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American commissioner looking to renegotiate the league's TV contract.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/u ... story.html

Aresco is doing the best that he can and I think we should all be thankful to have him leading the charge. He's absolutely right about AAC schools needing to win some big games. I do think there is a strong core of schools that have real potential. What that translates to relative to TV dollars I'm not sure but I'd like to think we could get a deal that pays out 5-6M a season.

If Aresco can distance us from the other Group 5 and demonstrate we are a better value, we may attract some additional impact by convincing BYU that they are better served within our model vs. independent.

In essence, AAC is the bridge to greater relevancy. American may not become a Power Six (why would the pigs at the trough share?), but clearly superior to the Group of Four (formerly Five). ;-D

Shouldn't it already officially be just the group of 4 anyway with the Sun Belt what it is now?

The American has clearly distanced itself from the other conferences. Hopefully, the money will follow.

Stipends paid to the players are what will separate the conferences out. I know the AAC teams are committing to do that, and it will keep recruits away from CUSA and the Sunbelt. I am not sure what the commitment level of the MWC and MAC are, but I think several teams in both leagues will opt out of paying stipends.

At that point, there will be a decision made between forming a 6th conference that consists of all teams that are willing to keep up and pay stipends, or if the P5 conferences will grow large enough to absorb the teams that are willing to dump the money in to compete.

The biggest impact factors are the independence of BYU and ND. The BIG 10 plays up the academic side as well as concepts like redshirting all freshmen so that they can try and convince ND that they are aligned with their goals. If BYU and ND bail on being independent, then there will be a huge push towards 4 mega conferences, and SMU will always be on the outside looking in. As long as ND and BYU stay independent, the playoff will expand to greater than 4 teams and there is room for the P5 to become the P6. Or a larger P5.

JasonB wrote:Stipends paid to the players are what will separate the conferences out. I know the AAC teams are committing to do that, and it will keep recruits away from CUSA and the Sunbelt. I am not sure what the commitment level of the MWC and MAC are, but I think several teams in both leagues will opt out of paying stipends.

What MWC does will be the most interesting, if there is a disagreement in stipends they could end up with an unstable conference. The schools without stipends will just be further handicapped when competing for recruits with the schools that do.

JasonB wrote:Stipends paid to the players are what will separate the conferences out. I know the AAC teams are committing to do that, and it will keep recruits away from CUSA and the Sunbelt. I am not sure what the commitment level of the MWC and MAC are, but I think several teams in both leagues will opt out of paying stipends.

At that point, there will be a decision made between forming a 6th conference that consists of all teams that are willing to keep up and pay stipends, or if the P5 conferences will grow large enough to absorb the teams that are willing to dump the money in to compete.

The biggest impact factors are the independence of BYU and ND. The BIG 10 plays up the academic side as well as concepts like redshirting all freshmen so that they can try and convince ND that they are aligned with their goals. If BYU and ND bail on being independent, then there will be a huge push towards 4 mega conferences, and SMU will always be on the outside looking in. As long as ND and BYU stay independent, the playoff will expand to greater than 4 teams and there is room for the P5 to become the P6. Or a larger P5.

Yup. The other caveat being what happens with the Longhorn network, UT and ESPN. That's the other massive domino right there. If UT get absorbed, you would see a P4, not a larger P5, and then there would be the leftover middle conference that's not quite P5, but not G5 either. Something along the lines of "The Big 12 Mountainous West of the American Eastern Athletic Conference of the USA 18".

malonish wrote:

Absolutely great ref

JasonB wrote:Stipends paid to the players are what will separate the conferences out. I know the AAC teams are committing to do that, and it will keep recruits away from CUSA and the Sunbelt. I am not sure what the commitment level of the MWC and MAC are, but I think several teams in both leagues will opt out of paying stipends.

Most of the MAC is dirt poor. Their revenue numbers are barely ahead of the SunBelt.