(03-16-2016 12:02 AM)Stay Cool Wrote:  

(03-15-2016 11:46 AM)TTT Wrote:  As I just stated on another thread. I'm all for an AAC invite. Any USM who says otherwise is a FOOL! When you take into account everything USM has been through since the creation of CUSA...CUSA is currently garbage, no offense to them. It makes all the sense in the world to add USM:

-Familiarity w/ all AAC members minus a few
-Close proximity to Tulane (2 hrs), Memphis (5 hrs), Houston (somewhat, 6hrs)
-Strong football tradition
-Our AD was assoc. AD @ USF and Houston...he knows a lot of current AAC ADs

-familiarity doesn't really matter with realignment, or Tulane would be rallying harder for the SEC. Kinda grasping at straws here

-distance point isn't terrible, I've seen much worse candidates touting travel as a reason to add

-the only strong football tradition at USM the past several years is losing... quite a lot. Never fully came back from that rebuild and that's a red flag

-it's a shame the current ADs don't vote on who gets an invite, then that might be worth something

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I don't know that I agree with all of those points, but there are some things I found interesting. You state that USM "never fully came back from that rebuild," but such a statement suggests that there has been a decent span of time to make an observation like that and state it with such conviction. The fact is that the rapid descent of the program from a 12-2 conference champion to 0-12 just occurred in 2012. The new coach found the cupboard bare and it took until his third season to right the ship and advance to the CUSA conference championship game. Now I'm not suggesting that their program is the same as the one that had 18 consecutive winning seasons until 2011, but I would say that their nine-win season in 2015 was indicative that they just might have turned it around and in a brief period of time.

As far as familiarity goes, I think there is something to be said for renewing old rivalries. It is something that is attractive to those who actually show up for the games. Taking a look at the teams currently in the AAC that could be expected to still be there after an expansion by the Big XII, it is readily apparent that almost all are former CUSA members.

UCF -- Other than current conference mates ECU and Memphis, prior to joining the AAC, UCF played more games against USM than any other team than Akron and Troy State and USM holds a 6-2 advantage.
Tulane -- Other than former SEC conference mates, Tulane has played more games against USM (30) than anyone other than Rice (36) and Memphis (32) and USM holds a 23-7 advantage.
ECU -- Has played more games against USM than any other team in their history (39) and with the exception of NC State (28), they almost double every other rivalry in number of games. USM holds a 27-12 lead in this series.
Memphis -- Has played more games against USM than any other team in their history (63), although Ole Miss will tie that number in 2016. USM holds a 40-22-1 lead in the series.

USM has a series advantage over every AAC team they have played, except Tulsa, and they trail that one 3-4-1. This assumes that Cincy would be going to the Big XII (though USM only trails that series 7-8). Their positive history with these schools cannot be a detriment to a possible invitation to the AAC. I agree that the distance and the AD thing don't mean much, but I also think in the coming years, it will mean more to have a good product on the field. And don't underestimate what a good baseball program means to schools like ECU, Memphis, Houston, Tulsa, Tulane and UCF.

Yes, there are some legitimate reasons that a conference like the AAC might not consider USM, but I also believe there are some reasons why they might be attractive to some old conference mates. If it happened, I would only regret that Cincy wouldn't be there.