CUSA Bowl News Breaking

[PonyKai]

SMU is not well positioned for the BCS no matter what you are hearing at Cheerleading Camp.

Okay, fine...you're right. We were all standing around in a circle getting sunshine blown up our [deleted] by the Mustang Club. I give up, I'm a total lemming when it comes to believing what the school brochure tells me.

[Stallion]

Look closely at what I wrote-you think we are well positioned for Bowl Championship Series "BCS" inclusion? Anybody telling you that as a certainly or good possibility is full of [deleted].

There is possibility which I clearly stated in improving our position.

[mathman]

Thad, I appreciate you sharing as much of what you heard as you could. You couldn't have qualified it more than you did. It is understood that you heard it but that it wasn't written in stone. It is always good to hear about good things that may be happening to SMU. Just because it is a positive for us doesn't mean it has to be wrong. I think there are those out there(Big 10 etc.) that do have a pretty good idea of what they are going to do and are just putting pieces in place. If people on here believe what some of those commissioners are saying, such as "we haven't contacted any schools", "no one has approached us about leaving our conference" etc., they are truly naive.

Just a thought here. There are those on this board that feel that TCU has positioned themselves better than we have for entrance into the BCS mix and they may be right. However, when I put myself in the place of OU, UT, etc, etc., I ask myself if I want to have another team in my conference that could possibly beat me half of the time (TCU) or a team that hasn't done much on the field since Moby [deleted] was a minnow (SMU). That assumes all other things are almost equal. SMU and TCU will bring in the same TV market. Attendance won't be an issue in my opinion. If UT comes to Ford it is going to be a sellout. Same for OU and the other large state schools. It will be sold out with a majority of the fans being theirs. That won't bother them in the least. We have no baseball or Track team and that has been brought up as a hindrance for entrance into a BCS conference as well. I would bet that we would start up both, as a condition for entrance, within 3 years of realignment. Baseball wouldn't be easy to do, but I would bet SMU could make it happen if we had to. I am not totally sold on my own premise above and would be happen to hear why it is wrong. Just be gentle, Stallion, when you do it.

[EastStang]

Right now all we can do is watch and hope and have the big boys involved in this program try and work some magic. For the past 20 years we haven't earned anything. But with a bowl season last season, we are better positioned than before. This could go a ton of directions. We could be in the Sun-belch (aka CUSA leftovers), A new weaker MWC, Magnolia League, or a neutered Big XII (hey maybe that's why we have the geldings, but I digress). The key will be what others do, not necessarily what we do, and how the chips fall. I could see us going back to a Magnolia League with Tulane, Rice, SMU, Tulsa, AFA, Army, Navy, and TCU. (perhaps Baylor as well) and trying to sell that as a good thing. Or MWC II, AFA, SMU, Rice, Tulane, Tulsa, UH, UTEP, UNLV, Wyo., TCU, CSU, UNM. Or Neutered Big XII, Baylor, SMU, TCU, KU, KSU, ISU, TT, BYU, OSU, UH, Louisville and Memphis. It all depends on scenarios.

[Stallion]

reading well into this link about CUSA affiliation with Liberty and the Pizza Bowl,it says CUSA has not decided which bowl CUSA will send its champion:


"It's really up to the bowls to decide where we go," Conference USA associate commissioner Alfred White said.

In the past bowl cycle, the C-USA champion had been playing in the Liberty. White said the C-USA champ would likely not play in Bir­mingham, and that a site for the league's winner is still being determined.

The fact that C-USA won't necessarily play annually in the Liberty is "something a good partner would do for another partner," White said. "We don't have any reason to believe we won't be treated fairly."



Reading between the lines, I believe it might not be either Liberty Bowl or Pizza Bowl and leaving open possibility for Dallas Football Classic for a CUSA West Champion.

http://blog.al.com/solomon/2010/04/maki ... apajo.html

[RGV Pony]

for those of us who expressed a lack of zeal for bowling in Memphis (though, admittedly, any bowl is a good bowl)....Birmingham is much, much, much worse.

[Bergermeister]

There is possibility which I clearly stated in improving our position.

People, we have got to start paying attention. Bueller. Bueller?

[JasonB]

So, I see one of two scenarios...

Scenario 1: PAC ten adds a couple, big ten adds a couple, and there is some conference reshuffling, witht he Big East also adding a couple. UTAH/BYU would be gobbled up, so the MWC would no longer be in the running for an automatic bid.

Scenario 2: the 4 16 team super conference scenario. In reality, this is really 8 8 team conferences, where each conference champion plays another conference champion in the first round of the playoffs, so we have an 8 team playoff. Under my count,t here are currently 65 BCS teams. So, doesn't this move actually result in less BCS teams?

