Many reports coming out that UConn is leaving the AAC after the 2019-20 season. It’s non football teams will join the Big East while football is exploring its options.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-878026.html

McClain’s first big job. Honestly, feels like it’s less on him and more on the successful of football and basketball this year. Gotta show we can compete again to draw eyes.

(06-22-2019 01:03 PM)EagNBran Wrote:  McClain’s first big job. Honestly, feels like it’s less on him and more on the successful of football and basketball this year. Gotta show we can compete again to draw eyes.

Football has many of the pieces in place roster wise but the early season games at Bama and State will have us with a .500 at best OOC record. Basketball will be rebuilding but should have the fan support we’ve lacked the last 5 years. Baseball appears will be reloading but the decision process rarely focuses on baseball success.

When opportunities come up like this there is a momentary spark of excitement...until you realize just how feckless our leadership is.

(06-22-2019 01:29 PM)Mao Tse-gore Wrote:  When opportunities come up like this there is a momentary spark of excitement...until you realize just how feckless our leadership is.

Agree - My 2 cents worth to everyone would be - don't get too excited, you'll only be disappointed. No one wants it more than myself, but after 40 years of getting excited every time something great is supposed to happened for Southern Miss, just to be let down, I'll just wait and "hope" with very little expectation. In the end, I expect we'll just see another school from C-USA move on and pass us up, while we sit back and make CUSA/Sunbelt the best we can.

I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but seriously doubt I'll be eating crow.

(06-22-2019 07:36 PM)Up2stuff Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 01:29 PM)Mao Tse-gore Wrote:  When opportunities come up like this there is a momentary spark of excitement...until you realize just how feckless our leadership is.

Agree - My 2 cents worth to everyone would be - don't get too excited, you'll only be disappointed. No one wants it more than myself, but after 40 years of getting excited every time something great is supposed to happened for Southern Miss, just to be let down, I'll just wait and "hope" with very little expectation. In the end, I expect we'll just see another school from C-USA, move on and pass us up, while we sit back and make CUSA/Sunbelt the best we can.

I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but seriously doubt I'll be eating crow.

The only real optimism I have is that I think Bennett and McClain are the best we’ve had at selling the school since we negotiated our way into the Metro.

I’d really like your reasoning on why that is.

(06-22-2019 07:40 PM)DustMyBroom Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 07:36 PM)Up2stuff Wrote:  

(06-22-2019 01:29 PM)Mao Tse-gore Wrote:  When opportunities come up like this there is a momentary spark of excitement...until you realize just how feckless our leadership is.

Agree - My 2 cents worth to everyone would be - don't get too excited, you'll only be disappointed. No one wants it more than myself, but after 40 years of getting excited every time something great is supposed to happened for Southern Miss, just to be let down, I'll just wait and "hope" with very little expectation. In the end, I expect we'll just see another school from C-USA, move on and pass us up, while we sit back and make CUSA/Sunbelt the best we can.

I'll be happy if I'm wrong, but seriously doubt I'll be eating crow.

The only real optimism I have is that I think Bennett and McClain are the best we’ve had at selling the school since we negotiated our way into the Metro.

Maybe we could start a Go Fund Me account - Southern Miss to the AAC. Maybe some ECU, Memphis, Tulane, and Houston fans will kick in. Honestly, at this point, I'm not sure our leadership can do much unless they can sell a snowball in hell, or maybe change the address of the University. It's all about money, size of school, location population, and maybe that medical school we don't have....

Now if UNICEF had a football conference...

Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

Maybe so, maybe not. USM certainly wasnt getting any help from Uconn, so that's a "no" vote that wont be there now.

You would think that Memphis, ECU, Tulane and Houston would like to have USM in the AAC. Likely SMU and possibly Cincy and the Florida schools. I think USM has a better chance now than they would if UCONN was still there and they wanted to move to 14 teams. The AAC was bending over backwards for UCONN bc of their basketball and they don't have to listen to the BS basketball argument from UCONN ....its all about football now.

UCF, Houston, Memphis, Tulane, ECU, Tulsa, SMU don't want us. We whipped their asses too much.

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

You could say that about any school though. If the AAC wanted _____ they would already be there. Someone is going to get an invite that wasn't in there before.

(06-23-2019 07:03 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

Maybe so, maybe not. USM certainly wasnt getting any help from Uconn, so that's a "no" vote that wont be there now.

