(10-09-2021 01:39 PM)Attackcoog Wrote: Dodd breaks a story on a CUSA reorgnaization proposal for the Sunbelt/AAC/CUSA. There's a little more relevant realignment news buried in the story too.
A proposal to regionalize three Group of Five conferences will be presented to Conference USA presidents Monday. The concept calls for C-USA, the American and the Sun Belt to realign based on the states and regions of teams in an effort to halt ongoing realignment and stabilize budgets at the Group of Five level.
The plan is also intended to convince AAC commissioner Mike Aresco's conference to join the regionalization concept, thus eliminating the threat of Aresco picking off teams from the other two leagues to make up for the recent loss of three teams to the Big 12.
The concept will be presented by former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and former Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg. C-USA hired Delany as an advisor during realignment. Delany is being assisted by Weiberg, his former deputy Big Ten commissioner. Weiberg helped launch both the Big Ten and Pac-12 television networks.
When asked about the C-USA concept, an AAC spokesman told CBS Sports, "We have zero interest in that. That's not in our plan."
After failing to lure any Mountain West schools, sources said the AAC had set its sights East on some combination of UAB, North Texas, Texas State, UTSA, Appalachian State and perhaps others. There has also been buzz about Aresco going "big" and inviting up to eight schools to grow his conference to 16 teams.
https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...ed-monday/
There are a couple of problems with this story.
1) Dodd doesn't seem to realize that UTSA has already made it clear that they're not interested in joining the AAC at the present time.
2) Aresco has made it clear that the AAC won't simply be adding strong FB schools.
None of the schools listed by Dodd has had a consistent record of success in men's basketball. One or two of them have had modest success, such as playing in a recent NIT or NCAA tournament, but none are what anyone would consider strong basketball schools.
3) Aresco is unlikely to just add a handful of southern schools, most of which are in Texas. He describes himself as a strategic thinker, and one aspect of strategy is avoiding the perception that the AAC is just going to build up its footprint in the same exact part of the nation where the CUSA and Sun Belt footprints are.
4) A dead giveaway in the story is the phrase "and perhaps others." Everyone knows that Aresco plays his cards close to the vest. He only gives out tidbits of information. Chances are that he's only giving out a limited amount of information.
---Why should an AAC "spokesman" tell Dodd the specific schools that the AAC is most interested in? There's no good reason.
---UAB is the only school that has popped up repeatedly, so they seem most likely. App. State also seems likely, and one Texas school seems likely, since the AAC's headquarters is located in Texas, after all.
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It's really fascinating that, since the MWC teams dropped out of consideration, the most recent reports are suggesting that the AAC may add MORE schools now.
--McMurphy reported that an AAC spokesman said the conference could add "two, four or six" and that "anything is possible.
--Now Dodd is suggesting that the AAC might add as many as eight schools.
--This definitely suggests a significant change of strategy.
--It may be the case that ESPN is determined not to let the AAC drop down in stature. It's starting to appear that they would prefer to shell out millions more to bolster the AAC than to stand idly by and watch the AAC become just another ordinary G5 conference.
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I love the idea of adding eight and building the AAC into a 16-team conference.
These would be an excellent group to add, if the AAC could add 8 members:
App. State
Army or Coastal Carolina
Buffalo - solid FB/strong MBB program
Louisiana
Louisiana Tech
Marshall
UAB
Western KY - bowl quality FB program/strong MBB program
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