Missouri State to Sun Belt Conference?

[Drakey]

I'm all for them leaving. If they have dreams of being an FBS school they need to move on it now. My guess is that they will always be a Sun Belt level team, which I assume means they lose a lot of money on football, but if they think they can overcome that they should do it.

[Cdizzle]

I'm just waiting for the price of beef to plummet with the sudden influx into the market. I feel like I have inside information. I love steak, can't wait.

[BCPanther]

I'm just waiting for the price of beef to plummet with the sudden influx into the market. I feel like I have inside information. I love steak, can't wait.

This may be the single funniest thing I've ever read on a message board. I literally laughed for 5 minutes...

[BEARZ77]

I love how a thread gets started by another fan base about a very speculative possibility for MSU, and then because it draws a couple posters like Casey to go off on their usual rants , it then becomes a free for all in labeling Bear fans in general and bashing MSU.

Is there a faction of Bear fans who have always wanted to move up in football, certainly, and to that end they tend to jump on every reference to such by outside sources as evidence of a coming revelation. I've never been one of them and quite frankly I don't think the majority of Bears basketball fans are. If you look at the threads on Bear Nation you'll see it's pretty much the same posters over and over. I have no idea whether we are close, in negotiation, or not even interested in such because our administration has not ever indicated a clear goal. Our president is a very strong advocate for athletics and a "football guy" so I'm sure if it's possible he's listening. But I can tell you that in every public statement our AD has made that I've seen or heard in the last year or two, he scoffs at the idea and says it would be years away if ever that we would look at such. Is that a smoke screen or an honest appraisal of the situation, who knows.

I think a few things I see on here in many's rush to assume they know the University's intentions and Bear fans in general desires, are misinformed, inaccurate and petty attempts to act superior. Right now the University's focus in athletics has first and foremost been in building and improving facilities and increasing resources for student athletes, and secondly securing those coaches that fit the profile of who we believe can lead our teams back to levels we came to previously expect. As many schools in the Valley finances have been tight for a while but our recent initiative to finally add a student activity fee is now dumping a couple extra million a year into the kitty and allowed us to move forward on projects. JQH is complete[ although many would like to still add ribbon score boards] and with the locker rooms fully done we now have a complex that includes the largest and arguably as fine of on campus venue for basketball in the Valley and when you combine the adjoining 9,000 seat HSC with the Turner Practice facility enclosed, to the 11,000 seat JQH, I think it represents an outstanding sports complex. Add major overhaul to the football stadium, new softball complex, new track and field and soccer complexes, a new student athlete educational support center with state of the art technology, and a new student recreational center that is an outstanding recreation facility, and we a hardly are a picture of the destitute and desperate Institution portrayed by some. In fact I would challenge that no Valley institution besides WSU is able to match those facilities when you also include the fact we still play baseball at Hammon's Field as well.

My point is this, bash if you want, but you're mostly throwing trash at a small group of passionate and probably over zealous Bear football fans, and deluding yourselves if you think MSU is not very much in the process of developing the infrastructure and resources to raise the level of their athletic programs . And most likely that will continue to be so that we can compete in the MVC until that proves to otherwise be a bad thing. My comment earlier about the participation in basketball in the MVC being inconsequential is I believe an accurate one about all conferences below the power group and not a knock at the MVC. I think the noncon season and MVC Tourney are the only things that can get you into the NCAA tourney, and the conference season can only keep you out by negating a strong noncon if you do poorly in conference, but can't get you in by overcoming a poor noncon just because you do well. And that's true of all conferences below the power elite in most years.

[Ricardo del Rio]

For clarity and nothing more.

Georgia State
Western Kentucky
Louisiana - Lafayette
Arkansas State
Arkansas - Little Rock (my birth place by the way)
Texas - Arlington
Louisiana - Monroe
Troy
South Alabama
Texas State

Here is my question. What is the winner's purse for the Oil Bowl? (Sorta rhetorical)

[Aargh]

I'd like to comment on a coule of things I found in this thread.

FBS requires 15k average attendance, not 50k.

That's true, but I hope no one is planning on paying for a competitive FBS team (even by Sun Belt standards) with that level of attendance. With no significant TV revenue, no bowl money, and no big dollar revenue-sharing from the conference, that 50,000 number is closer to financial reality than the 15,000 number.

