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WAC
Dec 18, 2020 10:56:01 GMT -6
Post by acutrackfan on Dec 18, 2020 10:56:01 GMT -6
Very interesting info, Oscar. It does illustrate how ACU has been able to have a solid amount of success on a shoestring budget. Our budget will obviously have to expand some simply to cover expanded travel costs. In a perfect world, I would think that ACU can be very competitive on an overall athletic budget of $20-22 million. Grand Canyon has an athletic budget of around $20 million, but they do not field a football team. That is why their men's basketball budget can be 4.5 times larger than ACU's budget for men's b-ball.
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WAC
Dec 18, 2020 13:32:39 GMT -6
Post by Outsider on Dec 18, 2020 13:32:39 GMT -6
We are neither the school with the smallest or the largest budget. I think we need a little higher budget to grow, but we are proving we belong regardless.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Dec 19, 2020 1:53:58 GMT -6
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WAC
Dec 20, 2020 13:06:55 GMT -6
Post by rc on Dec 20, 2020 13:06:55 GMT -6
I hated to read the "winless" reference to our footballers. I liked the compliment about our football stadium. But the article was quite informative -- just about on par with what we read on CatChat.
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Post by mavsman53 on Dec 30, 2020 9:27:20 GMT -6
Interesting development-
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WAC
Dec 30, 2020 11:08:02 GMT -6
Post by acutrackfan on Dec 30, 2020 11:08:02 GMT -6
Just reading these texts from Katfans.com (which has been on top of WAC developments from the start). Are you going to post the other 2 texts from Katfans?
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WAC
Dec 30, 2020 11:10:43 GMT -6
Post by acutrackfan on Dec 30, 2020 11:10:43 GMT -6
Interesting that the SLC is pushing the Texas 4 to bail out at the end of this school year. We already knew about the AQ request from the Texas 4 for football, but does mean that the SLC is trying to dump golf/tennis as conference championship sports if the Texas 4 pulls out?
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WAC
Dec 30, 2020 11:32:39 GMT -6
Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Dec 30, 2020 11:32:39 GMT -6
If the #Texas4 wants out and the SLC wants us out why would the SLC hold us to higher exit fees if we leave this year? It seems it would be in their best interest to negotiate a lower fee.
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Post by acutrackfan on Dec 30, 2020 13:03:07 GMT -6
As I referenced in my post above, KatsFans had some other updates on Twitter that I found interesting:
-The TAMU system is a big player in these discussions. They like that Tarleton (part of the A&M system) has found a D-1 in the WAC. The TAMU system would be supportive of WTAM and TAMU-C moving to D1, with WTAM heading to the WAC and TAMU-C to the SLC.
-That would only leave TAMU-K playing D2 football within the TAMU system. The Chancellor of the TAMU System has wanted to merge TAMU-CC and TAMU-K administration for years and they could hold the TAMU-K for an eventual merger of the 2 schools (which are only 42 miles apart). Of course, any merger of the two would occur over the dead bodies of everyone connected to TAMU-K!
-Why would the TAMU system care at all about how many D1 football playing schools are their system? Why, because they are always worried about that is happening in the UT system! UT has other D-1 playing schools in their system besides THE University of Texas (UTEP, UTSA). Right now, the TAMU has 2 besides College Station (PVAM and Tarleton). Moving up WTAM and TAMU-C to the big time would make the TAMU system more prestigous (at least in the Aggie's eyes).
Reading these tweets helped me understand the whole WAC thing a bit better.
