UTSA has a much higher ceiling than Rice.


I think UNT and Texas State should get a look too.

(09-26-2021 08:31 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 05:00 PM)vcoog Wrote:  Actually if you really want a good football experience add UNT, Texas St, and UTSA. All 3 schools have 40kish enrollment , decent fan base and when they play other schools they’re familiar with they’ll draw more.

Both times I can remember UH playing @UNT the crowd was about 30k. Same when we went to UTSA and Tx state about 30k and each. I’ve been to all 3 venues and compared to some other aac schools it’s a better gameday experience.

Maybe go head and grab a few f_u’s for USF to have some regional rivalries

All those 3 Texas schools are good experiences but I will say UNT is by far the one program who draws the most fans right now.

By far? They've had the most recent success on the field out of the three and their attendance was still pretty mediocre. If anything, they're known for poor attendance. When they're bad (which has been most of their time in FBS) their attendance is bottom of the barrel.

I'd say if UTSA has has a couple years of being conference title contenders like UNT did a few years ago, they'd easily draw more than UNT did. I actually think TXST would too

Wonder how many of them were in the list...

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Rice fits institutionally with Tulane, SMU, Tulsa, and Navy but UTSA has a higher ceiling.

Rice has to want it, and from what I’ve seen, they aren’t doing anything with their athletic program that demonstrates that they want to be better than a bottom half C-USA team.

The question becomes is this just message forum fodder? Is the AAC that set upon staying in TX?

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(09-26-2021 08:56 PM)correcamino Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 08:31 PM)BigHouston Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 05:00 PM)vcoog Wrote:  Actually if you really want a good football experience add UNT, Texas St, and UTSA. All 3 schools have 40kish enrollment , decent fan base and when they play other schools they’re familiar with they’ll draw more.

Both times I can remember UH playing @UNT the crowd was about 30k. Same when we went to UTSA and Tx state about 30k and each. I’ve been to all 3 venues and compared to some other aac schools it’s a better gameday experience.

Maybe go head and grab a few f_u’s for USF to have some regional rivalries

All those 3 Texas schools are good experiences but I will say UNT is by far the one program who draws the most fans right now.

By far? They've had the most recent success on the field out of the three and their attendance was still pretty mediocre. If anything, they're known for poor attendance. When they're bad (which has been most of their time in FBS) their attendance is bottom of the barrel.

I'd say if UTSA has has a couple years of being conference title contenders like UNT did a few years ago, they'd easily draw more than UNT did. I actually think TXST would too

I’m only stating for what I’ve witnessed in the number of times Houston has gone to UNT, they’ve always draw respectable crowds.

Don’t get me wrong I like UTSA... I do believe however an OCFS would do wonders for you guys. Heck if y’all had one now it wouldn’t surprised me seeing UTSA as one of AAC’s top 5 exceptional targets.

If Rice athletics were just average and not terrible, I feel like they would be winning this poll.

(09-26-2021 09:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Rice fits institutionally with Tulane, SMU, Tulsa, and Navy but UTSA has a higher ceiling.

Rice has to want it, and from what I’ve seen, they aren’t doing anything with their athletic program that demonstrates that they want to be better than a bottom half C-USA team.

Agree, Rice has not shown the commitment recently to be anything more than what you’ve seen the past 20 or so years & you can’t expect anything different. I have said many times the AAC has been good at helping its teams build brands with ESPN’s help, but the schools have to be invested to capitalize on the opportunities available & Rice just hasn’t shown it.

I think while they may be little behind in total package (all sports facilities) right now, UTSA has a lot of future potential. To me they fit the AAC profile of being a large school, in a metro market, in a state that cares about football (even if a large % of that market supports the state school). I think they have the potential to be like UCF, UH, Cincy, Memphis, etc.

(09-26-2021 09:05 PM)panama Wrote:  The question becomes is this just message forum fodder? Is the AAC that set upon staying in TX?

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Since they moved the conference HQ's to Texas I feel like it would be kinda weird if they weren't. However, the main way to end up looking like C-USA is adding markets just to add markets if there's zero history of success in either major sport. What made the AAC work doing that is almost every single one of the "market" schools had a established history of success at something even if they weren't good at the moment at that. Tulane was really the only one who hadn't been very good at either major sport in recent history but they did have the undefeated season in 1998 and have a lot of brand name as a university which does matter. C-USA added a bunch of markets who had essentially never accomplished anything aside from Charlotte's basketball history (but that final 4 was almost a decade before I was born and I'm 35).

