AAC Expansion

[tpstulane]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

[Aberzombie1892]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

Boise turned us down for more tv money, remember? Colorado State would be neat, but we would need at least 1 more Mountain Time Zone team go with them, and, if Boise isn't interested, it's unclear if there are any programs out there worth adding since it wouldn't make sense to add both Colorado State and Air Force.

[golfnut69]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

Boise turned us down for more tv money, remember? Colorado State would be neat, but we would need at least 1 more Mountain Time Zone team go with them, and, if Boise isn't interested, it's unclear if there are any programs out there worth adding since it wouldn't make sense to add both Colorado State and Air Force.

Add New Mexico and CSU

[Aberzombie1892]

Add New Mexico and CSU

New Mexico? Do you really think that they are worth it?

[golfnut69]

Yes I do....they beat Boise, Hawaii, Air Force, Utah State lost by 7 to Arizona and famed richrod in a bowl game ...they bring good basketball

lets face it..outside of football Boise St does not bring one thing to the table in other sports...Hell USM, , La Tech, UT-Arlington have better overall sports programs

[Aberzombie1892]

Yes I do....they beat Boise, Hawaii, Air Force, Utah State lost by 7 to Arizona and famed richrod in a bowl game ...they bring good basketball

I suppose that makes sense. My hesitation is that they wouldn't generate the same level of excitement for the conference the way that adding Boise State/BYU (if not added to Big 12)/Army (football-only)/Old Dominion/Air Force (football-only)/UNLV/San Diego State/etc. would.

[golfnut69]

Yes I do....they beat Boise, Hawaii, Air Force, Utah State lost by 7 to Arizona and famed richrod in a bowl game ...they bring good basketball

I suppose that makes sense. My hesitation is that they wouldn't generate the same level of excitement for the conference the way that adding Boise State/BYU (if not added to Big 12)/Army (football-only)/Old Dominion/Air Force (football-only)/UNLV/San Diego State/etc. would.

what excitement does Army, Old Dominion. bring ?..New mexico would have beat the crap out of everyone of the teams you mentioned, not only would have, they did !!!!...based on your argument of "what type of excitement"...hell what type of ectitement does Tulane bring to anyone ?

[Aberzombie1892]

Army would give us more eyeballs/positively affect our streaming/tv contracts and Old Dominion puts the conference in a new market to pursue recruits and its in a major metroplex. New Mexico's metroplex is smaller than Old Dominion's, and it's not like there are a lot of FBS recruits in New Mexico or a ton of people that follow New Mexico's team.

It's true that New Mexico had a good season last year, but, before 2015, when was the last time they had a winning record? 2007?

It really doesn't matter what type of excitement that Tulane brings to the AAC because we are already in the AAC, but, to your point, Tulane doesn't bring much excitement which is why we aren't getting in a two team expansion of the Big 12.

[HoustonWave]

All good ideas. AAC ought to go for broke and invite CSU, Boise, Air Force, and Army. That would give us 14 teams. If they want to go to 16, add New Mexico and one other--perhaps NIU.

[winwave]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

The problem is those two schools are worlds apart from anything the AAC offers. Yes UT is down right now but they won't be for long. Like everyone else I like Aresco and would love to see him elevate the conference and I get that he's got to beat that drum. Practically though it's not going to happen.

[DfromCT]

Add Army (NYC TV Market) and Air Force for football only, CSU and BYU/New Mexico. The idea of adding teams to strengthen the conference would need to take broadcast markets and attractiveness into consideration. The Service academies do have significant fan bases, and a whole lot of folks in the New York City tri-state area watch Army football. Like me, many try to get to West Point for a game once a year or every other year.

Woody, how does New Mexico significantly add to a conference? Last year was their first winning season since 2007, and at 7-6 featured games such as a 19 point loss to Tulsa, an 18 point loss to Nevada and a 10 point loss to San Jose State. Since 2007, it's close but I think Tulane has more football victories.

[wave97]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

Boise turned us down for more tv money, remember? Colorado State would be neat, but we would need at least 1 more Mountain Time Zone team go with them, and, if Boise isn't interested, it's unclear if there are any programs out there worth adding since it wouldn't make sense to add both Colorado State and Air Force.

