What will/should the conference do for rivalry week. Is there any natural rivals in the AAC.

I do not believe any team has a major rival OOC to play on rivalry week.
Cincy vs Lville is big but would not be on rivalry week even if they could get an annual matchup do to games with Kentucky.

It will be easier to set up rivalry week next year because of championship game. But this years game cannot be the best format for rivalry week assuming all games are against in conference teams.

2014
SMU-Houston
ECU-Tulsa
Cincy- Temple
Memphis-Uconn
UCF-USF

2015 suggestions
SMU-Houston
UCF-USF
Memphis-Cincy
Uconn-Temple
ECU-Navy
Tulane-Tulsa

Any other thoughts... I know someone will end up getting the short end of the stick. I could also see Houston wanting to play Cincy or Memphis.
I believe Aresco has already stated that there is no permanent cross division rivals which could cause issues for Navy-ECU & Cincy-Memphis annual game.

I could also see Memphis v Tulane. We have been playing those guys awhile. The only problem is that it's a nice rivalry.

They have to be within division and Navy makes that hard. My best shot:
EAST
UCF - South Florida
Temple - Connecticut
East Carolina - Cincinnati

WEST
(GEOGRAPHY BASED)
Memphis-Tulane
Tulsa-Navy
Houston-SMU
OR
SMU-Navy (ALREADY HAVE A TROPHY)
Houston-Tulane (BATTLE OF THE BAYOU OR GULF?)
Memphis-Tulsa (BATTLE OF BBQ?)

The Big 10 only has one cross-division locked game, Indiana vs Purdue. No reason the AAC can't do the same. The OPs suggestion is the most logical in terms of "rivalry" locks.

Rivalries are built over the long term, ( close games, recruiting, bad mouthing, fights in games, etc.) , you can't just throw teams together and say they are rivals. This league won't be together in its present form long enough to worry about.

Stop forcing rivalries and let them develop. Sometimes, you have to look closely beyond forcing teams together (see Rangers-Astros vs. Astros-Cardinals or even Astros-Cubs) because of geography as in the case of Houston-Rice.

For example, soon Tulsa will be Houston's most played opponent soon and there has been lots of memorable and meaningful games with bad blood going back decades (ask Dr. Phil, seriously). Houston-SMU has bad blood on both sides without the back and forth games but also has the Houston-Dallas angle. South Florida and UCF is also obviously natural and unlike UH-Rice is between similar institutions.

But as was said more than once above, stop forcing rivalries.

USF and UCF are the only ones I see in this league.

cincy should have been a west team...

cincy and memphis could have easily grown to thee 3rd biggest rivalry in the league..

with decent marketing ecu/navy could have been a decent rivalry (pirates vs the navy), it could have been big for ecu on a branding stand point/tv event...

but as the divisions are et up
ucf/usf (the only truly legit rivalry as of today with hatred both ways)
smu/uh
smu/navy
ucf/ecu
uh/tulsa (maybe)

potentials:
houston/memphis: only public schools in the west with similar rural identities
uconn/temple
ecu/cincy

(11-29-2014 06:45 PM)eastside cat Wrote:  USF and UCF are the only ones I see in this league.

Houston-Tulsa as well. No other two schools that I'm aware of have as much bad blood and as many games between them as those two in the AAC. Houston and SMU also do and once shared a major conference but it hasn't been nearly as competitive.

outside of ucs/usf and uh/smu, which nobody cares about nationally in either case, this conference doesn't have rivals. Nor do I see anybody being rivals in the near or far future. it just isn't happening

(11-30-2014 12:25 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  outside of ucs/usf and uh/smu, which nobody cares about nationally in either case, this conference doesn't have rivals. Nor do I see anybody being rivals in the near or far future. it just isn't happening

I tend to agree. Probably too many moving parts.

Let's face it, the AAC is like a potluck supper where a bunch of relative strangers show up with nothing but Jello salads. When everyone brings a salad, nothing seems to go with anything else. I lament the loss of traditional rivalries occasioned by realignment, and I don't like the idea of trying to create contrived rivalries where none has previously existed.

ECU and Cincy could certainly develop into an annually anticipated game. Not really a "rivalry" per say, but probably a game that will have a lot on the line most years. ECU and UCF already have that type of thing going on from the C-USA days.