(05-08-2021 04:12 AM)Attackcoog Wrote: Well—by that measure—there are zero rivalries in the AAC beyond UCF vs USF. There never have been and there likely won’t be any in the future. The importance of conference games lies completely in how they impact the standings. So, there will be important games that the fans get up for in the AAC—but they will be driven by the conference race and the “big” games will change from year to year as different teams rise and fall.
This is exactly my point. Rivalries are not the concept of the AAC, nor is geography. The concept is to be the premier 'tweener conference, collecting all the want to be power schools who are locked out of the power conferences.
-- mind you Navy is a caveat, as they are not interested in being a power school, but rather it was a marriage for TV ratings.
The AAC has already collected every school that wants to be power, and invests heavily in athletics, east of the Rockies. That is why in 2011 (as the Big East) and now again, they are looking west. The want ambitious schools who want power rank. Air Force is not that, any talk of them belongs in the "we need another ECU, Tulane or Tulsa" category of thinking; and Army is simply to own the Army-Navy game, which you already have a 50% share, it doesn't help the power status of the conference. Whatever else you think of UConn they have Majors aspiration, only in basketball instead of football. Anyway, you are back looking at the same schools as in 2011.
Boise State is the top school, and we know the price. They looked around and determined that football only doesn't work for them, the Olympic options are just too poor. But they are very open to being the "West Virginia" of the American, using the Big 12 analogy. The question is does the "power 6" concept of adding the best football program (and pretty good Basketball program) outweigh the whines of women's soccer, volleyball and soccer coaches? Is "geography matters let's add Rice or Old Dominion instead" going to be the argument?
Boise State is the one that matters. To add any others, create a Western wing they need to be in place.
It needs to be remembered that Boise State is sort of friendless in the Mountain West. They sued the conference when the other 11 schools agreed to a contract they were not on board with and declared their demand for media separateness in perpetuity. The relationship with their peers and the conference is strictly transactional and power based. They made known their disdain for the California schools (and Hawaii and New Mexico as well), with Covid-19 philosophy being a similar separator as we saw in SLC and OVC that led to realignments there.
Going after San Diego State, BYU or anyone else is a completely different situation. Doesn't mean they wont try. But like the Pac-12 and the Texas-Oklahoma five, the AAC needs to have that fall back of one school only to get off the odd 11. Boise State in all sports is their equivalent of Utah for the Pac-12, although the parallel to West Virginia and the Big 12 is also there.
But I think we need to circle back to the original point, that the American is about becoming the de facto near power conference. The "project" of building a 14 or 16 school league with a western division doesn't make that much difference. Adding San Diego State, UNLV, Colorado State or for that matter BYU to some extent is about giving Boise State companions, not about gaining that power or near power status. They probably do not improve the per school TV package.
At the end of the day Boise State alone matters, the others don't. If they add Boise State, the odds are they would lose their appetite for a far western wing that doesn't really make a difference in their power status.
Note: Were I the American, and I decided I'd bite the bullet for Boise State in all sports, I'd throw in the caveat that their softball needs to find another home (I think they can in the Big Sky, which is down to 6, losing Southern Utah to the WAC, and it makes sense geographically and culturally). Scheduling that sports would be a horrible pain for both sides. Women's soccer is livable as like football it's single round robin, just one trip every other year on a Saturday to Boise. You really are only biting the bullet then on basketball --and Boise has a strong program-- and women's volleyball. Your scheduler can help by minimizing the Thursday trips to Boise for the eastern time zone schools, or placing some of them during school breaks, but everyone is going to have to accept getting stuck with a few of those. But softball is where I'd say no, take that somewhere else.