(04-16-2021 06:16 PM)slhNavy91 Wrote: Meh.
I think this post is founded on an overemphasis of couple of minutes amidst a 46 minute press conference, in response to a question. Commissioner Aresco didn't call a separate press conference to declare that we are at a crossroads.
I think it is off base to say that these remarks in the scheduled presser leading into the AAC MBB tourney championship reflects some NEW frustration or changed perspective on Commissioner Aresco's part.
The specific remarks about separation from the G4 are nothing new -- for example, from a year ago, May 2020, Commissioner Aresco on the USF "Bull Speed Ahead" podcast made the exact same points:
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/college/...x/2324288/
I just don't see that the overall message is much different from earlier.
The idea that these remarks are some kind of directional change is in itself an over-reaction.
That's my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
I'm not sure why some of you are focusing on whether there or not there has been a change in direction.
Perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn't, but that's not what this thread is about.
Moreover, it's not like anyone is blaming them for deciding to expand when they had maintained for well over a year that expanding was the very last thing on their minds, since they were happy sticking with 11 teams per sport and had no interest in replacing UConn.
Perhaps some of you guys had inside knowledge that the AAC was already planning to replace UConn all along and were also thinking of expanding.
If you had such inside knowledge, then indeed, I must be wrong in thinking that they had finally changed their minds and decided to replace UConn and expand.
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Maybe you had some privileged position and were sworn to secrecy. That is 100% possible, and if you had to keep it under your hats, you'll get no criticism from me.
In fact, I'll just assume that since you've signaled that there's been no change of direction, and that you weren't the least bit surprised, that you weren't surprised, because you knew this was the situation all along, even though the rest of us clearly didn't.
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The term "crossroads" may not have been significant, but the use of that term isn't pivotal to the discussion in any way - - it's just a figure of speech.
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I'll just tell you why I have viewed it as a change of direction, and we'll leave it at that.
1) After UConn announced their departure, the Commissioner announced publicly that the conference was fine and dandy with going with 11 teams. He made it abundantly clear that the conference did not intend to take any action to replace UConn. He did say that he would be available to any schools that might wish to contact him, but he also made it clear that there were only a very small number of schools that the conference would consider as potential members.
2) There was no indication whatsoever that the conference had become more interested in replacing UConn until the news about the Boise emails broke, followed by the Commissioner's January, 2021 remarks, when he finally made the statement about wanting "to get back to 12."
3) During the months and year-plus following UConn's departure announcement Commissioner Aresco never said anything about the possibility that the conference might expand. The idea of a conference expansion has been bandied about for a long time on the message boards, but the concept was never mentioned by the Commissioner until he suddenly dropped that bombshell in his January, 2021 interview (see above).
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But, if you all already knew that the conference was going to replace UConn and was dead set on it for months and months even though they never said anything about it publicly, and if you already knew that the conference had been considering an expansion to 14 schools, well then, of course it wasn't a surprise to you!
But, as I've said, it doesn't matter, because the purpose of this thread is to try to present ideas as to how the Conference could achieve its strategic objectives.
So let's not sidetrack this thread and try to turn it into nitpicking about whether any of this news was a surprise or not.
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The topic of this thread is trying to help the Commissioner and the AAC with some ideas about what he said:
"We’re trying to figure out what our strategy is going to be."
The reason that I tried to suggest a way forward is that Aresco didn't say that the AAC "WAS TRYING" to figure out what they strategy is going to be.
He said the the AAC "IS TRYING" "to figure out what our strategy is going to be."
Just to make it clear - - he's not talking about something that happened 1 or 2 or 5 or 6 years ago.
The Commissioner is talking about a very current strategic challenge for him and the conference, and he made it crystal clear that the situation is very frustrating, because he used the word "frustrating" or "frustration" more than once in his interviews and press conferences.
So this is a current challenge, and the Commissioner has said that it's very frustrating, and thus it makes sense for fans to try to offer some suggestions if they can think of anything that might be helpful.
So let's talk about that - - which is what this thread was written for - - not a debate about whether the idea of replacing UConn or possibly expanding represents "a change of direction" of not.
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Let's not let this thread get sidetracked by quibbling about how new the idea of expanding may or may not be.
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