Lamar heading back to Southland Conference

[no-look]

3 minutes ago, BEARCPA said:

Honest question for those of us that haven't been involved in the recruiting process: does the conference a school is in matter to recruits at the lower levels of D-1 like the Southland and WAC?

I believe it does. Players want exposure. And the better the conference makes a difference on where they want to go. 

[RETIREDFAN1]

14 hours ago, TradenupBH said:

I would be super surprised if SFA doesn’t announce the move back also. Sam Houston and New Mexico St announced they’re leaving WAC next year for conference USA. What a mess. UIW and UT-Arlington announced going to WAC next year. Wonder if they back out now?

SFA aint going back......looking to join CUSA........

[no-look]

12 minutes ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

SFA aint going back......looking to join CUSA........

That’s the buzz on the street. Not sure if it has any validity 

[bullets13]

Maybe i need to bone up on my knowledge of mid-major conferences, but as they stand, the WAC and the Sunbelt don't really look all that far apart to me.  

The WAC members are California Baptist, Abilene Christian, Chicago St, Dixie St, Grand Canyon, New Mexico St, Sam Houston St, Seattle U, SFA, Tarleton, UT Rio Grand, Utah Valley.  

What am I missing here?

Sun Belt will be Appalachian St, Arkansas St, Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia St, Arkansas LR, Louisiana Lafayette, Louisiana Monroe, South Alabama, Texas St, UT Arlington, Lamar, and Troy.  

[RETIREDFAN1]

34 minutes ago, no-look said:

That’s the buzz on the street. Not sure if it has any validity 

Would be nice.......

[RETIREDFAN1]

32 minutes ago, bullets13 said:

 

What am I missing here?

 

Lamar going back to the SOUTHLAND not the Sunbelt.....lol......

[TxHoops]

4 hours ago, BEARCPA said:

Honest question for those of us that haven't been involved in the recruiting process: does the conference a school is in matter to recruits at the lower levels of D-1 like the Southland and WAC?

Absolutely.  Savion Flagg never goes to Sam if they hadn’t moved to the WAC.  Same could be said for several kids I can name but won’t.  Got the same report from SFA about a couple of their transfers/signees.  Right or wrong, many kids, especially Texas kids, aren’t interested in the Southland unless forced.  (This is basketball only that I can speak to).  To put it in relative terms, the Southland champ will almost always be a 16 seed.  The WAC will be in the 12-13 range.  That’s about right in difference of levels.  And you get seen in many states, not just Texas and Louisiana.  

[KF89]

Maybe I also missed on this new WAC conference? It is not the WAC of old. I still do not see it as  a good basketball conference or any basketball schools many people will watch no matter how many states they play in?  

[Mr. Buddy Garrity]

7 minutes ago, KF89 said:

Maybe I also missed on this new WAC conference? It is not the WAC of old. I still do not see it as  a good basketball conference or any basketball schools many people will watch no matter how many states they play in?  

I think a few of the old WAC teams moved over to the Mountain West a long time ago. 

[bullets13]

3 hours ago, RETIREDFAN1 said:

Lamar going back to the SOUTHLAND not the Sunbelt.....lol......

oh, duh.  that would be what I'm missing.  but still, the WAC looks bad.  but def better than the southland.  not sure why I had the sun belt in my head this morning, other than lamar was there forever ago and they both start with an "s".

[TxHoops]

29 minutes ago, KF89 said:

Maybe I also missed on this new WAC conference? It is not the WAC of old. I still do not see it as  a good basketball conference or any basketball schools many people will watch no matter how many states they play in?  

You must be more of a baseball guy.  NM St should have probably been a 7-8 seed based on their talent.  Grand Canyon sells out every game and is one of the best atmospheres in CBB.  Seattle is also an up and comer.  It’s levels and it’s definitely on a different level.  Ask Kyle Keller or Jason Hooten or just about anyone who does it for a living. 
 

But maybe Lamar belongs on a lower level. 

[Lions Pride 2021]

Lamar is directionless, gutless and pitiful. If you're going to leave the WAC, going back to the Southland conference with your tail between your legs is not the move. All the issues with the Southland are still there. The lack of investment in facilities, program and coaching. Just because Lamar hasn't got any coaching hires right doesn't mean they were wrong to leave the SLC. 

The SLC hosts its basketball tournament in a high school gym. On a floor 10'shorter than regulation. The WAC plays in Vegas.

I wish they had leadership and did what it takes to get in the Sun Belt, which is where they belong. Until then, I'm through.

