So Stull and Natalicio are being proactive

[MinerInWisconsin]

Stull and Natalicio obviously are looking around and actively seeking a better situation for UTEP athletics. Stull would not be talking to the MWC without her ok. Are Rice and UTEP working in tandem to move up in college athletics? Are they also calling on the AAC just in case openings develop there? Rumors are always "out there" about the Big 12 expanding with 2 out of Cincy, Memphis and Houston. Something could develop down the road.

So what does UTEP need to do to have an opportunity to move up? Facilities are good but could always be better. A war chest of available funds to pay exit and entrance fees would be a good idea. Winning football with good attendance and bowl appearances would help. Basketball making the ncaa's now and then would enhance the way UTEP is viewed.

Seems that Stull has done his job on the facilities up until now. He also managed to get the basketball coach we all wanted but he just has not produced. We will all question his last choice of a football coach unless we see a much improved team this coming season. How would UTEP football be doing if Stull had brought in a proven head coach from a smaller school instead of a position coach with no head coaching experience?

What else needs to be done? Replace Stull? Nothing? What do you think?

 

[PositivelyPete]

We should aim higher then the Mountain Waste. We need to join our old WAC brothers Utah, Arizona and ASU in the Pac12. I am gonna bring a sign to the Sun Bowl saying so. Hopefully someone from Washington State notices. If not I will ask the security guard to let me speak to their officials directly and will tell them myself that UTEP belongs in the Pac 12.

 

[Voice of the Mosquito]

war chest is done......when the time comes someone will pony up .....facilities are being up graded and the last piece of the up grade is the Sun Bowl itself and that is soon to be announced.....What really needs to be done is win on the court and field, it will be rewarded. Don't think the Pac 12 has ever expressed interest in us, but it is a nice dream. AAC should be our target. IMO

 

[unihorn]

war chest is done......when the time comes someone will pony up .....facilities are being up graded and the last piece of the up grade is the Sun Bowl itself and that is soon to be announced.....What really needs to be done is win on the court and field, it will be rewarded. Don't think the Pac 12 has ever expressed interest in us, but it is a nice dream. AAC should be our target. IMO

Why would the AAC want UTEP?

 

[nattybry]

First of all our TV Market isn't tiny at 58th, but it's relatively small due to no metro area and thathe outside of EP/Jtown no one is a Utep fan unless they're an alum. It'd be nice if they included J town in our TV Market. With that said Boise St. is a smaller market in the middle of no where, but they win and fill up their stadium. So the point is Utep doesn't deserve to go to a better conference til we win bowls, go to NCAA'so and avg. 40+ thousand!

 

[Minerforlife]

First of all our TV Market isn't tiny at 58th, but it's relatively small due to no metro area and thathe outside of EP/Jtown no one is a Utep fan unless they're an alum. It'd be nice if they included J town in our TV Market. With that said Boise St. is a smaller market in the middle of no where, but they win and fill up their stadium. So the point is Utep doesn't deserve to go to a better conference til we win bowls, go to NCAA'so and avg. 40+ thousand!

Its not a matter of deserving a nn invite. SMU and Tulane did nothing to deserve an invite. Its about making the capital investment necessary to make us an attractive canidate. UTEP has one of the higest upsides of any g5 school. We will always be in conversation for expansion. Its our job to finally realize the potential.

 

[Rot]

Its pretty clear cusa will be further diluted when the power conferences expand. I think Stull should be working on getting UTEP into the AAC. UTEP has facilities that are better or on par with teams in the AAC. I know we are all frustrated with the basketball team now, but the season is just starting. I hope Floyd is able to fix the issues and get this team into the ncaa or nit. I think we all agree Floyd is a proven coach and is capable of building a solid program. I am also disappointed with our basketball program but I think he will turn it around. He has good assistants, good nucleus of players and just needs to catch a break. Although I was not happy with Kugler as our HC. He is doing things the right way by bringing in hs players and getting them developed. Every position was affected by injuries and our back ups gained valuable experience. I expect great things from our football team next year. I think a partnership with Rice can help us in getting into the AAC or mwc. I would hate to see Rice partner up with utsa and leave UTEP out the next realignment.

 

[PositivelyPete]

Why would the AAC want UTEP?

