Gulf Coast MTE has Ball State, Southern Illinois and Eastern Kentucky in it. And then 5 open slots to be filled. I suppose that is why it looks like it might be a place for us to land. Keep in mind at SF said above, every P5 team has already committed along with every Atlantic 10, Mountain West, WCC, Missouri Valley conference. So, whomever fills those 5 spots, they are going to have very similar profiles in it as the 3 schools already committed.
It is scheduling malpractice that the reigning A-10 champions from last year is literally the only team of competitive value that does not have an MTE at this point. I mean what we were doing all Spring and Summer when these were getting done, on vacation, not answering our phones, turning down offers. It just kind of blows your mind that we are here right now.
More likely the Gulf Coast mte needs 1 or 2. Just doesn't seem practical that it's 5. Not at the end of August. there has been some misreporting on the MTE tracker too. idk what MTE we're in but I'm definitely of the belief we've been in 1 too, just not announced. Gulf coast seems reasonable of what's left. maybe we prefer to have all 8 teams finalized b4 announcing, especially since it's not an event that will move the needle. just spitballing.
To me it's not that we don't have a MTE we're in....it's that we're in a bad one. I've said this for years...it's the connection and over reliance on the Gazelle Group. Not enough varied and good connections for MTEs, which r run by the 3rd party groups. We've parked the bus with Gazelle and we're a one trick pony more or less with these MTEs. I don't know why, although u can certainly speculate. But I don't think we can be shocked. The evidence of how we operate in past is there. The Gazelle Group doesn't even have the best MTEs. Now they have some pretty good 2 game MTEs, maybe 1 fell through for us, or they have other clients to cater to, and we go into panic mode with no other connections.