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Even with Louisville leaving, we will be on par with the new Big East and ahead of the other conferences.

Going to the MWC, especially with the sweetheart deal that Boise State is getting, would've been the equivalent of putting the gun to the athletic department's head and pulling the trigger. The support of ESPN will prove to be worth its weight in gold for a program like SMU. We just need the exposure. Do you really want to be on some obscure channel waiting for SMU to play San Jose State at 11:30 on a Saturday night? No thanks.

That said, I do think there will be some sort of merger between the MWC and the AAC. The schools at the top of both conferences are going to realize that they can make more $$$ if they drop the dead weight. I could see an AAC/MWC looking like the following:

West - SDSU, Fresno State, Boise State, Air Force, Colorado State, Nevada, UNLV, BYU

East - SMU, Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati, UCF, USF, Navy, UConn


That would make for clearly the top non P5 conference in the nation.

Just replace Navy with Temple. Navy would not want to be in for all sports.

Fair enough. Although I like the idea of having two service academies (AFA and Navy) in our conference. Temple is a quality bball school in a major market. They are certainly worthy of consideration.

It's all driven by money. Hope the basketball program gets real good over the next few years and the B12, ACC, ect start calling. Hell, the B10 was looking for a Texas imprint when they looked to expand last time. Nothing happens until the athletic programs pick up though and basketball has a legitimate shot. It's what makes UConn somewhat attractive right now although I think they're screwed with the ACC and B10 which would be the obvious choices.

You can forget the Big 12 or any other P5 conference looking at adding SMU unless we have like four straight years of 9 plus win seasons and we are consistently in the Top 25 in basketball. Basketball has a damn good shot while football will need at least 2-3 years of rebuilding b/c of June's complete lack of effort on the recruiting trail. It would be nice to dovetail the two together but that seems like a foolish hope. We need to make the AAC the best conference possible.

Agreed. Maybe money will keep talking, the B10 added Rutgers who has no athletic department, and Maryland who only has a basketball program. So who knows. AAC will be tough though as long as Cinci, Memphis and UConn are in it for bball.

OhioBrownFan wrote:AAC will be tough though as long as Cinci, Memphis and UConn are in it for bball.

I think if SMU, Houston, Tulsa, and maybe another school or two can contribute more regularly, we've got the makings of a very respectable basketball conference.