jedclampett
All American
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RE: Boise St looking to move on from MWC
(12-30-2020 02:15 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: The AAC is just a few clumps of schools all over the eastern side of the nation with no real common identity.
(Yet)...if the AAC actually went MORE extreme in their lack of cohesive geography by adding Boise, SDSU, and BYU (for instance)---that "coast to coast" or "national" mantra would become a truly unique identifying characteristic for the AAC. They would be the only "national" or "coast to coast" conference in college football.
It's true that the AAC schools are broadly scattered, but while they don't share a common regional identity, they do a few other important things in common, and it's possible that these non-regional commonalities might lead to the development of a common identity.
If one takes a moment to reflect on what causes a conference to develop a common identity, it makes sense to question whether regional commonality is an absolute necessity, and to ask - for example - if there is anything that could prevent the ACC from developing a common identity, given that it stretches from the semi-tropics of south Florida, all the way north to frigid New England, and 1,000 miles west toward the western reaches of the Ohio River.
Perhaps much of the reason why we tend to assume that regional commonalities might be the most essential prerequisites when it comes to forming a shared sense of identity is that it's so common for people from the same region to share some of the features (interests, activities, preferences, viewpoints, accents, etc.) that we may think of as being aspects of a person's "identity,"
However there are also some non-regional factors, such as common histories, traditions (e.g. rivalries), beliefs, motivations, and circumstances that can also engender a common sense of identity across groups, and like many other human and societal characteristics, identity is not static, but can evolve over time.
Take, for example, the way that Americans view their relationships with the other predominantly English-speaking nations, particularly Canada and the United Kingdom (as well as NZ, Australia, Ireland, etc.).
Rewinding back to 1815, the U.S. had just signed a treaty ending the war of 1812, which was fought with Great Britain and Canada, on American and Canadian soil. As citizens of a still-newly independent nation, who had just been at war with Britain, most Americans who were not of British descent wouldn't have felt a very strong sense of shared identity with the British. In fact, what distinguished Americans from the British was that the British identified themselves as subjects of the British throne, whereas the common sense of identity among Americans was based on their rejection of the British monarchy and their determination to elect to govern themselves.
This did not change for nearly a century. There was no common American/British sense of identity. All we shared was a common language, and the % of Americans of British descent declined steadily due to multiple waves of European (e.g., German, Irish, Scandinavian, Chinese, etc.) immigration.
However, when America entered World War I, to prevent the conquest of France and a British surrender to Germany, the historical animosity between the U.S. and Great Britain began to dissipate and to be replaced by a recognition of common values, such as a commitment to democratic government and an increased willingness to work cooperatively, which also helped to build ties between the U.S. and Canada. Twenty-three years later, when America entered WWII, for much the same reason, the remaining cultural barriers between the nations quickly gave way to what soon became known as the "special relationship between our two nations," and by extension, to the Commonwealth dominions of English descent (Canada, Australia, and N.Z.). From the standpoint of many Americans, this kind of shared sense of identity has naturally extended, as well, to the Irish, due to massive Irish immigration during the 19th/20th centuries.
So, while there are various cultural differences between Americans, Canadians, Australians, and the British and while the people of every nation certainly share their own national identities, there is a certain extent to which all but a small portion of Americans have come to recognize that we have so much in common with the British, etc. that we also consider ourselves to share a common sense of identity with the British, Canadians, etc. more broadly, in a way that wouldn't have been possible 100 years ago.
What do we share with them? For one thing, most of our initial settlers and almost all our founding fathers were British, and our government (like the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand governments) is directly modeled on the British government (U.S. House/House of Commons; Senate/House of Lords; President/Prime Minister; Supreme Court/Supreme Court) in almost every respect. We have been working together, closely, for 75 years to defend ourselves as a totality - "citizens" and "subjects" alike - through a mutual defense pact, we all speak the same native/official language, and we share many of the same common values, holidays, and traditions, which have the same historical roots dating back to the Judeo-Christian tradition.
