(07-20-2016 08:03 PM)First Mate Wrote: Not a fair comparison. The big east was a BCS league when Rutgers joined. They were able to take advantage of the preferred status for years and the money that came with it.
Umass will have no such luxury in the AAC. IMO they will not rise like Rutgers "kind of" did. Not even close.
I have a lot of respect for USM over the years but we shouldn't add them either. If we lose a one or two teams we should stand pat.
Add army if you can get them, not bc they are good but bc they add prestige and a name brand. Tv will pay us more if we have Army. Not anyone else mentioned.
UMass and USM and any other CUSA or MaC teams is a knee jerk reaction and not smart. It will just water the AAC down more.
We still have a good league if we lose a couple of teams. Stay the course.
the big east never go to cash in on it bcs status, mega tv deal is a new concept and realignment at bad times/poor decisions prevented that league from ever cashing in, they were making 3 mil in the big east
and in my opinion growth isnt based on tv money but tv exposure and we have better exposure than when rutgers had in the big east (ie the big east, who wasnt payed at all in its inception but grew to become a power from the exposure)
another example is uconn look at what uconn was before the big east and what they are now (in football and basketball) they do 35-40k attendance on 7-8 win teams
think about it, rutgers and uconn money wise were 2 of the most valuable teams in the AAC in 2013. imagine if the big east had invited umass instead of uconn or rutgers theyd have likely been viewed as that valuable team, and youd be making posts abouts why we shouldnt add rugters and uconn and how they wont help us at all
their is always state pride and repesentation, when you put a team on the highest level and say they represent you, youll see how the entire state would rally behind them (one of the populated in america)
like i said im not sure if id want to add them next year, i wish they were a bit more progressed before joining the league.. but if they won 7 games next year and announced a 100mil 30k stadium, theyd jump to the top of the list for me. expansion is potentially forever, add on growth potential