Its a shame Marshall couldn't hop on the Big East wagon. But I have to be honest it almost seems like the MAC is getting bigger than C-USA. I know C-USA has more bowls, but if the MAC continues to produce outstanding football teams that could change very soon.
If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.
"Marshall has enjoyed success and exposure through the MAC, which has a strong football reputation. The MAC, however, is labeled as a mid-major conference, while C-USA has the status of a major conference, Marcum said."
C-USA has the status of a major conference?
Everything that is wrong in this world can be blamed on Freddie Prinze Jr.
Prior to the 1998 football regular season, the FedEx Orange, Nokia Sugar, Rose and Tostitos Fiesta Bowls joined with the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern Conferences and the University of Notre Dame to form the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Conference USA also is a signatory to the arrangement with the FedEx Orange Bowl, Nokia Sugar Bowl and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
I figured that the MAC was "bigger" than CUSA because they have 14 schools (this year, but with all the teams jumping/leaving conferences, it's hard to keep up)
Almost finished my 2002-2003 College Football raitings. Watch this space!!!
The sad thing is I can remember a time when SMU being the team to jump would have been one of the biggest sports stories of year. Boy, that death penalty sure killed that program.
Prior to the 1998 football regular season, the FedEx Orange, Nokia Sugar, Rose and Tostitos Fiesta Bowls joined with the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pacific-10 and Southeastern Conferences and the University of Notre Dame to form the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Conference USA also is a signatory to the arrangement with the FedEx Orange Bowl, Nokia Sugar Bowl and the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
I figured that the MAC was "bigger" than CUSA because they have 14 schools (this year, but with all the teams jumping/leaving conferences, it's hard to keep up)
Oh wow, so Conference USA gave their blessing to this whole thing back in the day. And look what that has gotten them, the champion gets an automatic bid to the LIBERTY BOWL!!!!!!!! That's big time!!!!! They're a major conference all right.
Bottom line, Marshall move to C-USA = more money for them (while not being a major conference, C-USA does have a better bowl situation than the MAC). The rest is just B.S.
Everything that is wrong in this world can be blamed on Freddie Prinze Jr.
C-USA had a bid to the Liberty Bowl anyway... it was a holdover from a previous conference, if I remember correctly. What was truly amusing was the Liberty Bowl organizers trying to get the Liberty Bowl in as a BCS bowl.
Personally speaking, I consider the Liberty Bowl to be a mid-major bowl - which fits the teams that play in it, so I'm fine with it. I would've loved to see Marshall in the Big East, but I can see them dominating C-USA without much trouble at all.
Originally posted by Grimis I don't exactly see TCU as a pushover if they remain in the conference.
Well, true - although this is pretty recent (only over the last 2 years). Aside from TCU, though, who else is there? Louisville, Cincinnati, gone. Marshall should be able to handle Southern Miss. Houston seems to be returning back to (sub-.500) form. Besides, I don't think that TCU and Marshall will play each other every year. I just wonder if this means C-USA's going to push for a conference championship game now... in which case, TCU and Marshall might play twice some years.
(This is assuming TCU remains in the conference, though.)
Southern Miss is indeed 5 - 3 (4 - 0). One loss being to Nebraska, no shame there. Surprisingly they didn't give Alabama a good game this year, it seems when Alabama DOES have a good team they come very close to beating them.
And UAB (don't laugh) nearly beat TCU AND Georgia in two consecutive weeks. And their only two conference losses are to undefeated TCU and Southern Miss which they only lost by a combined 8 points.
Southern Miss is the only other real power in that conference now. It'd be an interesting game, but what I'm wondering is (since I haven't done the math), would this knock C-USA's football into 2 divisions? If so, I can't see how Marshall would end up in the same division as Southern Miss (or TCU), which means they wouldn't play every year (except in the championship game). I'm not denying it'll be a good game, but I think that Marshall should have enough to take them. We'll see.. Marshall historically has a good O, S-Miss a good D.
(S-Miss's conference wins this year, for the hell of it: Memphis, South Florida, Cincinnati, UAB. Combined record (conference): 19-15 (11-8), with games upcoming against Houston, Tulane, and TCU. Tulane figures to be the only easy win there.)
I'm not sold on UAB yet; we'll see if they can keep up this playing close (and possibly winning) over the next couple of years.
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