[ Post a Response | Long Beach State Sports ]
Where would we go?
Also, we need significant facilities upgrades to even hope to move up to a higher-level conference.
We also need administration with vision, which is not satisfied with where we are...and of course, Money. No Bucks, no Big Time College sports. 
Previous Message
they also swallowed the teams that “punched above their weight”. Utah was a mountain west team, same with Houston from CUSA. Memphis still outside the club. Wichita State. Butler. These weren’t real Cinderella’s, but they were a layer of the overlooked teams who could make a real run. Much like San Diego State is now.
I know the Big West is where we fit, I think if Pac wants an LA basketball school and actually looks at us (long shot at best) we should consider. I’d rather be attached to schools trying to raise up than holding on. Money/fundraising would have to improve, but that’s always the case for us. Again, at this point nothing implies we are moving conferences. Previous Message
The point about the NCAA Tournament is valid, the problem is you can easily (IMO) generate the same David vs. Goliath effect with about 150-200 schools. Unless there’s some legitimate data showing a decent part of attention/viewership is created by having people glob onto their conference representative, they could trim
10-15 conferences without people really noticing. Previous Message
Honest assessment of the landscape, and our brethren of the Big West.
It will be a hard pill to swallow if the divide in athletics ruins the NCAA tourney, but we aren't there yet. It may be coming, but I still believe athletics is a great experience for the person, and can be an emblem for the university as a whole. Previous Message
https://www.the562.org/2024/10/28/podcast-ncaa-rule-changes-with-long-beach-state-athletic-director-bobby-smitheran/
Long Beach State AD Bobby Smitheran joins The 562.org podcast and explains why the Beach hasn’t hopped on the conference realignment carousel: “Everything has been football-motivated. That’s where you're seeing the carousel in terms of conference realignment. So, as a non-football-playing institution, we would have to find a conference that would make sense for us, but we are proud members of the Big West Conference. Now with the departure of Hawaii, we’re a California-based conference, and as we think about those like-minded institutions, whether it's academically, how we're being resourced financially, it's the right fit for us to compete at a high level and compete for championships.” Smitheran also notes that the scholarship rules as proposed by the House settlement complicate the Beach’s financial situation. He explains the university’s tuition is set to increase by 6% in each of the next five years, and “as that goes up our scholarship bill goes up. And as the NCAA is talking about enhanced scholarship numbers for every sport, that has a real impact on our bottom line because the sports just got more expensive. The cost of scholarships increases. So, we've got to look at that in a holistic perspective.” Asked about Long Beach State’s long-term value proposition to the NCAA, Smitheran explains that March Madness “was built upon the idea of Cinderella arriving to the dance, and that CBS contract has been built on the success of March Madness and that concept, that idea that the Long Beach States of the world can have an opportunity to slay Goliath and make a run. So, I think that's still out there for us. You look at Dirtbag Nation and a run to the College World Series and what that would mean for the sport of baseball because the Dirtbags are a national brand. You look at how women’s basketball is increasing in profile. There are opportunities out there. It’s incumbent on us to seize those opportunities
Prospector Pete LIVES! WE ARE ALL 49RS!
Message Thread
« Back to index
on 10/30/2024, 11:10 pm, in reply to "