(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 05:30 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 04:15 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 03:28 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Playing devil's advocate here..,..

Maybe the problem is defense, not so much offense? Defense has given up a lot of points over the season, 52, 52, 51, 38 ...yada yada yada. Yet I hear a lot of FIRE ABELL and little or none about FIRE THE DC.

Of course they get tired, but why should they have a third quarter collapse?

I will be interested to hear some opinions pro or con defense.

The buck stops with the head coach. He's in charge of the defense and special teams, as well as with the offense.

The defense is brutal. Special teams are abysmal. There is no doubt.

Maybe you pull out your checkbook and throw the coach some NIL money. You guys do realize Abell has the lowest NIL budget in the conference, right? By a lot. And the players he recruits be it the portal or high school all want to know how much they are getting paid. They may want to come to Rice but it's all about the money, do not kid yourselves.

Also, maybe cut the current team a little slack. This team is the most injured roster in the entire FBS. Two of the best players and team captains were lost early in the season.

Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

(11-09-2026 01:00 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 05:30 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 04:15 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  The buck stops with the head coach. He's in charge of the defense and special teams, as well as with the offense.

The defense is brutal. Special teams are abysmal. There is no doubt.

Maybe you pull out your checkbook and throw the coach some NIL money. You guys do realize Abell has the lowest NIL budget in the conference, right? By a lot. And the players he recruits be it the portal or high school all want to know how much they are getting paid. They may want to come to Rice but it's all about the money, do not kid yourselves.

Also, maybe cut the current team a little slack. This team is the most injured roster in the entire FBS. Two of the best players and team captains were lost early in the season.

Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

Wild that Davidson has more NIL money than Rice. Mostly for basketball, but still.

(11-09-2026 01:00 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 05:30 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 04:15 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  The buck stops with the head coach. He's in charge of the defense and special teams, as well as with the offense.

The defense is brutal. Special teams are abysmal. There is no doubt.

Maybe you pull out your checkbook and throw the coach some NIL money. You guys do realize Abell has the lowest NIL budget in the conference, right? By a lot. And the players he recruits be it the portal or high school all want to know how much they are getting paid. They may want to come to Rice but it's all about the money, do not kid yourselves.

Also, maybe cut the current team a little slack. This team is the most injured roster in the entire FBS. Two of the best players and team captains were lost early in the season.

Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

$4.85 million is not even close. It's less than $2 mil.

Abell is fighting with one arm tied behind his back and the other arm is injured.

(11-09-2026 04:21 PM)ausowl Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Wild that Davidson has more NIL money than Rice. Mostly for basketball, but still.

The same site ranks Davidson at #179 in football NIL ($1.6 million - https://thesideline.co/nil-school/davidson/football). But it seems odd that #163 (Massachusetts) to #251 (Maine) all have the same football NIL = $1.6 million.

In basketball, Rice is ranked #123 or 354 ($2.1 million - https://thesideline.co/nil-school/rice/basketball) ... and Davidson is #53 ($6.5 million - https://thesideline.co/nil-school/davids...ketball)!!

Did Rice fire the Specal Teams coach. If not, why not?

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 05:30 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 04:15 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 03:28 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Playing devil's advocate here..,..

Maybe the problem is defense, not so much offense? Defense has given up a lot of points over the season, 52, 52, 51, 38 ...yada yada yada. Yet I hear a lot of FIRE ABELL and little or none about FIRE THE DC.

Of course they get tired, but why should they have a third quarter collapse?

I will be interested to hear some opinions pro or con defense.

The buck stops with the head coach. He's in charge of the defense and special teams, as well as with the offense.

The defense is brutal. Special teams are abysmal. There is no doubt.

Maybe you pull out your checkbook and throw the coach some NIL money. You guys do realize Abell has the lowest NIL budget in the conference, right? By a lot. And the players he recruits be it the portal or high school all want to know how much they are getting paid. They may want to come to Rice but it's all about the money, do not kid yourselves.

