CUSA BB Expansion

[Water Pony]

It strikes me that CUSA is making progress in BB but that Memphis is the giant among boys.

I think we can further accelerate the development and results of CUSA BB by looking at the Big East and its eight teams in the tournament. In the conference they have 16 BB teams, including non-Div. 1A football schools such as Marquette, DePaul, G'Town, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, Seton Hall and, in a special category, Notre Dame.

Idea: Could we strengthen our BB credentials by adding a few BB teams in four major metro markets without having to add more FB teams?

Goal: Providing greater competition and increase rivalries in our geograhies.

Candidates:

Charlotte, Creighton, St. Louis and Xaxier.

These schools would bring geograhic competition for Memphis and Marshall in St. Louis, Cincinnati and Omaha, while bringing in Charlotte for East Carolina.

Result is a 16 team BB Conference with stronger Midwest and North Carolina presences, while also giving us four new large cities to furher cover CUSA BB. Then, CUSA would have the Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, St. Louis, Omaha, Orlando and Charlotte markets to create greater media coverage for CUSA.

[abezontar]

Weren't Charlette and St. Louis in CUSA and left when they added us?

Edit: Charolette and St. Louis were charter members of CUSA and left for the A-10 in 2005-2006.

http://conferenceusa.cstv.com/ot/about-c-usa.html

http://atlantic10.cstv.com/about/atl10-about.html

[Peruna_Ate_My_Rolex]

I can't see why any of those teams would want to leave stronger BB conferences for C-USA. In the case of Charlotte and St.Louis, why leave a solid BBall League for one that they left just a few years ago.

[PonyKai]

St. Louis U. is not a fan of the Atlantic 10 in terms of location and benefits to the basketball program. If you ever get the chance, read the St. Louis Post Dispatch for some insight from the columnists and beat writers. In a perfect world they would like to move to the Missouri Valley Conference, but barring that I suppose CUSA does present a somewhat attractive option to them, even though they left already.

[J.T.supporta]

nothing hurt worse for CUSA when UC and UL left for the big east. lets be thankful that we do have a powerhouse in memphis.

theres probably no way we can add teams in the bball and not in the fb part of CUSA.

[EastStang]

St. Louis and UNCC would not be bad additions. St. Louis because they would love to be part of the CUSA for soccer as well as basketball. UNCC because it would give ECU a rival and travel partner. Other basketball partners that might be looked at might be VCU or South Alabama. They have been very good for a while now. They might like to move up for all sports save football.

[MustangStealth]

St. Louis and UNCC would not be bad additions. St. Louis because they would love to be part of the CUSA for soccer as well as basketball. UNCC because it would give ECU a rival and travel partner. Other basketball partners that might be looked at might be VCU or South Alabama. They have been very good for a while now. They might like to move up for all sports save football.

If either of them wanted to be a part of this conference, they wouldn't have left.

[Longtime]

I think C-USA's efforts would be better spent trying to woo TCU back to the league. TCU would instantly improve football and, probably someday, basketball.

What St. Louis or anyone else would add to C-USA in basketball is not nearly as valuable as what TCU would add in football, plus the historical rivalries in all sports with SMU, Houston and Rice.

TCU left C-USA under an old regime. The new AD might be able to convince the boosters that coming back to C-USA is a good deal. Surely they're tired of having to fly all over the Western US for road games. And not having many BYU or Utah alums around here to talk trash with must suck.

If there's a gracious way to get TCU back into the fold, that should be the No. 1 priority. It probably comes down to economics: how much more money can TCU make in MWC than in C-USA. I'm sure whatever profit TCU makes from the MWC is eaten up by sending the volleyball team cross country for every road conference game.

[Sewanee Stang]

I wouldn't count on TCU returning to CUSA. CUSA has a lot of programs with histories of NCAA tournament success - Memphis,Tulsa, UAB, UTEP, Houston. Those teams and SMU have to step it up. If that happens, then the league will be stronger and will achieve more respect. In my opinion it starts with us.