UAB will be one no doubt. New stadium digs. Great football coach. Big metro market. Annnd, don't forget hoops. They have a pretty good history there.

(09-02-2021 03:16 PM)Claw Wrote:  UAB seems to be a lock.

Rice

Western KY to buck the trend.

Hey thanks!

WKU does have strength in both football and basketball going for it, plus a huge alumni population in nearby Nashville. Plus BG is the fastest growing metro in KY I n its own right.

BUT

If AAC loses 6 schools and goes to 12, that’s probably the only scenario I can see WKU making the cut.

UAB, Rice, Marshall, those are the 3 i see in before WKU.

1.UAB
2.ODU,great for navy and east carolina, and great for baseball as well
3.Rice,to replace Houston
4.Charlotte
5.Marshall
6.Appalachain State,good at football
7.I know this will make people mad,but Liberty has more on-line students than anyone,more money than God,sorry. Oh,and they are great at sports,all politics aside.
This should be the order

Just a thought:

C-USA North: Marshall, ODU, WKU, MTSU, Charlotte, App St
C-USA South: CCU, GA St, GA So, Troy, FAU, FIU

SBC East: USA, USM, Ark St, ULL, ULM
SBC West: LA Tech, UNT, UTSA, Texas St, NMSU

Why would they go back to 11?

I think you really want to guard against just recreating CUSA 2012. It didnt work then---it work now.

Buffalo
UAB
AppSt
LaTech

Two smarty pants schools that play decent football/basketball. Two more that just seem to somehow always put winning teams on the field. Im not opposed to football only LaTech/AppSt invites with the promise of reconsideration as full members if they get thier basketball up to snuff by hitting certain metrics over a certain period of time. LaTech is CUSA---but they never played in CUSA with any of the current AAC membership.

Appalachian State

Georgia State

(09-02-2021 03:01 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Marshal
Rice
UAB

Thats a good trio

UAB
FAU
UTSA
Buffalo

Marshall
App State
UAB
Army

If Army still isn't interested. Old Dominion.

UAB is not a lock. I don't even think they'd be in the top 5 candidates.

Rice, ODU and FIU have the budgets. FIU however is a non starter. The Presidents will love Rice. After that a lot of dreck. ODU is far from a lock. Army would be preferred, to be partnered with a basketball school.. But I think the Black Knights will pass again. So you'd be looking for another fill from a school well short of budget. But who?

Remember guys, the Presidents pick the schools, and I guarantee Tulane, UCF, SMU and Temple will have outsized says.

I still think the MW is going to go for the kill and further raid the AAC. If UCF, UC, and UH go as all-sports members to the Big 12 and BYU joins for football-only, the MW should absolutely add Wichita State for Olympic sports and SMU and Memphis (or Tulsa-if Memphis declines) for all sports. That would give them 14 for football and basketball and decimate the American.

The American would be left with Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, USF, Temple, and Navy (football-only). The only way I think Navy sticks around is if the AAC were to add 2 Texas schools: Rice and UTEP. That would still only get the conference to 8. I think they go with UAB and ODU to round out the 10. Ultimately, this new 10-team American would be FAR behind the MW and Big 12.

(09-02-2021 04:22 PM)Owls9878 Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 04:17 PM)Bogg Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 03:31 PM)e-parade Wrote:  Honestly curious: would the MWC want to take SMU? They already have 12 football members and 11 all sport. 13 would be a weird place to be for football (but 12 would be fine).

I have no idea what SMU's level of interest in a western-facing league would be, but if you're the MW I think you pretty much have to put what amounts to a full-court press on SMU. They're the most attractive expansion option the MW is going to have now or in the foreseeable future and it gets you into Texas.

You can figure out what to do with spot #14 once you know whether you can actually land SMU. If you can't then I imagine they sit at 12, but otherwise you can figure out what you want out of Tulsa, Rice, Tulane, Louisiana, UTEP, etc.

Seriously doubt SMU pays a $10m exit fee to join the MWC.

Highly unlikely they join a conference where half the members dumped them.

(09-02-2021 06:08 PM)BKTopper Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 03:16 PM)Claw Wrote:  UAB seems to be a lock.

Rice

Western KY to buck the trend.

Hey thanks!

WKU does have strength in both football and basketball going for it, plus a huge alumni population in nearby Nashville. Plus BG is the fastest growing metro in KY I n its own right.

BUT

If AAC loses 6 schools and goes to 12, that’s probably the only scenario I can see WKU making the cut.

UAB, Rice, Marshall, those are the 3 i see in before WKU.

WKU brings more to the table than USM that I've seen floated by several people.

Fun fact:
USM is 0-4 against WKU in football (one of those in the CUSA championship game)
USM is 0-10 against WKU bball (technically USM won one game, but the NCAA took that win away).

