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Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
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CliftonAve Online
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Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
https://www.athleticdirectoru.com/articl...-american/

Interesting article and rankings. Any thoughts? Anyone surprised at the rankings- felt someone was ranked too low or too high?
03-24-2020 12:11 PM
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IWokeUpLikeThis Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
A realignment power index would need to swap out Non-Revenue Success and Quality of Life for Academics and Location.
03-24-2020 12:21 PM
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CliftonAve Online
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 12:21 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  A realignment power index would need to swap out Non-Revenue Success and Quality of Life for Academics and Location.

This list is for attractive athletic director jobs. That being said, for the purpose of expansion the variables involved are unique for each conference. Some conferences put more value on academics than others. A decade ago conferences valued media markets, but that is less of a factor today. Location is valued on this list because the schools at the top of the list have a depth of talent that will keep them competitive in the revenue sports as long as they have coaches in place to tap into the talent (ie. Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, etc.).
03-24-2020 12:27 PM
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bill dazzle Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
Fascinating. I will post some thoughts very soon.
03-24-2020 12:28 PM
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schmolik Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
Other conferences:

ACC: https://www.athleticdirectoru.com/articl...index-acc/

Pac-12: https://www.athleticdirectoru.com/articl...ex-pac-12/

Big East: https://www.athleticdirectoru.com/articl...-big-east/

I couldn't find the Big 12. I'm not sure if the Big Ten or SEC matter since I don't see anyone wanting to leave either conference.
03-24-2020 12:46 PM
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Bogg Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
Is this recent? If it's about the attractiveness of the Athletic Director jobs it seems like UConn should be in the Big East article.
03-24-2020 01:07 PM
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TDenverFan Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
Sorta surprised how low Tulsa is, not sure I'd think of it as the worst job in the AAC
03-24-2020 01:50 PM
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GoldenWarrior11 Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
My takeaways:

1) IMO, the AAC has established the following tiers - 1A) UCF, Houston and Cincinnati; 1B) Memphis, USF; 2) SMU and Temple; 3) Tulane, Tulsa, ECU. Wichita State, despite not sponsoring football, is very much viewed ahead of the Tier 3 in the AAC, which is fascinating since so many on here continue to harp on non-football schools providing zero value to football-first conferences. It's only seven years into the league, but Tulane, Tulsa and ECU have provided little, if anything, to football and/or men's basketball. Those programs have a combined four winning seasons in football in a combined 18 seasons between the three programs (six each), and just one overall tournament appearance in basketball (Tulsa). Tulsa at least has had three winning seasons in the AAC, and was a bubble team this year. ECU and Tulane continue to not be competitive in men's basketball (which was a major concern in 2012/2013).

2) For as much success that their football programs get, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati have done very, very well in men's basketball. Johnny Dawkins, Kelvin Sampson and John Brannen have all been very strong hires. While Dawkins and Sampson have each built very solid and competitive programs at their schools, the most important one might very well have been Brannen at UC. Had UC hired a dud, or a coach that would have chosen to gut the program in year one in favor of a longer rebuild, it would have crushed the AAC. For all of the star power that Penny brings Memphis, they simply cannot continue to miss the tournament annually - especially with the talent he continues to bring in. Need a major step forward next year. It's early, but Temple's hire of McKie looks like it could go the route of a Mullin/SJ situation - big name, NBA experience, honored alum, but ultimately fails to meet expectations. That one will be interesting as well. For AAC basketball to not just reach consistency but also its potential, its needs both Memphis and Temple to figure out its present barriers - especially if Wichita State takes a big step back next year.

3) To Bogg's question, no it is not odd that UConn is categorized within the AAC (the Big East story came out weeks ago without UConn). The fact that UConn was one of the worst football programs in the conference, had hit rock bottom with Ollie and still was considered in the top-half of the league brand-wise should speak volumes. Had UConn been instead grouped in the BE, it would undoubtedly be ranked/placed in the top-third of the league in many categories. The only two complete surveyed results were basketball potential (5.89 - which would be #3 overall in the BE) and overall ratings (4.17 - which would be 8th in the BE); however, the overall ratings would surely go up, since the low football ratings likely torpedoed their overall score considerably.

4) Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC. If you look at the ACC, which three programs are the lowest-ranked teams? That'd be Boston College (#15), Pittsburgh (#14) and Syracuse (#13). What are the quality of lives, in comparison with the rest of the ACC (by surveyed results)? BC is #13, Pittsburgh is #14 and Syracuse is #15. The only thing that BC appears to "contribute" to the ACC is its compliance (which was rated #1). Would be interesting to pool together the NE programs, regardless of conference, and see what the perception surveys are then IMO.
03-24-2020 03:20 PM
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Native Georgian Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 03:20 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  so many on here continue to harp on non-football schools providing zero value to football-first conferences.
A few non-football schools are able to provide value with their non-football programs. I consider Wichita State to be one of those few.

