AAC Makes It Official
- Thread starter HeavenUniv.
- Start date
The AAC has basically become Conference USA. I doubted UConn’s decision to leave but it was the right move, regardless of football.
Of the new teams, I think only UNC Charlotte has potential. San Antonio is my favorite city in Texas, but I don't see it. Does this addition help SMU, Temple, Cinci, Memphis and Houston? I don't see it. They need to add schools that have some name recognition or bring more to the table. UMass or Fordham would bring more to the table than UAB or North Texas. (Denton is a nice small town/city and where Manson Family's Tex Watson was raised.) I think this makes the top of the league unbalanced with the bottom. With so many teams being in and around Texas, it just gives the national media a reason to ignore it.
Fordham plays in a high school gym, and despite being in New York City, doesn’t draw any attention or TV sets. UMass has a one foot in/one foot out commitment to football so that is what is likely hurting them. I think what they are doing is getting every major market in the South which is where most people live now and more in the future. Most of these schools have fairly new and/or fairly large arenas. Texas-San Antonio will likely get around to building a new arena. They just spent a bundle on a new football and other sports center. UNC Charlotte should be in a good position with a fairly , new good sized arena in a basketball crazy state. North Texas has a good arena and stadium. FAU is in Florida, so they bring that for football, and to a certain extent basketball,recruiting. Rice brings nothing, I would have gone with Georgia State. UAB brand new stadium and fairly new arena. One thing all of these schools, except for Rice, is that they have pretty big enrollments and are getting bigger every day.
Temple has a very big decision to make. Stay 1-A in football and move all sports to the MAC? Drop to 1-AA and try to find a conference that will just take their football program and go back to the Atlantic Ten? Or stay 1-A in football as an independent with no TV money, no bowls, and hope they get some big paycheck away games and take everything else back to the Atlantic Ten.
I wish I could figure out why they will have four schools in Texas—North Texas, Rice, Texas-San Antonio, and SMU. You have Georgia State in Atlanta sitting out there. Growing state, lots of football talent, and they just got the previous Atlanta Braves/Olympics Stadium handed to them.Unless they take them if/when Memphis and/or Navy and/or Wichita State (no football) and/or Temple leave.
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The American, Sun Belt, and C-USA are basically indistinguishable to me at this point. Just 35 or 40 lower level teams with little connection to each other in their conferences.
It's interesting how what started out as the BE conference has now become an almost entirely Southern conference, with several new 3rd tier members. Memphis, ECU, and USF will likely see their football programs diminish - I doubt they are very happy about that.
Could be the TV sets in Texas make for higher TV rights deal when renewal time comes..
But I can't see having 4 in Texas would help TV rights money more than 3 in Tex and have one member in Georgia for that state's TV viewing audience
The Sun Belt is about to be the best G5 confrence in football. If I’m Georgia State I wouldn’t leave right now.
Well, many of the AAC teams came from Conference USA at some point, including UCF, Cincinnati (a founding member of C-USA), Louisville, Memphis, SMU, USF (I'm probably missing a few).
CUSA is part of the AAC's bloodlines.
Connecticut's decision to leave was driven largely by the new TV deal the AAC negotiated. It did not allow for Connecticut to continue to have a separate deal that allowed SNY to broadcast multiple Huskies women’s basketball games each year.
Connecticut's athletic department was in bad financial shape and losing out on the revenue from their deal with SNY was the straw that broke the Husky back, so to speak.
Thanks for posting this Russ, I had not heard of the SNY/Women's BBall issue being a factor in UConn's decision.
As it turned out, I think they made the right decision in any event by going back to the Big East. Unless staying in the AAC could have possibly positioned them as one of the teams to be added to the Big 12 (extremely doubtful), in which case they would be kicking themselves.
The American is basically Conference USA now. What happens to CUSA with 6 schools? No one is leaving the Sun Belt to go there. And all of the decent FCS football schools from years past have already moved up - App State, Georgia Southern, Coastal Carolina, Georgia State, South Alabama, Charlotte. Who are you going to ask now? JMU already said they’re not moving up. There’s no one left to take
Conference USA future—
Some schools like Sam Houston State, McNeese State, Illinois State, West Florida, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, LIU,Tarleton State,SUNY have talked about going Division 1-A. Maybe Army, UMass, UConn, New Mexico State for only Football. Maybe talk to some non-football Division 1 schools for all other sports? Talk with some of the bigger black colleges like Tennessee State and Hampton. Maybe a couple of the MAC schools are tired of playing their football games on Tuesdays at 1:30. Talk to William AND Mary for two more schools. Maybe Missouri State. I think they survive somehow, someway.
Some schools like Sam Houston State, McNeese State, Illinois State, West Florida, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, LIU,Tarleton State,SUNY have talked about going Division 1-A. Maybe Army, UMass, UConn, New Mexico State for only Football. Maybe talk to some non-football Division 1 schools for all other sports? Talk with some of the bigger black colleges like Tennessee State and Hampton. Maybe a couple of the MAC schools are tired of playing their football games on Tuesdays at 1:30. Talk to William AND Mary for two more schools. Maybe Missouri State. I think they survive somehow, someway.
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Another point to remember is that the NCAA recently reduced the number of transition years from Division 3 to Division 1 from 12 to 5. Have no idea if Rowan might be considering this.
Waiting for Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) to field a football program. Southwest Florida high school football (Fort Myers/Immokolee/Naples) is terrific. FGCU's campus has plenty of room for a football stadium & tailgate areas.
This was crazy about FGCU Football Offers—
It is strange that they and North Florida don’t have football teams, but West Florida, which I think is smaller than those two does have a team. West Florida was smart. Instead of going in the hole for a modern stadium while starting a program, they rent a nearby minor league baseball stadium in the off season for pennies. Beautiful stadium right on the water, with all the modern bells and whistles.
The West Florida Argonauts are a Division II program that, I think, started play five years ago.