Now that the Big12 dog and pony show is over!

[Rebel1986]

I think the Big12, otherwise known as Texas (this market is mostly U. of Texas and dozens of other schools splitting up the states market) and the seven dwarfs minus 1, has really screwed themselves into the corner making enemies of a lot of schools. After all of these schools like Houston, Memphis, Cinn, byu, etc wasted their time with the Big12 games.

If you look at the schools that are still out and about not in P5 conferences, you can make up a conference that has a superior TV market to the Big12. They really only have small market states which include West Virginia, two teams splitting each Oklahoma and Kansas

Those include (metro markets):
Houston #9
San Diego #18
Orlando (UCF) #19
Las Vegas #31 new pop. numbers show up to #29
Cinn #32
Memphis #46
Fresno #58
Boise #83 - good football team make up for small market

You also have teams in split markets:
Denver (CSU) #17
Utah (BYU) - Based on all of the world wide Mormon followers this is a good market

Makes you wonder about the option of a conference with a eastern and western division

 

[rebswin2]

The markets size is there but the TVs in those markets are turned to other games, other than byu in Utah and Boise and Fresno none of those schools are the most watched school in their markets.

Houston-Big12/SEC (UT, A&M)
San Diego-PAC12 (SC, UCLA)
Orlando-SEC/ACC Florida, FSU, Miami)
Las Vegas-All P5 conferences (Whoever the bet is on?)
Cincy-BIG10/SEC (OSU, Kentucky)
Memphis-SEC (Tenn, Ole Miss, Vandy)
Denver-PAC12 (CU)

With all of that said, something needs to be done to make a conference that would be considered next best after the P5 and it makes sense to do it with those schools. Probably throw UCONN, and E. Carolina in there too.

 

[Rebel1986]

In regards to UNLV basketball on TV it pulls in ratings that are 10X that of any other schools games when at their peak. Football doesn't get attention because of 20 years of losing, but you still can go into any store and finds a lot of UNLV gear and very little of any other college. A winning UNLV program will bring the attention which has already shown signs of life. This next game attendance verse CSU will be a very good sign to how much things have or have not improved regarding game attendance. The fact that Fox5 was willing to pay for the game to be on TV was a good sign of how things have been changing.

While the other schools may not currently control their cities, it is also unlikely the city is controlled by any single other school either. They will need to continue to develop a fan based and following:


Colorado - averages mid 30's based on 2015 attendance, They are far from controlling the market. CSU gets smaller crowds because they do not play the big games verse teams. Better conference better crowds. I guess that really isn't much to say since Colorado was going nowhere in their old conference and continues to go nowhere with the rare exception of this year being good.

Houston - While Texas A&M does get huge crowds, Houston has made great inroads into the market and has started to take control of the market in the Houston area. When it comes to recruiting in Houston they have managed to get most of the top recruits to stay home. I have no question that Houston is the top non P5 school in Texas and has far more potential than TCU and Texas Tech. As for Texas and Texas A&M there are very few programs in the Country that get their crowd sizes. But, I still think Houston will continue to take more and more control of the home town audience.

San Diego - I always read and hear everyone saying that market is controlled by the Pac12, but when you are in San Diego, I just don't see that. I see SDSU as one of those programs that is slowly taking ownership of their cities market. In basketball they already completely dominate all other teams in California.

UCF -The other universities you listed are 235, 237, and 122 miles from Orlando. If people in Orlando are going to connect to any school outside of where they received their degree this would be the most likely in regards to attendance. UCF is a much bigger university than any of the other 3 so put out far more alumni which will help in their future growth. UCF has close to 65K students. Central Florida has only had a football team since 96 and already is closing in on 35-40K per game.

The same can be said about Cinn and Memphis who have both been pouring money into their athletic department and facilities.

 

[dcut03]

This is a duplicate post from the Confi board, but most of the material applies here. It was in response from the idea of forming a new conference or inviting UH into the MW.

Living in Houston, I can tell you a few things.
I think there is little to no chance that UH joins the MWC. It would be seen as a HUUUGE step down (and it probably would be) at least in it's current state. MWC does not have any respect. We did not get any respect around here even when we had BYU,TCU, and Utah and were winning BCS level bowls.
The American is a better conference now. Now if Joe's idea comes though and UNLV SDSU Boise and BYU come together to form a new conference, then maybe UH would be interested. But that would be a shaky proposition. They would need to have a TV deal worked out ahead of time with some good money up front.
UH is screwed because Houston is owned by other Texas schools. Both in recruiting and TV viewership. UH is gaining ground but they are still behind A&M, Texas, and even Texas Tech in terms or recruiting in state. Not to mention practically any other top college program since Houston is a top 5 recruiting market.
Because of this they have an uphill battle getting into the Big 12 and now the SEC since A&M is a member. Big 12 was desperate so they were considered. But I think that fact that Houston almost had to be one of the expansion schools this time around killed the idea of expansion. That and the rest of the conference did not want to share TV money to any school.
Though UH is getting more buzz around the locals these days. Now if they can maintain success after Herman leaves (he is good as gone now no Big 12, he was probably gone anyway) that would be difficult. UH does hire some really good coaches. Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin, now Herman being recent ones. It would be possible to slowly get a bigger piece of the Houston market.