Quote:It's only seven years into the league, but Tulane, Tulsa and ECU have provided little, if anything, to football and/or men's basketball.
When Tulane got the call in November 2012, we were finally emerging from the post-Katrina coma into which athletics had fallen. It’s been a rough road, to be sure. But we have gone 7-6 in football the last two seasons, with low-grade bowl victories both times. And our HC is well regarded. MBB, we rolled the dice with an ex-NBA coach. It didn’t work out, but hey we are trying. Poached a strong mid-major HC from the Sun Belt who (like Fritz in football) has a solid reputation for getting the most out of his talent.

Quote:The fact that UConn was one of the worst football programs in the conference, had hit rock bottom with Ollie and still was considered in the top-half of the league brand-wise should speak volumes.
UConn hoops (men’s and women’s) is a very big deal. Losing that will hurt the AAC, no question about it.

Quote:Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC.
UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.
(This post was last modified: 03-24-2020 08:32 PM by Native Georgian.)
03-24-2020 08:25 PM
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  
Quote:Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC.
UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.

Temple's now the new UConn. Who knows, maybe one day they decide to go Indy/A-10 although the A-10 isn't anywhere near the Big East and Temple's been competitive in the AAC (five bowl seasons in a row) unlike UConn. Their men's basketball has ridiculous travel and now has no UConn). They don't even have baseball or softball anymore.
03-24-2020 08:48 PM
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bill dazzle Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
As a fan of DePaul, Memphis and North Carolina, the rankings seem reasonable. I hate to see DU at the bottom of the Big East. But if you look at all the metrics used in the assessment ... it seems fair related to, as the survey notes, "the desirability of athletic director jobs."

I'm somewhat surprised to see UNC at No. 1 in the ACC (the horrendous, and deserved, ranking in compliance not hurting the overall ranking). But I'll take it.

As to the American ranking, I see UCF (Orlando) ranks No. 1 in quality of life compared to Cincinnati at No. 4. Obviously this is a personal opinion thing, but Cincinnati is Paris compared to Orlando (a soul-lacking city, though I would like the warm weather were I to live there). Admittedly, I'm biased given I root for the Bearcat program (my brother attended UC, as many of you know) but Cincy has hills, beautiful historic architecture, a strong craft beer scene and a wonderful collection of cultural attractions (zoo, aquarium, art museum, history museum, etc.). Based on my unscientific ranking, I would go with, overall, 1. Cincy 2. Houston 3. UCF.

Regarding the Big East, Nova and Marquette at 1 and 2 make sense. Agree.
03-24-2020 10:40 PM
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bill dazzle Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  
(03-24-2020 03:20 PM)GoldenWarrior11 Wrote:  so many on here continue to harp on non-football schools providing zero value to football-first conferences.
A few non-football schools are able to provide value with their non-football programs. I consider Wichita State to be one of those few.

Quote:It's only seven years into the league, but Tulane, Tulsa and ECU have provided little, if anything, to football and/or men's basketball.
When Tulane got the call in November 2012, we were finally emerging from the post-Katrina coma into which athletics had fallen. It’s been a rough road, to be sure. But we have gone 7-6 in football the last two seasons, with low-grade bowl victories both times. And our HC is well regarded. MBB, we rolled the dice with an ex-NBA coach. It didn’t work out, but hey we are trying. Poached a strong mid-major HC from the Sun Belt who (like Fritz in football) has a solid reputation for getting the most out of his talent.

Quote:The fact that UConn was one of the worst football programs in the conference, had hit rock bottom with Ollie and still was considered in the top-half of the league brand-wise should speak volumes.
UConn hoops (men’s and women’s) is a very big deal. Losing that will hurt the AAC, no question about it.

Quote:Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC.
UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.


I am very pleased with the direction of Tulane football. It is contributing nicely to what is a very solid AAC football league.
03-24-2020 10:42 PM
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Bogg Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.

Eh, it's a little more complicated than that, but only a little. At the time that UConn, Cincy, and USF were putting the AAC together it looked like another round of expansion in the big-money football conferences was imminent, and the plan was for UConn to use the Big East exit fees as a financial bridge until an invite came along. That lasted until about 2017, when the media companies threatened the Big 12 out of expanding. Once it became clear that the AAC was going to be a 20+ year stay and the Big East had solidified itself as a high-major conference the only thing that could have kept UConn in the AAC was a wildly-above-expectations media deal. When the money came in about where everyone figured that was that.
(This post was last modified: 03-25-2020 07:41 AM by Bogg.)
03-25-2020 07:41 AM
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-25-2020 07:41 AM)Bogg Wrote:  
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.

Eh, it's a little more complicated than that, but only a little. At the time that UConn, Cincy, and USF were putting the AAC together it looked like another round of expansion in the big-money football conferences was imminent, and the plan was for UConn to use the Big East exit fees as a financial bridge until an invite came along. That lasted until about 2017, when the media companies threatened the Big 12 out of expanding. Once it became clear that the AAC was going to be a 20+ year stay and the Big East had solidified itself as a high-major conference the only thing that could have kept UConn in the AAC was a wildly-above-expectations media deal. When the money came in about where everyone figured that was that.


Perfectly put, Bogg. Agree 100 percent.

I feel most of us agree that notwithstanding the comprehensive Power 5 grouping, the most attractive league options for high-level sports competition are (listed alphabetically) the American, the Big East and the Mountain West (though I like the Atlantic 10 for hoops).

