Topic: Chuck Landon: This is as close as MU gets to the AAC

[biggreenarms]

Fan after fan wistfully eyed the AAC and wished Marshall could be a member. The fact that Marshall is playing AAC member UConn in the St. Petersburg Bowl at 11 a.m. Saturday in Tropicana Field just made it worse.

The envy is quite understandable. Besides capturing the access-bowl berth, the AAC had three members in the final College Football Playoff rankings. Houston is No. 18, followed by No. 21 Navy and No. 24 Temple. C-USA had none.

Four of the AAC's eight bowl games feature matchups against Power Five opponents. Tulsa plays Virginia Tech in the Independence Bowl on Saturday, Memphis plays Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 30 and Houston plays Florida State in the Peach Bowl on Dec. 31.

C-USA? It has one P5 matchup - Southern Miss plays Washington in the Heart of Dallas Bowl on Saturday.

Besides, many Herd fans still believe the AAC should have invited Marshall to become the eighth former member of C-USA to come aboard, joining Houston, Memphis, Tulsa, Tulane, SMU, East Carolina and UCF.

So, what are the chances of Marshall ever stepping up to the AAC?

None.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/sports/marshall_sports/chuck-landon-this-is-as-close-as-mu-gets-to/article_e6d33ce1-6614-5363-b34f-324b2769e37d.html

[luvherd]

%^&* Chuck

[QuickStrike]

I usually don't comment on this guy's crap, but I do not like his tone in this article. He is taking a dump on MU.

[BHFIOHIO]

imagine that...its not the first time by a mile

[BHFIOHIO]

AAC  in a Bowl with Navy, ECU and Cincy already scheduled....close enough for me. And prob others to come soon enough and we get to keep the NQs. Wild about that fact. Now just win baby.

[svherd]

Unfortunately the economics of it all prevents us from moving up. The entry/exit fees alone would kill us. Unless we have a massive increase in enrollment and get more student fees or Jj and others donate millions a year; we just can't get there.

As Ohio says, just win baby and be the best we can be - in all sports!

[QuickStrike]

C-USA 3.0 teams can grow & improve, and we can develop some nice rivalries with WKU, MTSU, ODU and Charlotte. Improve the 4 OOC schedule games and most Herd fans will be happy staying put. As mentioned, dames with some AAC teams are already on the slate. Get a bowl game at year end with a other AAC or P5 and we are good.

[HerdKelly]

Unfortunately the economics of it all prevents us from moving up. The entry/exit fees alone would kill us. Unless we have a massive increase in enrollment and get more student fees or Jj and others donate millions a year; we just can't get there.

As Ohio says, just win baby and be the best we can be - in all sports!

Here comes Sturt in 3....2......1.......  :P

[bighat]

Chuck needs to take his spew and stuff it.  He is so negative.  Even when we do something good in football, he finds a negative twist.

[Buffalo Bop]

[herdinphilly]

C-USA 3.0 teams can grow & improve, and we can develop some nice rivalries with WKU, MTSU, ODU and Charlotte. Improve the 4 OOC schedule games and most Herd fans will be happy staying put. As mentioned, dames with some AAC teams are already on the slate. Get a bowl game at year end with a other AAC or P5 and we are good.

Seriously? CUSA sucks. It feels like the Southern Conference. Western Kentucky is the marquee team? Blek.

[Big City]

Seriously? CUSA sucks. It feels like the Southern Conference. Western Kentucky is the marquee team? Blek.

Since done deal says so... Marshall will be in the AAC within 4 years.

[gochneaur645]

Lol, he's touting Tulsa playing a P5 team in the Independence Bowl like it's some achievement connected to being in the AAC when it's just a circumstance of there being too few bowl-eligible teams.

[FlyHawk98]

AAC  in a Bowl with Navy, ECU and Cincy already scheduled....close enough for me. And prob others to come soon enough and we get to keep the NQs. Wild about that fact. Now just win baby.

Very good point. I hope we continue to play those schools in OOC, as well as the regional P5s.

Our OOC schedule is about to be great, and we will have a nice home opponent most years.

[FlyHawk98]

For the time being, Marshall is most likely better off where we are at.

If we can improve the OOC games then I will be happy. I would like to get MTSU and WKU split up to where we had one of them at home every single year.

I actually like being in a conference with MTSU, WKU, and ODU.

[whf]

Money is one thing, what you do with it is another.  Whether we can do 25% more with our money than the AAC does with theirs is a great question. I can easily see how Chuck draws his conclusion.  It isn't about football as much as it is the ability to keep generating those kinds of funds for other sports.

