If Dana flames out, which looks likely, keep an eye on Kendall Briles as a dark horse HC candidate for UH.
Big 12: O noes we need skoolz UH: o hai we r skewl Big 12: neway imma invite ucf, byu, and cinci UH: wut Big 12: lolol ya 11 is good number UH: WTFFFFFFFF not again *chad adonis Tilmang Fertitas walk into room, drop big weiner onto table with money bag* Big 12: ok sure 12 whatever UH: yayyyyyyyyyy
[…] Let’s also make this clear right now. There was a time in college sports history when the shrinking Big 12 had decided to expand with three new additions — BYU, UCF, Cincinnati — and the UH Cougars were officially being overlooked again, in the most painful way possible. That time wasn’t in 2016, when the Big 12 coldly said no to the Coogs. That time was two weeks ago. “If you let in three teams, then why in the hell aren’t you going to let in four?” said Fertitta, with frustration still saturating his words. The simple math, from UH’s perspective, kicked off a 72-hour storm that suddenly turned Fertitta into the Cougars’ best and last hope, and potentially changed the future of UH’s athletics program for decades to come. From out to in. “It took some heavy lifting at the end — and at the beginning,” said Fertitta. […] Pezman’s eyes glowed with pride as he kept discussing everything UH and Big 12. But he also seemed tired. The last couple weeks had been filled with professional anxiety. At one critical point, the Coogs were being overlooked again and it felt like UH had exhausted its options. Pezman was asked one more question. Is UH in the Big 12 without Fertitta? “The short answer is no. No,” said Pezman, dragging out the last word for emphasis. Then the AD recalled a mission-critical moment when UH’s athletic future was on the line and there was only one person who possessed the power to turn bad news into good news. “Toward the end, when it felt like we needed to fire bullets politically, that’s the guy (Fertitta) that’s got — he had our back,” Pezman said. “A couple weeks ago, I wasn’t sure it was going our way. I called (Fertitta) at like 9 o’clock on a Sunday night and it was a moment of abject terror because I’m like, ‘We’ve fired a lot of bullets.’ The next morning, he was grinding through it. “There was a couple really high political people in the state, that you can imagine, and he just made it happen. He was very clear about how it would affect him and his perceived leadership of the university. … It certainly didn’t hurt having a guy like him that can make those phone calls and be able to get those calls answered. I can’t.” There was a program-altering Peach Bowl victory in 2015 and a near-perfect 13-1 campaign during Tom Herman’s first season coaching the football Cougars. Kelvin Sampson kept annually lifting his basketball Coogs upward, after rebuilding them, and faced eventual national champion Baylor in the Final Four in April in Indianapolis. UH chancellor Renu Khator obviously deserves credit for the school’s academic and on-campus improvements. Former ADs Mack Rhoades and Hunter Yurachek helped point UH forward. Fans spent decades believing in, standing up for and financially aiding the Coogs, who have gotten the best out of the Group of Five AAC since 2013. But in the end, 26 years spent searching for a new conference home that truly meant something came down to what big-time college sports always come down to. Power and politics. UH had to find a way to force its way back into the big game. “I feel like I’ve lived a pretty good life and I usually win, OK?” Fertitta said. “You can’t go ‘win’ an NBA championship. It takes luck. If it didn’t take luck, we would have won a championship in my first year with Chris Paul not getting hurt. “But this was a case where if they can pick anybody, that’s fine. But you can’t go pick those three schools and not us. And that was it. And that was my position and it was Chris’ (Pezman) position and it was Renu’s position.” […] This was personal for Fertitta. Because this was business. This was his legacy. “If it would not have happened on my watch this time, I would not be chairman of the Board of Regents as of (Friday), OK?” Fertitta said. “I would have been a failure and I could not have dealt with it.”
Man, I’m happy it worked out for Houston but it’s sad that this is how **** gets done. A big money donor pitching a fit about his reputation. That’s crazy.
Any idea how long it might take until UH is in position to expand the stadium to 60k? You think maybe after a few years of big 12 money coming in?
