AAC future members? Say goodbye to Navy?

[Sean O]

I wrote a couple pieces for my blog that people here might enjoy.

First, why I think Navy & the AAC need to rethink their partnership: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/03/navy-and-aac-are-better-off-alone.html

And then looking at what the AAC needs to do since they can't (can they?) stay at 11 teams for basketball: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/02/college-realignment-aacs-next-move.html

 

[Sea Goat]

I wrote a couple pieces for my blog that people here might enjoy.

First, why I think Navy & the AAC need to rethink their partnership: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/03/navy-and-aac-are-better-off-alone.html

And then looking at what the AAC needs to do since they can't (can they?) stay at 11 teams for basketball: http://stholeary.blogspot.com/2014/02/college-realignment-aacs-next-move.html

With apologies and with all due respect; I hope I never am confused with someone who gives a about the future members of the AAC. But thank you for your thoughts in any event.

 

[noeynox]

1. Welcome To The Boneyard!

2.Fluck Your Blog!!!! Ain't Nobody Give A Sheet About That.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

So you come to a UConn site to get us to read a blog that takes a shot at H.S. Football in the state of Connecticut?

"No, the AAC teams won't beat SEC teams for Louisiana talent but even the second-string talent in that state is superior to the first-string talent in, say, Connecticut."

Thank you, please drive thru.

 

[kibblesnbits]

He left out the real reason it might not work out for Navy - they no longer get to handpick a schedule that will make them bowl eligible. In the last 15 years or so they've moved to a schedule with a couple of traditional powers (one being ND) so they look like they are playing with the big boys. But the majority of the schedule is the CiC games (of which Army is an annual win for reasons we've discussed here) and then they fatten up on low-level schools. This year's schedule had W. Kentucky (L), S. Alabama, Georgia Southern, Delaware, Toledo (L), Hawaii and San Jose State (plus the pre-Rutgers dregs of the Big 10, Indiana). The AAC is hardly a powerhouse conference, but it offers the promise of far tougher week-to-week competition than Navy is used to playing.

 

[UConnDan97]

I don't know the OP, so I don't want to hammer him that hard. But with all due respect, your answers for us are:

1) Add BYU - Holy crap! Why didn't anyone else think about that! That's amazing!
http://espn.go.com/college-football...gotiations-not-join-big-east-according-report
"BYU to the Big East is dead. It's not going to happen," the person said.

2) Add a basketball school, like St. Louis - Yes. YES!!! Finally, someone who gets it! Someone who gets the fact that we need to have a league comprised of full members, football-only members, and Olympic sports-only members. That could really work! Oh wait....no.....no it doesn't....that's what the Big East was...

3) Add Air Force - Umm, yeah....similar to #1, but even less likely. The MW changed their schedules to accommodate , so.....not gonna happen...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/mwest/2013/05/01/mountain-west-turnaround/2127851/
"It's also a nod to how much Air Force means to the conference (MW) and why its objection matters on issues such as a nine-game schedule."

4) Add Charlotte and UMass - "Paging Butch.....Butch, please come to the help desk..."

Wow. Just....just wow...

 

[Adios]

4) Add Charlotte and UMass - "Paging Butch.....Butch, please come to the help desk..."

He's obviously not the only person who mentioned Charlotte! We need to get the duckk out of the AAC...

Don't forget to add Louisiana Tech as a future expansion candidate so Tulane gets an in-state rival and together they can out-recruit LSU!

 

[ZooCougar]

Let's add ODU and Georgia State. BRANDING, PROFIT, POTENTIAL GROWTH.

 

[B1GEast]

why does it feel like uconn just boarded the titanic?

 

[AZHuskiePop]

Conferences like the AAC left out in CR have to think outside of the box if they are to survive. Continuing to add schools with football ambitions and basketball indifference will doom the robust BB programs of schools like UConn. Aresco has bought into the football model and sees that as the ticket to a better contract.
He is probably right but he seems willing to sacrifice BB on the football alter..

A Uconn at the height of the JC era could have served as a catalyst for future BB development. Even in this brotherhood of survivors.
However we are in a very tenuous situation ourselves coming off a coaching change and suspension.
Adding basketball schools to bolster the leagues stature and the situation in our former conference is a false dichotomy. The situation is no different than John Hopkins parking Lacrosse in the B1G. Its mutually beneficial.
Most members of the Big East thought that conference would exist for a long time.
It what founded on the BB and tried unsuccessfully to accommodate football.
The priority for everyone in the AAC is to get out ASAP.
There is and should be no illusion of conference fellowship.
The only critia for inclusion is: does a school bolster that sport?
I wouldn't be inclined to accept religiously based privates.
Unless Georgetown or Nova decided they had enough of the NBE.

When Louisville leaves replaced by ECU and Tulane the illusion of being a semi-credible BB conference will fade into history.
The addition of one or 2 basketball schools. will help insure the conferences and more importantly our status as a basketball power.
Even with those additions the future will be difficult ,without them nearly impossible.
In the newly created paradigm depending on the past could be a recipe for disaster.

 

[Sea Goat]

Conferences like the AAC left out in CR have to think outside of the box if they are to survive. Continuing to add schools with football ambitions and basketball indifference will doom the robust BB programs of schools like UConn. Aresco has bought into the football model and sees that as the ticket to a better contract.
He is probably right but he seems willing to sacrifice BB on the football alter..

