I love you guys but somehow I don't see us (The AAC) making good moves with a conference games only unless it ends up being the OOC slots get filled with some double ups or unplayed based on the schedule games happening.

I think we would all rather have the OOC games we have already scheduled individually instead.

(07-11-2020 08:45 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  I love you guys but somehow I don't see us (The AAC) making good moves with a conference games only unless it ends up being the OOC slots get filled with some double ups or unplayed based on the schedule games happening.

I think we would all rather have the OOC games we have already scheduled individually instead.

We could play a full round robin for a 10 game conference only schedule if we needed. I also think this is a moment where we can put some pressure on BYU and Army to join the conference and get shelter for their season.

(07-12-2020 02:01 AM)MidknightWhiskey Wrote:  

(07-11-2020 08:45 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  I love you guys but somehow I don't see us (The AAC) making good moves with a conference games only unless it ends up being the OOC slots get filled with some double ups or unplayed based on the schedule games happening.

I think we would all rather have the OOC games we have already scheduled individually instead.

We could play a full round robin for a 10 game conference only schedule if we needed. I also think this is a moment where we can put some pressure on BYU and Army to join the conference and get shelter for their season.

Army yes
BYU no

ESPN owns the broadcast rights to the ND-Navy game this year, and CBS sports owns the other Navy home games. I would bet ESPN would rather forgo the handful of Navy road games vs. AAC and keep ND game ratings. Navy will also want to play AFA and Army this year. There are quite a few other Eastern independents looking for games now to fill the remainder of Navy's schedule so I wouldn't be shocked if a deal is struck to exempt Navy from an AAC schedule this season if ESPN keeps the ND game and CBS keeps Army-Navy.

That leaves a 10 team round robin AAC schedule to be played over 9 weeks, or 10 weeks if byes are used.

Depends what the goal of conference play is. If a conference only schedule is designed to have a set of rules for everyone to abide by then we would need to drop our OOC games and do a full round robin for a 10 game schedule for every team. If the intent is to reduce travel then we probably need to do division play only and have Navy in the East this season. That would mean the East plays 5 conference games this season and the west plays 4 conference games this season and only the conference championship involves a team traveling cross-divisionally. After all, it's easier for SMU to play TCU in the same city than it is to go to Philadelphia or Orlando.

Not especially---given how spread out we are. We could do it---but thats even more travel than normal. Maybe doing a division only round robin might work better. Just a 5 to 6 game conference schedule. You need only complete a divisional round robin to qualify for a CCG. Then fill in the schedule holes with your surviving OOC schedule and a few regional fill ins who also need games.

(07-12-2020 12:01 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  Not especially---given how spread out we are. We could do it---but thats even more travel than normal. Maybe doing a division only round robin might work better. Just a 5 to 6 game conference schedule. You need only complete a divisional round robin to qualify for a CCG. Then fill in the schedule holes with your surviving OOC schedule and a few regional fill ins who also need games.

Conference only games has little to do with travel but a unified protocol for games..it wasn’t about regionalizing games but that conference could enforce strict protocol to prevent COVID but have zero way of enforcing it on non conference opponents

Conference only games would work for the AAC

— We rarely do buy games to big teams, so the loss financially from that would be minimal
— High attendance Attendance was unlikely so money out from buy games to lower teams would also minimal
— we were never going to be invited to the playoffs so “proving ourselves” non conference isn’t a thing
— we’ve established ourselves in the g5 ranks that our champ would most likely get the NY6 anyways

Navy traditions/tv value is the only question mark (Vs army, ND and air force ) I could see an exemption for them

(07-11-2020 08:45 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  I love you guys but somehow I don't see us (The AAC) making good moves with a conference games only unless it ends up being the OOC slots get filled with some double ups or unplayed based on the schedule games happening.

I think we would all rather have the OOC games we have already scheduled individually instead.

Conference games ONLY should be on the table. If the season takes place, our conference mates may need games. We are part of a conference for a reason. Playing UCF, USF, Temple, Cincinnati, etc... is how we win championships.

If we have trouble making this happen, we could extend an olive branch to UConn for a season.

I'll repost and edit a couple posts I made in the "Big10" thread when that seemed the place to talk conference only...