It won't happen (and shouldn't) unless we join the SEC. Money isn't the problem. The stadium was built to expand to 50 and 60K easily. The problem is demand. 40K is just about the perfect size for the Big 12 in our market. We can barely put 30K in there now as is. If we go on some kind of crazy tear like we did from 2005-2015 I could see it happening just because we will want to strike while the iron is hot, but there's only like 6 or 7 programs in all of FBS that would warrant 60K seats vs. UH and none of them are going to play us anytime soon (UT, LSU, TAMU, OU, Bama, Notre Dame, ...Ohio State?)
Agree. We struggled with attendance even during the Tom Herman years outside of the Louisville game. They had the right idea making the Fertitta Center smaller.
Attendance problems are just baked into the pie with almost every program in a large metro area. Miami, UCLA, Cinci, Georgia Tech, Boston College, SMU, Rutgers, Maryland, Temple, Houston, Northwestern... Big cities giveth and big cities taketh away.
Yeah for the AAC Championship game the stadium was maybe 70-75% full. I remember reading an article the next day saying how attendance was low for almost all the conference championship games.
I legit do not like the Big 12 after all they have done to screw Houston over the years. I always blamed Texas, but now it sounds like it goes deeper than just that. I hope the day comes when UH can give the Big 12 a one finger salute and bail to something better, but for now it is what it is.
Bravo Tilman! For may years, we didn't have to have the AD, Prez , and big money donors on the same page. We have the most fertile recruiting soil in the world.....UT & the "Big" 12 exploited that (delaying things until the SEC could have a permanent foothold in recruiting, then UT/OU making the jump there themselves, the plan all along), delaying the inevitable from happening for as long as they could get away with it. No more.
https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/article254113023.html TL;DR - The PAC 12 have eyes on Dallas and Houston as their best and most viable expansion targets (something I think is obvious and have been saying for a long time), and nearly pulled the trigger on UH/TCU prior to the Big 12 invites, but that never materialized due to the prevailing belief that either school would be willing to accept an invite whenever issued. I know @Nook talked about this some. I think we'd have to look long and hard at this choice. I much, much prefer to play a Big 12 slate of opponents than PAC. The revenue and level of competition would be nearly identical. The key difference is stability. The Big 12 is on unstable ground until 2024~. You don't want to be in a conference that could collapse under your feet. So, for the long term health of the program a PAC invite might be best, because WVU, KU, etc, could just bolt any moment. For my money I'd rather go with Tech out west than TCU but it's whatever. With the PAC's media rights coming up for renewal in 2023 (expiry in 2024), you have to hold your breath a bit. Is this going to end up like the old Big East where TCU agreed to join the league but never played a down for them after the Big 12 came calling?
After 25 years of conference grief, how the Houston Cougars became proud members of Big 12 https://theathletic.com/2830838/202...uston-cougars-became-proud-members-of-big-12/
I really am not excited about the Big 12, the shot callers over there have ignored Houston for years. I really hoped that the PAC would want to add UH. I know the travel isn't idea but the long term stability seemed better and I was saying that before Texas and OU wanted SEC money. Big 12 is an upgrade but long term might be a minor one at best. UH has made huge strides in the facilities. The football program could be great a couple years here and there if the right staff was hired to get some good Texas recruits. Almost every program has some down years but avoiding the stretch we are headed into is very important. We needed to build off those Tony Levine/ Tom Herman recruits but sadly Applewhite and DH didn't have any good classes. I hate to say it but UH might be better off with Dana falling flat on his face the rest of the season so they can fire him. UH needs to find a great young coach and let him get the program headed the right direction and when he wants to jump to Texas make them pay and take that money to get an established coach that wants to make a move. There is always a few looking for more money and a team with good players. Sampson is gold. Basketball will be very competitive as long as he is at the helm. But we could be in any conference basketball wise and it would make very little difference. It's all about the March Madness runs.
If PAC did call, I'm wondering what would happen with our non revenue sports? Do they go to CUSA? If not, travel costs may be an issue.
I don't really see the reason we or the PAC would want a FB/MBB only situation. The travel cost change would be nominal and the money difference would offset it by orders of magnitude. The only places that would truly be a PITA to get to are Oregon and Washington.
