University of Tennessee is also one of those system deals so if you count the whole thing, it's a lot bigger than 30k. That's just UTK which is what knowledgeable people like myself call Tennessee Knoxville
Belmont just accepted an invitation to the Missouri Valley Conference a couple weeks back. Murray State could join them down the road as well.
It's basically the conference for regional universities in Louisiana and East Texas. I've always been a big fan. WAC has hit it hard. SHSU, SFA, Lamar, Abilene had already been raided + Central Arkansas to the Atlantic Sun. SE Louisiana needs to be on the phone with the WAC ASAP. Bring Nicholls as a travel partner. Gets them to 14 with SHSU/NMSU leaving. Southland, if it survives, will backfill with D2 schools from the Lone Star Conference. They've already added A&M-Commerce.
Who would be the MAC school other than Akron to go FCS? EMU? IIRC the MAC is the most institutionally subsidized conference in FBS and that was before covid. If some of those schools don't see enrollment trends change soon they're gonna be cutting tons of sports
Central Michigan has had budget problems. Kent State has to play 3 buy games a year. Those are the 2 that came to mind.
Where is the rest of the schools coming from for CUSA? I guess maybe these schools keep WKU and MTSU from the MAC? They would still need one more for ten though, right? Or do they just go with nine?
If I’m WKU and MTSU and have an offer from the MAC I’m getting the hell out. What are the chances this amalgamation of programs no one wants or just trying to desperately improve their lot are still together 5-10 years from now? Nothing about CUSA suggests long term stability.
I agree. The MAC is like herpes. It’s going to be around forever. I would get it now and confirm my future.
Is this all a big ruse by CUSA to get the exit fee money otherwise it seems as if they are letting Jeff Banks girlfriend make all their decisions
I'm curious how much money JMU is gonna save on hotels traveling to Sun Belt schools instead of CAA locales like Boston, Long Island, Philly, etc
Yeah it’s not like Texas has a history with coaches not living up to expectations or anything Spoiler
All of this realignment has me so fucking strapped. I don’t know how getting more strapped could even be possible at this point. We might be reaching full strap saturation
Word is the Belt adds could join by 2022. Even JMU for all sports potentially. Apparently there's some scholarship loophole because of COVID where they wouldn't have to do an FCS transitional year as an indy. But they'd still have to sit out 2 years on bowl/conference championship eligibility.
Like stated earlier it’s a terrible policy that the league had for decades and JMU voted to enforce it against other schools leaving, so they fucked around and are finding out. Still sucks for the student athletes but don’t feel sorry for the President and AD types there.
JMUs president was also on the appeals committee that denied our basketball appeal yesterday. Agler crying about how this isn’t fair to the athletes is pretty fucking rich
Akron, EMU, Kent State, and Ohio all are struggling I believe financially. The MAC existence as a football conference now is completely dependent on buy games from the B1G and ACC. The conference is a joke now, the financial gap is just so absurd that the league might as well go FCS at this point. I could see Miami, WMU, CMU, NIU, Toledo, Ball State all surviving but for some of the other schools its getting bleak There also is a widening gap in academics between the B1G and the MAC that wasn't as large as it is now as it was 15 years ago. The academic arms race has wrecked the MAC more than athletics- see OU and Akron for examples there as well