(10-29-2018 11:31 AM)StillJonesing Wrote: (10-27-2018 03:31 PM)STL_Wave Wrote: I mean the obvious thing to do is
(little) East
UCF
USF
ECU
CINCINNATI
TEMPLE
UCONN
+ UMASS
+ BUFFALO
+ ARMY/VCU
Conference-West-S-A
HOUSTON
MEMPHIS
NAVY/WICHITA
TULANE
TULSA
SMU
+ BYU
+ UAB
+ Air Force/St. Louis
OBVIOUSLY!
BYU I think isn't realistic but yeah, add them #1 off course. Less is more.
Don't get the UAB, Buffalo and UMass though. Less is more IMO. BYU military academies, the strongest basketball programs available.
If we have to dip below that I still think UTEP still has more longterm potiental than Buffallo's and such. They averaged like 50k in football and 12k in basketball back when we were in a conference with them. That's always still impressed me even if they were basically given the tickets away. Clearly that place will get behind a winner there. People didn't go see UAB and those teams even when they were good in anything.
A few things.
If we take 1 Olympic only it'll be VCU, large urban school, lots of support and location for a new market.
If we take a second it'sa toss up between Dayton and St. Louis. Personally I forsee both in the nbe. They can make a Midwest division with Creighton, DePaul, Marquette, Butler, St. Louis and Dayton/Xavier. Knock down travel costs and connect everyone geographically for sports other than basketball.
UMass is NOT in our footprint and doesn't fit geographically at all. They fit UConn (who doesn't want them).
The geographical center of this conference for football is some where in eastern Tennessee, for basketball it is between Nashville and Birmingham roughly.
UAB has it attendance going up, led CUSA last year and is averaging 25k+ this year. It's likely they will approach a 30k average for the year as the next two are their final home games and they only have 1 loss.
UAB has a past with most of the teams in the AAC. It has a new stadium for football and is about to get approved for basketball arena renovations.