I think CUSA addressed the need for large tv markets through expansion already.  We have retained the Dallas market by adding UNT. We replaced the #19 DMA (Orlando) with the #16 DMA (Miami) and the #49 DMA (Memphis) with #36 DMA (San Antonio). In addition to that we added the #25 DMA (Charlotte) , #43 DMA (Norfolk) and #83 market in Shreveport (La Tech).

As far as recruiting grounds go... south Florida, Tidewater of Va, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston > Toledo.

OHIO brings instant credibility in football and basketball due to the success of the last few seasons. Had this been the mid and late 90s maybe more of an argument could be made for Toledo.

If Toledo isn't valuable to CUSA, and Ohio is, great. But why is that the case? What is the "value" Ohio has that Toledo doesn't? You mention Ohio bringing credibility due to football and basketball success, but is that it? Why target North Texas if credibility is what CUSA is seeking?

Enjoy following the CATS at home and on the road in the MAC.  Would miss a lot of BOBCAT football if OU would move to the C-USA.   Plan  to attend all the BOBCATS games this year except UMass.  Couldn't attend all the games with a change. 

 Actually the traveling aspect for us just got better with the additions of Old Dominion and Charlotte. Great destinations for Herd fans that most all of us really look forward to. Throw in our non-conference slate coming up with Ohio, Purdue, Virginia Tech, Cryami-OH, Akron, and Navy....those are games that all fans can travel to. Hopefully we'll renew the Louisville series after they come here in 2014. The addition of ODU and Charlotte was huge for us not to mention ECU is a game that many fans travel to already. Its the best of both worlds, we get to travel with the team more often now with the new additions while still getting national exposure in places like Miami-Florida, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio Texas, and now Charlotte and Norfolk. We have a lot of alumni in the Charlotte and Norfolk areas alone.

It was reported recently in a Virginia newspaper that CUSA has had contact with Delaware so they are a possibility in the future which is another reasonably close game for us. CUSA likes Markets and they are in the #4 market in the country so I'm sure they will get a serious look when/if the time comes. According to the ECU president in a recent interview he said that some Ohio Mac schools shown heavy interest in CUSA and would likely be looked at for the next round of expansion for CUSA. He went on to say that he would like to see CUSA go to 16 teams and maybe even possibly 18 teams. CUSA's goal is to tighten its geography within its current footprint while adding quality schools in great locations. I would like to see Ohio get a shot in this next round assuming the Ohio administration wants it.

In all honesty, I think the MAC is at a pretty much dead end conference.  They keep the same core teams for years and years, adding a few outliers like Army, UCF, and Temple who eventually find their way out, and have shown no real attempt or motivation to improve competitiveness as a whole.

I'm tired of watching the MAC championship, the only non-Big 6 conference to hold their game at a neutral field, looking like 20 people attended.  When I have friends over to watch the championship game, the first thing they say is "Look at all of those empty seats!"

I don't know about you guys, but I like to see our team improve, and the MAC is not the place to do that. I want to get the hell out of this conference, even if that means I can only go to 2 away games a year as suppose to 3 or 4 like I normally do.

I've said this before, and I'm still very much of the belief that Ohio has nowhere to go until another big domino falls from the top.  The only big conference that Ohio even has a chance to join is the Big East, but they aren't going to have any interest in us unless we can become a viable national brand (not a big enough local tv market).  ACC is out of the question, and same for the BIG 10 (12).  The most logical thing to me is the formation of a new conference with a couple MAC teams, some from C-USA, and a couple others thrown in.  I originally had something different in mind, but with some of those schools going to the Big East, this is the slightly tweaked version.

North
Ohio
Toledo
Akron
Marshall
UMass

South
UCF
Tulsa
Southern Miss
Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee St

This would be a really good conference in both football in basketball with a ton of potential to grow.  Travel might be an issue for some, but the majority of these teams have to travel quite a bit already.  This conference could easily put multiple teams in the NCAA tourney every year and have a bunch of bowl teams.  Look at the RPI's from these 10 teams last year (NCAA tourney teams bolded):

Ohio  (45)
Toledo  (246)
Akron  (55)
Marshall  (44)
UMass  (77)
UCF  (54)
Tulsa  (118)
Southern Miss  (21)
Western Kentucky  (189)
Middle Tennessee St  (56)

Obviously a couple high ones in there, but WKU has been very good historically, and I believe Toledo will only get better.  That's six teams in the RPI top 60 and three in the top 50.  RPI's would be even higher since everyone would be playing better competition.  In terms of football, this would again be a very good conference.  The following teams all went bowling.  Those that won their bowl game are bolded.

Ohio
Toledo
Marshall
Tulsa
Southern Miss

As much as I love the rivalry with Fiami, I really question if they are interested in expanding athletics.  They could be included in the bunch and swap out Akron, but though the football program is lagging behind at the moment, they are dedicated to athletic spending and improving their athletics.  This would be a tough conference.  Would love for something like this to happen, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

+1 Excellent post!