There are other FCS programs that are much more successful (obviously), but most are smaller schools in smaller markets that are geographically isolated from any BCS conference. NDSU is probably the most worthy program to move up of anybody, but it's not like there's any BCS conference out there that would actually want them right now.

Smaller markets? No one is going to get excited about adding the Springfield market to their TV package. Especially since there's no evidence that the Springfield market even cares about MSU FB.

There are no BCS conferences who want anybody who's not already there. The schools in the BCS conferences have a strong interest in making sure no other schools join their little party.

Right now, this is all speculation. There's nothing else going on, so it's getting some run in this forum. Specultion like this is not without an impact. What does this speculation do to MSU's bsketball program? Does Lusk want to coach in the Sun Belt? This speculation makes it easier for him to want to leave MSU. Do recruits want to play in the Sun Belt? This speculation makes it easy for recruiters from other schools to question where MSU's priorities lie.

If the move happens, MSU's basketball will suffer. Coaches at MSU could use time in the Sun Belt as a stepping stone to land an MVC coaching job. It would take one heck of a Sun Belt recruiter to recruit against an MVC recruiter.

Unfortunately, just the speculation that it could happen, could cause MSU's basketball program to suffer. This kind of stuff needs to be kept absolutely confidential and out of the public until it's a done deal.

[uniftw]

The official attendance numbers for every MSU home game last season:

Northwestern State 10,147
Central Arkansas 8,963
Illinois State 8,507
SDSU 12,312
Indiana State 6,648
UNI 5,621

That makes an average of 8,700 if you round up the decimal.

All of those numbers are complete hog s***...even if it's "tickets sold".

From the UNI/MSU game...just minutes before opening kick

yhu8aga6.jpg (76.24 KiB) Viewed 2640 times

That is the "full side" as it included the band.

I'll gladly find photos from the other games as well...

Even pretending those numbers are actual tickets sold to have the % turn out that actually paid for tickets is a BAD sign for MSU....and upon some quick looking MSU has done a REALLY good job at making sure the crowd is NEVER in any photos of video of the team

Did find this one from last season..pregame national anthem (so roughly 10 minutes before kick)

13_1019_SB_Fball03.jpg (72.25 KiB) Viewed 2637 times

[Sir Sci]

I'd like to comment on a coule of things I found in this thread.

FBS requires 15k average attendance, not 50k.

That's true, but I hope no one is planning on paying for a competitive FBS team (even by Sun Belt standards) with that level of attendance. With no significant TV revenue, no bowl money, and no big dollar revenue-sharing from the conference, that 50,000 number is closer to financial reality than the 15,000 number.

There are other FCS programs that are much more successful (obviously), but most are smaller schools in smaller markets that are geographically isolated from any BCS conference. NDSU is probably the most worthy program to move up of anybody, but it's not like there's any BCS conference out there that would actually want them right now.

Smaller markets? No one is going to get excited about adding the Springfield market to their TV package. Especially since there's no evidence that the Springfield market even cares about MSU FB.

First off, you're right, it's entirely speculation. I'm not convinced it's going to actually happen, but the speculation is coming from sources from the Sun Belt that tend to be rather reliable. It's not like some MSU fan just tweeted about how he overheard somebody say that the Sun Belt is a nice place to be this time of year.

In terms of attendance, you've got to start somewhere. At this point, as I said, Missouri State's attendance isn't satisfactory for the FBS, which is one reservation I have about any kind of move. However, I think Missouri State easily has the potential to quickly get to 15,000+ if there's actually a reason for people to show up. The reason I believe this is simply because of the fact that I've seen attendance numbers between 12,000 and 14,000 when everybody knew it was just going to be another losing season. Get some excitement and that will go up. Also consider that Sun Belt teams about every other season get Big XII and SEC teams to play AT their stadium. That would constitute a much larger draw than anything else. Heck, if the Bears could get a C-USA or AAC team to play at Plaster SC it would be a significant draw over any other FCS non conference opponent.

That's not to say that we'd be content at 15,000. As with anything, we would have to actually start winning to continue to build a fan base. As a realist, that seems unlikely, but as a fan I have full confidence in that happening...eventually. Once the Bears got to 15,000 average attendance we would want more. You don't build a program by sitting on your hands and hoping for 50k people to show up, though.

