Lol

Players see what the media pushes. They also see the teams that are going to New Years 6 bowls and winning them. They see rankings at the end of the year and they see teams with growing fanbases.

I'll look at Rivals team average star rankings for us and them, since we seem to compete in the same geographical footprint. We'll start in 2014.

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.05

2015

AAC- 2.34
CUSA- 2.19

2016

AAC- 2.31
CUSA- 2.1

2017

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.12


May not seem super drastic, but does show that, at least on average, the better players are choosing AAC schools, though it may not seem like a big statistical difference.

(09-12-2017 09:24 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  Players see what the media pushes. They also see the teams that are going to New Years 6 bowls and winning them. They see rankings at the end of the year and they see teams with growing fanbases.

I'll look at Rivals team average star rankings for us and them, since we seem to compete in the same geographical footprint. We'll start in 2014.

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.05

2015

AAC- 2.34
CUSA- 2.19

2016

AAC- 2.31
CUSA- 2.1

2017

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.12


May not seem super drastic, but does show that, at least on average, the better players are choosing AAC schools, though it may not seem like a big statistical difference.

ratings, schmatings!

I remember one coach saying, "I don't know how really good a player is til I see him nekkid in the shower" (and it was NOT Sandusky)

I doubt if any corch would use that terminology today...

(09-12-2017 09:24 AM)EagNBran Wrote:  Players see what the media pushes. They also see the teams that are going to New Years 6 bowls and winning them. They see rankings at the end of the year and they see teams with growing fanbases.

I'll look at Rivals team average star rankings for us and them, since we seem to compete in the same geographical footprint. We'll start in 2014.

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.05

2015

AAC- 2.34
CUSA- 2.19

2016

AAC- 2.31
CUSA- 2.1

2017

AAC- 2.32
CUSA- 2.12


May not seem super drastic, but does show that, at least on average, the better players are choosing AAC schools, though it may not seem like a big statistical difference.

That's honestly not much difference at all considering nearly 1/3 of our league membership is still in their first 5 years of FBS (or in UAB's case, their 2nd 1st year). For a conference with UTSA, ODU, and Charlotte to be that close to one with Houston, Navy, and ECU should embarrass the AAC, quite frankly.

So here's a follow-up question: How does the top of each conference stack up head-to-head? Say, the top 3 or top 5 schools from each.