They are going to want decent programs.

Why would you invite, Old Dominion, Army, or Rice?

Big cities don't mean anything if your program is poor. That what makes it hard for GA State also.

(09-02-2021 07:52 PM)shizzle787 Wrote:  I still think the MW is going to go for the kill and further raid the AAC. If UCF, UC, and UH go as all-sports members to the Big 12 and BYU joins for football-only, the MW should absolutely add Wichita State for Olympic sports and SMU and Memphis (or Tulsa-if Memphis declines) for all sports. That would give them 14 for football and basketball and decimate the American.

The American would be left with Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, USF, Temple, and Navy (football-only). The only way I think Navy sticks around is if the AAC were to add 2 Texas schools: Rice and UTEP. That would still only get the conference to 8. I think they go with UAB and ODU to round out the 10. Ultimately, this new 10-team American would be FAR behind the MW and Big 12.

SMU and Memphis aren’t paying $10 million for worse travel and the MWC’s conference distribution.

(09-02-2021 07:47 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  UAB is not a lock. I don't even think they'd be in the top 5 candidates.

Rice, ODU and FIU have the budgets. FIU however is a non starter. The Presidents will love Rice. After that a lot of dreck. ODU is far from a lock. Army would be preferred, to be partnered with a basketball school.. But I think the Black Knights will pass again. So you'd be looking for another fill from a school well short of budget. But who?

Remember guys, the Presidents pick the schools, and I guarantee Tulane, UCF, SMU and Temple will have outsized says.

Not worth the time to elaborate but you are clueless about UAB. Rice before UAB? Delusional as well as clueless.

(09-02-2021 07:52 PM)shizzle787 Wrote:  I still think the MW is going to go for the kill and further raid the AAC. If UCF, UC, and UH go as all-sports members to the Big 12 and BYU joins for football-only, the MW should absolutely add Wichita State for Olympic sports and SMU and Memphis (or Tulsa-if Memphis declines) for all sports. That would give them 14 for football and basketball and decimate the American.

The American would be left with Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, USF, Temple, and Navy (football-only). The only way I think Navy sticks around is if the AAC were to add 2 Texas schools: Rice and UTEP. That would still only get the conference to 8. I think they go with UAB and ODU to round out the 10. Ultimately, this new 10-team American would be FAR behind the MW and Big 12.

Forget the kill, they can create a new conference with the remainder AAC 8 becomes a eastern division with the top 8 MWC teams become the west division Navy and Air Force FB only and a solid 14 team BBall league.

West: Boise, Fresno, SD State, UNLV, CSU, Utah St, New Mexico, Air Force

East: Memphis, USF, Temple, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, ECU, Navy

Guarantees these teams are in a conference sending their champ to a 6+6 playoff every year. Separates themselves from the bottom 3 leagues and they no longer are fighting each other for that bid. Makes their CCG more valuable to TV partners and their combined package more valuable.

(09-02-2021 08:34 PM)BigEastMike Wrote:  

(09-02-2021 07:52 PM)shizzle787 Wrote:  I still think the MW is going to go for the kill and further raid the AAC. If UCF, UC, and UH go as all-sports members to the Big 12 and BYU joins for football-only, the MW should absolutely add Wichita State for Olympic sports and SMU and Memphis (or Tulsa-if Memphis declines) for all sports. That would give them 14 for football and basketball and decimate the American.

The American would be left with Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, USF, Temple, and Navy (football-only). The only way I think Navy sticks around is if the AAC were to add 2 Texas schools: Rice and UTEP. That would still only get the conference to 8. I think they go with UAB and ODU to round out the 10. Ultimately, this new 10-team American would be FAR behind the MW and Big 12.

Forget the kill, they can create a new conference with the remainder AAC 8 becomes a eastern division with the top 8 MWC teams become the west division Navy and Air Force FB only and a solid 14 team BBall league.

West: Boise, Fresno, SD State, UNLV, CSU, Utah St, New Mexico, Air Force

East: Memphis, USF, Temple, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, ECU, Navy

Guarantees these teams are in a conference sending their champ to a 6+6 playoff every year. Separates themselves from the bottom 3 leagues and they no longer are fighting each other for that bid. Makes their CCG more valuable to TV partners and their combined package more valuable.

I don’t hate this but I suppose you’d need the entire Front Range lineup (which includes Wyoming) so I guess Utah St gets the boot based on realignment history.

(09-02-2021 08:11 PM)SMUfan Wrote:  They are going to want decent programs.

Why would you invite, Old Dominion, Army, or Rice?

Big cities don't mean anything if your program is poor. That what makes it hard for GA State also.

ODU is not poor