sec03 wrote:
These metro-commuter campuses in pro markets--even southern ones (GA. State, UNCC, etc.) reflect the impression glorious things are to come because of where they are located. School growth based on a population pool of convenience, may not necessarily translate into unlimited possibilities when it comes to adding and developing football.
ECU (though not an urban campus) has been the model for great ambitions beyond their resume', but a history of struggling to find a conference to allow those ambitions to be realized. Same State.
Being urban does not assure lofty media and business interest development. Think Temple.
UCF, for example, has made a success of it, but cracking into the real elite remains a challenge. They are the beneficiary of the last year of the BCS.
Whose next? South Carolina-Upstate?
Well, CoC has potential...
But, really, I think UNCC has potential. I just think Carolina politics in the realm of education and athletic endeavors make for an interesting situation for UNCC. By some accounts, ECU and AppState are at the same level...at the mercy of schools like UNC and NCST who, iirc, operate under the same board? And UNCC, as a derivative, operates under that same one?
UNCC, however, has an interesting past athletically, with some potential allies in nice places. It was in the Metro with Louisville and VT. It was a charter member of CUSA with UL, Memphis, USF, Cincy, Tulane. Some of those old buddies are still in CUSA now...more were there when UNCC got that visit.
It took a mighty effort for ECU to find inclusion into CUSA, and then the AAC. Schools, some of which UNCC used to run with, didn't make it easy on the Pirates. But, those schools could still thwart ECU for UNCC in favor for some reason (such as that market discrepancy, or that UNCC is a pretty big school in terms of enrollment and a respectable one academically).