RE: Who should the AAC add if MWC teams are off the table?
SUNY-Buffalo and Rice University would be high on my list of possible FB-only schools, because both are AAU Universities with very strong academic and research reputations.
Adding either of these would bolster and promote the academic and research reputation of the conference and its member schools.
All of the future students and alumni of the AAC universities, and the institutions themselves would benefit as a result.
While many have focused on the desirability of adding a 12th FB school with a strong history in the sport, the conferences is already nearing parity with the P5 conferences in FB, despite having UConn in the cellar.
It, thus, wouldn't hurt the conference to add a team such as Rice or SUNY-Buffalo, even if they were to end up a cellar dwellar, much like academic universities such as Vanderbilt in the SEC and Northwestern in the B1G, or Duke in the AAC have been academically esteemed but at times weak FB schools.
Moreover, having a team in a conference that may happen to lose most of its games can help the middle and upper tier teams to become bowl eligible or make their way to the top 25, etc.
SUNY-Buffalo's advantages include being the NY State flagship school and the only FBS campus in a system with an enrollment of 440,000 students and millions of alumni. In addition, adding SUNY-Buffalo would maintain/expand the conference's footprint in the important northeastern region of the U.S. with its vast viewership.
Rice's advantages include its legacy and former status as a member of the storied Southwest Conference, which was one of the nation's dominant power conferences throughout most of the 20th century. It would be helpful to replace UConn, a former (Big East) FB power school with Rice, a former SWC FB power school.
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However, when it comes to basketball, it would probably make the most sense to add one of the stronger non-P5/Big East basketball schools in the nation, such as VCU, Dayton, or St. Louis (noting that VCU and Dayton have maintained the quality of their programs the longest).
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The question arises: Would the conference be better off remaining with 11 non-MWC schools or replacing UConn?
The answer might be clearest for basketball, since there would be nothing to lose and much to gain from following the precedent set when Wichita State was invited to join the AAC.
With respect to FB, it might be necessary to ask ESPN to lend their expertise in market analysis, and to ask them for what their market research suggests the growth in the conferences viewership share might be were the conference to add the various FB schools that might be under consideration.
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Who should the AAC add if MWC teams are off the table?
