(05-17-2020 02:09 PM)IamN2daRockets! Wrote:  Precisely... given the current situation the P5 is even more likely to keep the status quo. Their not going to further subdivide a shrinking pie

Exactly, which is why the Big 12 didn't expand two years ago. Hell, there may be contraction at the top, with the conferences dropping the meaningless deadweight and adding in some big dogs once things turn over in 2024 (SEC cutting out Vandy for Texas or Oklahoma, ACC getting rid of Wake Forest for someone, etc). I think when the dust clears there will be 4 "Power" conferences left and Baylor, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, West Virginia and TCU will have to find another home, probably in the AAC or the AAC schools would join a watered down Big 12, just like some of them jumped into the Big East back in the mid-00s to replace the fleeing VT, Miami, and BC. It'll probably end up those 6 schools with Cincinnat, Memphis, Houston, UCF, USF, and one of the others (most likely between Temple and SMU) for a new conference.

The AAC's P6 campaign has allowed them to separate themselves from the rest of the G5, but it has done nothing to push them closer to the P5, that much is clear. The assumption now among fans of high level donors who have been part of some of these discussions is that most of the AAC schools will be looking to move their budgetary anchors (everything but Basketball and Football) to regional conferences...but there is no chance that they'd push out Basketball and Football considering how much more money they're receiving from their media rights than they would in any of the other conferences ($7M/year vs. the next closest MWC at just north of $3M/year). That's the only way you'll see a Cincinnati or Temple team in the MAC again...if it's baseball, women's sports, or men's deadweight. Football and basketball aren't coming back with the amount of money they have all dropped into those operations. Wichita State won't be moving back the MVC, and the Texas and SE schools will never go back to the CUSA.