Also, maybe cut the current team a little slack. This team is the most injured roster in the entire FBS. Two of the best players and team captains were lost early in the season.

Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

So, the most injuries and the least NIL? What an indictment of option football.

(11-09-2026 11:42 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:23 AM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  TBA Rice doesn't look like they belong in the AAC. I get the losses during the rebuild but this is just sad.

I don't see how these losses look like we don't belong in the AAC. I get that it's bad, but there's nothing that shows Rice out of its depth in this conference.

A 2 point loss to current third place UTSA.

A 2 point loss to 6th place FAU (who beat UTSA a lot worse than us)

We were in the game with North Texas, Tulsa, and ECU for 3 quarters.

I mean in 2018 we were down 34-3 to a UTEP team on a 20 game losing streak. That was sad. It sucks to be the worst team in the conference at the moment but not belonging in the conference? I wouldn't say that based on these results. We haven't played an FBS team with a losing record this year (even if you removed their win against us)

Now if we lose badly to Tulane and Temple...

I’m going to repeat that because (while I think we are the best 1-8 team in the millennium) I had not realized this stat:

We haven't played an FBS team with a losing record this year (even if you removed their win against us)

(11-10-2026 01:00 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:42 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:23 AM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  TBA Rice doesn't look like they belong in the AAC. I get the losses during the rebuild but this is just sad.

I don't see how these losses look like we don't belong in the AAC. I get that it's bad, but there's nothing that shows Rice out of its depth in this conference.

A 2 point loss to current third place UTSA.

A 2 point loss to 6th place FAU (who beat UTSA a lot worse than us)

We were in the game with North Texas, Tulsa, and ECU for 3 quarters.

I mean in 2018 we were down 34-3 to a UTEP team on a 20 game losing streak. That was sad. It sucks to be the worst team in the conference at the moment but not belonging in the conference? I wouldn't say that based on these results. We haven't played an FBS team with a losing record this year (even if you removed their win against us)

Now if we lose badly to Tulane and Temple...

I’m going to repeat that because (while I think we are the best 1-8 team in the millennium) I had not realized this stat:

We haven't played an FBS team with a losing record this year (even if you removed their win against us)

So, we have played only teams with winning records. We have the most injuries and the least NIL.

Clearly it's all the fault of Abell's offense.

I propose that we hire Harry Anybody, assistant at North Central Middle Normal, and require him to have the QB under center. That should solve everything.

(11-08-2026 03:19 PM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:27 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:23 AM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  TBA Rice doesn't look like they belong in the AAC. I get the losses during the rebuild but this is just sad.

Yes, but with 2 equally horrid teams (Tulane, Temple) coming up, they've got a realistic shot of winning at least one conference game this season.

Tulane is not horrid. They are 4-5 and have a chance to at least make a bowl game.

Temple and Rice will be a good matchup but will be the battle for who's not the worst in the conference.

It's going to be an interesting off season next year.

Rice, at 1-8, is favored over Tulane by 2.5

(11-10-2026 05:00 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 03:19 PM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:27 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:23 AM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  TBA Rice doesn't look like they belong in the AAC. I get the losses during the rebuild but this is just sad.

Yes, but with 2 equally horrid teams (Tulane, Temple) coming up, they've got a realistic shot of winning at least one conference game this season.

Tulane is not horrid. They are 4-5 and have a chance to at least make a bowl game.

Temple and Rice will be a good matchup but will be the battle for who's not the worst in the conference.

It's going to be an interesting off season next year.

Rice, at 1-8, is favored over Tulane by 2.5

Interesting. ESPN has Rice with only a 40.9% chance of winning.

