(06-05-2017 01:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 02:29 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  Two straight bowl games, two straight regional appearances (hosting this year), and always respectable basketball. We can add them with Army (FB Only) and VCU (Olympic sports only) and would improve in every sport.


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I heard a rumor that VCU said "no thanks, we will stay in the Atlantic 10".

Dayton too

(06-05-2017 11:42 AM)va-eagle Wrote:  

(06-03-2017 12:45 PM)TheOriginalBigApp Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 02:33 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  Hattiesburg MS, for a start.
$25M athletic budget.

Southern Miss' best days are likely in the rear view mirror. Brett Farve is gone, and he ain't coming back.

How DARE you speak of Brett Favre in that manner! The NERVE!

What. Brett may come back, then leave, then come back again.

Brett is coming back. His daughter will be on the volleyball team this fall.

(06-05-2017 01:13 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 02:29 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  Two straight bowl games, two straight regional appearances (hosting this year), and always respectable basketball. We can add them with Army (FB Only) and VCU (Olympic sports only) and would improve in every sport.


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I heard a rumor that VCU said "no thanks, we will stay in the Atlantic 10".

Dayton too

Yea...here's the AAC pitch to those schools. Pay a bunch of money to join our conference...so you can be the oddball basketball only in a football conference...then watch Cincy and UH get poached and UConn leave to go indy...and then the conference adds more basketball powers like ECU, USF, UCF, SMU, and Tulane (These schools have a combined for a total of 1 appearance in the Round of 32 since 1995). Travel is going to be a b*tch too. Its not like the A-10 has trouble getting at-large bids.

---

Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Tulane does have better academics, but Rice has better academics, more money, is in a bigger market (albeit one duplicated by UH). Rice also has something that Tulane really sucks at....local alumni. Those are the people most likely to support the program. Heck USM probably has more followers in New Orleans than Tulane does.

The AAC isn't an academic conference. But USM is small, and probably has lower admittance criteria than any AAC school and doesn't have certain programs like Engineering.

Tulane is a lot like GWU. Neither school draws much from the local area. At least GW grads tend to stay in DC after graduating in reasonably high numbers. Tulane's grads don't.

If the AAC takes some of the schools you mentioned....we won't be laughing about the AAC claiming they're P6, we will be laughing that they're claiming to be G5.

By the way, have any of the schools you mentioned won a NCAA tournament game in basketball in the last 15 years? Oh wait..Old Dominion did....once. These school are middling to awful in basketball too.

----

If the AAC decides to go the marketz route that CUSA did, I suppose we can just sit back and watch the Belt catch them too.

(06-05-2017 03:46 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Tulane does have better academics, but Rice has better academics, more money, is in a bigger market (albeit one duplicated by UH). Rice also has something that Tulane really sucks at....local alumni. Those are the people most likely to support the program. Heck USM probably has more followers in New Orleans than Tulane does.

The AAC isn't an academic conference. But USM is small, and probably has lower admittance criteria than any AAC school and doesn't have certain programs like Engineering.

Tulane is a lot like GWU. Neither school draws much from the local area. At least GW grads tend to stay in DC after graduating in reasonably high numbers. Tulane's grads don't.

If the AAC takes some of the schools you mentioned....we won't be laughing about the AAC claiming they're P6, we will be laughing that they're claiming to be G5.

By the way, have any of the schools you mentioned won a NCAA tournament game in basketball in the last 15 years? Oh wait..Old Dominion did....once. These school are middling to awful in basketball too.

----

If the AAC decides to go the marketz route that CUSA did, I suppose we can just sit back and watch the Belt catch them too.

No. Rice has very few local alumni willing to support the program. One need only actually attend a Rice football game to know that. There are times there are only a few thousand actually in attendance. Tulane has a student body 3 times the size of Rice. Despite the fact that many are from out of state, Tulane still has more local alums than Rice probably does (and dont kid yourself, because Rice is such a high quality school, a ton of Rice students are from outside the Houston area).

That said, the AAC likes markets and their presidents very much like the idea of having a relatively strong academic conference. There is only one AAC all-sports school that isnt in the top 200 universities as ranked by USNWR. It wouldnt surprise me if Rice got the nod if UH left the AAC---though I dont think thats happening anytime soon. The Big 12 isnt expanding until after 2025 (if ever) per statements by Gorden Gee today. The AAC is probably going to be "as is" for a while.