 

[LocoRebel]

San Diego - I always read and hear everyone saying that market is controlled by the Pac12, but when you are in San Diego, I just don't see that. I see SDSU as one of those programs that is slowly taking ownership of their cities market. In basketball they already completely dominate all other teams in California.

To be entirely honest with you, when I go to San Diego for anything other than a football or basketball game, I honestly don't think I can say I've ever seen an SDSU shirt, hat, or hoodie. Maybe a bumper sticker. Still primarily see USC and UCLA, but also, like Vegas, lots of "we aren't from 'round these parts" types. Mid west and east coast stuff.


Not to argue, but as I was reading your post I couldn't myself.

 

[LocoRebel]

UH is screwed because Houston is owned by other Texas schools. Both in recruiting and TV viewership. UH is gaining ground but they are still behind A&M, Texas, and even Texas Tech in terms or recruiting in state.

No question they're behind UT and A&M, but to be fair, in 2016, UH recruiting class was higher ranked than TT. Probably not usually the case, but it wouldn't be surprising if it is moving foward.

 

[rebswin2]

To be entirely honest with you, when I go to San Diego for anything other than a football or basketball game, I honestly don't think I can say I've ever seen an SDSU shirt, hat, or hoodie. Maybe a bumper sticker. Still primarily see USC and UCLA, but also, like Vegas, lots of "we aren't from 'round these parts" types. Mid west and east coast stuff.


Not to argue, but as I was reading your post I couldn't myself.

I live in San Diego and agree. I'm in Sports bars every weekend I'm in town during football season, which isn't every weekend because I travel to a lot of games, but I can tell you this when SDSU is playing in TV rarely are there games on in the bars, I always pay attention and make a comment about it, that SDSU is on right now yet not one person in this bar cares.

San Diego absolutely is a PAC market, it's not even close.

 

[rebelx]

This is a duplicate post from the Confi board, but most of the material applies here. It was in response from the idea of forming a new conference or inviting UH into the MW.

Living in Houston, I can tell you a few things.
I think there is little to no chance that UH joins the MWC. It would be seen as a HUUUGE step down (and it probably would be) at least in it's current state. MWC does not have any respect. We did not get any respect around here even when we had BYU,TCU, and Utah and were winning BCS level bowls.
The American is a better conference now. Now if Joe's idea comes though and UNLV SDSU Boise and BYU come together to form a new conference, then maybe UH would be interested. But that would be a shaky proposition. They would need to have a TV deal worked out ahead of time with some good money up front.
UH is screwed because Houston is owned by other Texas schools. Both in recruiting and TV viewership. UH is gaining ground but they are still behind A&M, Texas, and even Texas Tech in terms or recruiting in state. Not to mention practically any other top college program since Houston is a top 5 recruiting market.
Because of this they have an uphill battle getting into the Big 12 and now the SEC since A&M is a member. Big 12 was desperate so they were considered. But I think that fact that Houston almost had to be one of the expansion schools this time around killed the idea of expansion. That and the rest of the conference did not want to share TV money to any school.
Though UH is getting more buzz around the locals these days. Now if they can maintain success after Herman leaves (he is good as gone now no Big 12, he was probably gone anyway) that would be difficult. UH does hire some really good coaches. Art Briles, Kevin Sumlin, now Herman being recent ones. It would be possible to slowly get a bigger piece of the Houston market.

Agree with most of what you say here, EXCEPT, that Houston was begging to be apart of the MWC back when Utah, BYU and TCU were in it.

If a new conference is formed with the schools 86 is mentioning, I would guess that Houston would be interested.

 

[dcut03]

Agree with most of what you say here, EXCEPT, that Houston was begging to be apart of the MWC back when Utah, BYU and TCU were in it.

If a new conference is formed with the schools 86 is mentioning, I would guess that Houston would be interested.

Maybe UH had interest back then. I will tell you though locally amongst the fans the MWC had little respect. Now Back then UH wasn't so good and there wasn't nearly a big of a Buzz around the program. They were also a part of C-USA which was an obvious step down from the MWC at the time.

 

[Rebel1986]

The level of respect that the MWC receives will depend a lot on how much the UNLV football program continues to improve.

Currentyl SDSU and BSU are the class of the conference with other programs like CSU and Air Force having some good years and some bad years.