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WAC
Jan 2, 2021 7:09:04 GMT -6
bucfan likes this
Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jan 2, 2021 7:09:04 GMT -6
An interesting read from DrOldkat on the Sam Houston fan forum, KatFans Over the past few weeks I have exchanged numerous texts, PM's on this site, a phone call or two and one personal visit with a person or persons who, in my opinion, have reason to have some degree of insight into the situation of SHSU moving to the WAC. Obviously, I don't have Dr. White's ear, in fact have never met her, and Bobby Williams, Coach Keeler and various & assorted coaches have better things to do right now than sit around and yak with me. Of course, that would be true whether the WAC thing were on the horizon or not. So take this is for what it is worth, which is exactly equal to how much you are paying for it; ZERO. Still, I now believe this is a done deal. I believe we are joining a restructuring WAC and for good reason. In bullet fashion, I will say there is fairly positive reason to think; 1) We will join the WAC and it will be announced as early as the next two to three weeks to maybe two to three months. 2) There are people that are saying that some folks at other schools are openly talking about this deal as being "done". That apparently is not so at SHSU. 3) This process has been ongoing for far longer than the past several months. 4) There is some evidence that suggest there were schools in the Texas Four: ACU, Lamar, SHSU and SFA that were offered membership in another FCS conference besides the WAC. No specific information is available on that, but apparently that wasn't a viable option. 5) There are various reasons given for this move, but most state that SHSU is interested in putting more emphasis on athletics for marketing purposes. Too detailed to address here, but the public perception of "Good" schools have "Good" athletic programs, "Bad" athletic programs are a sign of a "Bad" school have something to do with that. i.e. this has implications outside of athletics. 6) The schools making the move have already and/or will invest significantly in behind the scenes technology and equipment that would make them more attractive to the sports broadcasting world, those that are not making the move have not & either don't want to or can't afford to make such investments. 7) A couple of people have stated that these investments were already made by certain schools in the SLC and thus additional $$$ have already been generated by the conference or guaranteed to be made to the conference. Unfortunately, those dollars have or will accrue to ALL conference members, not just the schools that actually made the investment. Not a good or acceptable situation. 8) The Texas Four will move as a group to the WAC to join existing WAC members Tarleton State and UTRGV, the later will add football relatively soon. There is good reason to believe that West Texas A&M (or is it Texas A&M Canyon?) will be the final piece of the puzzle, but not necessarily a done deal. 9) Along with the "other" division of the WAC, the Texas schools will be working toward putting themselves in a position to move to the Second Tier of what is currently known as FBS football, if ... which we all know is actually when, the P5 elites decide to deprive the rest of the FBS of their company (Yes, that is stolen from The Shawshank Redemption). and 10) An addition: Even if we are not successful individually or collectively in joining that new Second Tier, these moves should improve our overall situation regardless. www.katfans.com/katsforum/
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Post by acutrackfan on Jan 2, 2021 11:09:34 GMT -6
The technology angle is interesting. ACU TV has a physical setup that was described by an ESPN exec as "being equal to any TV production setup in the SEC". That is why when a game is broadcast from ACU, ESPN does not bring in an outside broadcast team -- while the announcers may be outsiders, the production is done in-house. ACU TV still uses students more extensively than most university production teams -- the only production professional is Hutton Harris (an ACU alum who ran the Texas Rangers in-stadium visuals before returning to ACU). Therefore, the production quality is sometimes a mixed bag, because the student cameraman could be manning a camera for the first time in their life. Even with that caveat, the TV production quality of ACU TV will rival or exceed the in-house production quality of any FCS school and even a substantial majority of FBS schools -- at a tiny fraction of the cost.
Cable has been run from the Morris Center TV Studio to numerous buildings on campus -- Moody Coliseum, Teague Center, Cullen Auditorium, Williams Performing Arts Center and the hope is that cable can be run to several of the buildings on campus that do not have broadcast capability at this time. That is why events like TED X can be broadcast. This is the kind of infrastructure capability that is referenced in #7 above. I would be surprised if this kind of infrastructure investment would be possible at the LA schools or at HBU/UIW.
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WAC
Jan 2, 2021 12:51:51 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by bogeyman on Jan 2, 2021 12:51:51 GMT -6
Question. In the basketball games produced by ACU and shown on the ACU TV programming (not ESPN+) I've not been able to get sound (no commentators). Is this just me or is there a glitch in the programming?
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WAC
Jan 2, 2021 13:48:42 GMT -6
Post by rc on Jan 2, 2021 13:48:42 GMT -6
Question. In the basketball games produced by ACU and shown on the ACU TV programming (not ESPN+) I've not been able to get sound (no commentators). Is this just me or is there a glitch in the programming? It may be your system sound set-up. When I first joined ESPN+ I had no sound but finally found a slider that I could turn the sound on. In other words, for some reason my system blocked sound at first. I am not sure about ACU-TV but it might be something similar.
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Post by WildCatToothDoc on Jan 2, 2021 19:05:37 GMT -6
Question. In the basketball games produced by ACU and shown on the ACU TV programming (not ESPN+) I've not been able to get sound (no commentators). Is this just me or is there a glitch in the programming? I have no sound also.
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WAC
Jan 2, 2021 19:45:01 GMT -6
Post by PurpleHaze on Jan 2, 2021 19:45:01 GMT -6
Question. In the basketball games produced by ACU and shown on the ACU TV programming (not ESPN+) I've not been able to get sound (no commentators). Is this just me or is there a glitch in the programming? I have no sound also. OK, so I was having this issue as well but I didn't realized the volume within the ESPN+ screen was muted. I had laptop plugged into TV so I was messing with TV volume and laptop volume. Finally realized the muted volume control on the ESPN screen. Hope that helps, but you may have already tried this.
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