(06-29-2019 04:59 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-29-2019 10:10 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(06-29-2019 09:47 AM)usffan Wrote:  

(06-29-2019 09:35 AM)GTFletch Wrote:  AAC Unlikely to Expand...Unless

NCAA by-laws state that any conference which holds a championship game (The AAC does) and is smaller than 12 teams MUST play a full round robin schedule. The initial sentiment among AAC members, who will hold a conference call on Friday, is to follow that path.

The conference is just starting a new 12-year $1 billion television contract with ESPN, which boosts payoff for each team from $2 million per season to slightly under $ 7 million per team. That amount was partially based on the AAC having a championship game in football.

For the AAC to meet the NCAA requirements, it would have to schedule an unprecedented 10 conference games per season. That is not likely to happen. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco said on Thursday he was confident the NCAA would grant the AAC a waiver on that requirement, wondering why the NCAA would enforce a rule that would basically require the AAC potentially raiding another conference to get back to 12 teams.

The quickest path for the AAC to get back to 12 teams would be to add one team in football only, similar to the arrangement Navy now has with the conference. The two most attractive teams who have independent status in football are Army and BYU

Link
https://collegesportsmaven.io/tmg/mark-b...jI3f7E2Qg/

This is not the first time I've seen this written. It is 100% factually untrue. Look no further than the Sun Belt Conference. They have 10 members. They play 8 conference games. They have 2 divisions. Their division champions play.

It is appalling how many "reporters" just write things without fact checking them. Or how easy it is to create a website, write something and have somebody cite it as fact.

USFFan

Exactly. Ive already posted the exact verbiage from the NCAA handbook in another thread. There is no longer any reference to a minimum number of members required in a conference as a prerequisite for dividing into divisions (for the purpose of having a CCG). The only limitations are there can only be 2 divisions, the 2 divisions must be as close to equal as possible, and they must play a complete round robin within each division. There is no specific requirement that all teams play the same number of conference games.

I agree with you about the wording of the NCAA rule, but maybe one reason for that is that a conference would be nutso these days to have a CCG and a situation where some teams are playing more conference games than others. That is just patently unfair to the teams that have to play more.

And sometimes it will be patently unfair to the teams that have to play less. You'll never know in advance which will happen.