(06-21-2017 04:22 PM)WKUApollo Wrote:  As I said earlier, it's an opinion piece and he has that right. I think the real issue is it's difficult to ascertain from his ranking how he came to that ranking. He mentions "value to the conference" and then lists a few criteria but his ranking doesn't seem to fit his criteria unless he had some weighting system for each criteria....ie. Attendence 50 pts, Winning 1 pt, rivals of his team 10 pts, etc. It's messy writing and difficult to imagine what his thought process was in developing his ranking.

Nevertheless, it's one of thousands of opinions, as demonstrated in this thread. I didn't even realize it was a Mississippi paper until someone above mentioned it.

In my personal ranking, I'd definitely have ODU at the top or near the top. There's a reason they've been mentioned more than once as a possible candidate for the AAC in the future.

There are several programs in this conference that "can" bring value to the conference. Some have started to bring that value, others have yet to do so but have lots of "potential". Some may be dead weight but we're just 3 years into this new conference of 14 and things may change considerably over the next couple years.

In full disclosure, I don't think WKU brings much value to the conference. TV Market is weighted heavily in all conference discussions and WKU will never get those points.. We're just a directional public university in a small market. We win in most sports but that's rarely important in determining "value" unless that winning includes making Final Four runs or regularly getting to the Access Bowl.

Not that I disagree with this....5 years ago. But today 2017 I believe we have seen that no one in this conference moves that needle or brings "value" to the conference. The one thing I will point out, over the last couple years, Western was on TV more often than those in larger markets. National TV....chosen by those that decide the "value" of who they put on TV. I don't recall seeing those market teams being picked.