American Athletic Conference Realignment & Expansion Thread

freaked4collegefb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:37 pm **Posts:** 7063

BE MB thread discussing BE Commish/Washington Post interview at http://csnbbs.com/showthread.php?tid=608461

tkalmus · **Joined:** Fri Sep 10, 2010 11:40 pm **Posts:** 1036

Quinn wrote:

I still can't get over how bad a decision it would be to add UNLV for football-only, not taking advantage of their primary sport, basketball. Not a ton of people into those 110F September days in an outdoor stadium...versus Winter ands Spring basketball games in an air conditioned arena.

Those of us hoping for an 8/8 split 16 school all-sports conference need to realize, it's not what the plan is. Aresco has mad eit pretty clear that the next steps are to take the BE10 all-sports and combine them with the 6 FB only (ECU, Navy, Bosie St., SDSU, Fresno St. and UNLV).

Sad.

ECU will get the full invite, like always looking at BYU/AFA if the FSU/UNLV thing takes off. Army may also get invovled, and UNM could be #6 too for a nice western league with the fb onlys (minus Navy) and the Texas schools and either Memphis or Tulane. I continue to think Hawaii could be a dark horse candidate here (already in Big West).

Quinn any thoughts on UMass as a fb only to the nBE?

sec03 · **Joined:** Sat May 20, 2006 2:09 pm **Posts:** 1232

The nBE is probably locked-in to certain fb only additions due to earlier decisions. Going from a hybrid focused on bb, & transitioning to a hybrid focused on fb may not rid the conference of ongoing structural issues. I can see service academies as new fb-only admits, but beyond that, half-in commitments look unsettling, particularly for those more remote from most of the rest.

Quinn · **Joined:** Thu Oct 17, 2002 8:05 am **Posts:** 3757

tkalmus wrote:

Quinn wrote:

I still can't get over how bad a decision it would be to add UNLV for football-only, not taking advantage of their primary sport, basketball. Not a ton of people into those 110F September days in an outdoor stadium...versus Winter ands Spring basketball games in an air conditioned arena.

Those of us hoping for an 8/8 split 16 school all-sports conference need to realize, it's not what the plan is. Aresco has mad eit pretty clear that the next steps are to take the BE10 all-sports and combine them with the 6 FB only (ECU, Navy, Bosie St., SDSU, Fresno St. and UNLV).

Sad.

ECU will get the full invite, like always looking at BYU/AFA if the FSU/UNLV thing takes off. Army may also get invovled, and UNM could be #6 too for a nice western league with the fb onlys (minus Navy) and the Texas schools and either Memphis or Tulane. I continue to think Hawaii could be a dark horse candidate here (already in Big West).

Quinn any thoughts on UMass as a fb only to the nBE?

Certainly for the future TV contract, having a 3rd northeast school with Uconn and Temple would help. Extra benefit in that Umass has rivalries with both schools. I think it's a better FB only spot than the MAC, but for it to work, it needs to be all-sports. But that's not likely.

Go figure: the Big East football schools are being left by the basketball hybrid schools...and the response by Big East football schools is to create a football hybrid conference with 6 FB only schools.

Another outside the box thought:

If you have these FB only schools like Boise St., SDSU, UNLV and Fresno St...and you have Hawaii and BYU outside an all-sports conference...at some point, why don't these schools just form their own non-football conference. Would be better than the Big West, that's for sure.

ctx48c · **Joined:** Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:26 pm **Posts:** 294

They already have their own league MWC.

Fresno St. Alum · **Posted:** Thu Dec 20, 2012 5:28 pm

Quinn wrote:

I still can't get over how bad a decision it would be to add UNLV for football-only, not taking advantage of their primary sport, basketball. Not a ton of people into those 110F September days in an outdoor stadium...versus Winter ands Spring basketball games in an air conditioned arena.

Those of us hoping for an 8/8 split 16 school all-sports conference need to realize, it's not what the plan is. Aresco has mad eit pretty clear that the next steps are to take the BE10 all-sports and combine them with the 6 FB only (ECU, Navy, Bosie St., SDSU, Fresno St. and UNLV).

Sad.

