Ghostbuster

I appreciate the outside the box thinking but G5 schools can't even afford to keep their coaches from being poached, how can they afford to pay players? And without a chance to play high profile games, you're going to get FCS talent at best. Look at this way from a players perspective: Do you want to earn minimum wage playing in front of no one or do you want to play in the NCAA and have a chance to be drafted and make it big? G5 players still get drafted. That pipeline to the pros will disappear in the "XNCAAFL".

Nooooope. They deserve to be left behind for all the times they've cheated the system and gotten away with it. If I go to an away game, I don't want to be concerned about whether the whole stadium is going to come crashing down the next time it bounces.

Ohhhhhhh. Well then...I guess I do agree with changing how the championship teams are chosen. I still think it's kinda lame but it definitely is best for the conference.

The NY6 doesn't require a conf champ does it? I thought it was just highest ranked. USF might still get the bid over Temple in that scenario.

This. Until we are not in the AAC we need to see the AAC do well at the expense of other G5 conferences. Replace UConn with a team that can do better than last in FBS and you help the brand. Take from the conference's nearest competitor and you widen the gap between the AAC and the rest.

To me a conf champ without divisions is lipstick on a pig. You're more likely to have weird cases, like that 3 way tie I mentioned, that have to be resolved by SoS and rankings, to determine who plays in the champ game. And I just feel the only way this conference can be respected less is by having a champ determined in part by that. But that's more opinion and speculation... To me the bigger issue is money. UConn at least did play in a NY6 bowl a while back. Yeah they did nothing lately but that just makes this a good chance to replace them with a school that can do something. And if you structure it so that the new school only gets an equal share after a few years...then you can upgrade the conference for less and have more potential upside. As a conference, we cannot have non AAC G5 teams making it to the NY6 or other postseason bowls ahead of us. Having one more team unequivocally gives us another chance, and if it's a team that is poached from another conference then all the better.

I haven't read his comments about that. You got a link? Big 12 doesn't have real divisions and is seen as weakest P5. Big East didn't have real divisions with football, was seen as the weakest. I'm not saying it's a causation but there is a negative perception about it. We had a three-way tie early on in AAC days before we had divisions, and that's just dumb and unfair to everyone. Would they keep a championship game? I guess since Big12 puts one on, and revenue generating wise they'd want something for ESPN to air (even if it's on ESPN 3). Losing a team means one less shot at landing a team in a postseason bowl that can generate revenue for the whole conference. That doesn't seem smart from Aresco's position.

You're saying each East team would just add an extra game from the West?

One way to look at losing a team is we all could get that 700k per year if no one is added (and there truly is no penalty). But there's an opportunity cost to that. With UConn gone, we have less fans traveling to and from USF games which means less money staying in the conference (one way or the other). And if you add no one to the conference, you have the real possibility of needing to fill those missing games with schools you have to pay to come visit. See recent FAMU and Bethune Cookman contracts, they're getting $420k-$475k. So let's say you do that every other year for a home game to replace UConn: You're now down from $700k to $280k that year to play a game that doesn't move the needle for enthusiasm (negatives for home ticket sales/season ticket renewals/SoS). However by adding a conference team, there's the chance you can actually add enthusiasm and value all around. If the conference team does really well that means the AAC will get more viewers, more ticket purchases, and more people willing to travel/spend money. That translates to the conference having more real (monetary) and perceived (SoS/quality teams) value. Plus, heaven forbid we're still here in 10 years when the media deal expires but if we are.... you can bet your ass without a replacement for UConn you're getting a paycut. And if you can poach a school from the next highest G5 conference, in order to widen the gap between AAC and the rest, you definitely should. I was on the fence but now I just convinced myself to roll the dice and add another school. Too much potential upside vs the potential cost of doing nothing.

Idunno maybe they can get away with it. I feel like ESPN would love to devalue the league without uconns basketball programs though...and yeah I read a tweet where someone says that's not a concern but who knows if that's true. Besides aren't there going to be scheduling holes now for us in the east division?

