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Good AAC article - BullsFanInTX - 02-14-2014 12:14 PM
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10449917/american-athletic-conference-focusing-future
American determined to make markDespite defections, conference out to prove it belongs with the best
His high-wire act seemingly complete, his head no longer spinning, Mike Aresco needs less than a minute to begin telling you about how much simpler life is now as commissioner of the American Athletic Conference.
"It's fun now," Aresco said. "I can't tell you a year ago it was a lot of fun, going through all the different things we had. But it's come out in a good place, so everybody's happy."
Five teams ranked in The Associated Press men's basketball poll has helped boost optimism as the American hits the home stretch of its inaugural academic year. Looking ahead to the fall paints a slightly more complicated picture for the conference.
As Louisville and Rutgers move on to the ACC and Big Ten, respectively, and as the American brings aboard East Carolina, Tulane and Tulsa to replace them -- with Navy joining in only football in 2015 -- life without automatic entry to the upper echelon of college football is right around the corner. The biggest of the so-called "group of five" conferences, the American finds itself at the head of a crowded table vying annually for a berth in one of the sport's six "access bowls," which will grant admittance to the best team of that group.
Diminished in stature but not in confidence, administrators and coaches from the conference know it is up to them to change the narrative and crack the code, to push their way toward the adults' table and ascend from this purgatory between the haves and have-nots.
"We all kind of have a stake-in-the-grounds thing, that it's up to us to change that, to demonstrate we are worthy, that we are capable," Tulane athletic director Rick Dickson said.
RE: Good AAC article - Cougar King - 02-14-2014 12:37 PM
Beat me to it.
RE: Good AAC article - 3rdWardCoog - 02-14-2014 12:40 PM
"The biggest of the so-called "group of five" conferences, the American finds itself at the head of a crowded table vying annually for a berth in one of the sport's six "access bowls," which will grant admittance to the best team of that group."
The narrative is being set by one ESPN writer. Let's see if other talking heads follow suit.
RE: Good AAC article - Cubanbull - 02-14-2014 01:16 PM
Correct. You can see how we wil be painted by them as the best of the G5. This will hep our champ in gaining that bid every year if havea similar record as another G5 champ. Now its up to our members to keep adding to that thinking by winning some games vs P5 schools and dominating our games vs other G5 schools.
RE: Good AAC article - uconnwhaler - 02-14-2014 01:21 PM
He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
RE: Good AAC article - 8BitPirate - 02-14-2014 02:01 PM
(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
Still think Tulane is a sold add if for nothing else destination and academics.
Still out on Tulsa.....
RE: Good AAC article - HuskyU - 02-14-2014 02:07 PM
(02-14-2014 02:01 PM)8BitPirate Wrote:(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
Still think Tulane is a sold add if for nothing else destination and academics.
Still out on Tulsa.....
It seems like the additions were based on a school's overall package. I think where they missed the boat might have been the whole "football now drives everything" in college athletics. That's why I was a lot happier with ECU's addition than the other two. And yes, UCONN football is down at the moment, but we have the attendance, state support, and athletic budget to bring it back up. The jury is still out on the others...
RE: Good AAC article - b0ndsj0ns - 02-14-2014 02:17 PM
I think the ESPN narative might change slightly next year. Last season the AAC was painted by them as the "undeserving BCS conference", but I've already seen that change slightly and now they seem to be going with "most deserving on the outside conference" theme. I think it's possible the talking points could go from the AAC doesn't deserve what it's getting to the AAC deserves better than it's getting.
RE: Good AAC article - bearcatlawjd - 02-14-2014 02:21 PM
From a geographic standpoint, I would have preferred UMass over Tulsa. That way the league could have gone with a true north division with UConn, UMass, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, and Navy. UMass basketball is decent and looks to be headed to the tournament.
Tulsa isn't a bad addition, I actually expect them to compete right away in basketball and football. For some reason, I thought they would be a better fit in the Mountain West along with UTEP to get that league to 14 and into Oklahoma and Texas.
If this conference stays together it will clearly be the sixth best conference in football and one of the major players in college basketball. ESPN has a league that should provide great value for them on the cheap.
RE: Good AAC article - SteveUCF19 - 02-14-2014 02:23 PM
"Increased television exposure and the revenue that comes from that won't hurt the newcomers"
He should have stopped at "exposure".