10 BE all sports include ECU. I think Aresco said they'll likely be an all sports member. So you need 1 more for 16 or they think Navy is out and FS & UNLV make 14.

freaked4collegefb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:37 pm **Posts:** 7063

Hoops Weiss at NYDailyNews discussing BE FB schools attempt to shore up western flank at http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/colle ... -1.1224947

westwolf · **Posted:** Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:10 am

More buzz about Boise St bailing on the nBE:

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/12/22/2389914/back-to-the-mw.html

freaked4collegefb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:37 pm **Posts:** 7063

Pete Thamel article(previously posted in another thread) discussing BE FB and BB realignment situations at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/colleg ... xid=cnnbin

freaked4collegefb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:37 pm **Posts:** 7063

More from Dennis Dodd regarding report that BSU is considering leaving the BE at http://cbssports.com/columns/story/2144 ... econd-life

freaked4collegefb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 13, 2006 2:37 pm **Posts:** 7063

Mark Blaudschun blog article discussing BE realignment situation after the holiday break at http://ajerseyguy.com/?p=4512

The Bishin Cutter · **Joined:** Mon Apr 16, 2012 11:41 am **Posts:** 543

tute79 wrote:

Yes, this memo is intentionally vague.

I think on one hand, he felt a need to issue a public statement, acknowledging that something is taking plance,
and that he and other Villanova minions are moving thoughtfully and deliberately toward something that reflects their long-term goals.

Undoubtedly the lawyers scanned this (prior to release) to ensure there was nothing specific that might have to be retracted later, based on the course of the pcoming negotitations.
Essentially, the smart thing to do at this point is to remove any TBD details from this memo, and leave that stuff to the reporters / bloggers / us.

I don't know...even with a basic marketing and advertising course under my belt, that was a very fundamentally dumb omission on Donohue's part. I mean, we kind of know this is what Villanova is clinging to (they use big words and soft voices to discuss moving $20-30m for football facilities, but it's a fiesta for a $80m campaign for the hoops arena...that still won't see action for national games), but unless there's an internal memo going out to the other kids putting the memo into context, the president and athletic director just told the other programs where their place is.

tute79 · **Joined:** Fri Jun 23, 2006 4:25 pm **Posts:** 1493

I meant that is was vague with regard to details on the formation of their new "Catholic conference", since that is still in a state of flux.

I see your point about him possibly going overboard with regard to "ranking importance" of various sports.
I should be obvious to all which sports are the "revenue sports", and thus, which get the most attention form the administration.

I certainly do think this split is the best for everyone involved, as the interests of the football and non-football groups had become so divergent,
and after the split each group can be stronger with about 12 schools that are all on the same "wavelength".
It would have been best to split up in 2003, but they BE had to play numbers games to meet certain NCAA criteria.

I'm not sure Aresco doesn't seem some value in the split, as it will likely end a lot of the internal struggles he was dealing with on a daily basis.

fighting muskie · **Joined:** Sat Jun 09, 2012 9:47 am **Posts:** 393

Let's play worst case scenario---the MWC is successful in retaining Boise St and San Diego St and grabs SMU and Houston. What does the Big East do then when their membership is down to:

UConn
Temple
Cincinnati
ECU
UCF
USF
Memphis
Tulane
Navy? (fb only)

SJSUFan2010 · **Joined:** Mon Dec 06, 2010 7:52 pm **Posts:** 469

fighting muskie wrote:

Let's play worst case scenario---the MWC is successful in retaining Boise St and San Diego St and grabs SMU and Houston. What does the Big East do then when their membership is down to:

UConn
Temple
Cincinnati
ECU
UCF
USF
Memphis
Tulane
Navy? (fb only)

Rice and UMass probably for sure. I'd like to see Charlotte and ODU. That's 12 full and either let Navy go or bring on Army FB only as well. If i'm counting right that would be 14 teams in 12 states. Not great market penetration but not terrible either. A solid conference out east whose champ would at least be comparable to the MWC champ. Buffalo and Southern Miss wouldn't be that bad either if they wanted to go bigger. Marshall and UAB would at least make the discussion.

American Athletic Conference Realignment & Expansion Thread

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