This has always been a popular topic, and I'd like to bring up some interesting points regarding the future of our University. Most of the TV contracts for the P5 conferences end around 2025. Some say the power conferences will all expand to 16 teams, which will require a ton of teams from the present G5 conferences. I really don't see us being a candidate for a P5 conference in 2025, but here's what we need to do in order to make ourselves look more appealing to join a #1 G5 conference in 2025:
- Have had won the CUSA title in football at least 3/8 years leading up to the realignment (indicating a dominating CUSA)
- Dig ourselves out of the hole in basketball and and have had at least one NCAA tournament appearance in the next 8 years. Also, we MUST renovate reed green coliseum. It is embarrassing how out dated it is. Hopefully the city will get on board now that Barker is elected. Still, a lot of money will still need to come from USM supporter, which will come from garnering more interest for basketball with winning.
- Our student body must grow to be at least 20,000. I saw a list of ten teams that would candidates for a P5 invitation and they all had 30k+ students. I think more in state students will be drawn to USM in the near future due to the Midtown Redevelopment across from USM. Folks this area has the potential to be the nicest few acres in the entire state if the everything goes as planned.
- Although college baseball really isn't much of a topic when being considered for a better conference (due to the revenue), it could be viewed differently if we continue our momentum. If we make the Pete state-of-the-art and really make it an attraction for USM, you will begin to see baseball churning out a good amount of revenue, which is unusual for college baseball (except for schools that brand it and make it make money) like LSU, MSU, Arky.
- We need to make the following facility improvements: RGC, Indoor football practice facility, upgrade the Pete, on campus softball and soccer/track (which is included in the university master plan), and a renovation of The Rock (not necessarily make it bigger or spend loads of money, just make it a little nicer)
I know this has come up a lot but I just wanted to summarize what I think (I prob have no idea what I'm talking about) we must do in order to put our University in the best possible situation when the realignment thing happens again. Because we always seem to come up JUST a little short. Excuse the long post, but this time of year there are no sports going on and I just started thinking. Let me know if you agree or disagree and what I left off, or what I could have said to improve the list. Thanks
- Have had won the CUSA title in football at least 3/8 years leading up to the realignment (indicating a dominating CUSA)
- Dig ourselves out of the hole in basketball and and have had at least one NCAA tournament appearance in the next 8 years. Also, we MUST renovate reed green coliseum. It is embarrassing how out dated it is. Hopefully the city will get on board now that Barker is elected. Still, a lot of money will still need to come from USM supporter, which will come from garnering more interest for basketball with winning.
- Our student body must grow to be at least 20,000. I saw a list of ten teams that would candidates for a P5 invitation and they all had 30k+ students. I think more in state students will be drawn to USM in the near future due to the Midtown Redevelopment across from USM. Folks this area has the potential to be the nicest few acres in the entire state if the everything goes as planned.
- Although college baseball really isn't much of a topic when being considered for a better conference (due to the revenue), it could be viewed differently if we continue our momentum. If we make the Pete state-of-the-art and really make it an attraction for USM, you will begin to see baseball churning out a good amount of revenue, which is unusual for college baseball (except for schools that brand it and make it make money) like LSU, MSU, Arky.
- We need to make the following facility improvements: RGC, Indoor football practice facility, upgrade the Pete, on campus softball and soccer/track (which is included in the university master plan), and a renovation of The Rock (not necessarily make it bigger or spend loads of money, just make it a little nicer)
I know this has come up a lot but I just wanted to summarize what I think (I prob have no idea what I'm talking about) we must do in order to put our University in the best possible situation when the realignment thing happens again. Because we always seem to come up JUST a little short. Excuse the long post, but this time of year there are no sports going on and I just started thinking. Let me know if you agree or disagree and what I left off, or what I could have said to improve the list. Thanks