We also share a lot of other things, many of which - - such as the works of the great British writers and playwrights (Shakespeare, Dickens, etc.) - - have not ceased to delight, thrill, and entertain us. The former Prime Minister Winston Churchill is admired and revered to this day, almost as our greatest Presidents have been, Most of us alive today like, love, or at least admire the music of the Beatles, musicians such as Sting and the Police, the British Invasion bands, the James Bond films, or the Peter Sellers or Monty Python comedies. Most Americans don't seem to have the slightest trouble understanding the words of a Brit or a Scot, even one with a heavy accent, and rarely give the differences in accent or manner a second thought when they see movies with British actors or Nicole Kidman being interviewed by Steven Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel. In fact, many Americans have shown a remarkable amount of admiration of and interest in the British Queen, Elizabeth, as if in some symbolic sense, she were our Queen, as well.
And for those of us who have traveled overseas, if an American like ourselves should happen to get into a jam or a crisis of some kind while traveling alone in some obscure part of the world where English is not a major language, with no smart phone, land line, or internet and no American within 100 miles, forcing ourselves to seek assistance from a total stranger, whom would most of us hope to encounter at such a moment of urgent need, all other things being equal?
I can't answer that question for everyone, but if were in such a situation, I would hope to meet a Canadian, an Irishman, a New Zealander, an Australian, a Scot, a Welshman, or a Brit, because, much as our nations have a special kind of relationship, so do our people. We are by no means identical, but in an important way, and with few exceptions, most of us would sense almost instinctually when faced with such an emergency, that there's something essential and important about us that we share in common, regardless of the differences, that makes us know we're basically "the same" on some very fundamental level.
"The point?" you ask...
The point is that, if it was possible for the U.S. and Great Britain, who had fought two major wars, to overcome their enmity to such an extent that they eventually grew close enough to view themselves as having a "special" relationship just "across the pond," then it is possible for fans of big city teams in Pennsylvania and Texas to feel a common sense of identity, as well.
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Returning to the topic of conference identity, in the case of the AAC the nine former C-USA schools certainly have a shared history, shared traditions/rivalries, and shared circumstances - - since they all had a common goal for a number of years, which was to become strong enough as a group to evolve into a major national conference, much as the Big East Conference had recently proved to them was a possibility.
The nine former C-USA schools have continued to share all of these things in common in the AAC, since the overarching goal of the AAC is the same as the original C-USA's goal was - - to develop into a major national conference.
Their common aspirations alone, which are certainly shared by Temple and Wichita State and may well be shared by Navy as well, giving them enough of a shared identity to overcome the geographical distances between them.
They might be referred to as the "upwardly-mobile" conference, the underdogs, the "dark horses," the "American dreamers," or what have you, and if Boise State were to join, they would be doing so - more than anything else - because they, like the rest of the AAC schools are striving to achieve upper echelon status.
However, the AAC schools also share something else in common, which is that they have all had unique challenges that most of the major conference schools haven't had. For some, such as Houston, SMU, Tulane, USF, Cincy, and Temple, it was a regrettable loss of power conference status. For others, such as ECU, Wichita State, and Tulsa, it may have been playing in a relatively lightly populated, obscure or regionally isolated region. In UCF's case, it was a relative newcomer with no power conference history, and due to its very name, it was a "directional" and FBS school of the kind viewed by some as being necessariy "second tier" (like CMU, EMU, WMU, etc.). In Navy's case, it was one of the nation's once-great independent football powers that had, like Army, fallen a step behind and, like former independent Penn State, sought to boost its stature by affiliating with a strong, and in this case, upwardly-mobile conference.
The AAC schools may strike some as being a motley assortment of schools with seemingly little in common, but though some college sports fan aren't aware of it, the single most fundamental thing that all of the AAC schools and teams share in common is one of the most important elements of identity itself - - a common sense of purpose.
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(This post was last modified: 12-30-2020 06:54 PM by jedclampett.)
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Boise St looking to move on from MWC
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