jdcurran235 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 So the only good adds I see are MSU, UM, SacSt, UC Davis and LU. SHSU does not have the fan support. CalPoly does not have the DMA.
coachacola Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 Portland doesn't have football. They won't be a pick. The WAC is now looking for two football schools after adding two basketball schools in Seattle and UTA. Portland State has football and they are a candidate. They play at newly renovated MLS soccer stadium that holds 22K. They have a tiny basketball arena so that's a big drawback. UC-Davis is close to SJSU and they are a big school but I don't think they are looking to move up. The UTA move has really shaken my confidence in Lamar moving to the WAC. I'm still standing by my belief that Lamar gets an invite if the Montana schools don't join. If they do then I'm hoping in a few years after that the WAC decides to expand to 14 teams or a couple of football schools leave.
Big T Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 So the only good adds I see are MSU, UM, SacSt, UC Davis and LU. SHSU does not have the fan support. CalPoly does not have the DMA. Neither did UTA. If the WAC thinks they can bring in the Houston market with SHSU then they will try to go get them.
Big T Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 I didn't look at Portlnd state i just looked at Portland Pilots. The name of the feild is Jeld-Wen Feild.
jdcurran235 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 UTA is in the middle of the metroplex. I think that is why they overlooked attendance figures. Also UTA is not playing football so there is no minimum attendance requirement for them. I dont think that SHSU and UTA are a fair comparison. In my personal opinion I think SHSU would have been a better overall add for the WAC than UTA.
Bearkat25 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 UTA is in the middle of the metroplex. I think that is why they overlooked attendance figures. Also UTA is not playing football so there is no minimum attendance requirement for them. I dont think that SHSU and UTA are a fair comparison. In my personal opinion I think SHSU would have been a better overall add for the WAC than UTA. As much as I love SHSU I don't agree with that assessment. I think that once UTA gets football going it has the potential to be a better add than SHSU or any other school in the east could have been. They have more cash, DMA, student population then any other candidate in the central time zone. It will take time but they have potential to become a player in the new WAC. IMO LU looked to have been a beter add right now but i think that UTA has the potential ( I stress potential) to be a really good long term addition.
jdcurran235 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 It is just hard for me to see UTA ever becoming any sort of a draw in that area. It took TCU basically almost playing for a national championship to become any sort of a draw. Like you said UTA has potential, but how much in reality. I dont think that much.
Guest bigred360 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 Well, I hope once they add football more than a few thousand will show up. I'm really interested to see the MBB average attendance for this coming year. Last season it was 800. That isn't a typo not 8,000 but 800. Lamar WBB average attendance doubled their Men. It may be that they are a better long term solution for the WAC. But, I stress it will be a very long term proccess. Like over a decade to get football off the ground and get attendance up for their other sports. They may be in the D/FW metroplex but the don't own any part of it. They aren't even the most popular college team in Arlington. That college team would be TCU. I lived in North Texas for over 5 years including about six months in Arlington. I've been to their campus several times and it is nothing more than a commuter school. You go out to eat and the restaurants don't have UTA banners hanging. They have TCU, SMU, UT, and ATM. I agree with JD, SHSU or Lamar would have been a better choice. Now, we'll just sit back and if we aren't picked up in the next couple years by the WAC we'll see how the Mavericks are doing. LOL
jdcurran235 Posted July 16, 2011 Posted July 16, 2011 I lived in Dallas for about 3 years and still have lots of family in Dallas. This is why I have this sentiment. I also had a friend graduate from UTA last year who has the very same sentiment as me. He actually thought it as a bad move for UTA to move due to increased expenses that will not be supported by anyone at the school or in the local area.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Do you think there is a chance LU could go FBS independent if we are not able to get any invites by our 2015-2016 goal of going FBS.
Guest CardAmbassador Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Do you think there is a chance LU could go FBS independent if we are not able to get any invites by our 2015-2016 goal of going FBS. I do not see that as a possibility because it would be expensive. How could we convince teams to play us at home if we weren't in a conference? How would we recruit quality players if we can't promise them they would compete for anything? There are going to be so many other chances to get a look at a conference invite I'm not sure it will even be a thought. UTA definitely hurt our chances of getting in the WAC now, but there is still a slim chance we get an invite. Even if the WAC gets to 9/12 without us it can still split into two separate conference eventually because that makes more sense anyways. The Sun Belt might get poached by someone and then we might come into play. The Big Sky might move up to FBS and that would open things up for LU to jump in to a depleted WAC. There are tons of scenarios for LU to move up still, they are just later rather than sooner. I'll just keep buying my season tickets and supporting all the LU programs as we look for a way into another conference.
