CoastalJuan
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RE: AAC Timetable
(09-11-2021 11:17 PM)Milwaukee Wrote: (09-11-2021 09:16 PM)Cardiff Wrote: [quote='Milwaukee' pid='17628299' dateline='1631409961']
Quote:One thing I find troubling about what Aresco said is that he has no intention of discussing possible membership with any school that doesn't contact him first. That could easily have a devastating impact on the pool of potential members.
Only if you think there are schools that want to join the American, but have not reached out to Aresco or any of the AAC Presidents/Chancellors/etc. That just doesn’t sound real to me. Disagree if you like.
Ok, I will disagree on that point. You seem to think that all of the schools that have potential interest in joining the AAC have reached out or will soon reach out to Aresco.
I'm not at all convinced that they have or that they will, and here's why:
There are some "go-getters" in this world who know that for anything good to happen, they've got to go out and make things happen. In my view, the "go-getters" among the various university presidents are going to reach out to the AAC and let them know that they'd like to join.
Then, there are the "let them come to me" crowd. They don't believe in asking for anything, because they think that would make them look weak. Some of those are the proudest, and they often have the most to be proud of. They may also be a bit narcissistic, as many people are. Their pride and self-absorption prevents them from reaching out, and this could prevent them, including some of the best candidates from asking to be invited to join the AAC.
A third group includes people, including some university presidents who are overwhelmed with millions of responsibilities and simply don't have time to, or don't get around to requesting an invitation to the AAC because they've got so many other things on their mind. They figure that "if the AAC really wants our school to join, they'll be savvy enough to ask us. Besides, I've got a million other things to deal with right now."
What I'm suggesting is that the only university presidents who are going to make the initial contact with the AAC are those in group 1 - - the "go-getters."
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I'm pointing out what I think is a fallacy at the foundation of the idea that all the university presidents know that if they want to join the AAC, they have to contact Mike Aresco and express their interest in joining the conference.
That type of fallacy is sometimes described as the "perfect" or "complete information hypothesis." It assumes that everyone who is capable of making a decision does so rationally and is so well-informed that he has complete information about all the key variables, knows exactly what to do, and is smart enough to do it in a timely manner.
The argument against the "complete information hypothesis" is that hardly anyone has perfect or complete information, and that people don't make decisions the way computers do. Most people have all kinds of conflicting priorities, and they're often overwhelmed with myriad tasks and responsibilities, so they have to "triage" or focus on only a few of the most pressing things at any one time, and let everything else sort itself out.
There are also some other factors that could prevent some of the presidents from contacting Aresco, even if they'd seriously consider joining the AAC, if asked. For example, a couple of them might find it annoying that Aresco wasn't willing to contact them first with an invitation, and their annoyance might be enough to keep them from contacting him.
Some may simply have too little interest in athletics to follow the news carefully, and so they simply may not realize that there's a golden opportunity to join the AAC. By the time they hear about it, the AAC has already decided that they'll invite some other school.
A couple of others might be dealing with some kind of personal stress, illness, traumatic event, or emotional problems that make it harder than usual to make critical decisions for a period of time. Not everyone functions well, consistently, and many humans go through unproductive periods. If contacted, an emotionally distressed university president might be thrilled to get an invitation to join the AAC, but he/she might not be able to summon the will power to make the first contact.
These are some of the types of things that could prevent certain university presidents from being the first to contact the AAC to apply for membership. There may be others that I haven't listed, but the existence of such factors points out what I consider a potentially tragic logical flaw in Commissioner Aresco's reasoning, which is that he's not going to contact any schools, because he doesn't want to rock the boat, or to "rile" anything or anybody up.
What Aresco doesn't realize, I would subscribe, is that there may be many university presidents and ADs who would be very interested in considering an invitation to join the AAC if asked, but who won't get around to asking for one of a thousand different reasons.
Ok I think maybe you're reading the tea leaves a little too much here. It's a dick move to go poaching teams. Only talking to teams that "have expressed interest" is just something you say so you don't look like you're poaching. Texas and Oklahoma had to apply to joining the SEC, Houston/UCF/Cindy did the same thing to joining the Big 12, then those conferences accepted their applications.
The AAC is very likely starting some of the conversations through intermediaries. In other situations, like with Boise and SDSU, they already have an existing conversation they can follow up on.
Really the whole thing is just trying not to seem like an a-hole. It's just language. The AAC is talking to the teams they want to talk to.
Shorter version: I think you're getting way too hung up on one sentence.
(This post was last modified: 09-13-2021 11:08 AM by CoastalJuan.)
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