The P5 and those three are the "Influential Eight" in college sports.

And, quite frankly, just about every program in those eight leagues is where it either wants to be or has no choice but to be. If I could snap my fingers and put UConn in the Atlantic Coast (to give the league an even 16 programs and fortify the NE hoops wing of the league), I would. That would be UConn's ideal home. As a fan/follower of UNC, NCState and Louisville, I would enjoy having the Huskies as a league partner. But the Big East is a damn fine second-place trophy for UConn athletics. I wish your school well.

The Mountain West schools are likely happy with their league partners, historical associations, and Western time zone theme.

The Big East is set — ready to rumble for years to come (which could spell continued doom for my DePaul Blue Demons).

The American is a different animal compared to the other seven conferences. But I feel it has a fairly bright future and brings lots of interesting and vibrant elements to the college sports table.
03-25-2020 09:06 AM
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quo vadis Offline
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
I think we have to keep in mind what the survey was asking, and then look at what the results were. First, this is a survey of "perceived chance of success", IOW's, the AD's belief that he or she is likely to succeed at the school, relative to other schools in that conference. It is not about which jobs are more desirable in the sense of athletic status or prestige or power. And those things may not line up. For example, i could readily believe that a given AD might think he has a better chance of succeeding at Wake Forest than at Notre Dame, because even though the Irish have better facilities and athletes and support, it's also true that expectations at Notre Dame are always sky-high and the pressure to produce results is higher.

Second, if you look at the AAC results, you see that there really isn't that much of a gap between schools. For example, UCF's rating of 5.91 means that those surveyed think that they would be almost, but not quite "moderately more likely to succeed" at UCF compared to other AAC schools. At the other end, Tulsa's score of 3.10 means that they think they are *not quite* slightly less likely to succeed at Tulsa than at other AAC schools.

The difference between "almost moderately more likely to succeed" and "almost slightly less likely to succeed" being not a very big difference. And that's the *extreme*, the difference between first and last.

So the rank ordering is deceptive, in that it makes small differences appear greatly exaggerated. UCF's 5.91 looks a lot bigger than Tulsa's 3.10, but when you interpret those numbers against the scale, they aren't. Categorically speaking, all the AAC jobs are ... in the same category.
(This post was last modified: 03-25-2020 03:36 PM by quo vadis.)
03-25-2020 03:32 PM
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-24-2020 08:48 PM)schmolik Wrote:  
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  
Quote:Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC.
UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.

Temple's now the new UConn. Who knows, maybe one day they decide to go Indy/A-10 although the A-10 isn't anywhere near the Big East and Temple's been competitive in the AAC (five bowl seasons in a row) unlike UConn. Their men's basketball has ridiculous travel and now has no UConn). They don't even have baseball or softball anymore.

It’s not though I’m not surprised a Villanova and PSU fan doesn’t understand this. The AAC while not ideal is by far the best conference affiliation Temple has ever had. The university spent four decades trying to get its football and basketball teams in the same conference. There is no chance that they do independent / A10, none whatsoever. Temple doesn’t have baseball and softball because those aren’t sports that an extremely land constrained school should sponsor and trying to sponsor them on a campus an hour removed from main campus was always an insane idea.

As for the rankings, meh there really isn’t that much difference among AAC members. The ranking is dependent on all sorts of subjective measures.
03-25-2020 08:57 PM
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RE: Athletic Department Power Index for the AAC
(03-25-2020 08:57 PM)LostInSpace Wrote:  
(03-24-2020 08:48 PM)schmolik Wrote:  
(03-24-2020 08:25 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  
Quote:Like-minded and geographically-similar fits matter; UConn, from of quality of life and location standpoint, stuck out like a sore-thumb against the membership of the AAC.
UConn “stuck out like a sore thumb” from every standpoint and every metric, except one: they participated in FBS-level college football, and they understood that such participation requires — with just a small handful of exceptions — membership in an FBS-conference. That is the first, last, and only reason they were ever a part of the AAC.

Temple's now the new UConn. Who knows, maybe one day they decide to go Indy/A-10 although the A-10 isn't anywhere near the Big East and Temple's been competitive in the AAC (five bowl seasons in a row) unlike UConn. Their men's basketball has ridiculous travel and now has no UConn). They don't even have baseball or softball anymore.

It’s not though I’m not surprised a Villanova and PSU fan doesn’t understand this. The AAC while not ideal is by far the best conference affiliation Temple has ever had. The university spent four decades trying to get its football and basketball teams in the same conference. There is no chance that they do independent / A10, none whatsoever. Temple doesn’t have baseball and softball because those aren’t sports that an extremely land constrained school should sponsor and trying to sponsor them on a campus an hour removed from main campus was always an insane idea.

As for the rankings, meh there really isn’t that much difference among AAC members. The ranking is dependent on all sorts of subjective measures.

[Image: AAC-rankings-social-copy1.png]
Looks fairly straight forward to me. I think UCF's facilities are ahead of Cincinnati's though.
03-25-2020 09:01 PM
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