Add New Mexico and CSU

+1 Bob Davie(HC), and Bob DeBesse(OC) have awoken a hapless UNM program. Coach Davie was not adequately prepared to run the show at ND. Had he worked his way up with smaller HC jobs he would have thrived under the big lights. He is one hell of a coach.
FYI: DeBesse was Coach Fritz's OC at SHSU.

[DrBox]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

The only teams that would help are some in the MWC.
No Rice.

[golfnut69]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

The only teams that would help are some in the MWC.
No Rice.

If you lose Houston to the Big 12...U have to have Rice as a team in the Houston TV Market...

[DrBox]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

The only teams that would help are some in the MWC.
No Rice.

If you lose Houston to the Big 12...U have to have Rice as a team in the Houston TV Market...

No you don't.

[golfnut69]

The AAC should be campaigning for P5 status to become a P6. That's Tulane and other AAC schools best shot in gaining P status. If you look at the Big XII it is only a couple schools away from being no better than the AAC...

The AAC should be proactive and invite Boise and Colorado St and leverage that to different networks including the streamers (Netflix, etc)

The only teams that would help are some in the MWC.
No Rice.

If you lose Houston to the Big 12...U have to have Rice as a team in the Houston TV Market...

No you don't.

Doc....if not Rice, who ?...are you suggesting leaving the TV market in the 4th largest city in the US ?... I do not think San Jac or Houston Baptist have football teams and Blinn JC is about 65 miles away...of course Lamar and Sam Houston are about 90 miles..so maybe they can be you Houston team

[Aberzombie1892]

Doc....if not Rice, who ?...are you suggesting leaving the TV market in the 4th largest city in the US ?... I do not think San Jac or Houston Baptist have football teams and Blinn JC is about 65 miles away...of course Lamar and Sam Houston are about 90 miles..so maybe they can be you Houston team

The AAC -needs- two teams in Texas, so, if we don't add Rice, the only other program mentioning is UTSA. As much as I like the untapped San Antonio market and as much potential as UTSA has, I'm not sure that its enough to push it above Rice.

[mbawavefan12]

Doc....if not Rice, who ?...are you suggesting leaving the TV market in the 4th largest city in the US ?... I do not think San Jac or Houston Baptist have football teams and Blinn JC is about 65 miles away...of course Lamar and Sam Houston are about 90 miles..so maybe they can be you Houston team

The AAC -needs- two teams in Texas, so, if we don't add Rice, the only other program mentioning is UTSA. As much as I like the untapped San Antonio market and as much potential as UTSA has, I'm not sure that its enough to push it above Rice.

The thing with Rice is that the Houston market is so saturated that adding them really provides little to no upside. They only have 3900 undergrads which makes it so difficult to run a competitive athletic program without sacrificing academic ratings. Not to mention (and I apologize if this is petty) Tulane should do all they can to keep Rice out as one of our biggest talking points is being the only AAU school in the best G5 conference.

[Aberzombie1892]

The thing with Rice is that the Houston market is so saturated that adding them really provides little to no upside. They only have 3900 undergrads which makes it so difficult to run a competitive athletic program without sacrificing academic ratings. Not to mention (and I apologize if this is petty) Tulane should do all they can to keep Rice out as one of our biggest talking point is being in the only AAU school in the best G5 conference.

Well, there are tons of recruits in the Houston metro, not to mention plenty of eyeballs. Plus, the Houston metroplex is larger than say, the Atlanta metroplex, and I'm not sure anyone would say that it wouldn't be worth it for a G5 conference to explore adding a team in Atlanta just because Georgia Tech is there and because driving from Georgia to Atlanta about an hour and 20 minutes (virtually the same amount of time as driving from Texas A&M to Houston). It's true that the competition would be fierce for elite players in Houston, but it's that way now for the vast majority of G5 teams and it will likely become worse over time for G5s regardless as to whether or not Houston is added to the Big 12.

[mbawavefan12]

The thing with Rice is that the Houston market is so saturated that adding them really provides little to no upside. They only have 3900 undergrads which makes it so difficult to run a competitive athletic program without sacrificing academic ratings. Not to mention (and I apologize if this is petty) Tulane should do all they can to keep Rice out as one of our biggest talking point is being in the only AAU school in the best G5 conference.

