The New AAC

[NOLABigSteve]

It’s official.

[NOLABigSteve]

[HoustonWave]

Well, it’s a done deal—that didn’t take long. CBSSports reporting that all nine AAC prezs vote to accept the six CUSA schools—quoting AAC Conference Chairman Mike Fitts saying, “… we look forward to many years of healthy competition with our new members.” Can’t say I knew that Fitts was chairman of the AAC—did anybody else know? I guess that partly explains his and Dannen’s “cest le vie” attitude toward realignment.

[HoustonWave]

So your saying, “we gotta chance”.

[HoustonWave]

And AAC Chairman Mike Fitts is excited about it.

[HoustonWave]

Can’t wait for those home games against NTSU, Charlotte, FAU and UTSA (who will likely clean our clock on the field).

[golfnut69]

Well, it’s a done deal—that didn’t take long. CBSSports reporting that all nine AAC prezs vote to accept the six CUSA schools—quoting AAC Conference Chairman Mike Fitts saying, “… we look forward to many years of healthy competition with our new members.” Can’t say I knew that Fitts was chairman of the AAC—did anybody else know? I guess that partly explains his and Dannen’s “cest le vie” attitude toward realignment.

I had zero knowledge of Fitts involvement anything Athletic

[golfnut69]

Can’t wait for those home games against NTSU, Charlotte, FAU and UTSA (who will likely clean our clock on the field).

I think we are winless against UTSA and FAU... I know why NTSU was included, Aresco is hedging that SMU is gone after next season and Denton is included the DFW TV ratings

[golfnut69]

from San Antonio
https://www.expressnews.com/sports/coll ... 551251.php

From Denton
https://dentonrc.com/rsssports/north-te ... eb79c.html

From Charlotte
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sport ... stage_lead

From Miami
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/fau ... 9~art%20no

[tpstulane]

Can’t wait for those home games against NTSU, Charlotte, FAU and UTSA (who will likely clean our clock on the field).

I think we are winless against UTSA and FAU... I know why NTSU was included, Aresco is hedging that SMU is gone after next season and Denton is included the DFW TV ratings

Hopefully we continue to schedule P5’s on the road. That will be the only games I’ll consider going to. You’ll get to experience a real game-day college atmosphere. Something we’ll never get in the new league.
Enjoyed the college game-days going to LSU, Ohio St, OK, Auburn, Ole Miss and a few others that were further back in time. Playing those new teams at home or on the road does nothing to interest me.

[DfromCT]

Those are certainly peer schools from an athletics standpoint. They stink and we do too. Just like that the SunBelt and MWC leapfrog the AAC. Any further promotion of the AAC as a "P6" is ludicrous.

[Bicoastalwave]

We need to pray we can somehow make a back room deal to get into a better conference.

It is sad we have overnight been passed by the MW and are truly a mid tier G5.

The ONLY good news, is we are getting $7m a year and the new teams only get $3.5m for the duration of the 10 year contract. The MW only gets paid $4m and the sunbelt and everyone else much less. That is the only upside to this deal. Personally I think we should have added uab, app state, utsa (or Liberty) and stopped. Atleast it would have been competitive teams and programs.

[oliveandblue]

Here's a wild idea:

Tulane could try to find a way to build a culture in FB or BB (baseball and WBB are both fine for realignment purposes) by being a top 3-4 program in the new AAC.

Complaining about moves ESPN is making doesn't help Tulane. The AAC isn't a death sentence unless we make it that way. Why doesn't Tulane actually be a school that makes the conference special - instead of having to tag along at the last possible moment?

[winwave]

It's over. This is truly a sad day for Tulane athletics and us die-hard fans. All of those horrific decisions - Ruffis Harris declaring de-emphasis of athletics. leaving the SEC, hiring Gibson instead of Infante, hiring Scelfo instead of RR and then the final nail in the coffin by wasting what precious resources we had on a piece of shit stadium instead of building what the two major programs needed- a football ops. building a new arena, led to this day. We have been fortunate to move up in conferences once we joined back in. Now we move down. Utterly disgusting.

[NOLABigSteve]

Here's a wild idea:

Tulane could try to find a way to build a culture in FB or BB (baseball and WBB are both fine for realignment purposes) by being a top 3-4 program in the new AAC.

Complaining about moves ESPN is making doesn't help Tulane. The AAC isn't a death sentence unless we make it that way. Why doesn't Tulane actually be a school that makes the conference special - instead of having to tag along at the last possible moment?

This conference is special alright.

We've been bottom to middle of the pack in CUSA and AAC. What in the world makes you think we'll be competitive in the new AAC? You seem to be forgetting that this will have a huge negative affect on our already dismal recruiting.

[Wave755]

Can’t wait for those home games against NTSU, Charlotte, FAU and UTSA (who will likely clean our clock on the field).

I think we are winless against UTSA and FAU... I know why NTSU was included, Aresco is hedging that SMU is gone after next season and Denton is included the DFW TV ratings

We have only played FAU, UTSA & UNT each once. In 2013 CJ managed to lose to both FAU & UTSA - FAU 34, Tulane 17 @ Fort Lauderdale & UTSA 10, Tulane 7 @ San Antonio. But, in 2013 we beat UNT @ New Orleans 24 to 21.
All 3 are terrible universities, FAU & UNT tied @ 277 for USN&WR & UTSA even lower, 299 -311 (ULALA Land). So, assuming they still let 'Nut drive a car & he has a current Texas driver's license, then even 'Nut could get into UTSA.