Don't like the look of a school leaving the AAC, but I get it because their basketball is so much better than football. Just stinks that another big east leftover has up and left us, even if their footballs been bad. Now we have to look for another misfit toy to join our league, and go thru the motions of everyone being happy when school "X" has joined. Commissioner has to pretend to be happy, the new school has to pretend to be happy, and every current member will have to go on about what a great fit they'll be.

Oh great new uniforms. How many games will we lose this year from the distractions... But seriously, for what was kinda hyped as an upgrade this ended up pretty boring (visually). Not saying it's bad, or that I wanted a radical change, but after all the talk about how we got generic uniforms last season (because of deadlines/whatnot) I thought there'd be more visual changes.

Hey more good news! Now as a conference we just need to win our bowl games (except maybe UCF, they can lose and I won't complain). Last year's postseason showing by the AAC was awful.

Lol. To be fair he didn't put the rays in a bad location or hire Charlie/Gilbert. Talk about a handicap.

So I just looked it up and UCF got 3.8 million for the peach bowl (I thought it'd be under a million). When you're talking that much money then yes you take that game. So I'm changing my vote.

Challenge accepted . A single 'bcs' game or conference championship...well I'm going conf champs simply because it means we get that stupid monkey off our back. A NY6 game, aside from the payday, doesn't mean that much to me honestly. But if we win the dumb conference we shut up one talking point against us. Now if you're saying a CFP (playoff) game vs conf champ, no contest take the playoff game.

This in depth talk of the kid's high school, college preparedness, current course load, etc is causing us to veer into creepy ex stalker territory. Next step is friending him on Facebook to check his status... Anyways all I wanted was to come in and say this stinks because we could use the depth and it sounded like he had potential. Hopefully it works out for everyone though.

Opinion stated as matter of fact, used to trivialize what could be someone's biggest decision of their life. Saying you don't think they can make it is one thing. Saying it's "not even a decision" is callously dismissing what someone is going through to make yourself sound smarter than them on the internet. It takes nothing to marginalize someone on the internet. It takes a lot to get to this point and then put yourself out there and consider the draft. Only one person surrounding this conversation has gone thru high school and college working toward a dream, reaching a point where they actually have a coach and school helping them decide *if* the draft can work out. Go ahead and express your opinions but show some humility and compassion. Only us internet losers have "no decision" to make because we didn't accomplish what he did.

I trust that judgement comes from years of experience as a nba scout and isn't just big talk on the internet to belittle someone for following their passion.

Second this. Even though I can think of bigger names on a wish list, I'm not gonna be greedy after the Bama get. Would definitely take WVU considering the history between us.

Choooooo choooo fother muckers, let's get on the hype train!!!!!!!!!!

Wow....I don't think another president will be able to top her act. And I'm saying that as someone who wasn't her biggest fan (for various reasons). I know the Honors college could have used the money when I was there, so from my perspective it's money well spent (regardless of how many ways each of us can come up with to spend it)

This isn't really USF sports news. It's USF faculty news. Oh well...good for the coach.

Of course we want those things but how you go about doing it matters too. Let's not forget they had NCAA violation issues during the end of OLearys tenure, and could very well have been excluded from the postseason that year. They put up a rickety stadium that has had severe structural issues and could have resulted in injuries/fatalities. They have also cheated the state on funding. Look Scott Frost was a legit good coach and he earned his success but he and his successor have benefitted from the unscrupulous behavior of those that came before. So yeah the recent success is tainted a bit in my mind.... and even tho that sounds like a lame way to diminish their success it's true. They skirted so close to disaster over the years and just got lucky breaks. To their credit their administration put a huge focus on football, to a degree USF never has. I just disagree that the results (their success) justify the means. (Oh and they got a lot of people to hate them thanks to their arrogance/ proclamation of national champs. Have some humility for goodness sake)

You may as well have replied 'If the glove don't fit you must acquit' because neither makes sense as an analogy here... ESPN already paid for AAC media rights and college football playoffs for years in advance. So nobody has to buy anything. I'll ask again. How does being a partner with the company that owns the broadcast rights to the playoffs, negatively impact our chances to make said playoffs?