Team stats in NCAA:

Team Rushing - 4th (270.3 yards/game)
Team Passing - 136th (93.2 yards/game)

Rushing Defense - 112th (177.6 yards/game)
Passing Defense - 72nd (218.3 yards/game)

Turnover Margin - 132nd (-8)

Time of Possession - 72nd (30 minutes/game)

(11-11-2026 12:36 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Team stats in NCAA:

Team Rushing - 4th (270.3 yards/game)
Team Passing - 136th (93.2 yards/game)

Rushing Defense - 112th (177.6 yards/game)
Passing Defense - 72nd (218.3 yards/game)

Turnover Margin - 132nd (-8)

Time of Possession - 72nd (30 minutes/game)

I’m glad we’re ranked 4th in FBS in something good… but those rushing and passing total yards per game stats are so meaningless in evaluating the relative efficiency of Rice that it almost offends me that someone bothers to post them.

Take a look at yards per rush, or QB rating, or yards per passing attempt.

(11-09-2026 04:39 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 01:00 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 05:30 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  The defense is brutal. Special teams are abysmal. There is no doubt.

Maybe you pull out your checkbook and throw the coach some NIL money. You guys do realize Abell has the lowest NIL budget in the conference, right? By a lot. And the players he recruits be it the portal or high school all want to know how much they are getting paid. They may want to come to Rice but it's all about the money, do not kid yourselves.

Also, maybe cut the current team a little slack. This team is the most injured roster in the entire FBS. Two of the best players and team captains were lost early in the season.

Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

$4.85 million is not even close. It's less than $2 mil.

Abell is fighting with one arm tied behind his back and the other arm is injured.

In contrast, The Athletic just reported that Mississippi State has a new agreement with their Quarterback Kamario Taylor for an estimated $7.5 million. Regardless of whether Rice players collectively receive $2 million or the reported $4.85 million, there is no way they can compete for top talent to be competitive with major conferences. The real conversation is not about offensive schemes or whether Coach Abell is the Right Coach for the Owls, it is about the huge disparity in the ability to attract talent because the Owls are under-resourced compared to most D-1 football programs.

(11-12-2026 09:43 AM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 04:39 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 01:00 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 11:03 AM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  Are there sources for the bolded statements?

Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

$4.85 million is not even close. It's less than $2 mil.

Abell is fighting with one arm tied behind his back and the other arm is injured.

In contrast, The Athletic just reported that Mississippi State has a new agreement with their Quarterback Kamario Taylor for an estimated $7.5 million. Regardless of whether Rice players collectively receive $2 million or the reported $4.85 million, there is no way they can compete for top talent to be competitive with major conferences. The real conversation is not about offensive schemes or whether Coach Abell is the Right Coach for the Owls, it is about the huge disparity in the ability to attract talent because the Owls are under-resourced compared to most D-1 football programs.

The Rice alumni/fandom is just not constituted to raise tons of NIL money. Besides our relatively small alumni base, most of our alumni are doctors, lawyers, engineers, and professors. Good incomes, but not many vast fortunes. Not the group to usually generate the tons of wealth that is the source of most other school's NIL contributors. If every alumnus contributed $100K/year to NIL, we would still be mid-pack.



by contrast, a lot of TCU (the school I am most familiar with) students are heir apparents to large commercial ventures - chains of auto part stores, multiple auto dealerships, oil money. TCU has a single donor who can do more NIL than our entire school. Lot of big wealth in their alumni base. Not so much at Rice.

I fear that the Age of NIL has doomed us as a D-1 school.

(11-12-2026 12:25 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(11-12-2026 09:43 AM)Kayjay Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 04:39 PM)Feisty Nightbird Fan Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 01:00 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(11-09-2026 12:22 PM)Kayjay Wrote:  Rotowire has an injury index with a methodology that ranks the number and severity of injuries for the entire season. Rice is tied for the 33rd most injuries/severity in the nation and is considered to have the highest/most injuries in the American Athletic Conference.

(https://www.rotowire.com/cfootball/artic...ams-133624)

Iowa State has the most number/highest severity index

As far as NIL. Rice ranks at the bottom of the football programs in the AAC, at about $4.85 million NIL resources, and ranked #111 overall in the nation. Every other AAC school has at least $5 million in NIL, with the highest being in excess of $12.7 million at South Florida

(https://thesideline.co/nil-tracker/conferences/american)

Thank you for digging that up. I did not know those databases even existed

$4.85 million is not even close. It's less than $2 mil.