(09-27-2021 08:35 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 09:05 PM)panama Wrote:  The question becomes is this just message forum fodder? Is the AAC that set upon staying in TX?

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Since they moved the conference HQ's to Texas I feel like it would be kinda weird if they weren't. However, the main way to end up looking like C-USA is adding markets just to add markets if there's zero history of success in either major sport. What made the AAC work doing that is almost every single one of the "market" schools had a established history of success at something even if they weren't good at the moment at that. Tulane was really the only one who hadn't been very good at either major sport in recent history but they did have the undefeated season in 1998 and have a lot of brand name as a university which does matter. C-USA added a bunch of markets who had essentially never accomplished anything aside from Charlotte's basketball history (but that final 4 was almost a decade before I was born and I'm 35).

That and assurances from each of those schools that they would step up facilities, spending etc. P6 was not born in a vaccum. Schools had to improve their athletics after being added before Aresco could confidently start running his mouth. Tulane had to leave the Superdome and build an OCS for instance. As an outside observer I feel like someone beats a P5 or has an impressive couple of games or season and suddenly they have proponents saying yep add them. However, it seems like the presidents are always thinking a little different than fans.

(09-26-2021 09:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Rice fits institutionally with Tulane, SMU, Tulsa, and Navy but UTSA has a higher ceiling.

Rice has to want it, and from what I’ve seen, they aren’t doing anything with their athletic program that demonstrates that they want to be better than a bottom half C-USA team.

Actually disagree, Rice has the highest ceiling but the least desire to reach their ceiling. Rice has the ceiling if they really wanted to go all in 100% on athletics to do essentially whatever they want. Being a Southern Ivy with more money and billionaire alums than the rest of us can dream about (maybe SMU can compete on that I don't know for sure) if they wanted to pump out massive NIL deals and become a force they could. Of course we all know they don't want to (and BTW in reality for what matters in the world they aren't wrong).

(09-27-2021 08:45 AM)panama Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 08:35 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 09:05 PM)panama Wrote:  The question becomes is this just message forum fodder? Is the AAC that set upon staying in TX?

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

Since they moved the conference HQ's to Texas I feel like it would be kinda weird if they weren't. However, the main way to end up looking like C-USA is adding markets just to add markets if there's zero history of success in either major sport. What made the AAC work doing that is almost every single one of the "market" schools had a established history of success at something even if they weren't good at the moment at that. Tulane was really the only one who hadn't been very good at either major sport in recent history but they did have the undefeated season in 1998 and have a lot of brand name as a university which does matter. C-USA added a bunch of markets who had essentially never accomplished anything aside from Charlotte's basketball history (but that final 4 was almost a decade before I was born and I'm 35).

That and assurances from each of those schools that they would step up facilities, spending etc. P6 was not born in a vaccum. Schools had to improve their athletics after being added before Aresco could confidently start running his mouth. Tulane had to leave the Superdome and build an OCS for instance. As an outside observer I feel like someone beats a P5 or has an impressive couple of games or season and suddenly they have proponents saying yep add them. However, it seems like the presidents are always thinking a little different than fans.

It costs a lot of money to compete in the AAC, and ECU has struggled with that. Now a lot of that is self inflicted with some really poor decisions on resource allocation and obviously poor personnel decisions that lead to a prolonged bad run in football, but even without that we'd still struggle financially competing at the AAC level and ECU has a pretty large enrollment and even while extremely depressed the largest non-power conference fan base not named BYU.

(09-27-2021 09:09 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(09-26-2021 09:01 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  Rice fits institutionally with Tulane, SMU, Tulsa, and Navy but UTSA has a higher ceiling.

Rice has to want it, and from what I’ve seen, they aren’t doing anything with their athletic program that demonstrates that they want to be better than a bottom half C-USA team.

Actually disagree, Rice has the highest ceiling but the least desire to reach their ceiling. Rice has the ceiling if they really wanted to go all in 100% on athletics to do essentially whatever they want. Being a Southern Ivy with more money and billionaire alums than the rest of us can dream about (maybe SMU can compete on that I don't know for sure) if they wanted to pump out massive NIL deals and become a force they could. Of course we all know they don't want to (and BTW in reality for what matters in the world they aren't wrong).

I agree. They are in Houston. Have bulletproof academics. They have monied alumni. They have a huge stadium that they could pump money into and reconfigure/renovate how they choose. There is nothing stopping them from getting the right AD and hiring a name HC and going for it except themselves.