You're again correct that nobody is excited about adding the Springfield market. That wasn't my point, though. The point of that comment was that Missouri State makes more sense in terms of geography, school size, and market than most of the other FCS teams that are more successful. That' especially true considering I think UNI would be a great fit for the MAC, but it doesn't appear that they want to expand. Regardless of if it is Missouri State or not, the Sun Belt IS expanding, and that's a fact. The only three schools in the conversation, allegedly, are JMU, MSU, and Liberty. To add to that, according to a lot of people it's more so that the conference commissioner wants Liberty, but the presidents aren't keen on adding them. The question at this point is if it's a good idea for JMU or MSU to move up, and if one of them (or both of them) would say yes.

[Sir Sci]

All of those numbers are complete hog s***...even if it's "tickets sold".

From the UNI/MSU game...just minutes before opening kick

The attachment yhu8aga6.jpg is no longer available

That is the "full side" as it included the band.

I'll gladly find photos from the other games as well...

Even pretending those numbers are actual tickets sold to have the % turn out that actually paid for tickets is a BAD sign for MSU....and upon some quick looking MSU has done a REALLY good job at making sure the crowd is NEVER in any photos of video of the team

Did find this one from last season..pregame national anthem (so roughly 10 minutes before kick)

The attachment 13_1019_SB_Fball03.jpg is no longer available

Dude, those are both pictures of the student side, which is almost always empty except for the first game of the season and homecoming. Almost all of the attendance is on the main side of the stands. You know, the bigger part of our stadium.

[Snaggletooth]

I love how a thread gets started by another fan base about a very speculative possibility for MSU, and then because it draws a couple posters like Casey to go off on their usual rants , it then becomes a free for all in labeling Bear fans in general and bashing MSU.

Is there a faction of Bear fans who have always wanted to move up in football, certainly, and to that end they tend to jump on every reference to such by outside sources as evidence of a coming revelation. I've never been one of them and quite frankly I don't think the majority of Bears basketball fans are. If you look at the threads on Bear Nation you'll see it's pretty much the same posters over and over. I have no idea whether we are close, in negotiation, or not even interested in such because our administration has not ever indicated a clear goal. Our president is a very strong advocate for athletics and a "football guy" so I'm sure if it's possible he's listening. But I can tell you that in every public statement our AD has made that I've seen or heard in the last year or two, he scoffs at the idea and says it would be years away if ever that we would look at such. Is that a smoke screen or an honest appraisal of the situation, who knows.

I think a few things I see on here in many's rush to assume they know the University's intentions and Bear fans in general desires, are misinformed, inaccurate and petty attempts to act superior. Right now the University's focus in athletics has first and foremost been in building and improving facilities and increasing resources for student athletes, and secondly securing those coaches that fit the profile of who we believe can lead our teams back to levels we came to previously expect. As many schools in the Valley finances have been tight for a while but our recent initiative to finally add a student activity fee is now dumping a couple extra million a year into the kitty and allowed us to move forward on projects. JQH is complete[ although many would like to still add ribbon score boards] and with the locker rooms fully done we now have a complex that includes the largest and arguably as fine of on campus venue for basketball in the Valley and when you combine the adjoining 9,000 seat HSC with the Turner Practice facility enclosed, to the 11,000 seat JQH, I think it represents an outstanding sports complex. Add major overhaul to the football stadium, new softball complex, new track and field and soccer complexes, a new student athlete educational support center with state of the art technology, and a new student recreational center that is an outstanding recreation facility, and we a hardly are a picture of the destitute and desperate Institution portrayed by some. In fact I would challenge that no Valley institution besides WSU is able to match those facilities when you also include the fact we still play baseball at Hammon's Field as well.

My point is this, bash if you want, but you're mostly throwing trash at a small group of passionate and probably over zealous Bear football fans, and deluding yourselves if you think MSU is not very much in the process of developing the infrastructure and resources to raise the level of their athletic programs . And most likely that will continue to be so that we can compete in the MVC until that proves to otherwise be a bad thing. My comment earlier about the participation in basketball in the MVC being inconsequential is I believe an accurate one about all conferences below the power group and not a knock at the MVC. I think the noncon season and MVC Tourney are the only things that can get you into the NCAA tourney, and the conference season can only keep you out by negating a strong noncon if you do poorly in conference, but can't get you in by overcoming a poor noncon just because you do well. And that's true of all conferences below the power elite in most years.

You could have just saved that long ramble and just said "Missouri State is not going anywhere regardless of delusional fans"