what are we joining?

[SMUstang]

I think you're correct Florida Mustang.

Southern Miss Alum, Temple is not very good in football but is great in basketball. Why would the BE keep them for football only?

[OldPony]

Hoops- If Memphis didn't play the SEC teams in the area, the attendance would be far less than 40,000. SmU's attendance would be up there too if we could play UT, A$M, TT for our OOC games and the rest of our schedule within a few hours drive. It helps to have regional rivalries which CUSA will bring. Memphis basketball is very good. They are not top 10 by any stretch. I once lived in Memphis and they are not even on the radar screen of most sports fans in the area except for b'ball. There are many more fans for each of Tenn., Ole Miss, Miss St and Ark in Memephis than fans for Memphis. I am not saying that they are not worthy of being in CUSA and that they don't contribute. I am saying that they are no more of a key than anyone else in making CUSA work. My guess is that if they played a WAC schedule that their attendance would be very similar to us. Memphis is a poor city and does not support anything very well. There was a WSJ article years ago describing the growth in the sunbelt titled "Memphis- Dark spot on the Sunbelt". I'm glad they are part of CUSA but they are at best a samll plus compared to the other schools.

[Southland]

October 21, 2003
NOTICE OF FULL COMMITTEE HEARING

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary will hold a hearing on Wednesday, October 29, 2003, at 10:00 a.m. in Room 226 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building on "BCS or Bust: Competitive and Economic Effects of the Bowl Championship Series On and Off the Field."

Chairman Hatch will preside.

By order of the Chairman

Orin Hatch will have no sympathy for the BCS cartel. Neither will Leahey. What goes on there may or may not affect the decision process of some of the schools involved. [/QB][/QUOTE]

That is a key date, but it could cause a lot of damage to our future.

If the BCS was taken down by political activists, I have no doubt that the Big East, ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big XII, Pac Ten and MWC would leave the NCAA to form their own organization in 2012 (the expiration of the NCAA Tournament deal). With those 7 conferences, they would cover every significant DMA in the country, and could collect 100% of the lucrative NCAA deal (currently those 7 conferences take around 37% of the revenue, which accounts for 95% of the total NCAA revenue).

[abezontar]

Right, but if they leave and form thier own coalition, won't that just put them in the same position with the same arguements against them that the BCS creates now? If they are busted for monopolistic practices with the BCS, then they leave to form another group that monopolizes the markets worse than the BCS currently does, won't they still be in just as much trouble?

[bluetiger]

OldPony,

First of all, this being my first post on here, it may come across wrong. I really don't think you know what you're talking about.

How long has it been since you've lived in or even been to Memphis? We've played 1 SEC team at home this year (Old Mrs.) and attendance was around 50,000. True we have to deal with $EC fans on a day to day basis, but I disagree with the $EC driving our attendance figures.

We have not been to a bowl since the early 70's. We still average 38,000 butts in the seats. Since Tommy West took over as head football coach, we have put competitive football teams on the field week in and week out. Even in the worst years of Tiger football we averaged more than 20,000 fans. We've managed to survive some of the worst administration one can imagine.

To call us a suitcase school or whatever you said, leads me to believe that you never lived here. Did you mean a commuter school?

In basketball we are in the top 5 in attendance. We regularly fill our 20,000 seat arena. Since Calipari has been here, we've been rebuilding from the ground up. You see, the poor administration managed to screw up bball as well as football. It won't be long until we're back in the top 25 every year ALL year.

I don't think we are the pivotal member of the new conference. I do believe that without us, the new CUSA will lose all credibility in basketball. Tulsa can not carry hoops all by themself. I just hope someone else steps up and improves their basketball teams.

All that being said, we're glad to have you in CUSA. It's always good to have new rivalries.