(07-29-2021 10:19 AM)Foreverandever Wrote: (07-29-2021 10:11 AM)solohawks Wrote: It will be fascinating if they can pick of any schools in ESPN's AAC since they have planted themselves pretty firmly in the non ESPN camp of college sports.
That's not happening, especially with the cease and desist.
They won't be getting BYU either another ESPN exclusive partner. The spite will ensure it.
So if they are looking, its Army or the MW.
Boise and AFA are the best odds right now.
I'm going completely the opposite direction on this one.
24 hours ago, I would have believed that the Big 12 would expand with the minimum number of schools possible. Maybe Cincinnati plus BYU.
Today, I think they're going to smack the AAC *HARD*. The AAC tried to present themselves as a threat and, to the extent that it was even credible, the Big 12 is going to strip mine anyone of value from the AAC.
Cincinnati will likely be fine coming out of this here. Houston and UCF will probably be fine, too. Memphis is at least in the green room.
However, any schadenfreude from the bottom half of the AAC is WILDLY misplaced. Up to this point, the Big 12 has been convincing themselves that none of the AAC schools had any value. Now, I think they're going to convince themselves to take any AAC school that would have ANY value.
Nothing is going to happen to ESPN. However, the AAC tried to fire a preemptive strike since they knew that they were at risk of losing schools to the Big 12 and I think it's going to backfire badly. The Big 12 was going to be reluctant on expansion 24 hours ago, but now I think they're COMPLETELY motivated to take any value from the AAC possible.