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Adding Tulane was a joke imho...that was the straw that broke the camel's back for the Catholic schools.

I mean, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either you should build an academic consortium to be proud of or an athletic conference that is or is close to a major conference. Even if the Catholic schools left, this would be a strong conference.


Boise
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Houston
Memphis
SDSU
SMU
Southern Miss
UConn
UCF
USF
UTEP

Maybe switch BYU, Navy or New Mexico with UTEP and it gets better.

(06-05-2017 05:49 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Adding Tulane was a joke imho...that was the straw that broke the camel's back for the Catholic schools.

I mean, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either you should build an academic consortium to be proud of or an athletic conference that is or is close to a major conference. Even if the Catholic schools left, this would be a strong conference.


Boise
Cincinnati
East Carolina
Houston
Memphis
SDSU
SMU
Southern Miss
UConn
UCF
USF
UTEP

Maybe switch BYU, Navy or New Mexico with UTEP and it gets better.

Tulane had nothing to do with the C7 leaving. Ironically, Tulane probably would not have been added if the C7 had already exited. They were a compromise selection between the C7 presidents and football schools. The football playing schools wanted to add ECU as an all-sports school. The truth is rumors of the C7 planning an exit began back in the summer of 2012---long before Tulane was selected.

ECU and Tulane were announced on November 28th 2012. The C7 left on December 17th---just over 2 weeks later. Do you really think they planned an exit and the creation of a new conference in 14 days? They were gone regardless of who we added and had been working on it for months. Tulane had more to do with Boise leaving than the C7.

Money. USM won't bring in as much money as they will get. Every school in the AAC would have to give up money to bring in USM.

Yeah exactly, the C7 was already leaving, so they really didn't care and if anything maybe they wanted them added just to weaken the AAC. I realize they liked the idea of another Catholic city to visit but by the time Tulane was added, the Catholics were already inching out. Hence, it was a mistake to add Tulane. The former C-USA presidents had no vision to see that, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. They should have caved into the C7's demands to keep them around.

(06-05-2017 03:59 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 03:46 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Tulane does have better academics, but Rice has better academics, more money, is in a bigger market (albeit one duplicated by UH). Rice also has something that Tulane really sucks at....local alumni. Those are the people most likely to support the program. Heck USM probably has more followers in New Orleans than Tulane does.

The AAC isn't an academic conference. But USM is small, and probably has lower admittance criteria than any AAC school and doesn't have certain programs like Engineering.

Tulane is a lot like GWU. Neither school draws much from the local area. At least GW grads tend to stay in DC after graduating in reasonably high numbers. Tulane's grads don't.

If the AAC takes some of the schools you mentioned....we won't be laughing about the AAC claiming they're P6, we will be laughing that they're claiming to be G5.

By the way, have any of the schools you mentioned won a NCAA tournament game in basketball in the last 15 years? Oh wait..Old Dominion did....once. These school are middling to awful in basketball too.

----

If the AAC decides to go the marketz route that CUSA did, I suppose we can just sit back and watch the Belt catch them too.

No. Rice has very few local alumni willing to support the program. One need only actually attend a Rice football game to know that. There are times there are only a few thousand actually in attendance. Tulane has a student body 3 times the size of Rice. Despite the fact that many are from out of state, Tulane still has more local alums than Rice probably does (and dont kid yourself, because Rice is such a high quality school, a ton of Rice students are from outside the Houston area).

That said, the AAC likes markets and their presidents very much like the idea of having a relatively strong academic conference. There is only one AAC all-sports school that isnt in the top 200 universities as ranked by USNWR. It wouldnt surprise me if Rice got the nod if UH left the AAC---though I dont think thats happening anytime soon. The Big 12 isnt expanding until after 2025 (if ever) per statements by Gorden Gee today. The AAC is probably going to be "as is" for a while.

Rice should be aiming to be in the SEC, Big 12 or Pac-X. They have all the resources necessary. They have a sizable sleeper fanbase waiting to be reignited. They would be a Vanderbilt or Northwestern clone.

While the AAC is being so picky, the P5 sharks are starting to circle... One day soon USM will look like a really nice option to the AAC.

(06-05-2017 06:55 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  Yeah exactly, the C7 was already leaving, so they really didn't care and if anything maybe they wanted them added just to weaken the AAC. I realize they liked the idea of another Catholic city to visit but by the time Tulane was added, the Catholics were already inching out. Hence, it was a mistake to add Tulane. The former C-USA presidents had no vision to see that, otherwise they wouldn't have done it. They should have caved into the C7's demands to keep them around.

