Conference realignment "Rumors" "tweets" "etc"

[TallyBull]

20 minutes ago, belgianbull said:

Bad news for the AAC. Ultimately WSU and OSU will become part of the Mountain West. Look at the Mountain West trying to poach UTSA, and perhaps even Memphis next.

AAC Ad's should be moving to fire Aresco.

 

Aresco is just doing what his membership is directing him to do - not add the PAC-2 due to geography and market sizes. Why would they fire him for doing what they directed him to do?

[belgianbull]

7 minutes ago, TallyBull said:

Aresco is just doing what his membership is directing him to do - not add the PAC-2 due to geography and market sizes. Why would they fire him for doing what they directed him to do?

That's true. But he is the leader, and I am sure there are differing opinions among AD's. The AAC could have gone in different directions when Houston, U Conn, UCF, and Cincy left the conference.

There were 3 options.

A) keep the  Eastern, South  Eastern, Middle América footprint but add the best available teams. App State, Marshal, Toledo, Army,... type teams. Fair enough Army will join.

B ( best option) create a national brand and add the best Mountain West teams + WSU and OSU

C. Go after big Metropolitan schools with very little success in football and small fan bases ( Rice, Charlotte, North Texas). All conference USA teams by the way. Add 6 of them instead of 3.

I really think C was the worst option

[Mike Stuben]

I don't see 1-2 AAC schools leaving to join the MWC/PAC .... it will either be 4 or more, or 0. 

 

UTSA wouldn't leave alone, pay an exit fee, leave all the other texas schools, increase travel costs, be isolated, align with the west coast (when the trend is saying all the west coast schools want to align East), just for a slight bump up in revenue. 

Could I see a PAC that has multiple AAC schools, with East and West divisions, maybe, if the TV money is there, but no one is going west alone. 

[UCF_rustbucket]

8 minutes ago, belgianbull said:

That's true. But he is the leader, and I am sure there are differing opinions among AD's. The AAC could have gone in different directions when Houston, U Conn, UCF, and Cincy left the conference.

There were 3 options.

A) keep the  Eastern, South  Eastern, Middle América footprint but add the best available teams. App State, Marshal, Toledo, Army,... type teams. Fair enough Army will join.

B ( best option) create a national brand and add the best Mountain West teams + WSU and OSU

C. Go after big Metropolitan schools with very little success in football and small fan bases ( Rice, Charlotte, North Texas). All conference USA teams by the way. Add 6 of them instead of 3.

I really think C was the worst option

C probably was the worst but in fairness to Aresco and the presidents, it was at least their 3rd choice. The first plan was to be proactive and raid the Big 12, which obviously didn't work. Then they did reach out to Boise, SDSU, CSU, and Air Force but couldn't close the deal since Boise and SDSU likely felt the Big 12/PAC 12 would still be options for them. The Colorado schools didn't want to go alone. The only one I'm not sure about is how much of an effort or consideration was made to get top Sun Belt teams.

[Outlaw]

9 minutes ago, belgianbull said:

That's true. But he is the leader, and I am sure there are differing opinions among AD's. The AAC could have gone in different directions when Houston, U Conn, UCF, and Cincy left the conference.

There were 3 options.

A) keep the  Eastern, South  Eastern, Middle América footprint but add the best available teams. App State, Marshal, Toledo, Army,... type teams. Fair enough Army will join.

B ( best option) create a national brand and add the best Mountain West teams + WSU and OSU

C. Go after big Metropolitan schools with very little success in football and small fan bases ( Rice, Charlotte, North Texas). All conference USA teams by the way. Add 6 of them instead of 3.

I really think C was the worst option

Yep. No one cares about those programs in their own TV markets except the alumni. The Texas teams have 8 power5 programs in the state next year. All of the Texas programs in the aac are not really getting much value in the Texas market. 

[belgianbull]

4 minutes ago, UCF_rustbucket said:

C probably was the worst but in fairness to Aresco and the presidents, it was at least their 3rd choice. The first plan was to be proactive and raid the Big 12, which obviously didn't work. Then they did reach out to Boise, SDSU, CSU, and Air Force but couldn't close the deal since Boise and SDSU likely felt the Big 12/PAC 12 would still be options for them. The Colorado schools didn't want to go alone. The only one I'm not sure about is how much of an effort or consideration was made to get top Sun Belt teams.

That part is telling. No way that the top 6 choices to add were all from Conference USA.  Shows to me that when all these AAC teams left the conference reacted without thinking things through. These additions felt lazy and hasty to me.

 

[TallyBull]

28 minutes ago, belgianbull said:

B. ( best option) create a national brand and add the best Mountain West teams + WSU and OSU

C. Go after big Metropolitan schools with very little success in football and small fan bases ( Rice, Charlotte, North Texas). All conference USA teams by the way. Add 6 of them instead of 3.

I really think C was the worst option

I don't disagree with you on that point. I wish they'd gone with B, but they didn't. I just don't really think it was an Aresco decision, so I wouldn't put the blame on him. I think it was the short-sighted decision of a majority of AAC presidents (including the newbies).

Edited November 28, 2023 by TallyBull

[GoBulls84]

4 hours ago, macphisto said:

They have zero interest in FSU. FSU had hopes they could get an offer this year and the B1G showed no interest. UNC and Duke would be their highest targets from the ACC. They would take USF before they take FSU.

Part of the issue is FSU thinks it deserves a full share immediately.  Any new joiner would likely need time to phase in.  FSU really does not add to the TV appeal all that much.  Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan are more of a TV draw in Florida than FSU is.  FSU adds nothing and is not even AAU. 

Florida State is routinely in the top 10-20 teams in TV ratings for the year, at least for the handful of years I could pull up looking back. And they've only been further rising as Norvell has rebuilt the program. The biggest tripping block with Florida State is the same tripping block for the other top ACC targets: nobody knows just exactly how much getting them out of the GOR will cost.  

2 hours ago, macphisto said:

Tulane, USF, San Jose State, Georgia State (believe it or not) are all part of a list of targets. UTSA, Rice, etc are all on the list as well.  It may not happen and it certainly won't for 2024 - but they are discussing cancelling games and adjusting schedules with potential targets to give Oregon State and Washington State a full slate next year.

The Pac2 and Mountain West have already been in talks on a scheduling agreement to give Wazzou and the Beavs a full slate next year. They've essentially already opened the door to merging the MW under the Pac name. I think most likely scenario is the conference remaining a west coast conference.

[Sk00b]

15 minutes ago, GoBulls84 said:

nobody knows just exactly how much getting them out of the GOR will cost.

Wait. If no one knows, why not just make up a price. 

[UCF_rustbucket]

3 minutes ago, Sk00b said:

Wait. If no one knows, why not just make up a price. 

One squillion.