I hope that any AAC policy is STANDARDS based, rather than just a quick "conference only."
That is - here are our health and safety standards, testing protocols, isolation, return to participation criteria. All AAC fall sports will adhere to them so that we can have conference competition. If you have an out-of-conference opponent who can meet those standards, you can play that game, and then continue to meet those standards and play conference competitions. Hopefully that would be in conjunction with other conferences which haven't yet declared "conference only." If the SEC and ACC DON'T follow the Big10 lead, and we have good stringent standards on par with theirs, some AAC-ACC or AAC-SEC games could also be salvaged.

My Navy-centric part is that I have high confidence the Navy football team and the rest of the Brigade can remain above a safety standard. If in the next eight weeks Notre Dame can do the same, Navy and Notre Dame can play on ABC or ESPN on Labor Day weekend in NMCMS. With or without fans. Barring significant changes, I am confident that Army can do a good job of isolating as well, and it is important to Navy football and our other 33 sports to have that game on CBS, again with or without fans.
Personally, if Navy had that two-game season, I would trade off some or all of the rest of the season. Sorry.
Notre Dame at Navy already had the potential to be one of the top viewership games in the AAC inventory. It would be good to deliver that to Disney. I know that Army-Navy doesn't deliver concrete benefit (i.e. $) to the rest of the conference. But there is a benefit to the AAC logo being on hyped special uniforms in front of millions of viewers. In normal years, those millions of viewers will hear about how tough Navy's road through the American is - obviously less so if there hasn't been much or any AAC season to make that a valid talking point.

My main point is that the calendar sets up nicely for an (initially) clean game against Notre Dame, and then if everything heads south nationwide for a couple months, isolate the Brigade and the Corps until 12 December and still give the nation what it needs.
For a third game, yes I would personally choose Air Force. Again for the calendar setup and also relative assured safety as well as institutional importance. Yes, it's their gameday revenue, but still #3.
Same rationale, my choice for #4 is Houston where it is on the calendar, then Memphis #5.
For away games for conference fairness at SMU first, then at ECU, largely about preserving Army and AF. Then Tulsa, at Tulane, Temple, at USF.

I really don't get excited about a ten game round robin conference schedule, especially at risk of losing Army Navy. And why wouldn't the conference and Disney want Notre Dame at Navy in week one if both teams are starting with a clean slate.

I acknowledge that is Navy-centric and may not be popular with fellow AAC fans.

(07-12-2020 01:19 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  I hope that any AAC policy is STANDARDS based, rather than just a quick "conference only."

you missed the point of conference only.. every single team in the nation will have (or portray that they have) high standards..
almost no games would be cancelled if its based on "standards"

conference only is about unified protocol, and uniform authority...
the aac has zero, and i mean absolutely zero influence on what ND will do

example: if 1 conferences protocol is test before flight, test during hotel stay before the game, test after game , teams must rent entire hotel floors, and have rooms vacant for multiple days prior to their arrival (something excessive like that, but based on "their research" this is the only method) then ND was like we only test before flights (and say their planes and hotels are sanitized, extra testing is unnecessary)..they have their own specialized sanitizers for hotels so the renting the whole floor and pre-renting is excessive.. the conference has no authority over ND to use the their protocol, defeating the entire purpose of a protocol...imagine majority of the nba has the bubble protocol in orlando (cant leave), but 1 team is allowed to come and go from orlando as they feel, but dont worry that specific team is following their own safety measures (it makes no sense)

if there is football army/navy will be played guaranteed....i dont see air force/ND as a necessity, even though i do know navy fans love losing to ND yearly (just gesting lol) ..i cant guarantee it like army/navy but push come to shove i think those 2 game will be played aswell..
also a lot of your points is based around tv viewership and tv value...some of the biggest games for next season have already been cancelled, tv value will be low on importance, tradition and importance is the saving grace...
if UCF/Bama had a game next year at UCF (insane viewership numbers) that would have little effect on the decision

No one is playing more than 10 so its 2 OOC or 2 more conference games . I think most conference will play 10 conference games

(07-12-2020 01:54 PM)pesik Wrote:  

(07-12-2020 01:19 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  I hope that any AAC policy is STANDARDS based, rather than just a quick "conference only."

