(09-07-2016 09:46 PM)Wolfman Wrote: Someone mentioned in another post that Air Force made a presentation to the B12 (no link provided). If AF was accepted, would this put pressure on Navy to try and get in a P5 conference? Navy seems content to have football in the AAC and other sports in the Patriot League, but could they have their academy rival in a P5 conference when they are in a G5?
This is a complicated topic but I'll try to be concise. An important aspect to remember is that Navy wasn't looking to join a conference. Independence worked well for us.
But with conference expansion came the desire for those conferences to get the best TV contract they could. That also involved some conferences considering 9 conference games. That meant fewer BCS/P5 teams willing to play a lose-lose proposition team like Navy (we know we are not Notre Dame).
Add to that Navy's resurgence. When we sucked, plenty of teams were willing to play us. But with Navy good, why would an AD want to play Navy? Navy's AD mentioned several times about the challenge it was to schedule 12 games/year. BYU's AD has made similar comments since they went independent.
So Navy agrees to join the Big East. The BE becomes the AAC. All in all, we're still happy with where we are but things didn't work out quite as planned.
Air Force is not going to be invited to the B12. School is too small. Small stadium attendance. Small TV audience (despite being nation wide). Small alumni base. They are the 3rd team in Colorado in terms of fan base. Other than a nice story, no real reason at all for B12 to invite them over BYU, Houston, CSU, Memphis, USF, or UCF.
But for the sake of your question, let's assume they are invited to B12. IMHO Navy doesn't care. We have taken a very methodical approach that has paid off well for us. The only "prestige" is how we do head to head. Army is #1 rival. Notre Dame game is more important to the program than Air Force. If AF joined the B12, would it just be football or all sports? AF struggles in MWC competition in most sports so this is not a minor decision. AF has no option like Army & Navy have with the Patriot League. So this is a complicated proposal that involves much more than just the football team.
Navy knows who we are & the purpose of the football program. Which is a separate conversation.