Our following is only there when we win big on a consistent basis against big name teams. Our fans are the reason we aren’t in a P5 conference. When you can’t consistently sell out a 40K stadium, win or lose, you will find few suiters.
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If we were in a p5 now, we’d sell out the bb arena like we’re doing now plus football would sell out and we’d have to expand the stadium. We’d be a force in a p5 conf. People forget how much we’ve grown as a school with more dorms etc than when we were in the SWC. In the SWC , our athletic success was way ahead of the quality of our school. Now with RK , our school is ready for the next stage and we will have a school to back up our athletic success. If you put LSU or UT in the American their attn would drop like a bomb just like any. Our recruiting would pick up and we’d compete and matter more in football. In bb and other sports there are no barriers so we can keep selling out in bb if we’re a factor but A&M etc have trouble as well on the bb side when not good. It’s the football side that needs a p5 to sell it out on a regular basis. If we got invited to a p5 tomorrow, I guarantee we’d sell the fb stadium out and keep good fb coaches to maintain it. Issue is Hermann left bc we weren’t a p5 then we have to start all over which hurts attn.
This isn’t your dad’s UH , We’ve grown and all we need is a p5 invite or for Dana to be good and stay for 10 yrs.We also only need to max out a 40 or 50k stadium or mostly full in a p5 which is very doable.
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That’s because UCONN resides in a state with a population of 4 million and UH resides in a city with a population of 6 million (greater metro area). We have more TV viewers in Houston than the entire state of Connecticut.
The state of Texas has nearly 30 million residents . There are non UH fans who will tune in to UH athletics if there is a football or basketball championship run in the making.
Also UCONN’s football legacy is below average. In 22 seasons, they’ve only had 7 winning seasons.
P-5 conferences probably review a number of criteria before admission consideration: television viewership, attendance, academics, history of athletic achievement, revenue generation, research, etc.
I’m guessing UH surpasses UCONN multiple times over, which leads me back to my original assertion that winning a NC in basketball and/or a winning basketball program will advance UH’s P-5 membership chances.
The publicity gained from a football or basketball championship run for any program shines light on the conference and conferences love the attention.
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I attend both UH football and basketball religiously and at one point was more a football than basketball guy. But with the way things are now football won’t sniff a championship no matter how good we are or our facilities are. Basketball on the other hand can compete for one every year. I think we need to keep football strong, competitive knowing that for some coaches it’s going to be a stepping stone gig. Basketball has the potential to build UH into a national brand name. Basketball needs to be the coaching destination job and Sampson has it heading that way. We are not there but getting there. Don’t get me wrong I am not saying that we ignore football financially but that we need to realize the limitations football has right now and play according.
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Absolutely. Football is a cartel. If you’re in the SEC, you don’t even have to win your division to make the CFB. We stand a snowball’s chance in Hades of making the CFP in the AAC. But we can win an NCAA championship in MBB regardless of our conference affiliation.
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It’s the CFI (College Football Invitational).
One thing I see is other than Utah and the CUSA teams that joined the Big East is no schools that have been outside the BCS/P5 pecking order have joined those leagues since the BCS/P5 system was formed in 96. They might shuffle schools from one league to the other, but they don’t seem to want to add anyone that is from outside of their cartel. I will believe they will add schools like that when I see them do it.
Louisville was added to the ACC in 2014 for both their fb and bb success.
Notice if you read, the ACC noticed all sports at UL which includes bb so they judged the overall program not just fb.
If we can keep basketball at an elite level (which I think we will) and get football to be a lower top 25 type program (which I think we will) the world will be our oyster.
Being great in basketball and just good in football is a very effective combination. None our traditional adversaries begrudge our basketball success, in fact I think they pull for us.
Add in baseball and thats a strong force. Absolutely no excuse why Coog Baseball should not be a National Powerhouse
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