun Belt's bowl bids or media rights deals essentially expected to put this poor Louisiana-Monroe and Troy type institutions sealed into a conference under a $10 million exit fee that none of these schools would ever be able to afford in this lifetime!  All this while conference movements were taking place and opportunities for membership in other leagues with more bowl bids and better TV deals than the Sun Belt were existing.

I know for a fact that Jack Hawkins would've given his left nut to land Troy State in Conference USA as would ANY member of the Sun Belt Conference.

But at least you acknowledge one thing.  Good teams don't always go to bowl games.  I mean, if losing to a 1-AA team was automatic disqualification, then Michigan should've never gone bowling after losing to Appalachian State nor should've Virginia Tech after losing to James Madison.  If getting blown out in the last game of the regular season is a prerequisite for bowl disqualification, then Nebraska shouldn't have gone to a bowl after being blown out by a lower-rated Wisconsin team.  And if attendance in the season really is the difference to going to a bowl and not, and the worth of a team's performance on the field isn't because I know Middle Tennessee beat your raggedy old bunch from Pike County, Alabama, then perhaps the entire bowl system should be done away.  Awarding lousy teams because you draw more fans even though your team sucks just shows me that the bowl system isn't about awarding teams that do a good job.

By the way, that Georgia Tech team that MTSU destroyed wound up beating Southern Cal in a bowl game tonight.  As for the University of Tennessee, whose lousiest team in more than 50 years still managed to beat Troy State, never saw a bowl game.

BMarkey said

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.

Television revenues will likely be down in the Big East, Conference USA, and yes, even the Sun Belt Conference.  One thing I don't think anyone can deny is that perception alone and the job Banowsky does will keep CUSA members wealthier than yours in the Sun Belt.  CUSA has been ripped apart before, and it hasn't lost all these bowl bids and money that the peon fans of the ULMs and Arkansas States are dying to see in their envious lusts.  It's fine that the Sun Belt has competitive football, but it won't help you financially.  Nor will it help the Sun Belt to have more than two teams in the post-season.  Get used to New Orleans and Mobile because you'll see no cities in the near future beyond those two in December/January.

I was impressed with the New Orleans Bowl attendance, however, it will not be more than the Orange Bowl.  It's Florida State you're talking about, and only a brainless fool would ever suggest that the Sun Belt could have a higher drawing attendance in one of its bowls than any of the major BC$ bowl games that always have at least one attendee with much larger fan bases and much higher levels of prestige than anything the Sun Belt could ever hope for.

Real good points TennesseeBoy, I agree with all of them, just keep it cool, we are all Owl fans here! Have a great New Year!

Ha ha Troy State, I see what you did there  ;)