RE: Good AAC article - IceJus10 - 02-14-2014 02:24 PM
(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
A commissioner doesn't add members. The expansion committee of the board puts together the candidates and then the full board of conference member presidents vote on whether to extend an invite to a particular school. The commissioner then mediates the deal and is the spokesperson for the board to the public.
RE: Good AAC article - KNIGHTTIME - 02-14-2014 02:39 PM
(02-14-2014 02:23 PM)SteveUCF19 Wrote: "Increased television exposure and the revenue that comes from that won't hurt the newcomers"
He should have stopped at "exposure".
We get an extra million from the tv contract alone. Basketball credits will probably be at least 4-5 times what we shared in the past.
RE: Good AAC article - SteveUCF19 - 02-14-2014 03:05 PM
(02-14-2014 02:39 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:(02-14-2014 02:23 PM)SteveUCF19 Wrote: "Increased television exposure and the revenue that comes from that won't hurt the newcomers"
He should have stopped at "exposure".
We get an extra million from the tv contract alone. Basketball credits will probably be at least 4-5 times what we shared in the past.
The basketball money is great. But the TV money isn't even close to what we expected to get.
RE: Good AAC article - pablowow - 02-14-2014 06:11 PM
(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
That says a lot based your your football (age) and performance this year and the fact your team has limited history in football. I for one am so proud to be in a conference with UCONN.
Truth of the matter is the AAC will be a national conference of the next up schools. Both Tulsa and Tulane will not bring down this conference we will have an impact on several fronts. (Geography for recruiting, excellence in academics, alto competitive on the field)
UCONN will end up in the BIG or ACC at some point and believe it or not so may TULANE and TULSA.
RE: Good AAC article - johnbragg - 02-14-2014 06:32 PM
(02-14-2014 02:24 PM)IceJus10 Wrote: A commissioner doesn't add members. The expansion committee of the board puts together the candidates and then the full board of conference member presidents vote on whether to extend an invite to a particular school. The commissioner then mediates the deal and is the spokesperson for the board to the public.
In this specific case, the commissioner had a more central role. Besides USF, he was the only one committed to the conference--your new members
weren't there yet, the Syracuse/Pitt/etc group weren't consulted on expansion, the Catholics were not happy with the direction things were going in (not Aresco's fault, not Tulane's fault, etc.), and the continuing football members were more focused on getting out of the conference than they were on who to bring in.
Aresco was the only one besides USF who you'd bet money being in the conference year-to-year.
RE: Good AAC article - NothingButKnight - 02-14-2014 06:35 PM
Football will be fine as long as we schedule appropriately. We want to play P5 teams, but we don't want to play Alabama, LSU, Oregon, Oklahoma, etc. If the conference can manage to beat 5-10 P5 teams a year and avoid crushing OOC losses to FCS and bad G5 teams, we'll cement our place as best of the rest.
RE: Good AAC article - BIgCatonProwl - 02-14-2014 06:53 PM
(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.Agree Tulsa should not be in the AAC
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
RE: Good AAC article - chrisiskingx - 02-14-2014 06:58 PM
^^^ Can we just ban their fans from being on this board so that we can at least pretend they're not in the conference?
RE: Good AAC article - BIgCatonProwl - 02-14-2014 07:02 PM
(02-14-2014 02:24 PM)IceJus10 Wrote:True that they missed on Tulsa they add nothing, we need to reverse the decision , they do not belong in the AAC. Not when you have the likes of UMass, UAB, Rice, Army, Air Force , CSU, UNM out there(02-14-2014 01:21 PM)uconnwhaler Wrote: He still should have never added Tulane and Tulsa. Those are huge mistakes that the league may not recover from.
No TV, no fans, and they add to the perception that the American is indistinguishable from the other G5. He should have held those two spots for other G5's that distinguish themselves over time heading into the next TV contract.
A commissioner doesn't add members. The expansion committee of the board puts together the candidates and then the full board of conference member presidents vote on whether to extend an invite to a particular school. The commissioner then mediates the deal and is the spokesperson for the board to the public.
RE: Good AAC article - uconnwhaler - 02-14-2014 07:03 PM
(02-14-2014 06:58 PM)chrisiskingx Wrote: ^^^ Can we just ban their fans from being on this board so that we can at least pretend they're not in the conference?
I just assumed they were already banned...