If we wanted to sell stadiums. small 12 because of the closeness. If we wanted a bigger TV market everyone else. PAC would help them host their games at more reasonable times. Outside of USC and UCLA maybe Oregon like pray said wouldnt do much for us (look at Arizona). ACC would be cool for some matchups Notre Dame, Clemson Especially. Teams that are consistently in the media. SEC Georgia and the rest would be half okay. Its more of the Quality as someone else posted. But being in a pass happy no defense conference isnt my cup of tea. So for me small 12 is not the answer. PAC or ACC would be the destination for me since BIG10 and SEC seem like a further out dream. Iâve also seen progress in different stores around Houston weâve come a long way we just need to continue giving good experiences even at scrimmages so the casual fan can keep coming back.
When UH is winning and playing good, the city gets behind them and supports them. Houston will always support a winner.
The problem is the 2nd I said, playing big time programs is hard when youâre in the AAC. Realistically the only âRivalsâ we have in our conference are Memphis & Navy. Hence why we play them on National TV after Thanksgiving. And those arenât actual rivals. I wish SMU could get good so that could add another big rivalry in the AAC.
And when we do win. Coaches get poached which leads to a season like last season.
Weâre in a tough place, but if we ever get a P5 Invite we will awaken and be huge. The AAC even has a good chance of becoming a great conference. Houstonâs Market Size only helps them.
With our growing media market coupled with our growing TV ratings, I would think our future is bright.
Do you mean Georgia Tech? George is SEC.
Penn Stateâs media market is College Township, PA. Obviously they also have a huge presence in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and throughout the sixth most populous state. Likewise, UT has large viewership in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and most everywhere in a state pushing 30 million residents. Thereâs a reason Texas is about the only other college outside of Notre Dame that could thrive as an independent.
I donât entirely agree with the above. ND thrives as an INDE because of their nationwide fan base. And it really is nationwide. There might be a smattering of UT fans outside of Texas, but it is no where near the level of ND. BYU is like ND in that regard; their fans are everywhere.
Until our fan base comes to see UH, not who we play, we will not be in a P5. Until we fill our stadium with our fans, and not have to depend on how many our opponents bring, we will not be in a P5. If our fans want to be in a P5, we the fans and alumni, must earn it. Itâs not lack of consistency or quality of play on the field that is keeping us out, it is whatâs not in the stands that is keeping us out. Unfortunately, the best thing our fans do is make excuses.
AgreedâŠand if UT thought they could feasibly go independent, they would have done it along time ago. UT is not a national brand.
This didnât stop Duke, Vandy, Northwestern, and other perennial bottom feeders from being in a P5 conference. I do think our fan base will turn out much better IF we begin winning consistently at the 9-10 game per year level and winning our bowl game.
I know that, anciently, Northwestern had some pretty good years in the Big 10, but not so much now. Was Indiana ever very good?
Duke and Vandy? I guess they keep them because of academics or lacrosse, maybe. Duke BB too.
Big 10 will happily go on and on about how they are an academic association that also sponsors major sports.
Although a packed stadium looks good for television and the announcer saying âWe have a solded out stadium todayâ, I donât think having a less than packed stadium will keep us out of the P5. Conferences and the networks are looking at your value. And yes I think the national appeal for Texas is overrated but what they do have is lots of money to throw away.
The value UH brings to a conference are the eyeballs of the #7 media market in the country, Houston. This would be very valuable to conferences especially the PAC12 or ACC.
Itâs all about money. How much money can UH generate for the conference? Itâs not about how many butts you can put in the seats, although that looks pretty on TV, but how much more money can you generate for the conference.
If you think conference expansion is anything other than making more money, you are kidding yourself. As bad as Rutgers is as a football team, do you think the Big10 would have added them if they were not in the New York market? NO! The B1G wanted them so they could make more money. Let UH be the Rutgers for the Houston market, but a much better football team.
Thatâs not even an apples and oranges; more like apples and seaweed comparison. Duke, Vandy, Northwestern, etc were in those conferences when they formed and were good teams and very good schools. There was no P5, no TV contracts, no $25-$30MM bowl payouts. Football was also much more regional since there were no jet planes, or planes large enough to carry a team, staff, and equipment.
Do not underestimate academics in this discussion. Dr Khator is making great strides and the med school will be a huge step. This is as critical as anything else.
We are doing a great job! Do any of you remember 15 years ago? The end of the Dome era? The old Robertson before we added end zone seats? The 10,000 fans if lucky at a game? We have come a loooooooooong way. Our administration stopped promoting athletics around the mid 80âs. The entire decade of alumni from the 90âs were basically lost to the âcommuterâ school attitude.
I went to a game in 1997 against Pitt in the early afternoon as a student where i was one of 10 students in the entire student section (That year was the visitor side of old Robertson near what would become the Visitor tunnel. The student section had the first 2 sections from row 1 to the top and it was empty). We fill an entire end zone of future alumni.
Tailgates were like 5 groups. You could walk in and out of te stadium because no one cared until you got to your seat where te 5 star made you sit in your assigned area.
We have traveled to the moon in terms of how far we are from then. Relax and let it happen. You can say everything about Houston being a transient city or fair weathered. But if 1 out of 10 of every student buys season tickets when they graduate and we keep that trend growing, it will out number the old timersâŠdecreaseâŠin tickets.
100% I was there in the mid to late 90s too. People have no idea how bad it got. Things are night and day better now,âŠ29k showing up to TSU!!!. That would have been unheard of back then!
I agree with you most of the time Mike but our exclusion from a P5 is not due to our attendance. Other small12 & other P5 Schools do not want to share our recruiting area. Thatâs the bottom line. Barry Witzer said it & said it very publicly. His statement gathered national media attention. This was not left on deaf ears. Furthermore I will add that our media numbers were good to very good. So from an advertiser point of view or TV exec it would make perfect sense to have us in. In case we have a to financially âbuyâ our way in we will do it. tcu did it.
Iâll concede that there was no P5 when the SEC and ACC were formed. With the exception of Vandy, both Duke and Northwestern had very good programs at the time their respective conferences were formed. Although I am sure they had butts in the seats (no TV when Big 10 was formed and ACC was formed in 1953) I donât think attendance is what drove the decision to include these schools. It was there success on the field.
The dynamic is different now, I guess. If it is true that P5 conferences, regional schools, OPEC, whoever, donât want us in a P5 conference because weâre too good, will ruin their recruiting, or cause oil prices to fall, then we will never get in no matter how good our attendance is or how good our record is.
If you look at Vandyâs records prior to joining the SEC as a founding member in 1933, you will see they were a good football team with 16 conference championships between 1898 and 1923. They were undefeated 2 years prior to the formation of the SEC.
I should proofread. I was talking about both conferences and wrote them together. Thanks for pointing it out.
Rutgers is not even in New York. They are in the middle of New Jersey. Nobody cares about Rutgers in New York.