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(06-24-2019 12:00 PM)colohank Wrote:  

(06-24-2019 11:01 AM)Z-Fly Wrote:  

(06-24-2019 10:26 AM)colohank Wrote:  

(06-24-2019 09:59 AM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  I said this over on the "Main" conference board.

My "preference" (and that's all that it is) is that the AAC sever ties with Tulsa, go back down to 10 teams...play a full round-robin in football (that's the main issue here) and maybe even the "double round-robin" in basketball. That would allow true rivalries to develop and grow.

IMO, Tulsa doesn't "fit." They were added at a time when we thought (as a conference) we needed "Football Success" to bolster the new conference's image...Tulsa never lived up to that and we have "Football Success" with Houston, UCF, and UC. We also added Tulsa when we thought we needed 12 teams to get to a CCG...you can do that now with 10 and the round-robin in football. Tulsa has the smallest enrollment in the Conference, they have piss-poor attendance, and they are not "elite" in anything.

And, for the record, this is "how" you do this...you broker a contract with Tulsa to "go away." Yes, in the short-term it costs $$$, but in the long-term you recoup it. I don't know how much it would cost to make Tulsa go away; I'd start with the $10 Million UConn is going to pay in "exit fees" and start there. The Max would be whatever media money Tulsa has coming to them for the remainder of the Media deal...but even that would be an acceptable price for me because it would allow the Conference to GROW by having rivalries develop because we would now be playing each other home-and-away every year.

Just my opinion...but that's what I'd like to see happen.

Going to ten makes perfect sense from a scheduling standpoint until a really compelling candidate (like BYU, for example) signals that they'd like to join the AAC. Then we're back to eleven members anyway, might feel it's important to go to twelve again, and we're out whatever we paid Tulsa (or any other program that's currently looked down upon) to part company. Tulsa is a fine school academically. If they don't measure up athletically, then it might make more sense for the other conference members to give them a set number of years to improve and some kind of hand-up to help them achieve that goal. If they can't or won't improve, then at least they've been given a fair chance.

I don't like the idea of making any member school feel like an outcast. We've all been there at one time or another. I sure know what it felt like when UC was left behind in the last round of conference realignment.

Feelings? This is business.

I'd hate to think that every bottom line has a dollar sign in front of it. Some things are more important than money.