RE: If Univ of Houston leaves, does Rice get the invite?
From an unbiased perspective, I'm not sure it makes sense to have Rice as the top choice, IMO. Rice is a very slightly better version of Tulane (better academics, better area for recruiting, bigger football stadium, more success in football over last 15 years, better baseball, worse men's basketball). The AAC West already has three small private schools with limited fan support, so not sure adding Tulane 1.1 is really going to do anything, other than get closer to recreating the C-USA West of the late 2000s.
That said, the Houston recruiting area is a prized one (note I said recruiting area, not media market. Rice delivers the Houston media market as much as Tulane, SMU or Tulsa deliver their respective media markets, which is to say not at all) - I mean, Navy is in the West division solely because they wanted the opportunity to play in front of Texas recruits each year. Adding Southern Miss or Louisiana Tech does not deliver the same recruiting area availability to AAC teams. Rice's stadium is also larger than any other stadium in the current AAC West, other than the Liberty Bowl. Additionally, Rice is putting the finishing touches on an end zone facility / sports performance center, which was funded with private and university donations. Furthermore, another ho-hum year from our football team will likely see Bailiff be given his walking papers. But, to b0ndsj0ns point, Rice will need to show it is willing to a) pay big boy money for its next football coaching staff (we've already done that for basketball) and b) continue to improve facilities. Our stadium is larger than others, but it certainly doesn't have the "new factor" like SMU's/Tulane's.
I don't see a lot of value adding Army - no strong athletic teams, not located in a great HS football hotbed. Obviously, they command a big potential TV audience, but so does Navy, and Navy is actually good.
All that said - I think Rice will be considered, but think that a school like Southern Miss would probably deliver more firepower to the AAC. Historically strong football, decent basketball, strong baseball, a good level of university support and a sizable fan base are all big positives for USM. No, southern Mississippi is not going to deliver the same population/recruiting base as the greater Houston area, but the AAC would undoubtedly be better from a competitive standpoint.
|