[anEngineer]

As has been said here over and over, it's really all about the MONEY. If we continue to get at least what we were getting before, we are no worse off. It feels like we've been left behind, but we had an 11-team conference (12 with Wichita) and two of the better programs left... and Houston. They rest are still here. There is no guarantee what the new Big 12 will get without Texas and Oklahoma, but I'll bet it's going to be closer to what we are getting than what they were getting. Ten years ago, Cincinnati was a basketball school and UCF was another direction school with an occasional good season. These new schools seem crappy but things change.

I still believe that the eventual model is a 20-25 team mega conference owned by TV networks, and the rest of us are playing traditional college football.

[tpstulane]

As has been said here over and over, it's really all about the MONEY. If we continue to get at least what we were getting before, we are no worse off. It feels like we've been left behind, but we had an 11-team conference (12 with Wichita) and two of the better programs left... and Houston. They rest are still here. There is no guarantee what the new Big 12 will get without Texas and Oklahoma, but I'll bet it's going to be closer to what we are getting than what they were getting. Ten years ago, Cincinnati was a basketball school and UCF was another direction school with an occasional good season. These new schools seem crappy but things change.

I still believe that the eventual model is a 20-25 team mega conference owned by TV networks, and the rest of us are playing traditional college football.

Of course we are worse off. That $7 million with inflation will be worth much less than what we need to grow or even sustain the program at these levels. It’s over.

[oliveandblue]

Here's a wild idea:

Tulane could try to find a way to build a culture in FB or BB (baseball and WBB are both fine for realignment purposes) by being a top 3-4 program in the new AAC.

Complaining about moves ESPN is making doesn't help Tulane. The AAC isn't a death sentence unless we make it that way. Why doesn't Tulane actually be a school that makes the conference special - instead of having to tag along at the last possible moment?

This conference is special alright.

We've been bottom to middle of the pack in CUSA and AAC. What in the world makes you think we'll be competitive in the new AAC? You seem to be forgetting that this will have a huge negative affect on our already dismal recruiting.

In the new AAC, our FB class would be... ...third. It's 5th/6th in the current AAC.

BB was not the greatest - but in the new AAC it will be good.

The key is to bust ass on the recruiting trail and hold serve - if we can do that, we will win some games.

[oliveandblue]

I'm not trying to say that I like the adds (UAB was fine, and I get Rice from an institutional POV), but I get this feeling that we're burying ourselves prematurely. The chess pieces continue to move every year.

Stop being in the bottom half of the conference - that's what Tulane needs to do in AAC 2.0. The pieces are coming into place, but we probably need a new BB arena and some way to work in an IPF down the line.

[mbawavefan12]

We just added a Rice program that over the last six years is 13-45 in football playing in CUSA.

[winwave]

As has been said here over and over, it's really all about the MONEY. If we continue to get at least what we were getting before, we are no worse off. It feels like we've been left behind, but we had an 11-team conference (12 with Wichita) and two of the better programs left... and Houston. They rest are still here. There is no guarantee what the new Big 12 will get without Texas and Oklahoma, but I'll bet it's going to be closer to what we are getting than what they were getting. Ten years ago, Cincinnati was a basketball school and UCF was another direction school with an occasional good season. These new schools seem crappy but things change.

I still believe that the eventual model is a 20-25 team mega conference owned by TV networks, and the rest of us are playing traditional college football.

The Big 12 like the AAC will likely keep their current amount. Even if they get cut it would likely go from $25 million to $15 to $20 million which is way more than we get. But it's not all about the money. It's all about these lesser programs coming in and the conference falling in stature. Our recruiting will suffer and we'll once again be a bottom feeder in the crappy version of the conference. It does matter who you beat. Beating these new teams will mean nothing. Losing to them will just be a new low for Tulane.

[winwave]

Here's a wild idea:

Tulane could try to find a way to build a culture in FB or BB (baseball and WBB are both fine for realignment purposes) by being a top 3-4 program in the new AAC.

Complaining about moves ESPN is making doesn't help Tulane. The AAC isn't a death sentence unless we make it that way. Why doesn't Tulane actually be a school that makes the conference special - instead of having to tag along at the last possible moment?

This conference is special alright.

We've been bottom to middle of the pack in CUSA and AAC. What in the world makes you think we'll be competitive in the new AAC? You seem to be forgetting that this will have a huge negative affect on our already dismal recruiting.

In the new AAC, our FB class would be... ...third. It's 5th/6th in the current AAC.

BB was not the greatest - but in the new AAC it will be good.

The key is to bust ass on the recruiting trail and hold serve - if we can do that, we will win some games.

Our recruiting is going to go down. We had 2 things going with recruits. - New Orleans and the conference. We just lost the conference card. So we'll again be bottom half of the weaker version of the AAC. It matters who you beat so even winning games won't register against this group.

[mbawavefan12]

I'm not trying to say that I like the adds (UAB was fine, and I get Rice from an institutional POV), but I get this feeling that we're burying ourselves prematurely. The chess pieces continue to move every year.

Stop being in the bottom half of the conference - that's what Tulane needs to do in AAC 2.0. The pieces are coming into place, but we probably need a new BB arena and some way to work in an IPF down the line.

Is that all, just a new BB arena and IPF. Oh you forgot a football ops building. Just toss that into the mix.

I have a few hundred to donate, let’s get the rest of the $90mm from our dedicated fanbase/donor base. “The pieces are coming into place” indeed.

[tpstulane]

Clueless

“On behalf of the American Athletic Conference presidents, I look forward to years of healthy competition with our six new members,” said Michael Fitts, President of Tulane University and Chair of The American’s Board of Directors. “I am confident that we have not only added fine institutions that share our collective ambition for national success, but we have done so in a deliberate and sensible way that will contribute to the long-term future of the conference.”