redpony wrote:Aresco has been rebuffed several times now. Obviously AAC is in decline and we don't want lower quality teams just to fill numbers.. IMO we must move or become 'left overs' in DII. Perhaps ESPN could encourage ACC to accept us and another conference mate to bail us out.
Sadly RGT was more interested in building fountains than building top level sports teams years ago when it really mattered in developing our image.
ACC nor the PAC are going to look at SMU any time soon. They're still much more apt to poach BIG XII teams, let's be real.
SMU is currently set up, along with Memphis, as the top team for conference realignment outside of the P5. Winning now, and winning consistently has been great timing. The goal for SMU is to find a spot that puts them at the best chance of moving up.
Option 1: Stay in the new AAC - this conference just lost Houston, UCF, and Cinci. The teams that most excited me as a fan whenever SMU would play. They also make up 40% of the viewership for the conference. That's all gone now. AAC now has rumors of looking at Liberty, UAB, and other CUSA teams. Whether they backfill by getting 2 or 4, the replacements are diluting the brand and the tv revenue
significantly. The silver lining here is that SMU would have absolutely NO excuse to not consistently tear up this conference and win it. This is a conference that you can remain in the top 25 in football and also get an NCAA basketball berth. However, the tv revenue will suck and the prestige of this conference will likely be less than the MWC (assuming the MWC continues to have Boise, SDSU, Fresno competing well for football - and that's not always the case).
Option 2: Move "laterally" to the MWC - if SMU were to move to the MWC AND this conference finds a way to get Wichita and Gonzaga in for basketball, then you're looking at a conference which has very good basketball and easily the best football in the G5. The downside here is that the markets of the MWC are hot garbage and the tv revenue will be significantly less than the current deal the AAC has (and maybe even less than a new deal the AAC could mint?). If SMU were to move here and compete, there would be a bit more of a national eye on that level of success. The MWC is a conference which has seen multiple of its teams move into the P5 via Utah, BYU, TCU. There could be an argument that succeeding well in the MWC might get more eyes on SMU than succeeding in a diluted AAC.
Those are really the only two real options. Regardless of what happens, the time to win is now. SMU can not take its foot off the gas. You do that, and you risk being left behind forever. There's a chance here for SMU to get invited into the Big XII if it goes to 14 (and definitely 16). The chance of SMU being invited into the ACC/PAC is not good at all, and only something which is viable after all the other major conferences have made major moves AND if SMU were to continue to dominate in football and become relevant in basketball again. Otherwise, it's a dream guys.