Well, there are tons of recruits in the Houston metro, not to mention plenty of eyeballs. Plus, the Houston metroplex is larger than say, the Atlanta metroplex, and I'm not sure anyone would say that it wouldn't be worth it for a G5 conference to explore adding a team in Atlanta just because Georgia Tech is there and because driving from Georgia to Atlanta about an hour and 20 minutes (virtually the same amount of time as driving from Texas A&M to Houston). It's true that the competition would be fierce for elite players in Houston, but it's that way now for the vast majority of G5 teams and it will likely become worse over time for G5s regardless as to whether or not Houston is added to the Big 12.

No one and I mean no one has ever watched Rice Fball. Houston has just so many big time schools taking up space there, it's not like GT in Atlanta we are talking about schools across TX and across state lines. I just don;t see the need. I mean SMU is a bigger school with more history, adding them to the AAC has done very little to penetrate the DA market.

[DfromCT]

Army would bring as much or more of the NYC market as Rice would bring of the Houston market. Yes, NYC is not a hotbed of football recruiting, but the TV market is equally important. I'd have no problem having all three service academies playing in the AAC.

[HoustonWave]

Aresco ought to swing for the fences, and attempt to set up the first 16 team conference, and three-game conference playoff.

North Division: Army, UConn, Temple, and Navy
South Division: ECU, UCF, USF and Memphis
West Division: Tulane, Rice, SMU and Tulsa
Mountain Div: BYU, Boise St., CSU and Air Force

If you can't get Army, then NIU or UMass. If you can't get BYU, then New Mexico or Utah State. This would be very near P5 caliber, and would give Aresco the best chance to become a P6. You also have some large urban TV markets, NYC, Philly, Baltimore/D.C., Memphis, Orlando, Tampa, N.O., Houston, Dallas, Denver and SLC. The academies and BYU each bring a national fan base. I know many Greenies don't like the idea of Rice, but that's our problem, not the AAC's. Scheduling would be 3-2-2-2-and 3 OOC games. Navy and Army are taken care of, and they could both play Air Force every year, with every other year being a non-conference game.

[Aberzombie1892]

North Division: Army, UConn, Temple, and Navy
South Division: ECU, UCF, USF and Memphis
West Division: Tulane, Rice, SMU and Tulsa
Mountain Div: BYU, Boise St., CSU and Air Force

This looks enticing, but it's unlikely that AAC would be willing to make the commitment that would be required to achieve that outcome. It's great in the sense that it would make the rest of the G5 largely irrelevant.

[DrBox]

Doc....if not Rice, who ?...are you suggesting leaving the TV market in the 4th largest city in the US ?... I do not think San Jac or Houston Baptist have football teams and Blinn JC is about 65 miles away...of course Lamar and Sam Houston are about 90 miles..so maybe they can be you Houston team

Being in a league with Rice is bad for Tulane. It does us no good. And when we have a clown AD and/or Pres, which we will again at some point, we will, once again, "tie ourselves to the hip" and try to be as good in sports as rice. And when you fail in your goal to be as good in basketball and football as Rice? You have Rick Dickson football and basketball 2007-2015.
Plus, it's good for Tulane to be the top academic school in the league. Why give up that status?

[DfromCT]

North Division: Army, UConn, Temple, and Navy
South Division: ECU, UCF, USF and Memphis
West Division: Tulane, Rice, SMU and Tulsa
Mountain Div: BYU, Boise St., CSU and Air Force

This looks enticing, but it's unlikely that AAC would be willing to make the commitment that would be required to achieve that outcome. It's great in the sense that it would make the rest of the G5 largely irrelevant.

While I agree that this would be a great move and make the rest of the G5 largely irrelevent, it also would require the NCAA to grant the league an extra two games. Rather than a 1 game playoff, we'd require the division winners to play a "semi-finals" round with the winners meeting in a championship. I'm not so sure the NCAA would grant that (though it would be a money maker!) The other issue is the relative balance of the divisions. The West is particularly weak while the Mountain is particularly strong. The obvious solution to the two issues is to have two eight team divisions, pairing the Mountain and the West in one division and the North and South into the other. With the eight team divisions, you'd probably play 9 conference games each year, playing 7 division and non-division opponents. This would mean you only travel to the other 8 teams (other division) once every 8 years.