All 3 equal this league surrendering.

(07-29-2016 06:30 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:27 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:18 PM)Borncoog74 Wrote:  Rice isn't even a long term project. They are a long time fail.

I didn't follow Rice before we joined CUSA but I get the sense that Rice started caring about athletics a lot more after most of thier conference mates left them behind. They're investing in their stadium and made a great BB hire in Mike Rhoades imo. You'd probably know more than I would being a Houston fan but like I said I just get the feeling that the last rounds of realignment was a wake up call for them. Being a private school they might never have big crowds but with thier resources there's no reason they can't be competitive.

You hit the nail on the head. We've invested over $100mm in facilities in the last 10 years including a $31mm football facility which opens next week.

I think we realized that we needed to invest and start to do things right or shut it down.

And credit to UH for doing the same thing on a much larger scale.

Rice AD Joe Karlgaard answered this in a recent tweetstorm:

Quote:Joe Karlgaard, Rice University Athletic Director:
‏@jkarlgaard
We've completed $113.2M in facilities renovations in the last ten years, touching every single sport at Rice.

With more on the way:

Additional $10 Million for more new facilities for Rice Baseball's Reckling park
Additional phases of renovations to Rice Football Stadium
to name just a couple

(07-29-2016 06:18 PM)Borncoog74 Wrote:  Rice isn't even a long term project. They are a long time fail.

at least they would be great get for baseball

(07-29-2016 06:29 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:23 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:19 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  I think ODU and WKU are decent adds actually.....

A big thing the AAC has over the other G5 conferences is the brand names.
Taking two sets of initials from CUSA buries any depth in separation between the two conferences.

Old ******* Dominion dude.

Don't get me wrong. I respect ODU.. but ODU is at least 5 years away.

Seriously, if we're going to add right now, we need to upgrade the AAC in any way possible. Since we're not adding football prowess, it behooves the AAC to build a stronger academic reputation.

I'm far from an academic snob, but the people that run things are snobs... So, if we're going to take on a build anyway, we have to start thinking like snobs to make it worth it.

Fortunately, I think we have some good programs that are going to start carrying the mantle. All we need now are some good names to pick up the slack and invest.

These schools will help us if their presidents are already part of the club.

I just learned today that Tulane was a finalist for Big 12 expansion when TCU and WV were selected... Way to go Wave... That's the game we're trying to play.

I like Rice and USM. Then we will have Tulsane and Miss Rice.

(07-29-2016 06:30 PM)baruna falls Wrote:  All 3 equal this league surrendering.

This

(07-29-2016 06:37 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  I like Rice and USM. Then we will have Tulsane and Miss Rice.

I get $1.00 every time somebody uses "Tulsane"....I coined that one.

(07-29-2016 06:12 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  I think we'd stay at 10 before going all-in on those 3.

If we invite Rice, we should just grab the other AAU school (Buffalo).

Those are long-term projects (ODU was a start up). If we're thinking long term, we need to consider how our roster looks next to the autonomy brands. This is where academic cred factors in, imo. UMass should get the nod over them IF they put a suitable infrastructure plan in motion.

Agreed; add how many necessary of these and start from scratch: Army, Rice, Buffalo, Umass

Stay at 10 and get some basketball schools.
Basketball is what's really going to take a hit.

(07-29-2016 06:23 PM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:19 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  I think ODU and WKU are decent adds actually.....

A big thing the AAC has over the other G5 conferences is the brand names.
Taking two sets of initials from CUSA buries any depth in separation between the two conferences.

agreed

(07-29-2016 06:27 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:18 PM)Borncoog74 Wrote:  Rice isn't even a long term project. They are a long time fail.

I didn't follow Rice before we joined CUSA but I get the sense that Rice started caring about athletics a lot more after most of thier conference mates left them behind. They're investing in their stadium and made a great BB hire in Mike Rhoades imo. You'd probably know more than I would being a Houston fan but like I said I just get the feeling that the last rounds of realignment was a wake up call for them. Being a private school they might never have big crowds but with thier resources there's no reason they can't be competitive.

agreed

(07-29-2016 06:39 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:37 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  I like Rice and USM. Then we will have Tulsane and Miss Rice.

I get $1.00 every time somebody uses "Tulsane"....I coined that one.

That royalty expires when you leave. Part of the exit fee.

If Rice were to pull an SMU and spend huge money on coaches in both sports then maybe, but I'm still not convinced they will. They have to do that and have to have their academic standards for athletes at roughly what SMU has been doing.

(07-29-2016 06:29 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:08 PM)David Krumudgen Wrote:  This from the Memphis Athletic office. My contact there has been right on with CUSA and AAC news.

I like the pics

Works for me!

click link to see many pics of Rice's new $32 Million Dollar End Zone Facility and bigger sized ones here:
http://www.chron.com/sports/rice/article...660235.php

https://twitter.com/RiceChron

Lots of vids on Rice's new EZF right now! Nice!

No,horrible, horrible fan support.

(07-29-2016 06:43 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  If Rice were to pull an SMU and spend huge money on coaches in both sports then maybe, but I'm still not convinced they will. They have to do that and have to have their academic standards for athletes at roughly what SMU has been doing.

To your point ... I think it's more about spending money on coaching hires (and continuing with facility upgrades) than it is about admission standards. We've got two recent 10-win seasons with our current admission standards.

Hey don't shoot the messenger . I am not a troll.
But if you really look at the choices they make sense.

Rice investing heavily in facilities great baseball
WKU solid Basketball name and I think their Football was in the top25
ODU Great attendance and basketball and a re-do of their football stadium ln the works

(07-29-2016 06:19 PM)Sideshow2313 Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:08 PM)David Krumudgen Wrote:  This from the Memphis Athletic office. My contact there has been right on with CUSA and AAC news.

I like the pics

I don't think the Memphis Athletics Department knows anything about expansion.

Not about the AAC, lol.

(07-29-2016 06:56 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  

(07-29-2016 06:43 PM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  If Rice were to pull an SMU and spend huge money on coaches in both sports then maybe, but I'm still not convinced they will. They have to do that and have to have their academic standards for athletes at roughly what SMU has been doing.

To your point ... I think it's more about spending money on coaching hires (and continuing with facility upgrades) than it is about admission standards. We've got two recent 10-win seasons with our current admission standards.

Those go hand and hand though. Top notch coaches typically don't want to go to places where they are too handcuffed in recruiting. There are already inherent recruiting issues just by being a G5 school, limiting the pool unnecessarily isn't good. Yes you have 2 10 win seasons in the last decade, but yet still have are 7 games under .500 under Bailiff. Also this isn't anything personal but it does seem like you guys and Tulane will go through cycles of caring and using your resources and then not and that's very frustrating as a fan of a school who's all in on effort always and just doesn't have those type of resources. Rice and Tulane are really only in this position due to years of apathy.

I have no idea what teams, but I like USM, and maybe WKU and ??? NIU?

(07-29-2016 06:08 PM)David Krumudgen Wrote:  This from the Memphis Athletic office. My contact there has been right on with CUSA and AAC news.

I like the pics

What kind of Memphis fan has only posted exclusively about the Sunbelt and CUSA but never the team they root for?