[spidersal]

I would certainly think the conference matters. Quality recruits are going to go to schools that have a winning tradition. Lamar will have a change to have more success in the SLC, however if things don’t change they will not win there either. The SLC and WAC are two extremely weak conferences. You have to win the conference or conference tournament to get an invitation to a regional. As of now the Cardinals will not win any major sport in the WAC or SLC. Hopefully that will change in the future 

[Clueless]

3 hours ago, Lions Pride 2021 said:

Lamar is directionless, gutless and pitiful. If you're going to leave the WAC, going back to the Southland conference with your tail between your legs is not the move. All the issues with the Southland are still there. The lack of investment in facilities, program and coaching. Just because Lamar hasn't got any coaching hires right doesn't mean they were wrong to leave the SLC. 

The SLC hosts its basketball tournament in a high school gym. On a floor 10'shorter than regulation. The WAC plays in Vegas.

I wish they had leadership and did what it takes to get in the Sun Belt, which is where they belong. Until then, I'm through.

Lamar is in need of facilities upgrade too. They don’t have money or don’t want to spend money to upgrade facilities. Turf at Vincent was a bandaid. They need to revamp that whole place. No reason to have 3,500 seat stadium when you average about 1,000 for home homes. I would make it smaller with new covered stands, new locker rooms, concession stand, outfield wall, scoreboard, etc. Lamar belongs in Southland because of the fact they aren’t all in on sports either.

[Clueless]

22 minutes ago, spidersal said:

I would certainly think the conference matters. Quality recruits are going to go to schools that have a winning tradition. Lamar will have a change to have more success in the SLC, however if things don’t change they will not win there either. The SLC and WAC are two extremely weak conferences. You have to win the conference or conference tournament to get an invitation to a regional. As of now the Cardinals will not win any major sport in the WAC or SLC. Hopefully that will change in the future 

Last year, only 12 out of 30 conferences had multiple teams from their conference made a baseball regional.

Only 10 conferences had multiple teams in March madness for basketball.

Football at Lamar level is majority one team conference playoffs.

point is, there’s no conference nowadays that works financially for a school like Lamar. We are who we are, unless the powers that be spend money and change the image of Lamar. Kids aren’t knocking down the door to attend Lamar and live in Beaumont. Not happening. It would take a major overhaul of area, adding nice off campus housing, bars, restaurants, and other college activities to change kids minds. Just my opinion.

 

[Lions Pride 2021]

2 hours ago, TradenupBH said:

Last year, only 12 out of 30 conferences had multiple teams from their conference made a baseball regional.

Only 10 conferences had multiple teams in March madness for basketball.

Football at Lamar level is majority one team conference playoffs.

point is, there’s no conference nowadays that works financially for a school like Lamar. We are who we are, unless the powers that be spend money and change the image of Lamar. Kids aren’t knocking down the door to attend Lamar and live in Beaumont. Not happening. It would take a major overhaul of area, adding nice off campus housing, bars, restaurants, and other college activities to change kids minds. Just my opinion.

 

This is a defeatist attitude. They can build a new Vincent Beck if they wanted too. They should be aiming for the Sun Belt, the athletic budget is closer to those schools than it is for the southland schools.

The other schools in the TSU system have built better facilities, added a medical school and invested heavily in research. What has Lamar done? Become a diploma mill for teachers. 

The school is being left behind. Lamar chose to be in TSU because it was promised it would always be an equal. Its not, it's been left behind. And none of the so called leaders are doing anything about it.

[snakehead26]

7 hours ago, TxHoops said:

You must be more of a baseball guy.  NM St should have probably been a 7-8 seed based on their talent.  Grand Canyon sells out every game and is one of the best atmospheres in CBB.  Seattle is also an up and comer.  It’s levels and it’s definitely on a different level.  Ask Kyle Keller or Jason Hooten or just about anyone who does it for a living. 
 

But maybe Lamar belongs on a lower level. 

I'm speaking of basketball here as well. We could go sport by sport.

As for basketball I looked at two online ranking services.  The Southland was ranked 29 of 32 conferences in one of them and 31 of 33 conferences in the other. The WAC was rated 15 of 32 in one of them and 16 of 33 in the other one. I don't know why one has 33 conferences and the other 32.

The Southland's highest ranking team was Nicholls at around 200.  The WAC has six schools in the top 150 or above.

Take a team like La. Tech. They are in C-USA. They also grabbed one of our excellent local talent that is projected to be a second round NBA draft choice.  

[BEARCPA]

1 hour ago, Lions Pride 2021 said:

This is a defeatist attitude. They can build a new Vincent Beck if they wanted too. They should be aiming for the Sun Belt, the athletic budget is closer to those schools than it is for the southland schools.

