Newest conference rumor

[jmufan2008]

From a football standpoint, it won't do us any good to be a "northern" school in a southern conference. Kids want to come south to play football. I give as proof the SEC. We do better being the southern destination for kids from the northeast.

Kinda what I was thinking. Seems we always recruit from the north and I feel like we'd lose exposure by going to a southern conference. But I guess unless our student base changes we'd still have pretty good word-of-mouth...still not nearly as good as having other conference schools surrounding your main recruiting area.

[StillJonesn]

You have to register but you can look up actual scanned copies of tax returns on this website.

http://www2.guidestar.org/organizati...ociation.aspx#

This is the revenue each conference reported.

Conference USA
2009 - $45,819,305

Western Athletic Conference
2009 - $15,311,357

Mid-American Athletic Conference
2009 - $11,932,356

Mountain West Conference
2009 - $8,505,447

Sun Belt Conference
2009 - $7,535,311

Colonial Athletic Association
2009 - $7,011,321

The new TV deal is worth over 15 million a year (4 million more a year and 2009). No one is leaving CUSA unless it's to go to the BCS. Holland can talk about travel cost but the 4 million a year the conference gives us will fly a lot of teams around. It would be a stretch for an east cost FBS conference to distribute 1 million a year to each team much less 4 million not to mention a lot better TV package, Bowl line up, stronger basketball etc.

[BDKJMU]

Thought I would pass along the latest rumors. Please note I said rumors. Charlotte is going to be invited to the CAA for football only. This one has me scratching my head but since they don't start football until 2013, I have to think it will be 2015 before they would enter the conference. This leads me to believe the CAA is going to lose a number of members between now and then. This would cause the CAA to be more aggressive with extending its membership.

The conference had 10 members last year. With URI, UMass, Maine, Nova and UNH all being rumored to be leaving and only ODU & GSU joining, that leaves the CAA with 7 football schools. Now, 6 are all sports schools so that is good but 7 schools is thin for football. If JMU, ODU and UD were to leave for FBS, CAA football would be dead. The conference is going to have to bring in some new schools to keep football alive.

The next rumor is that App St has received a written invitation to join CUSA. They have a committee reviewing the invitation to determine if the costs of CUSA are worth the jump from the So Con. Joining FBS is not a done deal for the Mountaineers. CUSA will greatly increase travel costs. The conference's instability is also of concern.

It is rumored that SMU holds the rights to the old Southwest Conference name and could revive that conference with the western CUSA schools and Tulane, Memphis and S. Miss. This would leave the east coast schools with the CUSA name but not enough schools to keep the conference alive.

Thought my fellow zonies might be interested in the latest rumor mill. Should be a lot of news coming out of the next few months. June 30th is always the bewitching date for schools notifying conferences of affiliation change.

Who/what is the source for all these "rumors"?

[bjk3047]

Sun Belt Conference
2009 - $7,535,311

Colonial Athletic Association
2009 - $7,011,321

Granted, it's the Sun Belt....but if you were to tell me the CAA was nipping at the heals of ANY FBS conference, I would have called BS.

[StillJonesn]

I think they lose out big in basketball revenue because they have a better TV deal in football and a couple of bowls now. The MWC is the shocking one. I guess that's what happens when you have your games on some obscure football network only available in the rocky mountains and it doesn't get better losing Utah, BYU, and TCU.

[NH/JMU Saxkow]

When you look at bowl line ups and TV revenue CUSA is by far the best thing going outside of the BCS. If there are anymore shake ups there are better options with more potiental out there now that we can realistically pluck off like New Mexico, Air Force, Temple etc than App State. Any school not in the BCS would be crazy to not take an invite.

The new TV deal is worth over 15 million a year (4 million more a year and 2009). No one is leaving CUSA unless it's to go to the BCS. Holland can talk about travel cost but the 4 million a year the conference gives us will fly a lot of teams around. It would be a stretch for an east cost FBS conference to distribute 1 million a year to each team much less 4 million not to mention a lot better TV package, Bowl line up, stronger basketball etc.

I think what most of us believe is that if CUSA decided to go after a team like New Mexico or Air Force, it would stretch the conference's border too far and would cause a split. Even if you don't have a bus league, it is certainly preferable to have a league with a definitive geographic footprint, instead of being spread out too thin. The western teams would then take New Mexico and Air Force, while the eastern teams would look towards Virginia and NC to fill themselves out.

[StillJonesn]

I doubt they would add a western team without adding Temple, who I actually do believe we are talking to on and off. If they did add a couple western teams though Tulane would just be shifted over to the east.

If they add more teams beyond 12 it's pretty clear we will only play with in our divison anyway. Which is what Holland proposed 3 years ago.

It's more important to get the best candiates and the only way we add anyone IMO is if we lose someone or those teams add value. 90% of the conference is getting on a plane regardless of whoever we add. I don't see much difference in flying 2 hours or 4. The footprint of our conference is really no worse than any other fbs conference.

[tdog231x]

Might as well come clean on this since it's come out now.

I've know this since mid-November. The new East Coast Conference is NOT happening with the new NCAA being that a new conference will have to wait 8 years before getting NCAA bids.

The sports coaches at App had to sign a gag order about the CUSA move until the feasibility committee met.

There were meetings last week between the App feasibility committee, faculty, coaches, SGA, etc. Basically what was said is that we're ready for a move financially.

It's not a complete lock, but it's more-than-likely happening this summer. CUSA is strongly looking at 16 teams which will cut down on east-west travel significantly.

Despite what people say about our TV drawing power, the fact is that we're in the 2nd biggest TV market (Charlotte-Gastonia-Hickory-Boone) in the nation without an FBS team (1st is Sacramento-Modesto).

At the FCS summit in Frisco, ESPN execs told the AD's that the only school they were interesting in showing was App State. That was a public comment made by Charlie Cobb last week.

2011/12 will be our last year in the SoCon.

[waterwagen]

Might as well come clean on this since it's come out now.

I've know this since mid-November. The new East Coast Conference is NOT happening with the new NCAA being that a new conference will have to wait 8 years before getting NCAA bids.

The sports coaches at App had to sign a gag order about the CUSA move until the feasibility committee met.

There were meetings last week between the App feasibility committee, faculty, coaches, SGA, etc. Basically what was said is that we're ready for a move financially.

It's not a complete lock, but it's more-than-likely happening this summer. CUSA is strongly looking at 16 teams which will cut down on east-west travel significantly.

Despite what people say about our TV drawing power, the fact is that we're in the 2nd biggest TV market (Charlotte-Gastonia-Hickory-Boone) in the nation without an FBS team (1st is Sacramento-Modesto).

At the FCS summit in Frisco, ESPN execs told the AD's that the only school they were interesting in showing was App State. That was a public comment made by Charlie Cobb last week.

2011/12 will be our last year in the SoCon.

Wow, congrats to you guys.

[SkinsWizDukes]

I'm jealous.