This conference is screwed...

Rice “could” be the better add. They have everything it takes to be competitive.
I can see them becoming Tulane in a few years. Tulane has come a long way and is a draw for our conference now.

UTSA just doesn’t have the resources, nor do they have the donors.

With that said, I hope we get someone better than both.

It would be neither Texas school, and UAB shouldn't even be on the AAC's short list if you pay attention to the CFN 5-year program rankings and the Massey Composite rankings over the past 3 seasons.

Commissioner Aresco is good at some things, but he's clearly not very good at identifying the best possible FB & BB additions. If he were good at that, UAB would not be on his short list.

COMBINED RANKINGS (FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL):

Based on Massey Composite FB and BB rankings over the past 3 seasons, and on the CFN 5-year FB program rankings.

#17) Western Michigan: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 14.5

#16) Army: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 13.5

#15) Louisiana: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 13.0

#14) Air Force: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 12.5

#12 (tie) Colorado State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 12.0

#12 (tie) UAB: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 12.0

#11) Fresno State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 10.5

#10) Buffalo: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 10.0

#8 (tie) Western Michigan: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 9.5

#8 (tie) FAU: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 9.5

#6 (tie) Marshall: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 7.5

#6 (tie) Appalachian State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 7.5

#5) Utah State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 6.0

#4) Toledo: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 5.0

#3) Louisiana Tech: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 4.5

#2) Boise State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 3.0

#1) San Diego State: MEAN FB & BB RANK: 2.0

.

Scenario 4 is that the American Athletic Conference Board decides to focus on the strength of the candidates' football and basketball programs over the past 3-5 seasons.

(09-27-2021 09:38 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  This conference is screwed...

This round of realignment could be interesting for sure if AAC takes "markets" and if App State, Marshall, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, .... start to get together. When Memphis bails for Big12 does ECU's eyes start to wander? Still only "ifs" though.

(09-27-2021 10:09 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 09:38 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  This conference is screwed...

This round of realignment could be interesting for sure if AAC takes "markets" and if App State, Marshall, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, .... start to get together. When Memphis bails for Big12 does ECU's eyes start to wander? Still only "ifs" though.

I'll answer that question for you right quick, no. So many reasons I could list why that answer is no, but lets just start with for a conference that would make very little TV money that travel is still awful for ECU. Those last 4 you listed are not close to ECU at all, and all are probably harder and more expensive to fly into than the large market schools in the AAC currently. There are a subset of ECU fans that desire a "regional conference" but what you just listed is basically the AAC/C-USA footprint that's always existed.

(09-27-2021 10:30 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 10:09 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 09:38 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  This conference is screwed...

This round of realignment could be interesting for sure if AAC takes "markets" and if App State, Marshall, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, .... start to get together. When Memphis bails for Big12 does ECU's eyes start to wander? Still only "ifs" though.

I'll answer that question for you right quick, no. So many reasons I could list why that answer is no, but lets just start with for a conference that would make very little TV money that travel is still awful for ECU. Those last 4 you listed are not close to ECU at all, and all are probably harder and more expensive to fly into than the large market schools in the AAC currently. There are a subset of ECU fans that desire a "regional conference" but what you just listed is basically the AAC/C-USA footprint that's always existed.

That's because you're in Bermuda.

should not have to say so but...j/k

(09-27-2021 10:37 AM)panama Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 10:30 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 10:09 AM)polkhigh Wrote:  

(09-27-2021 09:38 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  This conference is screwed...

This round of realignment could be interesting for sure if AAC takes "markets" and if App State, Marshall, Louisiana, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss, .... start to get together. When Memphis bails for Big12 does ECU's eyes start to wander? Still only "ifs" though.

I'll answer that question for you right quick, no. So many reasons I could list why that answer is no, but lets just start with for a conference that would make very little TV money that travel is still awful for ECU. Those last 4 you listed are not close to ECU at all, and all are probably harder and more expensive to fly into than the large market schools in the AAC currently. There are a subset of ECU fans that desire a "regional conference" but what you just listed is basically the AAC/C-USA footprint that's always existed.

That's because you're in Bermuda.

should not have to say so but...j/k

Obviously, but weirdly enough it would be easier for ECU to get to Bermuda than several of those schools listed. There is this wet dream of getting ECU in the Sun-Belt. I guess it's nice someone wants us, although many of the same people that have this fantasy also think their school wouldn't join a raided down AAC if ECU were still in it, showing an extreme lack of understanding about how realignment works.