NY Post - It is official, Catholic 7 Leaving Big East

[GiddyUp]

Wow what sh*t news. If Larry brown leaves I am giving up on SMU athletics altogether. This is just getting depressing.

Larry Brown isnt leaving and SMU hoops has a very bright future.
.

KTP - LB has been selling BE to top recruits. Just a bit worrisome to me. We could possibly lose him and recruits, tough to say.

[mustangxc]

so you guys would rather play UMASS every year than stay.

Duh. You invited UTSA.

UTSA won 8 games.

UMASS won 0.

Lets not fight friend.

UTSA faced 4 FCS teams. UMASS at least has hoops respectability. Remember "refuse to lose"?

[mustangxc]

My idea is to get the best possible basketball conference while keeping football solid (i.e. at our current level of competition or slight improvement). I think the teams I proposed would fulfill those objectives and we would probably land a $4-6 million per team tv contract. Add BYU if they will go for it.

[ponyboy]

Focusing on best possible basketball conference may be our best bet, prestige-wise. But I cannot imagine a scenario in which we are better than the CUSA we left behind (pre UTSA, etc) on the football side.

[SoCal_Pony]

look at the footprint of the SEC and start counting the best non-BCS schools. They will be in our Conference or if in a Division it would be a National Conference with a Big East/MWC blend.

Cincy
UH
UCF
USF
Southern Miss
SMU
Memphis
etc

I'll stop at 8 for a Divisional type situation but if there was no merger with Western schools you would keep adding

Unless 'etc' has suddenly become a school, I count 7…but I digress

Just how much $$$ can a conference like that fetch? We might earn $3M per year while Tech, Baylor and TCU all earn $30M each. Just don’t see how we can compete in the long term.

Oh, and of those teams you listed, only UH will guarantee a draw of over 20,000 fans at Ford and that is if both teams are decent.

Maybe some will now better understand why many on this board are so pissed at JJ and his reach for mediocrity rather than excellence. JJ has been here for 5 years. On Christmas Day, he most likely will have given us 2 winning seasons. HoHoHo

[GiddyUp]

Make a new conference - "Best of the Rest" conference

[SoCal_Pony]

Wow what sh*t news. If Larry brown leaves I am giving up on SMU athletics altogether. This is just getting depressing.

Larry Brown isnt leaving and SMU hoops has a very bright future.
.

KTP - LB has been selling BE to top recruits. Just a bit worrisome to me. We could possibly lose him and recruits, tough to say.

Or we could still get good recruits, but not great ones. No way to spin it, this is terrible news for the one program that could excell here.

[Comet]

Let's head west, MWC is a solid conference with more top 25 teams in both football and basketball than current CUSA. The MWC is in direct competition with just the PAC-12, so if we could head over there and make a significant impact it'll only draw the PAC-12's eyes towards Texas and us even more. IT's pretty much the only path towards one day being in a major conference. I really don't see much of an upside sticking with Tulane, ECU, USF, UCF, Memphis, NAvy, etc. We know Cincy and UConn will bolt momentarily so I don't think it's wise to include them with that core of teams. There's also a lot of dialog between Boise State, BYU, the MWC and apparently SMU/Houston as well. Heading west could definitely provide us the most stable all-sports conference.

[Stallion]

Little Secret-not a single Big East team would have drawn flys either. We are on our own. Either our fanbase wants to pay to support College Football or they don't.

[ponyinNC]

Let's head west, MWC is a solid conference with more top 25 teams in both football and basketball than current CUSA. The MWC is in direct competition with just the PAC-12, so if we could head over there and make a significant impact it'll only draw the PAC-12's eyes towards Texas and us even more. IT's pretty much the only path towards one day being in a major conference. I really don't see much of an upside sticking with Tulane, ECU, USF, UCF, Memphis, NAvy, etc. We know Cincy and UConn will bolt momentarily so I don't think it's wise to include them with that core of teams. There's also a lot of dialog between Boise State, BYU, the MWC and apparently SMU/Houston as well. Heading west could definitely provide us the most stable all-sports conference.

Comet, I agree completely.

[SoCal_Pony]

Little Secret-not a single Big East team would have drawn flys either. We are on our own. Either our fanbase wants to pay to support College Football or they don't.

THIS is why I am rather pessimistic about all this.

[mustangxc]

Focusing on best possible basketball conference may be our best bet, prestige-wise. But I cannot imagine a scenario in which we are better than the CUSA we left behind (pre UTSA, etc) on the football side.

CUSA New Conference
SMU SMU
Houston Houston
UCF UCF
Memphis Memphis
Tulsa UCONN
Southern Miss Cincinnati
East Carolina USF
Rice UCF
UTEP UMASS
Marshall Villanova/Georgetown
UAB
Tulane

I think football would have some better teams at the top. The bottom would be slightly worse, but those teams are great for basketball. No matter what teams we add, we won't be able to forge a premiere football conference, but by putting this league together we have the strongest possible football league and one of the top basketball leagues. Ask BYU if they would be interested in this scenario and if they are you include Villanova and Georgetown.

[alyssa]

Says UMass faculty want football in FCS.

https://twitter.com/HustleBelt/status/2 ... 4111335424

[PonySnob]

This causes a serious case of butthurt!!!

[Comet]

Little Secret-not a single Big East team would have drawn flys either. We are on our own. Either our fanbase wants to pay to support College Football or they don't.

THIS is why I am rather pessimistic about all this.

Yup, SMU really probably has about 5-10 years to turn it around before being stuck in a tier 2 level of football forever.