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Post by MinerMan2010 on Feb 7, 2012 18:12:25 GMT -5
Official tomorrow. Well, now what? UTEP lost its best Texas rivals in Houston and SMU and now they lose its biggest basketball draw in Memphis. The 7 other teams left in CUSA + us = crap. Hope we move with the MWC teams. Being serious here, I would rather UTEP move to the WAC than stay in CUSA.
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Post by strelz on Feb 7, 2012 18:24:11 GMT -5
I agree...the WAC would be our best bet right now
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Post by BleedingOrange on Feb 7, 2012 20:22:50 GMT -5
C-USA is officially D-EAD.
Now we get to sit back and see just how little we are respected by the other conferences. I don't see anyone beating down our door to join.
It also royally sucks that we are in a "rebuilding" year... I'd love to have beaten the living shit out of these teams one last time before they desert us.
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Post by mistabinks on Feb 7, 2012 23:06:57 GMT -5
No, the new WAC is far worse than the new CUSA. Still, I say UTEP, Tulsa, Rice, and Tulane ditch the rest and hook up with the MWC.
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Post by MinerMan2010 on Feb 8, 2012 0:18:32 GMT -5
No, the new WAC is far worse than the new CUSA. Still, I say UTEP, Tulsa, Rice, and Tulane ditch the rest and hook up with the MWC. I'm not so sure Binks. Is it really smart for us to align ourselves with 3 small private schools? UTEP is more like NMSU, Texas St, and UTSA than it is Rice, Tulsa, and Tulane. I will go more in depth tomorrow, but UTEP needs to be west. |
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Post by MinerMan2010 on Feb 8, 2012 11:34:37 GMT -5
Taking a look at CUSA/MWC/WAC:
As I stated above, why should UTEP remain with Tulsa, Rice, and to a lesser extent Tulane? Rice has 3,262 undergrads, Tulsa has 3,004 and Tulane has 8,338. That's a total of 14,604. UTEP has 18,160 by itself. Texas St has over 27,000 and UTSA has 25,000(all number courtesy of collegeboard.com). Which schools do you think UTEP would be associated with? Small, private schools or large urban ones?
If the MWC and CUSA decide not to join forces, why will happen? The MWC wants to dissolve because their TV contract sucks, but without Memphis, the "Alliance" loses a big TV market and its marquee basketball school. I think remaining in CUSA is a big mistake, look at who is left: Marshall, ECU, Southern Miss, UAB, Tulsa, Rice, and Tulane. Would anybody even miss the 4 eastern schools and Tulane? I don't think so. As PROVEN over the last 5 years, UTEP fans will only come out to see NMSU, Texas, Texas Tech and anybody when we are winning. When we are losing (quite often), it doesn't matter the opponent, attendance suffers. No one came to see Top 25 USM or Colorado St.
The MWC seems like the most attractive choice with UNM, UNLV, Nevada, and Fresno. The MWC has a bad tv contract and their channel isn't available in El Paso, unless you have DIRECtv. The TV contract is the major reason BYU left and is now playing ball in the WCC. Playing in the MWC would give us regular start times, which are better for "working-class" El Paso. No more 5pm Wednesday tip-offs.
The WAC doesn't have big names anymore. However, I think it is a choice UTEP should consider. UT-Arlington is joining the league and they have 25,000 undergrads and just opened a new on campus arena. SJSU, Utah St, Idaho, LaTech, and of course NMSU are the current teams that will be playing next year. Denver and Seattle U join next season with the Texas trio and Boise St joins in 2013-14. Assuming there are no changes, here is what the WAC will look like in 2013, the earliest UTEP could join anyway:
NMSU
Idaho
Utah St
LaTech
San Jose St
UTSA
Texas St
UT-Arlington*
Denver*
Seattle*
Boise St*
It is a far cry from the WAC we used to know, but it has potential and getting local broadcasts would be easier than with the current CUSA or MWC deals. Football would not be a difficult as in CUSA or MWC, which our team desperately needs. Joining the WAC would allow us to schedule the NMSU game, the last week of the season, which I think would make the rivalry even better.
Spare me the recruiting garbage about how it would suffer in the WAC. People want to play for Boise St because they win. Looking at Murray St basketball. They play in the OVC and in some hillbilly city in Kentucky. The OVC isn't on TV very much, but they still get good players. People want to play for winners and UTEP is not a winner because they have a lazy athletic department. At least they hired Tim Floyd, anybody else and we would be a lot worse off.
Join the MWC or WAC, but leave CUSA. It was a dumb move to begin with.
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Post by mistabinks on Feb 8, 2012 14:40:12 GMT -5
I want no part of that version of the WAC. It's terrible. CUSA, MWC, the Alliance. or a new conference with select schools from the MWC and CUSA. Absolutely no to the WAC.
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