You would think that Memphis, ECU, Tulane and Houston would like to have USM in the AAC. Likely SMU and possibly Cincy and the Florida schools. I think USM has a better chance now than they would if UCONN was still there and they wanted to move to 14 teams. The AAC was bending over backwards for UCONN bc of their basketball and they don't have to listen to the BS basketball argument from UCONN ....its all about football now.

There’s a lot of truth in this. Some people seem to forget that the Catholic 7 were the ones running the show during the last round of realignment. You are about to see a bunch of schools that share history with us make their first real pick in their own conference.

That said, we shouldn’t expect any rush on this. BYU and the Mountain West schools aren’t coming, but Army as a football only is a no-brainer and ESPN and the northernmost schools are going to have their say.

One thing that probably won’t happen is staying at 11. Regardless of what their contract states, they need content for their media deal. The more games they have, the more matchups ESPN has to choose from. Plus, an even divisional lineup is just easier to sell to casual viewers. Especially when you want to spend the whole broadcast talking about the Cartel. They may do 11 for a couple of years, but 12 is where they will be at long term.

This is where I think Bennett and McClain have a chance to shine. Bennett has successfully sold the university to the state legislature after successive presidents failed to do so. We still aren’t getting enough of what we want, but we’re doing better politically than we have in some time. Bennett needs to take what he did there and sell us to his peers in the AAC. McClain’s best bet to help this out is to do some of that fundraising voodoo he pulled off at Troy. Make a big announcement about what all we plan to do, then show how far along we already are. Until McClain does his thing, we are still a viable basketball arena away from being a top candidate for the AAC.

Houston is a no vote on us, at least they were previously.

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

I would have to agree with Harbor. ODU is probably the school that gets the invite.

The program needs something exciting to happen before we totally dry up...I would really like this to happen, but there is absolutely no way that I am going to get my hopes up.

(06-24-2019 09:03 AM)Footballeagle Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

I would have to agree with Harbor. ODU is probably the school that gets the invite.

While I see the potential in ODU, their newly expanded 23,000 seat stadium isn't exactly appealing. They've had little success since joining CUSA and their streak of sellouts in their 20,000 seat stadium ended this past year. You can have all the market you want, if that market is filled with UVA and Va Tech fans, no one will watch your games.

(06-23-2019 11:28 PM)DustMyBroom Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 07:03 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 05:20 PM)HarborPointe Wrote:  

(06-23-2019 03:33 PM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Have a feeling UAB or USA will be joining the AAC soon.

My money would be on Old Dominion if I had to bet.

If the AACk wanted us, we’d already be in it.

Maybe so, maybe not. USM certainly wasnt getting any help from Uconn, so that's a "no" vote that wont be there now.

You would think that Memphis, ECU, Tulane and Houston would like to have USM in the AAC. Likely SMU and possibly Cincy and the Florida schools. I think USM has a better chance now than they would if UCONN was still there and they wanted to move to 14 teams. The AAC was bending over backwards for UCONN bc of their basketball and they don't have to listen to the BS basketball argument from UCONN ....its all about football now.

There’s a lot of truth in this. Some people seem to forget that the Catholic 7 were the ones running the show during the last round of realignment. You are about to see a bunch of schools that share history with us make their first real pick in their own conference.

That said, we shouldn’t expect any rush on this. BYU and the Mountain West schools aren’t coming, but Army as a football only is a no-brainer and ESPN and the northernmost schools are going to have their say.

One thing that probably won’t happen is staying at 11. Regardless of what their contract states, they need content for their media deal. The more games they have, the more matchups ESPN has to choose from. Plus, an even divisional lineup is just easier to sell to casual viewers. Especially when you want to spend the whole broadcast talking about the Cartel. They may do 11 for a couple of years, but 12 is where they will be at long term.

This is where I think Bennett and McClain have a chance to shine. Bennett has successfully sold the university to the state legislature after successive presidents failed to do so. We still aren’t getting enough of what we want, but we’re doing better politically than we have in some time. Bennett needs to take what he did there and sell us to his peers in the AAC. McClain’s best bet to help this out is to do some of that fundraising voodoo he pulled off at Troy. Make a big announcement about what all we plan to do, then show how far along we already are. Until McClain does his thing, we are still a viable basketball arena away from being a top candidate for the AAC.

What "state legislature" success are you referring to? Did I miss something? (very possible considering I'm out of state) And is this success due to our new leadership, or could it be due to changes in the make-up of the legislature? Honest question because I'm not sure.

And one other point is - are we still dealing with the same leadership at our old conference mates schools? Some of them may vote favorably since we have a history, but some may want to move on, thinking it's in their best interest.