(12-22-2020 01:39 AM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(12-22-2020 01:21 AM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  Maybe it's the reason why the AAC has taken their time to fill UConn's replacement otherwise UAB or Old Dominion would've got the call by now. Probably there's been communication on both sides since UConn announced they were going back to the Big East and be an independent in football.....it's just that COVID-19 and the MWC cancelling football season in the summer accelerated those talks.

But the question is, does the AAC really want to get into that mess of football only schools? One thing is to have a service academy as one and another one to have a school that is hundreds of miles that shared a conference for four seasons with SMU and Tulsa. If all sports, the nearest school would be Wichita State and I find it hard to believe the Florida twins, Cincinnati and Temple would like the idea of having their Olympic sport teams travel all the way to Boise.

The WAC would make the most sense. Boise burned those bridges with the Big West in 2012 and probably Idaho would block Boise State in the Big Sky. Boise doesn't fit the WCC profile but maybe BYU might vouch for them. This is more of a "Boise needs the AAC more than the other way around" situation.

The AAC has been very clear on this. There currently appears to be only 4 G5/Indy schools that have the kind of football programs that would instantly add substantial value to the AAC on the very first day they join the conference. Those are BYU, Boise, Army, and probably Air Force. Every other possible addition would be more of a gamble---a project so to speak--where you are gambling on a school's potential--essentially rolling the dice on the chance the school will develop into a "top half of the league" type program and not a bottom of the league anchor. The league did not panic. It wisely opted to not gamble. The AAC has opted not to make a move until one of those 4 value adding programs showed interest--or until another program developed enough organically to make it the type of program that adds value to the league on day one of its membership.

So--to me--its no surprise that the AAC was clearly interested when one of its 4 viable "plug and play" options indicated interest. If Boise can find a place for its olympic sports---this is almost certain to happen.

Those four add value but Army is the only one that makes sense from a geographic standpoint. BYU is looking for P5 membership and they won't join a G5 conference as long as Utah is in the Pac-12, Air Force won't kill their basketball and Olympic sports for the sake of football (what's their only option, the WAC, maybe the Summit?) and at this point, do you really want and need Boise in your conference? This is not 2011 when AQ membership and money were at stake. The AAC is the best G5 conference, it makes the most money and it's almost guaranteed a NY6 Bowl every year. Why fix something that it's not broken? Boise would be more a headache than a solution in the long term.