(01-09-2016 06:53 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  LOL.

As we all know, the poaching of Boise State and SDSU by the Big East failed. It fell apart because it made no sense. The expectation that a bunch of former Conference USA schools were going to earn a big payday by reassembling under a new banner was delusional. As soon as it became clear that the money wasn't there to justify playing in an eastern conference, the Broncos backed out, and the Aztecs had no choice but to follow.

And that turned out to be the right decision, as just a year ago it was the MWC that went to the Access Bowl and earned the payout for being the top G5 conference.

One down year in football hardly means the MWC is now an "absolute mess" or that the AAC could convince any MWC school to defect, particularly given that it is the AAC and not the MWC that is at high risk of losing two of its best programs to the Big 12.

It didn't fail. Kustra/Boise State was trying to get Mike Aresco to offer a similar deal that the MWC brokered at the expense of the rest of the conference. He balked. San Diego State wanted to stay in the AAC but reluctantly stayed in the West.

The AAC would have never achieved the success of this year if they would have bent over for Boise State. The NAVY brass particularly have come out publicly against that attempt by Kustra.

There was only one group of schools that were so desperate. The former WAC members that are now residing in the shell of the old MWC. Hawaii is one of those desperate programs, going so far as to accept even less $$ to have teams travel to Hawaii.

It wasn't an accident that MWC teams were losing to the dregs of college football this year. The MWC OOC performance this year was non-competitive. To infer that it was just "a bad year" is blindly tiptoeing through the forest.

Even if the AAC loses 1 or 2 schools, the quality of the programs still in the conference (as well as the exposure the conference is getting) is head and shoulders above what the WAC dregs can counter with.

You gave in to Boise because you had no choice. The AAC obviously did have a choice. Now that Boise is floundering, your optimism that it was just a bad year sounds desperate and out of touch. You've pushed all your chips onto one boat that is showing its age. Boise's run has hit the rocks. You should be worrying about the current CUSA.

Baby steps.