PonyFans.com

SMUstang wrote:However I wouldn't mind seeing Rice admitted.

That would help conference attendance!

The MOB would make it all worthwhile

They add great academics, a great stadium with free parking, the Mob, a decent basketball program, great baseball, they are in the great state of Texas, all they need is commitment to a football program and they could compete in the AAC. And it wouldn't take long at $7M per school to them to recoup to CUSA exit fee.

They offer great academics in Texas. Their sports are bad. All major sports are trash due to underinvestment and lack of interest.

Given that one of their baseball alums, Anthony Rendon, just got a $400+ Million contract, they may have a sugar daddy for baseball.

Rice adds little value to the AAC and the only thing that makes them at all compatible is the school is located in a major metro area making travel/access easy. I don't like the idea of a single MWC school being added as they would really be a geographic outlier. If you are looking for an all-sports addition to the western division, La Tech probably adds the most competitive football/bball programs within the geographic footprint, but Ruston is not exactly an easy place for our eastern conference mates to get to.

I don't have any problem playing bball with 11 members and going to a 20 game conference schedule so finding that football only member is the challenge. Looking at the current football independents, there just aren't any attractive options. BYU or Army would be the obvious choices but not sure either would be interested and both have drawbacks. Will be interesting to see where all of this leads.

I’m in hopes that over the next two years the school and program presents itself, like say Appalachian State becoming a fixture in the top 25 Or something like that. It would definitely make things easier.

SMUstang wrote:They add great academics, a great stadium with free parking, the Mob, a decent basketball program, great baseball, they are in the great state of Texas, all they need is commitment to a football program and they could compete in the AAC. And it wouldn't take long at $7M per school to them to recoup to CUSA exit fee.

I don't hate Rice and they have a very rich, if very ancient, history. But before talking about Rice, you stated that you only want the best competition. Rice is not it. They have not invested in being competitive and they will not invest. The stadium is a crumbling dinosaur. The parking lot is irrelevant. Rice basketball is irrelevant (and is on a streak of losing seasons, even in the terribly weak CUSA). Rice baseball, if you haven't noticed, has also become irrelevant (and is also on a streak of losing seasons, even in the terribly weak CUSA).

They're in Texas? Great. You could make a better (though still terrible) case for about 10 Texas schools before Rice.

The thought of Appalachian State makes me sad. Yes, they have a good football program (for now). At one point so did East Tennessee State. Appy, Liberty, Old Dominion, are not far removed from FCS, and need another decade of seasoning in CUSA or Southland Conference. What you want are programs that beat the big boys head to head often enough that the big boys won't play them anymore. In that vein, ECU has beaten Virginia Tech several times and I think UNC as well. We have beaten TCU. USF, UCF, UH, Memphis, Navy, Temple, Tulsa have won games against P5 schools. So, a candidate for the AAC should be from teams capable of beating P5 teams. BYU, Boise State, San Diego State, So. Miss, AFA, Colorado State, Wyoming seem to fit that bill. Wyoming and CSU bring no TV market. SDS, AFA and BYU do. Boise not really, but a great football program. This is all about what the networks think, not what fans think.

Dukie wrote:

SMUstang wrote:They add great academics, a great stadium with free parking, the Mob, a decent basketball program, great baseball, they are in the great state of Texas, all they need is commitment to a football program and they could compete in the AAC. And it wouldn't take long at $7M per school to them to recoup to CUSA exit fee.

I don't hate Rice and they have a very rich, if very ancient, history. But before talking about Rice, you stated that you only want the best competition. Rice is not it. They have not invested in being competitive and they will not invest. The stadium is a crumbling dinosaur. The parking lot is irrelevant. Rice basketball is irrelevant (and is on a streak of losing seasons, even in the terribly weak CUSA). Rice baseball, if you haven't noticed, has also become irrelevant (and is also on a streak of losing seasons, even in the terribly weak CUSA).

I understand the appeal of Rice, but that shipped sailed the moment the AAC added Tulsa and Tulane.

Nobody in their right mind would propose a division within a conference seeking P6 status to include 4 schools with a total undergraduate enrollment slightly over 20,000.

EastStang wrote:The thought of Appalachian State makes me sad. Yes, they have a good football program (for now). At one point so did East Tennessee State. Appy, Liberty, Old Dominion, are not far removed from FCS, and need another decade of seasoning in CUSA or Southland Conference. What you want are programs that beat the big boys head to head often enough that the big boys won't play them anymore. In that vein, ECU has beaten Virginia Tech several times and I think UNC as well. We have beaten TCU. USF, UCF, UH, Memphis, Navy, Temple, Tulsa have won games against P5 schools. So, a candidate for the AAC should be from teams capable of beating P5 teams. BYU, Boise State, San Diego State, So. Miss, AFA, Colorado State, Wyoming seem to fit that bill. Wyoming and CSU bring no TV market. SDS, AFA and BYU do. Boise not really, but a great football program. This is all about what the networks think, not what fans think.

Yeah, I'm not stuck on ASU, I'm just using them as an example. Again, I'm hoping that over the next two years the program that brings the most to the table presents itself based on their performance and commitment, so, for example, I'm actually a fan of Southern Miss because of what I see as a school that has all the upside in the world and has shown what they can do in the past. The three metrics I see driving this is:

1) ALL SPORTS COMMITMENT - None of this 'football only' BS
2) Football team performance, and lastly
3) Hopefully somewhere in or around the Southeast region of the country

I tend to shy away from MWC schools because they only, really, bring one possible option of those three. But if ASU, or anybody else for that matter, can shown a consistent pattern towards top 25 football then we need to look at them first.

EastStang wrote:The thought of Appalachian State makes me sad. Yes, they have a good football program (for now). At one point so did East Tennessee State. Appy, Liberty, Old Dominion, are not far removed from FCS, and need another decade of seasoning in CUSA or Southland Conference. What you want are programs that beat the big boys head to head often enough that the big boys won't play them anymore. In that vein, ECU has beaten Virginia Tech several times and I think UNC as well. We have beaten TCU. USF, UCF, UH, Memphis, Navy, Temple, Tulsa have won games against P5 schools. So, a candidate for the AAC should be from teams capable of beating P5 teams. BYU, Boise State, San Diego State, So. Miss, AFA, Colorado State, Wyoming seem to fit that bill. Wyoming and CSU bring no TV market. SDS, AFA and BYU do. Boise not really, but a great football program. This is all about what the networks think, not what fans think.

I'm with EastStang on this one, but I doubt if SDS, AFA, or BYU will come over to the AAC. If any of them came I think it would be AFA because of the presence of Navy. I think the AAC will stay at 11 until someone who elevates the conference shows up. If Air Force did come, the conference could move Memphis to the Eastern Division to even up the divisions once again.

Once again, Boise State appears to be the leading candidate to take the AAC back to 12 football members. I assume they would join SMU, Tulsa, Houston, Tulane & Memphis in the western division with Navy playing in the east

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... ll-member/

Though it makes little geographic sense, Boise State would be an awesome addition to the conference. They always seem to be ranked, they have good name recognition and would up the visibility of the conference inching us closer to the P6 level. The only downside would it will be tougher to win the conference though sweeter when we do.

Navy because of recruiting has insisted on being in the West (I think it was part of their agreement to join the AAC)