CUSA

[Pony_Fan]

I would think that would help our bball recruiting and be a lot easier on traveling expenses. In the Wac, I enjoyed watching UH's well coached teams come through and style of play. The best games were with Courtney Alexander and Chris Herron of FSU. I am glad if it all works out that Tulsa can stick with us...they have become a good rivalry and they are always competitive in hoops.

Memphis is staying I think? Sounds like the Froggies are being cry babies if the new teams join them in the CUSA. MVC doesn't make much sense in terms of travel for them.

<small>[ 10-15-2003, 02:57 PM: Message edited by: Pony_Fan ]</small>

[OldPony]

Wouldn't you be upset if you were the Frogs. MWC is probably better than the reconstited CUSA but it also creates huge problems in attendance and travel cost. Neither is like joining a BCS league and the Frogs have proven to be a Top 25 caliber team. I personnaly hope that other than SMU that the Frogs clear the table in football so as to put pressure on the Cartel.
Basketball in CUSA is no longer quite as good as MWC either. Poor Frogs don't have a good choice yet they deserve one. SMU ends up in the same league and doesn't desreve recognityion for anything except country club sports. TS Frogs- Sometimes life isn't fair.

[bhop]

Yes, sometimes life is not fair. Let me tell you the story of a great university in Dallas that used to have one of the top football teams in the nation. A team that accomplished vastly more in its prime than what TCU has accomplished in the last six years. But that great university's dream of football glory came crashing down one day in an epic scandal that brought the entire university to its knees. Was that fair? Perhaps. I'm sure Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Miami, and now Baylor think it was fair. . .because it didn't happen to them.

When the great university comes limping back from the DP, its President and faculty ensured that its football team will be totally uncompetitive for the forseeable future by placing crazy recruiting restrictions on it.

Then, the conference that this great university had been a member of for over 80 years suddenly collapsed when four of its members bolt for greener pastures. The great university is left to scramble for membership in another conference, and ends up in one that is not very regional and is a definite step down from the previous conference. Can't get more fair than that.

Of course, that was too good to last. Just two years after the great university joined that mediocre conference, it collapsed as half its members (and all its biggest draws) broke off in the dead of the night with no warning and formed their own conference. Very fair.

So, the great university is left to toil in an absurd, geographically-challanged conference that stretches from Hawaii to Texas, with a huge geographic gap between its west-coast and central-US members. The fans have no interest in seeing our great university (who can only recruit D-1A spares) get pounded into the dust by teams from California that few people in Texas have even heard of.

Oh, and just when this great university thinks it is going to get out of its god-awful conference and join its traditional rival in greener pastures, that traditional rival gets an invite and the great university gets a glass of cold water thrown in its face.

The point is, I'm sure TCU fans think the sky is coming down and life is just not fair. To them I say cry me a river. There has been no more snakebitten football program in the country than SMU for the last 15 years. Will we get into C-USA. . .I don't know. I sure hope so though. It would be the first ray of light around here since our fleeting 1997 winning season. I think TCU will get over it.

[OldPony]

When you shoot yourself though (both the DP and the following ridiculous restrictions) at least you know who to blame. I, too, think the frogs will get over it but that doesn't make it tasted any better right now. SMU's history helped it get the invite (assuming it's coming) but Nothing we have done on the field or court (except one b'ball conf. championship) since the DP merits consideration for anything better than what we have gotten. In fact, I feel fortunate that we and Rice got a nod. Let's hope that cooler heads at TCU prevail and that they stay put. Right now, they are the football stars of the reconsituted CUSA.

[EastStang]

Yes, but the Frogs had 25 years of ineptitude prior to this last 5 years. I think that is still to some extent something they have to deal with. Sure, its not fair. If TCU has 9-10 win seasons for a decade or so with some quality wins, they will get some credibility. Also, their basketball program is not world class either, and they need to turn that ship around. If they can win some games this final year of old CUSA, it would mean a lot for them down the road.

[Charleston Pony]

Old Pony: obviously we can't pull for TCU to go 12-0 because that requires their beating SMU, but the truth is that all non-BCS fans should be pulling for NIU to run the table. With their MAC championship game, that would put them at 13-0 with wins against several teams who will have beaten QUALITY BCS teams. They are the ONLY non-BCS team that has any realistic chance of finishing high enough in the B( )S polls to warrant an invite to a BCS Bowl. There is simply no way a 12-0 TCU team cracks the top 6 in those polls. With their schedule, they probably would rate no higher than 12th-15th, and justifiably so. The odds are against an undefeated NIU geting invited, but it would sure cause the BCS boys to have to dance!

[OldPony]

You are right about NIU but in TCU's case,you can only beat who you play. Obviously, I want SMU to beat them but I have strong doubts that we'll even be competitive. If SMU can't beat them, I would like to see 2 non BS teams undefeated and listen to the arguments of their ilk then. Many of the BCS schools who have lost would be considered if they finish with only 1 loss for the "championship game" because of the cr&p used to determine strenth of schedule. It is a self fulfilling ranking.