Abell is fighting with one arm tied behind his back and the other arm is injured.

In contrast, The Athletic just reported that Mississippi State has a new agreement with their Quarterback Kamario Taylor for an estimated $7.5 million. Regardless of whether Rice players collectively receive $2 million or the reported $4.85 million, there is no way they can compete for top talent to be competitive with major conferences. The real conversation is not about offensive schemes or whether Coach Abell is the Right Coach for the Owls, it is about the huge disparity in the ability to attract talent because the Owls are under-resourced compared to most D-1 football programs.

The Rice alumni/fandom is just not constituted to raise tons of NIL money. Besides our relatively small alumni base, most of our alumni are doctors, lawyers, engineers, and professors. Good incomes, but not many vast fortunes. Not the group to usually generate the tons of wealth that is the source of most other school's NIL contributors. If every alumnus contributed $100K/year to NIL, we would still be mid-pack.



by contrast, a lot of TCU (the school I am most familiar with) students are heir apparents to large commercial ventures - chains of auto part stores, multiple auto dealerships, oil money. TCU has a single donor who can do more NIL than our entire school. Lot of big wealth in their alumni base. Not so much at Rice.

I fear that the Age of NIL has doomed us as a D-1 school.

I don't disagree with your premise. I would add that likely many people believe that their money does more good elsewhere than paying a student athlete to make your school's athletic teams better with no guarantee on success.

However, respectfully I believe that you do have a math error. I believe that there are around 65K living Rice alumni, and at $100K per alum, that would be $6.5 billion per year. I would hope that is not middle of the pack.

(11-12-2026 12:25 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(11-12-2026 09:43 AM)Kayjay Wrote:  In contrast, The Athletic just reported that Mississippi State has a new agreement with their Quarterback Kamario Taylor for an estimated $7.5 million. Regardless of whether Rice players collectively receive $2 million or the reported $4.85 million, there is no way they can compete for top talent to be competitive with major conferences. The real conversation is not about offensive schemes or whether Coach Abell is the Right Coach for the Owls, it is about the huge disparity in the ability to attract talent because the Owls are under-resourced compared to most D-1 football programs.

The Rice alumni/fandom is just not constituted to raise tons of NIL money. Besides our relatively small alumni base, most of our alumni are doctors, lawyers, engineers, and professors. Good incomes, but not many vast fortunes. Not the group to usually generate the tons of wealth that is the source of most other school's NIL contributors. If every alumnus contributed $100K/year to NIL, we would still be mid-pack.

By contrast, a lot of TCU (the school I am most familiar with) students are heir apparents to large commercial ventures - chains of auto part stores, multiple auto dealerships, oil money. TCU has a single donor who can do more NIL than our entire school. Lot of big wealth in their alumni base. Not so much at Rice.

I fear that the Age of NIL has doomed us as a D-1 school.

Tweak:
I fear that the Age of NIL has doomed us as a relevant and competitive D-1 school.

John Doerr is funding leadership.
Brian Armstrong hasn't publicly given large amounts to Rice.
Patterson, Trauber, Tudor, Kraft, Waltrip, Rendon, Reckling, and O'Connor have given very large amounts.
(Please excuse omissions, there are donor plaques all over the facilities, and I can't keep up with them.)
They all got their name on something.
Who is going to endow player salaries through NIL?
Is there enough room on players' jerseys for sponsorship patches?

Rice is not alone in this funding/relevance quandary in D-1.
There will eventually be a correction to the imbalance.
As I see it, ESPN - who rules them all - will demand a path forward that maintains and increases revenue.
Providing coverage for 60+ games per week, where 20% generate little revenue will push them to push the schools to fix things.
They'll either have leverage, or that 20% will return to the era of little to no TV coverage.
And with no coverage comes no lucrative conference TV contract.

The NCAA has long since abdicated any meaningful control.
ESPN is in charge.

If there is no reining in of unlimited NIL there will be a significant reorganization of college athletics.

Please, show me how I have misinterpreted.