Am I missing something here? In reality, the purpose of either of these two moves is to effectively remove the non-BCS schools from championship contention, correct?

Anyway, if the final count of BCS teams actually decreases under scenario number 2, I don't see why that would be the best chance of us joining one of the big conferences. I would argue that the chances are higher in scenario 1, because more teams are added to the BCS mix.

Of course, the other item to think about - would you rather be able to win conference USA or would you rather be Baylor with no hope of ever winning the big 12?

[gostangs]

I dont think the 16 team scenario is for sure limited to 4 super conferences - in fact I think they (BCS) believe they can bring in more revenue on a net basis to each member by making it 5 super conferences (80 teams) and just being more selective about the schools (media markets) and also having a defacto required inner conference championship game (more tv money) and a structure that will lead to a bowl hosted playoff system (more money) and a more defendable structure then the current BCS structure.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

It is always good to hear about good things that may be happening to SMU. Just because it is a positive for us doesn't mean it has to be wrong.

mathman I agree....but it really pisses off a few people on PonyFans when it appears something good could be happening at SMU...they race in to tell us..."June Jones is not coming here"...they race in to tell us "we dont stand a chance against Tulsa"...they race in to tell us "we will regret not hiring Todd Dodge"....they race in to brag about Gary Patterson's NFL players but when shown June Jones has just about as many or more they say "well June didnt recruit them all"....anything to sling dung at SMU. Demean the Mustang Club as a mainly a bunch of suck-ups....demean other fund raising effforts...dig dig dig to find dirt on SMU and brag as much as possible about everybody else! You notice like in the thread about ThadFilms new video not one word from Dr Negative! You think that is an accident? Hell no....he wants no part of something showing SMU in a great light.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I think his words were, SMU would "rue the day" we didn't hire Todd Dodge, and "it won't matter who starts at qb, SMU will not beat Tulsa. Pretty close though.

[BIGHORSE]

I think his words were, SMU would "rue the day" we didn't hire Todd Dodge, and "it won't matter who starts at qb, SMU will not beat Tulsa. Pretty close though.

But the person of which you speak is always right and never wrong!

[EastStang]

I think there is also the mixed bag scenario where some BCS conferences jump to 16 while others jump to 12 or try to get back to 12. If for example the SEC, Big 10 jumped to 16 and raided the Big XII, ACC and BE, and the PAC 10 moved to 12 raiding the MWC and the Big XII, then you would see some openings from the remnants of the Big XII, ACC and BE to add some teams to get back lost members. Whether the BE, Big XII or ACC would keep their BCS status after the raids, would depend upon what teams leave which conferences. If, for example, FSU, and Clemson leave the ACC for the SEC, and if Rutgers and Pitt leave the BE for the Big Ten (16) (and ND for all sports), then you have some shuffling starting. The ACC would go after Syracuse and maybe WV. That leaves Louisville, Cincy, USF, UConn out there exposed and they would need to add four teams to keep their conference status for football. They would want teams that not only help their football brand but also don't hurt their basketball brand. In that scenario Temple, Memphis and UAB might look pretty good to them. But they also need to shore up football. How far west and south would they go? USM, ECU, UCF? All possibilities in that scenario. Do they extend football only invites to Army and Navy? Let's suppose that the Big XII loses Missouri, NE, Colorado, UT and A&M? Who do they backfill to get back to 12. The candidates would appear to be TCU, BYU, SMU, UH, Rice, UTEP, Tulane, CSU, Boise, NM, and AFA. Or do they go to 16? And where do the politicians fit in all of this in forcing teams on specific conferences? And then of course is the gravity scenario four or five years from now, when fault lines begin to develop in these new alliances. Can the SEC and Big Ten live with 16 teams for the long term? The WAC couldn't. Would there come a time for example if UT and A&M went to the SEC and got tired of playing 8 meat grinder games and being shut out of title games as a result. Would Tennessee for example be happy to replace Vandy on its schedule every year with A&M (basically losing an additional home game with a patsy)? I really think the 16 team scenario is a huge canard. I see it more likely that the conferences act rationally and the PAC 10, Big Ten agree to expand to 12 which would mean that either Missouri or ND joins the Big Ten, Colorado, UT, or BYU join the PAC 10, and BYU and possibly one other team fills in for the second loss (if there is one) in the Big XII.

[mr. pony]

My guess:
SMU is IN - with the new Big 12: the Big 16 - along with TCU, Arkansas and Houston
Now there's a conference.

[Mexmustang]

I enjoyed the posts, but disagree with one statement, "SMU and TCU will bring in the same TV market". From what my friends in the industry say, that this isn't true. TCU obviously scores well in Ft. Worth, but very poorly everywhere else in the Metroplex. SMU has the potential to be a far greater TV team across the majority of the area than TCU. If we can just keep improving...well maybe...