(08-06-2016 08:17 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote: But here's the thing. This is exactly to type of attempts to rationale an immediate 'fix it now' mentality rather than with a strategic approach.
To acquiesce to the demand of the TV now lacks vision. It's the same mistake C-USA made. That AAC deal only has three years left on it, so let's assume the networks "force" the AAC to add teams to keep the TV money respectable. What then happens is when that new TV deal starts to be renegotiated in a year and a half to two years from now, all those networks are going to revalue (or perhaps a better word is devalue) their assessment of what the league possesses and then on top of that the AAC is going to be forced to split that money more ways because of a decision they made based on just a couple of years worth of TV revenue.
At some point, the non-power leagues are going to have to start thinking more strategically, prepare for the long game and understand how to survive the massive shift that is occurring in collegiate athletics. But that's just one man's opinion so, que sera sera.
CUSA screwed up by continually making decisions based upon what it
thought would sell according to no longer applicable paradigms. That's a completely different animal than a network telling you what
will sell, i.e., what they're willing to pay for membership option "X" vs. what they're willing to pay for membership option "Y." ESPN knows which programs draw viewers and which ones don't. The pool of G5 schools has continually increased, but most of the newbs have no TV value. Promote a handful of G5s to the Big 12, and the pool of marketable programs grows even smaller.
Given that, the best strategy for everyone would be to get as many of those schools as possible under the same umbrella. The distributor, in whatever form, has the best possible product to broadcast, and the schools have the best possible product to offer up for bid (or sell directly to the public if things go that way instead).
Even if the network(s) do(es)n't factor into the equation, the AAC is still trying to be the top G5 by a comfortable margin. If they lose 2 or more of the programs that enable them to make that claim, the rest of the pack closes the gap if they do nothing. Add one CUSA program, and it creates some distance. That distance increases exponentially with additional acquisitions of value, though.
To be honest, if the AAC loses enough teams to create the opportunity, it could gobble up every non-MAC Eastern & Central G5 program with a reasonable chance of EVER being ranked or winning the Accees Bowl bid, because the chaff that would be left in CUSA & the Belt at that point would never be taken seriously.
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