Replacing UCONN

[BullDoug]

Because I'm bored, I'm going to just throw this out there.  This topic is not to be taken overly serious.  First off I don''t think a team would jump from the MAC.  I don't think one team will jump from the MWC either.  Realistically that leaves the independents, Sun Belt and CUSA teams for conference recruiting.  Neither ND or BYU will be giving up their independence.  I'n not enamored with UMass, Liberty nor NM State.  Army has minor merit.  I will comment about them later.

So If the AAC is not going to add 5 teams from the western part of the USA to create a 16 team true American super conference, I am thinking Rice University makes for a "better than most" Group of Five replacement.  Navy can move to the East where they belong.  Rice U gives the AAC an improved recruiting footing in TX.  They don't upset the conference football hierarchy..  It makes the divisions truly regional.  They have a good academic institute.  There are a former SWC team which gives them some cred from the old school fans.  And the City of Houston gains a rivalry game.

My other one team add-on choices would be LATech, Army, WKU or AP State.  Army and Navy in the same conference does pose issues for the conference title game since the tradition is for those two to play after the Conference Championship weekend.  I would be cool to have Army, Navy and AF in the AAC though.

If the AAC could grab 4-5 teams from the MWC, my choices would be BSU, AFF, SDSU, Fresno St, and Utah St or CO St or Rice.  The west side of the conference would be these 5 plus Tulsa, SMU and Houston.  The conference would need to do something about $ in regards to having to traveling the long distances out west.  This size conference would practically eliminate the Cinci-Memphis back to back conference game/championship game scenario too.  Teams would play 7 division games and 1 cross division game.  A conference with this much political clot due to numbers may be worthy of supplanting the B12 or ACC as the fifth P5 team.  This may require the P5 becoming the P6.  That's iif you like being be overly optimistic about hypothetical ponderings such as this.

Final thought is can a true coast to coast American conference be legitimate.  All the P5s are regional.  I am thinking a 12 team conference makes more sense.  But what do I know and what does my opinion matter. Enough said.  I'm just typing crap b/c I'm trying to blow off the rest of my time at the office on a Friday afternoon.

My next BS topic is to add four teams to the playoff.  Teams seeded 1-4 play at home the weekend after Christmas.  A  G5 team ranked in the top 12 would be required to be the 8th seed.  The FBS would be back to being on equal terms....IMO.  But I will save that discussion for another day.

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by BullDoug