(07-04-2019 04:41 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(07-04-2019 12:31 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(07-04-2019 09:44 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(07-04-2019 09:15 AM)Mav Wrote:  

(07-04-2019 07:16 AM)esayem Wrote:  Replacing one outlier with another on the other side of the country would be exactly why this conference has had an identity problem. I don’t see either parties interested.

Oh no, the conference has an identity, a bunch of P5 strivers trying to use one another as stepping stones so their name gets called during the next round of realignment. Reality's starting to set in that they're not getting called up, so they're trying to position themselves as a conference of programs better than the other G5s. The "P6" bluster should be proof of that.

There is an identity, it's just cynical and doesn't offer the cohesion that the MAC's does.

That's about as well as it can be said.

He's not wrong---but as I said before, the more regional CUSA 1.0. CUSA 2.0, and CUSA 3.0 models have all failed---each being less successful than its predecessor. The AAC, using its somewhat unorthodox "best of the rest" frankenstein conference model has actually managed to find a degree of success that eluded all the previous failed incarnations of CUSA. An ugly piece of cardboard duct taped into the frame keeps the cold out better than a broken window. Just because it isnt elegant doesn't mean it doesnt work.

I recall seeing a TV segment that featured a single mother who had like three pretty young children. By her talk and appearance, she seemed to have little education and job skills, but she and her family of kids were living in a nice house, upper middle-class. On the mantle over the fireplace, there was a certificate in a very nice frame, much like a proud mother might have a copy of a son's college diploma.

In this case, it was the results of a DNA test proving that some reasonably well-known, and paid, major league athlete was the father of one of her kids. As a result, she was getting about $10,000 a month in child support payments and the whole family was living pretty large. So that certificate was like the Holy Grail of the family.

That's somewhat how I viewed the old post-1991 football Big East: What kept the operation lurching along was the signed contract saying that the conference was AQ. They all huddled around the altar bowing down to that AQ status.

The AAC is similar but at a sadder level- the members are united by one thing, together we are on ESPN and get $7m in media money, which we couldn't get anywhere else.

And on that basis, it works.

If the Big East had stuck together with all of it's post first raid membership they would have kept an AQ status. Besides what the media said thier on the field results were power conference level. Just look at their BCS record, who they beat and the records of the other power conferences.