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

Good old southern wv replies so far. Hear the truth, get offended or try to convince yourself and everyone else that everything is peachy even though it sucks.

What was so offensive about this column? How is he "taking a dump on MU"? Because he stated facts and told the truth? Are we envious of the AAC teams? Heck yeah! At least the ones of us who like to dream without ceilings are. He is no more taking a dump on Marshall than Oliver Luck was conspiring against us in the rankings last year.

It's simple. Don't take offense when you hear the truth. I don't usually agree with Done Deal, but he's spot on in this.

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

C-USA 3.0 teams can grow & improve, and we can develop some nice rivalries with WKU, MTSU, ODU and Charlotte. Improve the 4 OOC schedule games and most Herd fans will be happy staying put. As mentioned, dames with some AAC teams are already on the slate. Get a bowl game at year end with a other AAC or P5 and we are good.

[banker]

Here's the issue, Chuck bases his article around an assumption that Marshall fans "wistfully" look to the AAC for membership.  I think that's a faulty assumption on its face, I know it is for me.  In all honesty we are exactly where we need to be.  We have a lot in common with Wku, Middle, and USM, much more than we have in common with any school in the AAC. The travel situation, and ability for Herd fans to see the Herd play, is significantly better.

If I, as a fan, look wistfully at anything it's playing in a conference that is more eastern based that's not headquartered in Texas. 

[Huffnagel]

%^&* Chuck

My thoughts exactly! Appears someone feelings are still hurt about being kicked out the clique!

[whf]

Banker, I like your position, but don't know your interests.  My interests are to play the best competition and gain the most notoriety we can every Saturday.  Living in the suburbs of an AAC team, watching more sports TV than any man should allow himself to do, and surrounding myself with friends from across the country, I can honestly say the AAC comes much closer to my interest than C-USA does.  And I think I'm in the majority of Herd fans.

[Big Ol' Hillbilly]

Here's the issue, Chuck bases his article around an assumption that Marshall fans "wistfully" look to the AAC for membership.  I think that's a faulty assumption on its face, I know it is for me.  In all honesty we are exactly where we need to be.  We have a lot in common with Wku, Middle, and USM, much more than we have in common with any school in the AAC. The travel situation, and ability for Herd fans to see the Herd play, is significantly better.

If I, as a fan, look wistfully at anything it's playing in a conference that is more eastern based that's not headquartered in Texas.  

And our fanbase will never grow because of small minded outlooks like yours. We'll have the small 10-15k that actually give a crap and the 5-10k that show up occasionally to socialize and party. We'll never be able to do white-outs, black outs, stripe stadium, etc and make it look good because only that 10-15k care enough to look at message boards or read up to even know we're doing such things. The others will show up in pink, green, blue, camo, etc because they're there to socialize. when they get home, they will shed their pink, green, blue or camo and the same 10-15k will put on their blue and yeller and cheer for the other team, which they feel is "cooler" and as bad as I hate to admit it, they're right. They strive to grow bigger and put forth effort to do so, while we have people pissed because something as cheesy and lame as the thunderclap is now defunct. We'll be content at the bottom of the college football world and never attract the next generation of fans because its easier and cheaper to drive to freaking bowling green kentucky than fly to Orlando Fl. SMH.

[banker]

BOH, thanks for proving my point. This is where we need to be at this time for a lot of the reasons you just gave. We aren't ready to compete week in and week out with teams with $50MM budgets. We only had 300 and some people donate to the vision campaign, we can't grow the BG membership or the season ticket base.

People say it's because of who we play, but we were in a conference with most of the AAC members and we didn't grow then either.

WHF, I would like to see us jettison the Texas schools and pick up Appy, Georgia Southern and Arkansas State. That line up would be on par, based on sagarin, with what the AAC did this year, almost the same exact conference average. Those schools are much more like Marshall than Houston, Memphis, and UConn. It would make us no worse than the undisputed #2 G5 and we would be #1 a fair amount. 

[bbcard1]

Since done deal says so... Marshall will be in the AAC within 4 years.

But will any of the teams be there when we get there?

[banker]

Oh, and BOH, small minded and I have rarely occupied the same room, but pragmatic and I are close friends.  First, the AAC doesn't want us, so we have no path into the conference at this time.  Second, until the university improves in all aspects, not just athletics, no one will want us. 

Between Herdfans and the other Herd boards we have several hundred unique posters.  We have 25,000 to 30,000 people come to football games. 15,000 to 20,000 of those are supposedly "hard core fans", but we only have 300 and some people give a penny to the Vision Campaign?  The Big Green can't muster $4MM a year in annual scholarship donations?

Nope, we are right where we need to be until the fan base shows it can step up.