Geno tells the AAC about the potential for growth

[OneTrickPony]

SMU has won 20 or more games for 5 of the last 6 years and finished among the top 50 teams once in that span. The Mustangs are exactly the kind of team with a decent enough foundation to make a substantial climb in the AAC under better competition. It all depends on the school, because as we saw in the BEast, some teams rose to the challenge and others were content to wallow in as bottom feeders.

In the distant past, SMU was able to place in the top ten for all sports purposes...it really depends on what the Board decides they want to do...I took it as a great sign that they were interested in the old Big East...time will tell!

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I know this is a WBB board - but please, it is truly immaterial what conference UConn plays in in WBB. They are and will continue to be a top team as long as Geno is there (or, as long as they continue to have the success they are having while Geno is there). To whine about the AAC in this regard is simply immaterial. At the same time, please be careful in praising the win / loss records of the new conference members, one time within the last couple of years I was looking up SMU and discovered they had done it on a diet of creampuffs. Again, that is immaterial as they will be (presumably) challenged to do better in the new conference.

It is FOOTBALL that has the doom-sayers out about the new conference. They are not well positioned in the new world (which, granted, can change rapidly). The Old Big East wasn't well positioned, either. But it is FB TV money, Bowl Game payouts, etc. that are the $$ that drive the bus, and men's basketball secondary. WBB is a sideshow (and other sports, not even that).

 

[DobbsRover2]

Yep, we all know very well who's driving the bus and what the CR gods are interested in and where the main money comes in from, with all those little wrinkles for odd money-making WCBB teams like UConn. But again, the thread is about the WCBB play, and dragging all the football bowl conniptions into everything here is a little off what everyone else was discussing. I think you can find a couple hundred threads elsewhere raging about every rumor and ramification of the CR dance.

If a bunch of the new conference mates such as Tulane, SMU, and ECU are rated in the top third of teams with SOS in the top half, that's respectable enough for the new AAC to build on, especially with the departure of bad teams like Providence and Pitt that were on a level far below any of our new CUSA emigres. You say they've been playing CUSA type schedules? How shocking! At least some of the teams have still been able to build winning traditions that may well transform into a solid AAC schedule once the UConn influence sets in. I'm far more hopeful for a Tulane or SMU to develop enhanced future programs than I am for a Rutgers once it hikes off to the B1G. Teams like Marist, UWGB, and MTSU have built strong programs on crap schedules, and the teams in the AAC will have advantages far beyond those mid major powers. In the ten years before Louisville entered the BEast from CUSA, it won 1 lone NCAA tourney game, then reeled off 16 wins in the tourney in its 8 years so far in the BEast. Some teams dream big.

 

[UcMiami]

I know this is a WBB board - but please, it is truly immaterial what conference UConn plays in in WBB. They are and will continue to be a top team as long as Geno is there (or, as long as they continue to have the success they are having while Geno is there). To whine about the AAC in this regard is simply immaterial. At the same time, please be careful in praising the win / loss records of the new conference members, one time within the last couple of years I was looking up SMU and discovered they had done it on a diet of creampuffs. Again, that is immaterial as they will be (presumably) challenged to do better in the new conference.

It is FOOTBALL that has the doom-sayers out about the new conference. They are not well positioned in the new world (which, granted, can change rapidly). The Old Big East wasn't well positioned, either. But it is FB TV money, Bowl Game payouts, etc. that are the that drive the bus, and men's basketball secondary. WBB is a sideshow (and other sports, not even that).

Very true - and really the Big East was a weak sister in the BCS conversation so I am not sure much has changed.

 

[Icebear]

Weak sister to no sister.

 

[DobbsRover2]

The brothers may be asking for any dimes that can be spared, but the sister knows how to strut her stuff while her backup dancers learn their steps. And the ~$5M annual payout to three of the teams in the AAC should be a nice comfort package unless the football teams screw up and make it to one of those bowls that suck a few million out of the university so that the bowl officials can take some junkets.

 

[Nomar3311]

I know i'm late to this party but

"Teams like Marist, UWGB, and MTSU have built strong programs on crap schedules"

They can't do anything about the conference but Marist last year played - UConn, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Purdue, Wake Forest all OCC not too bad.... they have Oklahoma & Kentucky at home this year and open at Ohio St. they do what they can as no one wants to play them. (no not referring to UConn you are not afraid to play them and they would only win 1 out of 100 probably, maybe)