Hopefully Governor Abbott will do the same thing he did the last time the Big 12 proposed expansion: state that any expansion that doesn’t include UH is a non-starter.
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I think that roadie to Alpine to play Sul Ross would be cool. There’s some nice lakes to fish near Belton when we play Mary Hardin Baylor…
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Only if those eyeballs pay for subscriptions to espn3. Something we do not do now.
Start booking your Amtrak tickets now.
Espn could maximize by adding UH to a p5 in this market.
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You’re reading the opinions of the average college football fans, they know very little about the potential of UH. All they know about is what they have heard on TV and from other fans. However, the bigwigs of the college football world know there’s no way what UH could being to a so-called “Power5 Conference” is less than what Boise could bring. Fans only know superficial stuff, especially what is flashy at the moment. They don’t know too much about the history and potential of a school and its football program. Shoot, many people still don’t know where Houston is located and that it is the 4th largest city in the US and the largest in the state. But does that mean the city of Houston is insignificant? That’s why I could give a rat’s @ss what those college football fans think!
That is due to the state raising their profiles by pouring most of the funds to them. But I believe once UH get some more of that TV contract money and the state PUF plays a lesser role in boosting the UT’s and A&M’s economies, UH will gain grounds of them. You have to realize before the PUF came into effect all of UT’s fundings, including for athletics and coaches’ salaries, were 100% provided by the state. And this kind of funding has gone on way before UH even come into existence! You’re talking about 150 years of dedication by the state to making UT the best college it could be in every way!
UT’s and A&M’s greatness were done by design. What I’m saying is that because these two schools got preferential treatments they were able to turn themselves into something even greater in the eyes of the fans. But if UH gets invited into a better conference that pays 8 times what it is getting right now imagine what it could do to improve itself in a way that would raise its profiles in the eyes of fans! It takes money to raise the profile of a school, especially in the eyes of fans.
Since UH doesn’t get the kind of support from the state that UT and A&M are getting, getting a boost from ESPN and a “Power5 conference” would be huge! Once that happened don’t expect the size of the UH’s fanbase to be the same as it is right now! Shoot, even the image of UH has been getting massively better than what it was 20 years ago! Just imagine what a Power5 salary would do for UH!
Yep! We would be fools to turn down a PAC invite! Just as we were when we turned down an SEC invite to stay with the Ags and Bonghorns!
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I agree with the premise, disagree with the rationale.
There’s no particular need for everyone to go to 16 unless they want to completely break away from the NCAA with a post-season structure based on 4 16 team divisions/conferences. I think the lesson will be learned from the European Soccer Superleague fiasco and that’s not going to happen.
But hoping we somehow improve our lot as part of the fallout dominoes probably will be our last chance to improve our station overall for a while. Hopefully at least hoops is alright if our station worsens after this.
EDIT: And I’ll take that back somewhat. I’m not going to 100% rule out a break away scenario, but if it happens (and I still don’t think it will) I really don’t think it would be a “All right, we’ll all go to 16” type scenario. It would more be the SEC figuring out who they want to let in the club and how they want to do it.
I don’t understand how anyone can look at the history of college sports and say “What’s going to happen is that it’s going to transform into an orderly system with a fixed number of teams logically arranged playing a computer-generated schedule that assures fairness.”
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I am a huge proponent of doing whatever we can to get in the ACC.
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We ain’t getting invited to the ACC.
OP:
Not our last chance. We have had plenty of last chances. We manage to survive. Just one piece of advice, if you think it can’t get worse, it can.
I like to think that this time we have smart leadership, rich benefactors, and nicer facilities. But you never know.
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We’re like a werewolf in a silver shortage. We keep biting people and they can’t kill us. They just hole up in their mansions and keep the lights on all night.
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All we need is a non-fickle fanbase. They wouldn’t attend SWC games, what makes you think a lesson has been learned? With so much at stake one would think our rabid, loyal fan base would start to buy up season tickets to at least reach 20,000 + in anticipation of receiving the most serious consideration possible. One would think. Let’s just find someone or somewhat else to blame.
One thing I think that has changed is UH has worked pretty hard to become a more traditional university with a more traditional university more active campus life. The student body profile is different. We’re not where we need to be, but I do think a better conference situation would run differently for us this time than last time.
The SWC was played in the Dome. No tailgating allowed so developing a social scene around a football game was non-existent. Much as we developed the tailgate scene which every obstacle has been thrown at (Herman Hall, Metro rail, etc) it still helps develop a more loyal base.
Fickle? More an expression of the poor “box office attractions” that our current league offers.
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Here’s what gets me. In three home games at TDECU, the XFL Houston Roughnecks averaged 18K a game. A team and league with virtually no history and very limited marketing. Given, they played in the Winter-Spring timeframe, against zero competition for football fans.
I want to believe that with more wins on the field, increased local media coverage, and some effective marketing UH could capture anywhere from 5K to 8K casual fans per home game.
Redo
Nvm