What is below a peasant? Program pecking order Dividing BCS teams into four-tier hierarchy and more Posted: Wednesday August 8, 2007 1:02PM; Updated: Wednesday August 8, 2007 2:21PM .......What exactly constitutes a "national power?" To be honest, I don't have a specific answer. Obviously, a history of on-field success (national championships, major bowls) is the key component, but the program must also continue to maintain relevance -- after all, Minnesota has a bunch of national titles on its mantle, but no one views the Gophers as a national power. No, it's something more than wins and losses. It's a certain cachet or aura. It's the way a program is perceived by the public. Let me put it to you this way: Suppose we went to, say, Montana. And suppose we found 100 "average" college football fans (not necessarily message-board crazies, but not twice-a-year viewers, either) and put them in a room. If I held up a Michigan helmet, my guess is all 100 would know exactly what it was. If I held up a picture of the USC song girls, all 100 would know who they were. If I happened to bring Joe Paterno along with me, all 100 would say, "Hey, look, it's Joe Paterno!" But if I held up a Georgia "G" helmet, how many of them do you think would be able to identify it off the top of their head? And with all due respect to Mark Richt, if we secretly inserted him into a police lineup, how many of them would actually say, "Hey, look, it's Mark Richt!" (I swear, Dawgs fans, I'm not trying to pile on Georgia. It's just the example I was given. Don't hate me. Here -- Larry Munson is a god.) So with this admittedly vague yet somehow telling criteria as my guide, I will accept Adam's challenge and rank the "prestige level" of all 66 BCS schools (including Notre Dame) by dividing them into four tiers. Kings Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Tennessee*, Texas and USC. * Tennessee is the lone school in the group that caused any hesitation. The Vols would have been a no-brainer 10 years ago, but they have fallen off the map a bit lately. In the end, I figured those 100 fans in Montana still know "Rocky Top," the checkered end zones and that Peyton Manning went there. Barons Auburn, Clemson, Colorado, Georgia, LSU*, Texas A&M, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Washington and Wisconsin. * While LSU is clearly a premier program right now, its big-picture tradition does not match those of the 13 kings. However, if the Tigers were to add another national title here in the next couple of years, they may well graduate to that group. Knights Arizona State, Arkansas, Boston College, Cal, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas State, Maryland, Michigan State, Missouri, N.C. State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Oregon State, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Stanford, Syracuse*, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington State. * In normal times, Syracuse would qualify as one of the barons, but they're just so darn bad and so irrelevant right now. Peasants Arizona, Baylor, Cincinnati, Connecticut, Duke, Minnesota, Indiana, Iowa State, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Northwestern, Rutgers*, South Florida*, Wake Forest and Vanderbilt.
Eh, I was exaggerating for effect. But the point is, we need to perform at a consistently high level in our conference and get good attendance, which is something we hadn't had until Briles and Penders arrived. The good thing is that we're much more attractive to the big conferences by virtue of being in a massive city than other consistently performing mid-majors, such as Southern Miss or BYU
I went to UH for law school. My dad is a UH alum. I love UH. But to think that UH will get a sniff from a power conference is absurd.
Super 100 Conference. college football season would last from september to march. top 5 from each division gets an automatic bid into the post season playoff + 7 wild cards determined by highest ranked that were not in the top 5 of their division = 32 team playoff the schools who underperform will be sent down to the "minors" and replaced with another school. West: Hawaii, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Oregon State, UNLV, Cal, Stanford, san jose state, fresno state, UCLA, USC, Arizona, Arizona State, utah, boise state, wyoming, Colorado, Colorado State, AF Academy Central: Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, New Mexico, UTEP, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, Arkansas, Texas Tech, SMU, TCU, Baylor, Texas, A&M, UH, Rice, missouri, iowa, iowa state Midwest: Minnesota, Wisconsen, Michigan, Michigan State, central michigan, western michigan, eastern michigan, Illinois, northern illinois, southern illinois, Indiana, Notre Dame, Ohio State, ohio, temple, toledo, miami oh, bowling green, ball state, marshall South: LSU, Tulane, mississippi, mississippi state, arkansas, alabama, auburn, uab, Kentucky, Louisville, vanderbilt, tennesse, florida, fsu, miami, ucf, georgia, georgia tech, sc, clemson East: ecu, nc, nc state, wake forest, duke, virginia, va tech, georgetown, wvu, maryland, naval academy, rutgers, pitt, penn state, syracuse, umass, bc, army, u conn, st. johns if this ever happened, it would be great
these things need to happen: 1) 40,000+ seat on-campus stadium (on the way) 2) several consistent 9-10 win seasons (in progress) 3) 10,000+ on-campus students (in progress) 4) support and commitment from the board of regents (ugh) 5) dissolving/reorganization of the SEC-Big 12 power brokers (not on the horizon, but as someone famous once said, 'sh*t happens'... and to cut even more to the chase, we're going to have to join a conference that doesnt include UT/A&M. No UT because they'd only want to keep us under their thumb, and no A&M because theyre UT's b**** and UT would get sore vaginas at A&M rubbing elbows with us. So basically the most likely scenario is Memphis/S. Miss and Houston being absorbed into the SEC or being invited into a new conference altogether) its not unlikely that by 2015 UH will almost default itself into a BCS situation, if not flat out earn its way into one. honestly, time is on UH's side here. we just need to take care of business in the meantime and opportunity will come looking for us sooner rather than later.
