I would say App St and Ark St do not have markedly better programs than us. Today they are up and we are down. Two years from now it will most likely be reversed. Such is life as a D1 have not. As for sales pitch, we are looked at as being a notch below Tech and Tulane. They have a better conference, better tradition and better TV deals. Yes we have a nice Athletic Facility, but that is just window dressing. To compete with them as well as SMiss and Houston we need to either take chances or bend the rules. We tried the second one and got caught. We are now doing the first (with less than stellar results).
I honestly don't have all the answers, but I think our upside is limited and our downside great. We could easily make an expensive bad hire and be the new Texas St. I wish I had some of your optimism, but I do not see how us or anyone else in the SBC can really compete on the D1 level. We have to get out of this conference. IMHO nothing else matters.