Rumor mill starting early...

[EKU05]

So Delaware is going FBS. Will the NCAA make them change their helmets since they copied Michigan winged helmets?

I don't think you can copyright that, and if you could I don't know what being FBS or not would have to do with copyright law.

But neither of them had it first anyway. It was brought to Michigan from Princeton.

It could become an issue if they play each other.

I mean, one will have white jerseys on and one will have blue (and it's not even the same blue on their helments). I don't think it's any different than if two teams with solid white, or red, or gold helmets played each other. Notre Dame and Boston college used to face each other in a yearly rivalry game with gold helmets on both teams (the only difference a small stripe for BC). For years Louisville and Kentucky both wore white helmets all the time until we entered into the multi-helmet era.

[EKU05]

I thought I'd add to this that Tarleton State rocketed up the attendance charts this year to average 18,697 out of nowhere, which was good for 5th nationally in FCS and just ahead of national champion South Dakota State in 6th. Apparently they are also about to get R1 status. I didn't actually realize they were already an R2.

We fell a few spots to 17th averaging 11,655, but at least we're keeping good academic company. 18-20 respectively were Yale, Harvard, and The Citadel.

What does all of this mean? I think our only shot at all to get into C-USA is if they go to 14, which is far from certain given the new structuring of things, and if Missouri State turns them down. I don't think we have a snowball's chance in you know where of beating out UMass, Tarleton, or MSU assuming they are interested, and at least the first two almost definitely are.

I believe Missouri State has an ongoing president search that may dictate some things going forward.

[RollKerns]

BIG NEWS!! And honestly pretty good news too.

UMASS is headed to the MAC. Which I feel like was always the most likely outside of them staying independent. CUSA fans always felt like there were going to come with Delaware. I’d say CUSA will at least get one more team now and the primary contender is out of the way. Three team race now:

Tarleton St
Missouri St
EKU

With a new RKS id say we’re first.

[BleedMaroon]

This also means mac will probably be adding one more school….

[EKU05]

This is the kind of surprise we needed!

But as always...it's dangerous. We're either getting our ticket to the show or we're getting left further behind. Excuse my negative energy, but we've been burned in these kinds of exciting moments before.

-Where (if anywhere) does Missouri State go?
-Do we lose Tarleton from the UAC?
-Is there any chance WKU gets tempted by the MAC again? I doubt it, but it's worth considering.

[EKU05]

Just as I post that, I read that Kyle Rowland is reporting that there continues to be mutual interest between WKU and the MAC. If you get them out of C-USA you both remove something of an obstacle, and you create the need to add a travel partner for MTSU.

[ekugrad1970]

No way C USA takes us unless wku goes to Mac… and now with Tarleton on the move up they probably are ahead of us…..

[EKU05]

No way C USA takes us unless wku goes to Mac… and now with Tarleton on the move up they probably are ahead of us…..

There are a couple of things to unpack there:

1. Yes, Tarleton is ahead of us. But if WKU leaves that puts C-USA back at ten schools. They would likely go to at least twelve which would give us a nice shot. Some have speculated they may even go to fourteen in the not-too-distant future. However, Missouri State may be the wildcard here. It's hard to know what, if anything, they are going to do. It's not entirely impossible that Delaware decides to pay C-USA off and join UMass as well, though I'm not betting on that one.

2. WKU doesn't want us in C-USA, but they can't stop us on their own. With UMass out of play and Missouri State iffy, the pickings are getting slimmer. We have several schools really on our side in that league as well, so I wouldn't categorically rule it out.

3. But that may not end up mattering. The MAC is now at 13, and they will almost certainly go to 14. If it's Missouri State then our odds get better just because the one school other than Tarleton that might beat us out is off the table. If it's WKU, and there are already reports that the two sides are engaging, then our chances go up even more.

[ColonelFan22]

Why is Tarleton ahead of us? Is it the TAM money? Or because they are in Texas which seems important to CUSA? Is it because those on the CUSA board have been convinced they are next up? This is a school that just moved up from D2, I just don’t see it except for the AM $$$ and the zip code.
Interesting, Billy Gillespie is their
Men’s BB coach

[EKU05]

Why is Tarleton ahead of us? Is it the TAM money? Or because they are in Texas which seems important to CUSA? Is it because those on the CUSA board have been convinced they are next up? This is a school that just moved up from D2, I just don’t see it except for the AM $$$ and the zip code.
Interesting, Billy Gillespie is their
Men’s BB coach

I think they may like the location, but have you looked at the facilities they have and/or are actually starting to build already? All of their facilities are already better than all of ours (even after the coming basketball renovation for us).

Have you seen the spike in their football attendance? They even have a better basketball team than we do, and we're pretty good. They just have more in hand than we do, and the location probably helps...though if WKU bolts and MTSU needs a new travel partner the scales may tip in our favor.

Enrollment is similar, but they probably have more growth potential than we do in that market.

Let me turn the question around. For what tangible reason would we be ahead of them outside of just stating that they are a recent D2 move-up?