(10-21-2020 06:42 PM)jedclampett Wrote:  

(10-21-2020 03:05 PM)mustangxc Wrote:  The AAC now is far superior to CUSA then. Navy + Memphis >>> Rice + UTEP; also, SMU and Tulane are much better than they were back then. Even our best teams under June Jones weren't as good as the teams we've fielded the last few years.

It's not clear which era of the CUSA you are referring to.

If you're referring to the original CUSA (which had teams like Cincy and Louisville), then stating that the current AAC (FB) is much better than the original CUSA is tantamount to saying that the current AAC (FB) is as good as or better than the original (FB) Big East Conference was, back before Cincy and Louisville joined the Big East..

If you ask "why?", the reason is that, in its heyday, the original CUSA was almost as good as the Big East FB Conference was. IF the current AAC is "much" better than the original CUSA, then that probably means that the current AAC is as good as - or better than - the Big East FB conference was.

.

Some might question the idea, but the Big East FB conference rarely surpassed the achievements of the AAC in the past three seasons, when the conference has had ~ 3 teams per year in the Final AP Top 25.

2005-2013, which is when SMU and UCF were members. Houston and Memphis left in 2013 as well.