I think UH would need a stadium a lot bigger than that to get into one of the power conferences. This isn't quite such a big deal for the Big XII maybe, but I don't see the SEC ever allowing a team into the conference with a 40,000 seat stadium. I think you'd need a 60,000 seat stadium to get an invite to the SEC at a minimum. Vandy and the Mississippi schools have smaller stadiums, but I think the next smallest in the conference is Arkansas' stadium which holds ~75,000. The economics of running a program with only 40,000 seats in the SEC would be pretty damning.
I respectfully disagree. When would UH EVER need a 60,000 seat stadium, in the next 10 years? Its just not going to be required. I can't think of a single team in the SEC that would sell out an expanded Robertson (unless they were a national title contender, or UH was ranked/kickin ass at the time) 40,000+ is the foundation, not the end of the expansion, mind you. The end desire would be something near 50,000, like the liberty bowl in memphis. The last thing UH needs is to play games against the likes of Auburn and Florida in reliant stadium with only 30,000 people in a 70,000 seat stadium..
So are they suppose to add more seats to Robertson? Why not tear it down, and have them play at Reliant or Rice or somewhere for two or three seasons, and build a new retractable roof 500 suite stadium instead. okay, maybe not that, but like 50,000 seat stadium.
theyre adding in something like 5,000 seats along with the endzone facility soon. robertson is not going to be torn down.
Yet... IMO you're a little too hung up on pure attendance numbers.. there are other factors in conference affiliation than just pure stadium data..
baylor does have some nice facilities and i think the golf team has been good too we were actually building a really nice mens basketball program until the scandal occured its no secret...baylor's football program isnt good. i think we beat 1 ranked team while i was there (aggies in 06). i thought morriss would do better but there is only so much he can do with the recruiting classes we get kam...only dorks go to baylor? you're just a hater thats talkin out of his rear end
Yeah, like the quality of facilities (low), the amount of prolonged athletic success (low), the national image of the university and athletics (low), fan support (low), tradition (low). Basically the only thing you can say UH has to offer a BCS conference is a large TV market. The problem with that is that most people in Houston don't root for UH over UT, A&M, and other schools in the state, so the effect of delivering a large TV market is drastically reduced.
So like, did UH kill your mother or something? Cause it almost seems like you have a score to settle or something, going off on a completely subjective note like that. Maybe its your wish UH stays in the place it is, hell, if I were a fan of any other Texas school, I'd wish the same thing.
To all the detractors, if a dump like USF can go from having no football team to the Big East in a short period of time, anything is possible.
Even when UH football was good with the run & shoot, fan participation was extremely low. UH won't be a good alumni college for a long time. Sorry.
UH's only chance at ever making a BCS conference was when the Big East raided CUSA after Miami, VaTech, and BC jumped to the ACC. Obviously tons of politics goes into this and geographical factors come into play but that was their one shot.
Speaking of which.. I'm embarrassed to say that our mascot is a sissy. For a school that is located in the 3rd ward, we sure have a soft mascot. I mean did you see him get slapped around by that ugly green duck? I blame Brooks! http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=sports&id=5655703 Shasta is a girly name anyways.. we need to change his name to something tougher. Tyrone the coog or something. or Killa.