Guest bigred360 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Personally, I don't think it is in the best interest of Lamar to go FBS independent. We aren't like Texas or BYU who can get large TV contracts. If I'm right that is one thing that hurt LU football before was playing I-AA (FCS) independent. However, we need to do everything possible to get out of the SLC. The league has lost three Texas teams to the WAC and could lose a Louisiana school to budget cuts in their athletic program.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 ULM and ULL where independent from 96 to 00 and they turned out alright. Independent might be a better option than staying in the WAC. Secondly our athletic budget could get up to 20M+ 4 to five years from now which could make going independent possible. Also teams are always looking to fill there schedule even at the FBS level so although I think scheduling will be a challenge it is also doable. I agree with Billy Tubbs that FBS is going to be required for us to change our stature in the state. Just look at how ULL, LaTech, and UNT look down on us even though they are in all reality no better than us.
TexGator Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 For LU to go FBS Independent in football, the following steps would have to occur (in any order): (1) Start selling a LOT more season tickets (like commitments for 12,000+ season tickets for football, 5,000+ in men's basketball, and 2,000+ in WBB). You pretty much have to look at tickets as pure profit revenue for the athletic department. (2) Sign up 2-3 big paycheck games for every season from 2012-2018. And $250K is not big... think $400K+ per game. Basically, the paycheck games need to be able to fund the entire women's athletic department (outside of basketball). (3) Show ourselves to be quality competition in the Southland. McNeese didn't go down to Coral Gables to get their legs broken by The U because they were just any old team- they got that game because they were a good FCS team. (4) Don't ever play a Division II, Division III, or NAIA school in football or men's basketball... ever again. Check that- you can play 1 of those teams in basketball just to let the players blow someone out and feel good after a tough one early in the season against UT, TAMU, or the like. (5) Bowl around the end zones and move the band over there. If we're going to be serious about FBS football, we need more seating, and more lower-bowl seating between the goal lines that out-of-towners will pay more for than they will for "Row 38". In the Southland, teams don't travel. But even UH fans would drive to Beaumont for a game and we want them to have to pay the good prices. There are a lot of other public steps... and even more behind-the-scenes steps. But that's just me throwing something out there.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Everything you have listed seems to be very attainable at LU. It is 2010 now so we have 5 to 6 years till we reach our deadline / FBS goal. It seems as though we are already working toward point 4. The only one that worries me is if the leadership will push for a stadium expansion by 2015/16.
Guest CardAmbassador Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 Going indy in every sport would be incredibly hard to do without scheduling DII competition. Then we would be better off in the SLC IMO. I think the SLC has a provision that SLC schools must have all NCAA eligible sports in the SLC, you can't have football as the only independent, it would be the entire AD. Then the SLC schools would be mad at us and likely be unwilling to schedule us. I don't see how this could work financially unless we win a National Championship soon or raise the athletic fee to $20/hr.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 I think in the SLC we might have more political power than before. If we threaten to pull all our sports out of the SLC they might have to let us just pull football out. Also there are other FCS conferences that would have no problem with us playing FBS ball and allowing our other sport to be in there conference.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 There is still the SWAC and the southern conference
Guest CardAmbassador Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 There is still the SWAC and the southern conference The SWAC is a step down in every sense of the word. No to the SWAC.
jdcurran235 Posted July 19, 2011 Posted July 19, 2011 I am not saying that we should join the conference. I just think we can use it as a threat to the SLC cause right now the SLC needs us. More than likely I think the SLC would end up having to let us play football somewhere else while we left the rest of our sports in the SLC.
TexGator Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 I am not saying that we should join the conference. I just think we can use it as a threat to the SLC cause right now the SLC needs us. More than likely I think the SLC would end up having to let us play football somewhere else while we left the rest of our sports in the SLC. Is that really the way we want to go about our business? With threats? Just because it's political doesn't mean we have to grandstand.
jdcurran235 Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 You do not want to conduct your business that way but what if the SLC was to force your hand. Or you just tell them that is what you are going to because the SLC rules dont allow any other option and you just let them come up with the offer. I am not saying that this is necessarily what we should do, but I think this could be an option if we don't want to be grouped with ACU and the likes. Another question we should ask ourselves is do we want to hold ourselves back from progress because we want to play nice with the SLC. Also it is not completely improbable that we could go completely independent with a scheduling alliance to the CUSA or something of the sort. The only issue with that is if we want to go to the tournament we would have to go as an at large. I think we have to at the very least ask these questions or we could be stuck at the SLC for life and I know that is not progress.
jdcurran235 Posted July 20, 2011 Posted July 20, 2011 These are the list of conferences we could drop our other sports into, although 3/4 of these are unrealistic. The bolded ones are the ones I would consider realistic based on location. I removed all the FCS conferences that do not have autobids to the tournament. Big Sky Conference • Big South Conference • Colonial Athletic Association • Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference • Missouri Valley Football Conference • Northeast Conference • Ohio Valley Conference • Patriot League • Southern Conference • Southland Conference • Southwestern Athletic Conference • Independents
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