A Uconn at the height of the JC era could have served as a catalyst for future BB development. Even in this brotherhood of survivors.
However we are in a very tenuous situation ourselves coming off a coaching change and suspension.
Adding basketball schools to bolster the leagues stature and the situation in our former conference is a false dichotomy. The situation is no different than John Hopkins parking Lacrosse in the B1G. Its mutually beneficial.
Most members of the Big East thought that conference would exist for a long time.
It what founded on the BB and tried unsuccessfully to accommodate football.
The priority for everyone in the AAC is to get out ASAP.
There is and should be no illusion of conference fellowship.
The only critia for inclusion is: does a school bolster that sport?
I wouldn't be inclined to accept religiously based privates.
Unless Georgetown or Nova decided they had enough of the NBE.

When Louisville leaves replaced by ECU and Tulane the illusion of being a semi-credible BB conference will fade into history.
The addition of one or 2 basketball schools. will help insure the conferences and more importantly our status as a basketball power.
Even with those additions the future will be difficult ,without them nearly impossible.
In the newly created paradigm depending on the past could be a recipe for disaster.

I applaud your efforts at a thoughtful response, but pardon me if I don't give a .

 

[husky10]

why does it feel like uconn just boarded the titanic?

More like the USS Maine.

 

[whaler11]

I don't know the OP, so I don't want to hammer him that hard. But with all due respect, your answers for us are:

1) Add BYU - Holy crap! Why didn't anyone else think about that! That's amazing!
http://espn.go.com/college-football...gotiations-not-join-big-east-according-report
"BYU to the Big East is dead. It's not going to happen," the person said.

2) Add a basketball school, like St. Louis - Yes. YES!!! Finally, someone who gets it! Someone who gets the fact that we need to have a league comprised of full members, football-only members, and Olympic sports-only members. That could really work! Oh wait....no.....no it doesn't....that's what the Big East was...

3) Add Air Force - Umm, yeah....similar to #1, but even less likely. The MW changed their schedules to accommodate , so.....not gonna happen...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/mwest/2013/05/01/mountain-west-turnaround/2127851/
"It's also a nod to how much Air Force means to the conference (MW) and why its objection matters on issues such as a nine-game schedule."

4) Add Charlotte and UMass - "Paging Butch.....Butch, please come to the help desk..."

Wow. Just....just wow...

Plenty of nonsense for sure. I do think he's onto something with Navy's challenges. They really have scheduled for bowl eligibility, it's going to be tough for them playing a legitimate conference schedule, Notre Dame and Air Force. Only one gimme plus Army.

 

[Durks07]

Let's add ODU and Georgia State. BRANDING, PROFIT, POTENTIAL GROWTH.

You forgot SYNERGY!

 

[NotreDameJoe]

So in general you are a basketball school but the AAC is set up like a football conference?

Let's add ODU and Georgia State. BRANDING, PROFIT, POTENTIAL GROWTH.

Love this. Someone could propose adding South Dakota state and drone on with the same tropes.

 

[freescooter]

Well, as one who never thought Navy made much sense, I guess I can't be too opposed. Unlike the ND-ACC deal though, we really only want Navy for its football, not anything else. if there was another option, I'd go there. But at least right now, there isn't. In my fantasy world, Delaware upgrades and in a couple of years is in position to compete at our level. gives us another east coast member and lets Navy go back to what it really should be doing.

 

[NotreDameJoe]

I think UCONN gets picked up eventually. You are to close to NYC to be left out indefinitely.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

UConn has to prove that it is valuable to get picked up. If UConn accepts $2MM a year as its share of TV revenue, than UConn is telling the ACC and B1G that UConn is only worth $2MM a year. Why would the B1G or ACC add a school that is only worth $2MM a year?

 

[Fishy]

Are you truly dumb enough to believe that?

 

[NotreDameJoe]

Right now in "value" achievement on the field heavily takes second to the number of cable tv subscribers a school can deliver. But that could change as the media landscape evolves.

 

[zls44]

Nelson chooses to focus on the shock value of the Big East getting twice with the AAC gets per school-in reality it's just $2-3 million more a year. That's not lethal. It's also not a gigantic amount that makes someone all lustful to go join them.

 

[billybud]

UConn, if they really went to the BE, would cement their position....there would be no identity waffling...they would be Georgetown of the 80's...a big time basketball presence without the distraction of football.

 

[freescooter]

UConn, if they really went to the BE, would cement their position....there would be no identity waffling...they would be Georgetown of the 80's...a big time basketball presence without the distraction of football.

Yeah, except it isn't the 1980s any more and there are no "big time basketball presences without the distraction of football." UConn 1999 was the last national champion without major college football.

 

[billybud]

I guess the Wichita State model may no longer prevail.

Georgetown was such a great team back in the day....When the camera focused in on Ewing's scowl...I thought..."this is a seriously bad guy that I wouldn't foul."

 

[freescooter]

Let's see what Wichita State does this year before making them the patrick ewing Georgetown team that went to 3 NCAA finals in 4 years, won one and lost in one of the best finals ever plus lost in one of the more bizzare finals ever.