As I have pointed out before in similar threads, it is simply not true that Rice's alumni base scores well on a median income basis, but lacks "whales" like TCU. That may have once been true, but not anymore.

The bigger issue is that Rice's wealthiest alumni have limited interest in giving to the university's athletic programs. Rice has (at least) five billionaire alums (John Doerr, Randa Duncan/Williams, Cal McNair, Brian Armstrong, Ali Koc), and that's not counting countless others with net worths of $100M+.

TCU's only recent confirmed billionaire (John Davis) died recently.

As for the next generation of wealth, Rice has a decided advantage there... One imperfect metric is the cumulative venture funding of Rice alums vs. TCU alums. Per Crunchbase, Rice alums have raised 8x that of TCU alums. When some of these founders become liquid (i.e. Joe Chen at Anduril), they will likely join the ranks of the billionaires.

(11-12-2026 01:21 PM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  As I have pointed out before in similar threads, it is simply not true that Rice's alumni base scores well on a median income basis, but lacks "whales" like TCU. That may have once been true, but not anymore.

The bigger issue is that Rice's wealthiest alumni have limited interest in giving to the university's athletic programs. Rice has (at least) five billionaire alums (John Doerr, Randa Duncan/Williams, Cal McNair, Brian Armstrong, Ali Koc), and that's not counting countless others with net worths of $100M+.

TCU's only recent confirmed billionaire (John Davis) died recently.

As for the next generation of wealth, Rice has a decided advantage there... One imperfect metric is the cumulative venture funding of Rice alums vs. TCU alums. Per Crunchbase, Rice alums have raised 8x that of TCU alums. When some of these founders become liquid (i.e. Joe Chen at Anduril), they will likely join the ranks of the billionaires.

Next time you are at TCU, look at all the buildings with the name Moncrief on them.

But I think the key is the bolded. I would rather have 100 donors with nine figure wealth than one with 10.

And there is no doubt that TCU's alumni base is many times Rice's. As are the alumni bases of nearly all the schools in D-1. And size matters. How many Aggies, Raiders, or Longhorns out there? Ponies or Bears? Some will get rich.(A) Some of those will donate to to athletics.(B) And likely those numbers will eclipse ours. A x B > RU.

Per ChatGPT, Rice has 68k living alumni (across all degree types) vs. 107k for TCU.

As for the Moncrief family - definitely super wealthy - but they’ve also given tons of money to UT, UTSW, and other academic institutions…

Still doesn’t explain why our university fundraising team hasn’t done a better job at cultivating our super-rich.

Whatever, clearly not my place to tell other people what to do with their largesse.. But my point stands: we have plenty of incredibly wealthy alumni, including many who are wealthier than those funding NIL programs at other universities (I.e. the alumni at MS State - important to note that their wealthiest alum, George Bishop, doesn’t appear to give to their NIL program).

(11-09-2026 11:42 AM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(11-08-2026 01:23 AM)antoniovaldez7777 Wrote:  TBA Rice doesn't look like they belong in the AAC. I get the losses during the rebuild but this is just sad.

I don't see how these losses look like we don't belong in the AAC. I get that it's bad, but there's nothing that shows Rice out of its depth in this conference.

A 2 point loss to current third place UTSA.

A 2 point loss to 6th place FAU (who beat UTSA a lot worse than us)

We were in the game with North Texas, Tulsa, and ECU for 3 quarters.

I mean in 2018 we were down 34-3 to a UTEP team on a 20 game losing streak. That was sad. It sucks to be the worst team in the conference at the moment but not belonging in the conference? I wouldn't say that based on these results. We haven't played an FBS team with a losing record this year (even if you removed their win against us)

Now if we lose badly to Tulane and Temple...

Rice football looks out of place to me in the AAC because it lacks consistent recruiting, quarterback play, and investment.
Despite being in Houston's talent-rich market, Rice's roster just isn't good. Looks like a lower level conference team. Maybe that changes next year. Year three is going to be judgement year for the coaching staff IMO.