you missed the point of conference only.. every single team in the nation will have (or portray that they have) high standards..
almost no games would be cancelled if its based on "standards"

conference only is about unified protocol, and uniform authority...
the aac has zero, and i mean absolutely zero influence on what ND will do

example: if 1 conferences protocol is test before flight, test during hotel stay before the game, test after game , teams must rent entire hotel floors, and have rooms vacant for multiple days prior to their arrival (something excessive like that, but based on "their research" this is the only method) then ND was like we only test before flights (and say their planes and hotels are sanitized, extra testing is unnecessary)..they have their own specialized sanitizers for hotels so the renting the whole floor and pre-renting is excessive.. the conference has no authority over ND to use the their protocol, defeating the entire purpose of a protocol...imagine majority of the nba has the bubble protocol in orlando (cant leave), but 1 team is allowed to come and go from orlando as they feel, but dont worry that specific team is following their own safety measures (it makes no sense)

if there is football army/navy will be played guaranteed....i dont see air force/ND as a necessity, even though i do know navy fans love losing to ND yearly (just gesting lol) ..i cant guarantee it like army/navy but push come to shove i think those 2 game will be played aswell..
also a lot of your points is based around tv viewership and tv value...some of the biggest games for next season have already been cancelled, tv value will be low on importance, tradition and importance is the saving grace...
if UCF/Bama had a game next year at UCF (insane viewership numbers) that would have little effect on the decision

Okay, your example kind of makes my point. No you cant enforce standards on someone out of conference. If ND isnt up to AAC standards you cancel it. But if ND standards = our standards, its foolish not to. If AAC has high standards but SunBelt/CUSA dont, buh-bye. I would say "or an SEC school on an AAC teams schedule" but the reality is SEC and ACC are probably far more concerned with common standards between them for the end of year rivalry games cross conference.

And youre foolish to discount tv value...if anything it's now MORE important. if we are unable to deliver 20 games for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 and 20 more for linear (probably ESPNU) and another 20+ for ESPN+, we're going to take a hit. ONLY 10 round robin conference games = 55...we're already behind. If we're short on content, better make it as valuable as possible. Like ND Navy, already likely to be near the top of viewership of AAC inventory.

AND Navy ND is week one - among the easiest to get to safely. Same with Marshall visiting ECU. Early, get the Herd ip to standards and showcase it...if everything starts giing bad after Labor Day, the AAC could have delivered good value to Disney in weeks 0-1.

Can someone explain to me what the difference would be if we play Purdue or Temple as far as Covid is concerned? I've heard of Herd Immunity, but not Conference Immunity.

edit: I only read the first couple posts.

(07-12-2020 02:45 PM)Memphis Yankee Wrote:  Can someone explain to me what the difference would be if we play Purdue or Temple as far as Covid is concerned? I've heard of Herd Immunity, but not Conference Immunity.

1. Standards and confidence they're living up to them.
2. Mitigation when a Purdue player tesys positive on Tuesday after your game, or a Memphis player does, or both. Contact tracing is easier in a closed system. And rescheduling easier when everything is conference: okay, that positive test means we have to isolate Teams A&B...and they played C&D the week before, so theyre isolated also...we can reschedule this weeks Avs E and Bvs F games for the week E was gonna play F, and pkay Evs F this week....C&D.

But if a Purdue Memphis game somehow messed up Michigan-Michigan State? Unhappiness.

(07-12-2020 02:43 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(07-12-2020 01:54 PM)pesik Wrote:  

(07-12-2020 01:19 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  I hope that any AAC policy is STANDARDS based, rather than just a quick "conference only."

you missed the point of conference only.. every single team in the nation will have (or portray that they have) high standards..
almost no games would be cancelled if its based on "standards"

conference only is about unified protocol, and uniform authority...
the aac has zero, and i mean absolutely zero influence on what ND will do

example: if 1 conferences protocol is test before flight, test during hotel stay before the game, test after game , teams must rent entire hotel floors, and have rooms vacant for multiple days prior to their arrival (something excessive like that, but based on "their research" this is the only method) then ND was like we only test before flights (and say their planes and hotels are sanitized, extra testing is unnecessary)..they have their own specialized sanitizers for hotels so the renting the whole floor and pre-renting is excessive.. the conference has no authority over ND to use the their protocol, defeating the entire purpose of a protocol...imagine majority of the nba has the bubble protocol in orlando (cant leave), but 1 team is allowed to come and go from orlando as they feel, but dont worry that specific team is following their own safety measures (it makes no sense)

if there is football army/navy will be played guaranteed....i dont see air force/ND as a necessity, even though i do know navy fans love losing to ND yearly (just gesting lol) ..i cant guarantee it like army/navy but push come to shove i think those 2 game will be played aswell..
also a lot of your points is based around tv viewership and tv value...some of the biggest games for next season have already been cancelled, tv value will be low on importance, tradition and importance is the saving grace...
if UCF/Bama had a game next year at UCF (insane viewership numbers) that would have little effect on the decision

