Aresco Says AAC Will Expand

[SMU_Alum11]

Besides blocking the MWC from expanding into Texas and insuring that the AAC is the 6th best conference?

That never would have happened. The travel costs would be enormous and who would they pair them with? Texas state? Utep? Unt would have gone to the sun belt and it would have been the end of that. This made zero sense for why we would add them.

Also we aren't going to be the 6th best. MWC is already that once the defectors leave. Even aresco said that it's all going to be on SMU and Memphis to hold the fort till the other schools scale which they won't other than maybe UTSA and UAB

[Charleston Pony]

It's been reported the MWC was interested in both UTSA and UNT if SMU wasn't interested

[SMUstang]

Besides blocking the MWC from expanding into Texas and insuring that the AAC is the 6th best conference?

That never would have happened. The travel costs would be enormous and who would they pair them with? Texas state? Utep? Unt would have gone to the sun belt and it would have been the end of that. This made zero sense for why we would add them.

Also we aren't going to be the 6th best. MWC is already that once the defectors leave. Even aresco said that it's all going to be on SMU and Memphis to hold the fort till the other schools scale which they won't other than maybe UTSA and UAB

Really, who does the MWC have in the top 25 AP poll? FAU, UTSA, UAB and Charlotte are all on top of their divisions now, who knows where they will be when the change happens? Air Force is probably the MWC's best hope.

[SMU_Alum11]

UTSA, UAB, FAU and Rice were good adds and that's all that should have come. Rice only because of academics and funding. The others for some media markets and definitely improved performance. Charlotte was iffy and NTSU was down right stupid. If MWC took them, we probably could have gotten CSU and AFA to join because they would be scratching their heads.

[SMUstang]

Delete

[SMUstang]

Rice and North Texas need a better coaching staff. North Texas probably has the best facilities and basketball of any of the additions. I agree, Charlotte was iffy, but they bring a huge metro area.

[Sewanee Stang]

The new UAB football stadium in downtown Birmingham looks pretty nice.

[Charleston Pony]

Aresco and the AAC decision makers' (member Presidents and ADs) vision is clear. Like it or not, we are on the outside looking in and need to continue to improve both the product on field and court while improving attendance and demonstrating fan interest in our programs. The AAC is betting on the long term potential of programs in larger metro areas vs the App States/Coastal Carolinas/Libertys/La Techs of the world (schools who have had athletic success but sit in much smaller cities). Have to believe UNT & Charlotte were options 5 & 6 and probably invited as a buffer to the possibility the AAC could lose additional members down the line. Expanding to 14 now will help preserve the AAC (as CUSA and SunBelt now fight for survival) and will maintain a membership large enough to continue holding championship football games which are part of the revenue equation.

[mtrout]

It's all about finding the right coaches and we are fortunate to have one right now.

and our coaching situation is likely to be temporary. I doubt if Sonny and the others want to coach in a conference that is now even below the sunbelt group. MWC just kicked us down thanks to little rickey and aresco. could we call this DP2?

Maybe we could lure Jeff Traylor back when the time arises

[MeanGreenChris]

https://twitter.com/DrChrisCombs/status ... 3062748162

Look at that research expenditure difference. Also, going to preempt any "but the size difference" arguments because I had the same debate earlier about UNT & SMU's SAT difference, can't have it both ways. Also, this underscores what I meant by the difference between SMU and Rice -- Rice is a small private but can research with the big boys. There's a big leap somewhere around the top-20 National Universities when it comes to private school prestige. That's when you start to get ranked with state schools.

[redpony]

IMO the object was to add quality schools that have major or at least mid-major markets. Now, denton does not compare with San Antonio, it does not compare with Houston, it does not compare with Birmingham, and it does not compare with Charlotte. It is just a little dumpy town with a nothing school. And NO denton is not part of Dallas.
We can only hope our AD gets fired for his stupidity.

[SMU_Alum11]

IMO the object was to add quality schools that have major or at least mid-major markets. Now, denton does not compare with San Antonio, it does not compare with Houston, it does not compare with Birmingham, and it does not compare with Charlotte. It is just a little dumpy town with a nothing school. And NO denton is not part of Dallas.
We can only hope our AD gets fired for his stupidity.

Amen.

[Charleston Pony]

CUSA is looking like it will come out on the short end of the stick

https://www.cbssports.com/college-footb ... next-week/

[MeanGreenChris]

IMO the object was to add quality schools that have major or at least mid-major markets. Now, denton does not compare with San Antonio, it does not compare with Houston, it does not compare with Birmingham, and it does not compare with Charlotte. It is just a little dumpy town with a nothing school. And NO denton is not part of Dallas.
We can only hope our AD gets fired for his stupidity.

Denton is a part of the DFW market. It educates more students in that market than anyone else. Our system HQ is in Dallas, Health Science Center is in Fort Worth, and we have a system school in Dallas.

Your worst argument is that Denton is a dumpy little town, you obviously haven’t spent any time there. I don’t live there anymore, but it has some of the best bars in DFW. Restaurant scene for its size is very good too. It’s comparable to the size of Waco by itself.

[Mustangs_Maroons]

https://twitter.com/DrChrisCombs/status/1451578113062748162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1451578113062748162%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gomeangreen.com%2Fforums%2Findex.php%3Fapp%3Dcoremodule%3Dsystemcontroller%3Dembedurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FDrChrisCombs%2Fstatus%2F1451578113062748162

Look at that research expenditure difference. Also, going to preempt any "but the size difference" arguments because I had the same debate earlier about UNT & SMU's SAT difference, can't have it both ways. Also, this underscores what I meant by the difference between SMU and Rice -- Rice is a small private but can research with the big boys. There's a big leap somewhere around the top-20 National Universities when it comes to private school prestige. That's when you start to get ranked with state schools.

Big sigh….First of all, the focus of a university is on the quality of its teachers and students. Particularly at the UG level where research is less of a focus than for graduate programs, and where public schools get an outsize proportion of federal funding, but this does not correlate with the quality of the education or the quality of the students. Metrics such as the incoming class, proxy by SAT scores, GPA scores in HS, etc, and SMU is at least two tiers above UNT.

With regards to funding, this tends to be larger for public universities, but do not confuse research expenditure from federal funding with necessarily representing top academic universities. Many R1 universities of course are also top academic universities, but UNT is no where near the top of research funding. Equally important, some basic analysis (maybe you weren’t taught this) but it should be done on a relative basis, take the research budget and divide it by the UG enrollment, do the same for endowment by student, and SMU is at least 3 or 4x higher on the research by student, and it’s not even close when you take the endowment by student. This is a much better metric of the academic quality.

So, yes UNT has its purpose, and it’s an OK school. But STOP being delusional.