Sun bowl. NCAA champs. Haskins center. Tim Floyd. Nice weather. Great Mexican food. Close to Alpine and Ruidoso

 

[Voice of the Mosquito]

Why would the AAC want UTEP? If their membership changes which is possible they have teams from UConn in the east to Houston in Texas. Many of these teams could become attractive to B12 or ACC or go Indy. For Navy and Army conference membership is an experiment of sorts. (Army made efforts to join CUSA in the early days, but pulled the plug). Tulane pulled the plug once on their BBALL team, and SMU seems to be in constant debate if sports is really wanted there. No conference or program is static. The chance conference membership changes for teams is more likely than it remaining the same. The big force in all of this is TV and even that industry is undergoing massive transformation. UTEP is not a huge player in all of this but it's not a small fish either. UTEP serves a demographic which is gaining influence in media, serves a undiscovered and underrepresented market and offers a brand which although not a UCLA or Penn State is better known than most. Support is better than many D1 schools. Travel wise we are easy destination compared to say a Pullman, Ogden or Rustin. We have a 50,000 seat stadium and 12,000 seat arena which is ours and we have the potential to fill them if conditions are right. You can schedule outdoor events year round. (live in a more northern clime and you see how important this is). The university is on the verge of Tier 1 which will move UTEP from a regional to more national university. If football or basketball can capture that one "special" season all these positives are multiplied, 2 or 3 in a row and we get noticed by more than the just AAC.

 

[JCorona]

Does anyone know a timeframe for when UTEP will officially become a Tier 1 university?

A rough estimate would be good. Are we looking at the next two years or next 3-5 years or longer?

 

[Minerforlife]

Does anyone know a timeframe for when UTEP will officially become a Tier 1 university?

A rough estimate would be good. Are we looking at the next two years or next 3-5 years or longer?

We will probably surpass 100 million a year in research in two years. That would make us eligible for tier one status. However, the state is never going to designate UTEP a tier one school.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

Really good discussion. Nice to see fans with passion for UTEP.

I want to throw a couple of things at the wall and see if any of you think they could stick.

If a better conference is not in the offing in the near future, would it be possible to form a better one from C-USA without going to 12 and not worrying about the championship game? We know that at least UTEP and Rice are dissatisfied with the conference as it is now constituted but how many others might feel the same way?

UTEP
Rice
Marshall (for FB)
UAB (for baskeball and FB is returning with more support than ever)
USM (for FB but their basketball has been good in the recent past)
WKU (for FB and basketball is often good)
ODU (for basketball and improving FB)
La, Tech (for both FB and mbb)
Wichita St (for basketball... they have recently announced that they are looking into bringing back football but only at the FBS level and they would need an FBS conference to invite them)

That's 9 schools. Enough for an 8 game conference football schedule and 16 game basketball schedule. With UTEP, UAB, WKU, ODU, LT and Wichita St you would have a strong mbb conference for sure.

The other thing I want to throw out there is that UTEP should make hay out of the fact that it has such a strong Hispanic student body and El Paso has a majority Hispanic population and get a media contract with a major national Hispanic media corporation. Make it international if possible and televise UTEP sports of all kinds and attract students from Latin America as well as in the U.S.

 

[Minerforlife]

Really good discussion. Nice to see fans with passion for UTEP.

I want to throw a couple of things at the wall and see if any of you think they could stick.

If a better conference is not in the offing in the near future, would it be possible to form a better one from C-USA without going to 12 and not worrying about the championship game? We know that at least UTEP and Rice are dissatisfied with the conference as it is now constituted but how many others might feel the same way?

UTEP
Rice
Marshall (for FB)
UAB (for baskeball and FB is returning with more support than ever)
USM (for FB but their basketball has been good in the recent past)
WKU (for FB and basketball is often good)
ODU (for basketball and improving FB)
La, Tech (for both FB and mbb)
Wichita St (for basketball... they have recently announced that they are looking into bringing back football but only at the FBS level and they would need an FBS conference to invite them)

That's 9 schools. Enough for an 8 game conference football schedule and 16 game basketball schedule. With UTEP, UAB, WKU, ODU, LT and Wichita St you would have a strong mbb conference for sure.

The other thing I want to throw out there is that UTEP should make hay out of the fact that it has such a strong Hispanic student body and El Paso has a majority Hispanic population and get a media contract with a major national Hispanic media corporation. Make it international if possible and televise UTEP sports of all kinds and attract students from Latin America as well as in the U.S.