Okay, your example kind of makes my point. No you cant enforce standards on someone out of conference. If ND isnt up to AAC standards you cancel it. But if ND standards = our standards, its foolish not to. If AAC has high standards but SunBelt/CUSA dont, buh-bye. I would say "or an SEC school on an AAC teams schedule" but the reality is SEC and ACC are probably far more concerned with common standards between them for the end of year rivalry games cross conference.

And youre foolish to discount tv value...if anything it's now MORE important. if we are unable to deliver 20 games for ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 and 20 more for linear (probably ESPNU) and another 20+ for ESPN+, we're going to take a hit. ONLY 10 round robin conference games = 55...we're already behind. If we're short on content, better make it as valuable as possible. Like ND Navy, already likely to be near the top of viewership of AAC inventory.

AND Navy ND is week one - among the easiest to get to safely. Same with Marshall visiting ECU. Early, get the Herd ip to standards and showcase it...if everything starts giing bad after Labor Day, the AAC could have delivered good value to Disney in weeks 0-1.

you missed my bigger points...ND will 100% have high standards. the issue is their standard will value different things because they are being made by different people..
tulane is currently working on the aac protocol according to aresco..there isnt some joint effort by everyone to make something universal

going back to my example: a conference might have a standard that all rooms must be vacant days prior to any athlete going there, while ND might value specially trained sanitizers with advanced degrees to prepare the rooms (that is a high standard), so they have no need to rent the rooms prior ..both are high, but they are not the same
its is guaranteed our protocols will be different, its is guaranteed we will not spend tons of research hours validating their protcools for every non conference opponents instead of researching ours

also its covid season, everyone including espn is expecting hits from contractually obligated games. your second paragraph is a minor issue. its covid season this is to be expected, theyve already lost a ton of games from other conferences, without killing their deals

(07-12-2020 02:53 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote:  

(07-12-2020 02:45 PM)Memphis Yankee Wrote:  Can someone explain to me what the difference would be if we play Purdue or Temple as far as Covid is concerned? I've heard of Herd Immunity, but not Conference Immunity.

1. Standards and confidence they're living up to them.
2. Mitigation when a Purdue player tesys positive on Tuesday after your game, or a Memphis player does, or both. Contact tracing is easier in a closed system. And rescheduling easier when everything is conference: okay, that positive test means we have to isolate Teams A&B...and they played C&D the week before, so theyre isolated also...we can reschedule this weeks Avs E and Bvs F games for the week E was gonna play F, and pkay Evs F this week....C&D.

But if a Purdue Memphis game somehow messed up Michigan-Michigan State? Unhappiness.

Thanks, but I still think it's a bunch of overpaid execs who want to justify their existence. I don't think anyone in sports has a clue how to safeguard anyone.

They just want to look like they're trying to do something and pretend they care. Ya know.......... liberals. I'm from the Big Ten part of the country, so I feel like I have a right to say it.

My sister the nurse just sent me some masks from her hospital. They weighed about two ounces total. The postage was 4.05. Communist Illinois had to have added some lunatic excise tax on something like they always do. F the Big Ten, and F Illinois.

There I said it. Off to Tommy Bahamas to buy a couple of T-shirts. I'm going to break in my new masks.

I think Conference only for a season will be fine. Our brand as a conference has grown enough to spark national interest. We should have at least one team in the preseason Top 25.

Does it really matter at this point. Most conferences will be lucky to some games, if any games played this year with the Covid-19 surge.

(07-12-2020 02:23 PM)Sideshow2313 Wrote:  No one is playing more than 10 so its 2 OOC or 2 more conference games . I think most conference will play 10 conference games

Have any of the other conferences said anything specific about extending their conference slate?

What I mean is, the Big 10 (for example) has 8 conference games on each team’s schedule. My assumption was that they would keep those same 8 games, and play them over the normal 13-14 weeks to ensure flexibility if anything wonky happens.

Have any of the conferences said they’re actually trying to expand to a full schedule (or even 10 games) now that they are conference-only?


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