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I was a bit surprised by this, I kind of thought CUSA was a more likely destination. Personally, I thought UMass would be a good fit for the American, but I know I'm probably in the minority on that.

This makes sense. So would adding UConn.

We should give them Temple and steal USM or Marshall.

I liked the trips to Hattiesburg during football season.

...this could be a bit more "Blazer-related" than you think...

This shakes up the A-10, where VCU resides... might they, and a few others (St. Louis, Dayton) decide to jump into the AAC? THAT would make for a nice 'bolstering' of the bball side of things... hopefully Aresco is looking into that - seems like this talk was going on last year... thoughts?

Lots of uncertainty but I can see VCU, Saint Louis and Dayton wanting to leave the A-10 for the American.

I think that unless it’s a slam dunk no-brainer addition, adding people just creates instability at this point. If the big break happens and it’s a matter of being lumped in with the rest of the poor to beg for television money scraps, then there are very few programs that would add enough revenue to make splitting our crumbs with them worthwhile. Would Gonzaga, as good as they have been for the past 20 years, going to make tv executives get in a bidding war for their media rights? Would VCU? I don’t know, but I doubt it.

I think when the big break happens, they aren’t going to say “jeeze, we’ve completely remade the college sports landscape, I’m so glad we decided to let the NCAA continue to take half our basketball championship money just so they can make us play long beach state in round 1 of the tournament and give them an equal share”. Naw, it’s going to be Kentucky vs Ohio State in round 1 and the poors can pound sand.

(02-26-2024 06:36 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  I think that unless it’s a slam dunk no-brainer addition, adding people just creates instability at this point. If the big break happens and it’s a matter of being lumped in with the rest of the poor to beg for television money scraps, then there are very few programs that would add enough revenue to make splitting our crumbs with them worthwhile. Would Gonzaga, as good as they have been for the past 20 years, going to make tv executives get in a bidding war for their media rights? Would VCU? I don’t know, but I doubt it.

I think when the big break happens, they aren’t going to say “jeeze, we’ve completely remade the college sports landscape, I’m so glad we decided to let the NCAA continue to take half our basketball championship money just so they can make us play long beach state in round 1 of the tournament and give them an equal share”. Naw, it’s going to be Kentucky vs Ohio State in round 1 and the poors can pound sand.

You are probably right about that. Other than schools that clearly needed a lifeline like UMass, I imagine most everyone else will want to stand pat to see what happens. Look before you leap....

Also, I sincerely believe some folks in the power 5 are about to get a rude awakening. The SEC and Big Ten just need to move 5-6 more brands and then they will tell everyone else, including whoever is left in the ACC and Big 12, to choke on the sand, not pound it. They are going to pull the leeches off their backs and go play pro football (and maybe pro basketball).

The rest of us, including those with their country club privileges revoked, will reorganize into something that more closely resembles college sports as we have known it, but without all the bloat or the pressure to keep up with unrealistic budgets.

It will certainly be interesting how this evolution of collegiate sports plays out. It appears to me that collegiate athletes will be eventually classified as employees of their respective universities. Will the various conferences adopt rules similar to the NFL/NBA with salary caps and so forth? Will the collegiate pro leagues get some sort of antitrust exemption similar to those pro leagues?

I'd love to add a school like VCU, but I don't see them leaving unless there's further defections from the A10, like schools leaving for the Big East. The American, and really all of the G5, are in precarious positions right now. VCU can announce they're coming for 2025, and before that date even gets here it's possible the American can lose programs like Memphis, USF, and Tulane for example.

I think the best thing for most programs is to wait and see how everything plays out.

That leaves Notre Dame and UConn as the only independent FBS schools. I wonder if the MAC will offer a football-only membership to UConn to even out the teams.

I think the MAC is in talks with Western Kentucky, who wanted to move earlier but MTSU blew up the deal.