The $1 million question...

[Hoop Fan]

Would SMU pay $1 million to join a conference that does not include TCU? Without TCU, you have what amounts to a new conference. I assume the new schools would not share in the exit fees from Lousiville, Cincy, USF and TCU. Therefore, what you really have is another unstable league that stays together in name only allowing Tulane, SMiss, Memphis, Houston, ECU and UAB to pocket a bunch of cash before the next realignment. When the Big East decides to go to 12 in a few years, we'll be right back in the same place again, only difference will be Tulane will be with us and probably Houston if the MWC doesn't get wise and add that market first.

[FWMustang]

It begs two questions:
1. Do we have/Can we get those assurances, rickety as they may be?
2. Has someone realized, and conveyed the message, that we don't have 4-5 years to steadily build this thing up if upheaval is on its way again in 2-3 years? We need to look attractive and we need some emergency plastic surgery!

We need a TCU-like turn around, ala 1997-1998. That said, I don't see any new degree programs being implemented on that short timeline.

We need a miracle, and we need it in the form of a team (coaches & players) that will chuck the past and decide to use what it has now to win. If that means run-n-shoot one week and option the next, so be it. These guys have played football for a long time now, they know what to do.

<small>[ 11-03-2003, 01:52 PM: Message edited by: FWMustang ]</small>

[Charleston Pony]

The answer is already a resounding YES. Forget TCU...this is all about moving eastward and limiting play to only two tie zones; time zones in which there is more national media attention. The west coast has always been victim of the "east coast bias" which results from not having games in "prime time" aka eastern time.

I forget who made the comment, whether it was Copeland or Bennett or may have been Dement...that we have had virtually NO success recruiting in the western part of our conference. Isn't Steve Reindl the only California kid on our roster? I think it's a good move to get more exposure in the southeast. Even though Bennett is rightfully concentrating on kids within that 300 mile radius, doesn't mean more Fla, Ga, Tenn, etc... kids won't someday notice our program and want to be a part of it.