The other schools in the TSU system have built better facilities, added a medical school and invested heavily in research. What has Lamar done? Become a diploma mill for teachers. 

The school is being left behind. Lamar chose to be in TSU because it was promised it would always be an equal. Its not, it's been left behind. And none of the so called leaders are doing anything about it.

I agree with most of your post, but I don’t think the highlighted part is true at all. I’ve already done the research on Lamar’s athletic budget, which falls well behind their former Southland peers. The powers that be have to agree to start opening up the checkbook. 
 

 

[Lions Pride 2021]

1 hour ago, BEARCPA said:

I agree with most of your post, but I don’t think the highlighted part is true at all. I’ve already done the research on Lamar’s athletic budget, which falls well behind their former Southland peers. The powers that be have to agree to start opening up the checkbook. 
 

 

The Louisiana schools spend around 12million. Lamar is closer to 19 million. Lamar would probably need to spend 7 million more a year to be serious about a better conference but a better conference has better payouts, better games and higher revenue because you can host FBS schools. Look at Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and App State. No one knew who they were 20 years ago. You could argue that Lamar was better known than them. Not any more. The leadership and vision at Lamar, and Beaumont in general, is sorely lacking. 

 

[Clueless]

3 hours ago, Lions Pride 2021 said:

This is a defeatist attitude. They can build a new Vincent Beck if they wanted too. They should be aiming for the Sun Belt, the athletic budget is closer to those schools than it is for the southland schools.

The other schools in the TSU system have built better facilities, added a medical school and invested heavily in research. What has Lamar done? Become a diploma mill for teachers. 

The school is being left behind. Lamar chose to be in TSU because it was promised it would always be an equal. Its not, it's been left behind. And none of the so called leaders are doing anything about it.

I don’t have defeatist attitude, I’m speaking facts. You not getting athletes outside area to come to an area that is boring and a college that made for commuter college.

The only fix is dump A lot of money into the athletics department and the surrounding area of Lamar. If not, we’ll all be on here 10 years from now still complaining.

[Coach85]

10 hours ago, TradenupBH said:

I don’t have defeatist attitude, I’m speaking facts. You not getting athletes outside area to come to an area that is boring and a college that made for commuter college.

The only fix is dump A lot of money into the athletics department and the surrounding area of Lamar. If not, we’ll all be on here 10 years from now still complaining.

Agree 100%. The Beaumont/Port Arthur area has declined drastically and there is nothing for college age students to do. Lamar itself doesn’t put hardly any emphasis on its athletic programs like they use to when they brought in good coaches, instead of retread’s or first time head coaches with very little experience, and had good teams that people would actually go to watch. 

[BEARCPA]

11 hours ago, Lions Pride 2021 said:

The Louisiana schools spend around 12million. Lamar is closer to 19 million. Lamar would probably need to spend 7 million more a year to be serious about a better conference but a better conference has better payouts, better games and higher revenue because you can host FBS schools. Look at Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and App State. No one knew who they were 20 years ago. You could argue that Lamar was better known than them. Not any more. The leadership and vision at Lamar, and Beaumont in general, is sorely lacking. 

 

I find it very hard to believe that Lamar is spending $19 mil. on athletics when their athletic budget is less than $14 mil. 

[Clueless]

19 hours ago, Lions Pride 2021 said:

The Louisiana schools spend around 12million. Lamar is closer to 19 million. Lamar would probably need to spend 7 million more a year to be serious about a better conference but a better conference has better payouts, better games and higher revenue because you can host FBS schools. Look at Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, Georgia State and App State. No one knew who they were 20 years ago. You could argue that Lamar was better known than them. Not any more. The leadership and vision at Lamar, and Beaumont in general, is sorely lacking. 

 

A quick look shows the average Sunbelt Conference school athletics budget is $35.5 million and Appalachian State was over $37 million. That’s over twice the amount that Lamar spends. Like I said, Lamar University board of regents, alumni, Presidents, and former AD’s are the reason they’re in this position right now. City of Beaumont too

[KF89]

4 hours ago, TradenupBH said:

A quick look shows the average Sunbelt Conference school athletics budget is $35.5 million and Appalachian State was over $37 million. That’s over twice the amount that Lamar spends. Like I said, Lamar University board of regents, alumni, Presidents, and former AD’s are the reason they’re in this position right now. City of Beaumont too

Facts.  

[Separation Scientist]

I could not believe Lamar, with very weak sports, even tried to move. Anyone with any financial sense could easily see Lamar would incur a ton of costs associated with all the travel out to the west and regret it.

Both Lamar Football and Lamar Basketball did not win a single game. Not a single game. Think about that.