Its been my argument for a while that this is the one area where I do blame Aresco. He should have kept his powder dry and not held any expansion votes until he was sure that the only presidents voting were those that were sticking around. May not have changed anything, but I think it might have kept the western schools around. Boise basically checked out after those additions feeling we were not serious about adding a legit western wing.

(06-05-2017 03:46 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Tulane does have better academics, but Rice has better academics, more money, is in a bigger market (albeit one duplicated by UH). Rice also has something that Tulane really sucks at....local alumni. Those are the people most likely to support the program. Heck USM probably has more followers in New Orleans than Tulane does.

The AAC isn't an academic conference. But USM is small, and probably has lower admittance criteria than any AAC school and doesn't have certain programs like Engineering.

Tulane is a lot like GWU. Neither school draws much from the local area. At least GW grads tend to stay in DC after graduating in reasonably high numbers. Tulane's grads don't.

If the AAC takes some of the schools you mentioned....we won't be laughing about the AAC claiming they're P6, we will be laughing that they're claiming to be G5.

By the way, have any of the schools you mentioned won a NCAA tournament game in basketball in the last 15 years? Oh wait..Old Dominion did....once. These school are middling to awful in basketball too.

----

If the AAC decides to go the marketz route that CUSA did, I suppose we can just sit back and watch the Belt catch them too.

Lol Wut?

The AAC's predecessor invented Marketz.

USM is not in because they are a poor cultural fit in a small market.

And now Weather...

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(06-05-2017 07:04 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 03:59 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 03:46 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 02:59 PM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:26 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  Now on the thread topic....There was no reason whatsoever to take Tulane instead of USM. Better football, more support, better baseball, better basketball...better everything.

Tulane has better academics. Much bigger endowment, much richer alumni base, which means more potential resources to put into their programs.
Better recruiting grounds, Louisiana vs Mississippi. New Orleans is a top 50 TV market.

Doesn't mean it was the right choice. But those were the AAC's criteria. And unless the AAC completely changes their approach, I don't think Southern Miss gets an AAC invite before schools like ODU, Charlotte, UTSA, the F_Us, etc. Even UMass is at least a state flagship.

Tulane does have better academics, but Rice has better academics, more money, is in a bigger market (albeit one duplicated by UH). Rice also has something that Tulane really sucks at....local alumni. Those are the people most likely to support the program. Heck USM probably has more followers in New Orleans than Tulane does.

The AAC isn't an academic conference. But USM is small, and probably has lower admittance criteria than any AAC school and doesn't have certain programs like Engineering.

Tulane is a lot like GWU. Neither school draws much from the local area. At least GW grads tend to stay in DC after graduating in reasonably high numbers. Tulane's grads don't.

If the AAC takes some of the schools you mentioned....we won't be laughing about the AAC claiming they're P6, we will be laughing that they're claiming to be G5.

By the way, have any of the schools you mentioned won a NCAA tournament game in basketball in the last 15 years? Oh wait..Old Dominion did....once. These school are middling to awful in basketball too.

----

If the AAC decides to go the marketz route that CUSA did, I suppose we can just sit back and watch the Belt catch them too.

No. Rice has very few local alumni willing to support the program. One need only actually attend a Rice football game to know that. There are times there are only a few thousand actually in attendance. Tulane has a student body 3 times the size of Rice. Despite the fact that many are from out of state, Tulane still has more local alums than Rice probably does (and dont kid yourself, because Rice is such a high quality school, a ton of Rice students are from outside the Houston area).

That said, the AAC likes markets and their presidents very much like the idea of having a relatively strong academic conference. There is only one AAC all-sports school that isnt in the top 200 universities as ranked by USNWR. It wouldnt surprise me if Rice got the nod if UH left the AAC---though I dont think thats happening anytime soon. The Big 12 isnt expanding until after 2025 (if ever) per statements by Gorden Gee today. The AAC is probably going to be "as is" for a while.

Rice should be aiming to be in the SEC, Big 12 or Pac-X. They have all the resources necessary. They have a sizable sleeper fanbase waiting to be reignited. They would be a Vanderbilt or Northwestern clone.

