Its Probably a Good Thing No One Else Expands Now

Cougar Football
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I think it could potentially be a good thing that the other P4 conferences are likely to wait on expansion.

Obviously no one is expanding based off one seasons results, but if the rest of the expansion is delayed to 2024 or 2025 it gives UH the opportunity to string together a few good (hopefully elite seasons).

TCU’s winning (obviously its not everything or Boise would be in the PAC) is what made them more valuable previously, but if we can replicate that, we have advantages that TCU doesn’t (not being private/religious).

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Exactly

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Baylor could still go to Final Four from CUSA.

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Not quite. Do you think players will want to stay if rapeu becomes a proud member of C-USA?

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Why would they do that? Screw Baylor but the little 8 teams still have some value, way more than CUSA teams.

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We need a big season this year!

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I agree. Remember that 1993/1994 was only four years removed from 1989/1990. Right now, 2015/2016 feel far away, too, and I don’t want to be left out again.

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We need another big season this year!

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Everyone is out to win it now including our opponents. Everyone knows what’s on the line.

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TCU building a good brand was a big part of why they got in, but Del Conte doing everything he could to have a good relationship with Dodds was probably just as important.

If bleachergate had never happened and we’d been kissing up to UT and Dodds in the 2000s I think we’d have gotten a very serious look at getting the spot TCU got.

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Potentially!

TCU was (and kind of still is) miles ahead of us as a football program since the end of the SWC.

We are a non-religious state school located in the Houston market. That’s basically our selling point.

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TCU got the invite in the summer of 2012. We’d just come off the 13-1 season (and even a recent NCAA appearance!) and the BOR had approved plans for what would become the Fertitta Center and TDECU Stadium. TCU had certainly built their brand better up to that point, but if there was any sort of objective analysis the Big 12 was going to lose a lot of exposure in Houston and east TX with the Aggies leaving. That’s why A&M recommended us as their replacement. Dallas was still going to be a Big 12 town with sizeable alumni bases from Tech and OU there. We have a much bigger alumni base and enrollment in a huge area the Big 12 should have tried to shore up more than DFW.

But Dodds was basically the de facto Big 12 commish and hated UH and liked Del Conte so there was no need for the conference to look beyond that.

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Great points!

It was 1 season though. If Im the XII, im not basing my decision off one season.

It should also be noted that the Big East (not influenced by Dodds, etc.) found TCU more valuable than UH at the time as well.

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TCU probably was more valuable to the Big East, in the overall.

I think we should have gotten the invitation over TCU to the Big 12, though (if either of us did, which I’m not sure I would have gone with either of us).

Different dynamics.

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I agree with Parialex. The Big East desperately needed an improvement in terms of on field football credibility. The TCU add was also in the works before our 2011 season and before we’d approved the new facilities for what it’s worth as well. Not to mention there wasn’t a situation like the Big 12 where Dallas was literally already the strongest market and the Big 12 was going to lose cultural relevance in Houston.

Honestly the Big 12 probably should have added Louisville over either of us. Though Louisville wouldn’t have been a Dodds lackey like TCU was prepared to be.

But they really should have taken us over TCU between the two of us. TCU had more success but we had the 12 win season, a national attention grabbing 10 win season two seasons prior. And two 8 win seasons sandwiched between a 10 win season where we won CUSA. With all the other reasons we’d have made more sense than TCU that should have been enough football success.

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Plus we are a Research Istitution and have both recebt and past athletic success to speak of.

We are also a large public school and have some influential alums/former students .

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All three of you guys (parialex, TJCoog, UH1927) make great points and Im hoping that very any next round of realignment that the goal is games in a market (ex: PAC wanting games in the Central Time Zone or (extremely unlikely) BIG wanting games in Texas/near alumni in Texas) because at this moment (which Im hoping changes in the next 2-3 years and why I posted this) I think our football product is behind TCU/Cincinnati/Boise St/Memphis/UCF and a couple other schools vying for those potential last few spots in a P4.

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[quote=“TJCoog, post:15, topic:29571, full:true”]
Honestly the Big 12 probably should have added Louisville over either of us. Though Louisville wouldn’t have been a Dodds lackey like TCU was prepared to be. [/quote]
The 5 years prior (2007-2011) Louisville had 6 wins, 5 wins, 4 wins, 7 wins and 7 wins. That would be worse than TCU, WVU or UH. Most people remember Louisville from a decade earlier and not that they had fallen off.

Unfortunately for UH, the 10 win national attention season did not compare to a Rose Bowl win and #2 final ranking, not to mention the Fiesta Bowl season, and the 11 win seasons in 2008 and 2011 around the two big bowls. UH was making good strides, but did not capture the national market the same way TCU did at that time. It was not just about the DFW vs Houston markets. The Del Conte factor was also a plus.

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Realignment won’t happen based on markets or esoteric criteria that people hash out over beers.

It’ll be by brute force. TCU was invited the places they were because they kicked ###.

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There’s nothing we could have done to get into the Big 12 at that time. Dodds and his band of neanderthals hate us and everything we represent. We need to never have anything to do with any of the other Texas schools, if we can help it.

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