Interesting idea. Wichita State though would never leave the MVC for that conference. The MVC is a multiple bid league, its a top ten basketball conference. It is also a bus league. All the schools are very close geographically which cuts down the travel cost which is a big deal for most the schools.

Things will start to shake out quickly. The AAC is going to lose Memphis and Cincy and that will set off a new round of g5 realignment. Im very confident that our conference affiliation will improve very shortly.

 

[MinerInWisconsin]

Interesting idea. Wichita State though would never leave the MVC for that conference. The MVC is a multiple bid league, its a top ten basketball conference. It is also a bus league. All the schools are very close geographically which cuts down the travel cost which is a big deal for most the schools.

Things will start to shake out quickly. The AAC is going to lose Memphis and Cincy and that will set off a new round of g5 realignment. Im very confident that our conference affiliation will improve very shortly.

The linked article quotes the WS president as stating that they will need to look into changing conferences in order to go to FBS, if they add football. They are studying that and expect to make a decision within a year. Your AAC prediction is the preferred one by me too.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article48764285.html

 

[jdubb66]

Really good discussion. Nice to see fans with passion for UTEP.

I want to throw a couple of things at the wall and see if any of you think they could stick.

If a better conference is not in the offing in the near future, would it be possible to form a better one from C-USA without going to 12 and not worrying about the championship game? We know that at least UTEP and Rice are dissatisfied with the conference as it is now constituted but how many others might feel the same way?

UTEP
Rice
Marshall (for FB)
UAB (for baskeball and FB is returning with more support than ever)
USM (for FB but their basketball has been good in the recent past)
WKU (for FB and basketball is often good)
ODU (for basketball and improving FB)
La, Tech (for both FB and mbb)
Wichita St (for basketball... they have recently announced that they are looking into bringing back football but only at the FBS level and they would need an FBS conference to invite them)

That's 9 schools. Enough for an 8 game conference football schedule and 16 game basketball schedule. With UTEP, UAB, WKU, ODU, LT and Wichita St you would have a strong mbb conference for sure.

The other thing I want to throw out there is that UTEP should make hay out of the fact that it has such a strong Hispanic student body and El Paso has a majority Hispanic population and get a media contract with a major national Hispanic media corporation. Make it international if possible and televise UTEP sports of all kinds and attract students from Latin America as well as in the U.S.

I think a more likely scenario would be to form a new conference from current Texas CUSA teams and Sun Belt teams like NMSU, Texas State and so on.

UTEP
N. Texas
UTSA
Rice
Texas St.
NMSU
ULL
ULM
Ark. St. maybe

 

[PositivelyPete]

That's the worst conference ever. Lets join the Southland with Houston Baptist while you are at it.

 

[nattybry]

I think a more likely scenario would be to form a new conference from current Texas CUSA teams and Sun Belt teams like NMSU, Texas State and so on.

UTEP
N. Texas
UTSA
Rice
Texas St.
NMSU
ULL
ULM
Ark. St. maybe

What in the Hell!!!????

 

[JCorona]

While I do enjoy discussing the possibility of a new conference being formed we can all agree it's fantasy talk. It would be better to find solutions to improving ourselves first then C-USA.

In my opinion the conference should expand to 16 teams. Forget adding flashy market names instead add two good football teams. My preference would be Arkansas St for the West and Georgia Southern for the East.

Being in a division with North Texas, UTSA, RICE, La Tech, USM, UAB and Arkansas St is not that bad of an option.

First we stay in Texas providing road games in key cities with heavy a UTEP alumni presence. Games against USM, La Tech and Arkansas St will never be easy. Those three teams are as good as any other G5 teams in any conference. UAB will return stronger than ever. "You never know what you have until you lose it" They will become a force to reckon with especially if they get their new stadium.

This 8 team division is capable of producing 4-6 eight win programs regularly. With only one crossover game per season our travels to the east coast would diminish.

The East side of C-USA would be as tough or tougher than the West. With teams like Western Kentucky, Marshall, MT, Georgia Southern and ODU they should easily have a 10-11 win team in the CUSA championship game. Mix it with a 10 win team from the West and our champion should have the same chance at a New Year's bowl as the AAC or MW champ.

After a few years Natalicio and the other eight best presidents can have a secret meeting in our new airport car rental garage.

 

[nattybry]

I agree let's compete for bowls a couple of years in a row and win conference in bball, then talk realignment. We currently have no place to complain about our lot.