No. They dont. Vandy has almost 13K students. Northwestern has a student body of over 21K. Rice can certainly be more than they are now---but there are limits to what you can be when you only have 6K students in pro city. Tulsa is similar size---extremely successful on the field----and they still struggle to gain traction in Tulsa where there is no pro sports competition. Sure Rice would do better in a power conference---you could literally say that about any G5 school. Houston's potential in a power conference is tremendously higher simply due to its much larger enrollment.

(06-05-2017 01:13 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 02:29 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  Two straight bowl games, two straight regional appearances (hosting this year), and always respectable basketball. We can add them with Army (FB Only) and VCU (Olympic sports only) and would improve in every sport.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I heard a rumor that VCU said "no thanks, we will stay in the Atlantic 10".

Dayton too

More rumors than fact IMO. Multiple interviews have since come out from ADs to Aresco that expansion by one team was decided on last fall after the Big 12 decided not to add to their ranks. Last month, a twitter search re: AAC expansion caught my attention. A VA radio station discussed it in regards to VCU. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but the hosts debunked it as rumor and responded to some angry VCU fans who were mad they would consider turning it down. The hosts made it sound like the admin. did the "I'm happy where I am" spiel that coaches do when they know they aren't getting the job. Don't know about Dayton, but find it incredibly hard to believe they would be a first choice above WSU.

USM fits very nicely in a division that has Memphis, Tulane, SMU, and Tulsa in it. Adding USM would actually add 3 instant rivalry games to the league EVEN IF UH LEAVES.

The only hangup is budget size/revenue - and joining the AAC could help close the gap a bit. Tulane's revenue shot up by something like 15-20 million/year since joining the AAC (it's why we're no longer dumpster diving for new coaches).

Give USM the resources that most of the AAC gets, and watch them go...

(06-05-2017 09:01 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  No. They dont. Vandy has almost 13K students. Northwestern has a student body of over 21K. Rice can certainly be more than they are now---but there are limits to what you can be when you only have 6K students in pro city. Tulsa is similar size---extremely successful on the field----and they still struggle to gain traction in Tulsa where there is no pro sports competition. Sure Rice would do better in a power conference---you could literally say that about any G5 school. Houston's potential in a power conference is tremendously higher simply due to its much larger enrollment.

Rice is also much richer than Tulsa with a bigger endowment. It's in great recruiting grounds and a much larger market. Rice has it in them but hasn't invested over the years. They just need to figure out what they want to be. If they want to be a minor athletic department that focuses primarily on academics, that's fine. If they want to be a major, they can be. Languishing as a laughingstock in C-USA though just seems odd for a school that has so much to offer and can be so much more. They were in a major conference 20-some-odd years ago.

(06-05-2017 09:07 PM)gulfcoastgal Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:13 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(06-05-2017 01:11 PM)Tom in Lazybrook Wrote:  

(06-02-2017 02:29 PM)PurpleReigns Wrote:  Two straight bowl games, two straight regional appearances (hosting this year), and always respectable basketball. We can add them with Army (FB Only) and VCU (Olympic sports only) and would improve in every sport.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I heard a rumor that VCU said "no thanks, we will stay in the Atlantic 10".

Dayton too

More rumors than fact IMO. Multiple interviews have since come out from ADs to Aresco that expansion by one team was decided on last fall after the Big 12 decided not to add to their ranks. Last month, a twitter search re: AAC expansion caught my attention. A VA radio station discussed it in regards to VCU. I didn't listen to the whole thing, but the hosts debunked it as rumor and responded to some angry VCU fans who were mad they would consider turning it down. The hosts made it sound like the admin. did the "I'm happy where I am" spiel that coaches do when they know they aren't getting the job. Don't know about Dayton, but find it incredibly hard to believe they would be a first choice above WSU.

WSU went to the AAC because the alternative was staying in the MVC. VCU and Dayton have a much better option (staying in the A-10). And a much more stable one. And Dayton is probably holding out for a Big East shot, which, unlike the AAC, is a terminal conference.

Y'all did see that report that airlines are cutting back their fleets, which means that flying charters are getting harder to arrange, and therefore even more expensive, right?

(Here it is if you didn't... https://www.bloombergquint.com/onweb/201...rs-the-bus )

Couple that with stagnant or declining media deals for the non-Power conferences, and that means that conferences are going to be getting MORE regional, not more spread out.

My guess is that the AAC "East" and the AAC "West" part ways eventually, with the "East" schools rounding their conference out with other eastern/mid-Atlantic region schools while the old AAC "West" adding USM. Then you all can be happy.