Less is More

[nyhuskies13]

just started reading a few posts about adding Wichita St. the conference should be VERY selective if considering expansion. we're suffering because of a lack of national brand, flagship type schools. Tulsa, Tulane, East Carolina... those schools do nothing for the conference aside from add to our mileage rewards. Tulane has great academics but does anyone really care? E Carolina was hot in football for a couple years so we added them and it's been a disaster. Tulsa... no clue what happened.

A tighter, niche conference just might combat these super conferences in an effective way. what we have now just isn't working. And let's not discuss adding midd tenn st. Picking up the hot team with no brand never works. we're just diluting ourselves and splitting the pie with programs who don't deserve it based on their lack of commitment to athletics. unless you're willing to run the type of sports budget deficit UConn goes through (maybe not to that extreme), you should have to fight harder for a place at the American table. Let's get tighter, not bigger

Core
UConn
Temple
SMU
Houston
Memphis
Cincinnati

Not sure who else and I'm torn on the Florida schools. but 1-2 strong programs in basketball or football only roles would help.

Wouldn't want to be commission by any means. It's such a mess

 

[shizzle787]

just started reading a few posts about adding Wichita St. the conference should be VERY selective if considering expansion. we're suffering because of a lack of national brand, flagship type schools. Tulsa, Tulane, East Carolina... those schools do nothing for the conference aside from add to our mileage rewards. Tulane has great academics but does anyone really care? E Carolina was hot in football for a couple years so we added them and it's been a disaster. Tulsa... no clue what happened.

A tighter, niche conference just might combat these super conferences in an effective way. what we have now just isn't working. And let's not discuss adding midd tenn st. Picking up the hot team with no brand never works. we're just diluting ourselves and splitting the pie with programs who don't deserve it based on their lack of commitment to athletics. unless you're willing to run the type of sports budget deficit UConn goes through (maybe not to that extreme), you should have to fight harder for a place at the American table. Let's get tighter, not bigger

Core
UConn
Temple
SMU
Houston
Memphis
Cincinnati

Not sure who else and I'm torn on the Florida schools. but 1-2 strong programs in basketball or football only roles would help.

Wouldn't want to be commission by any means. It's such a mess

The problem is that the conference should have never added ECU and Tulane. Tulsa has proven to be a solid add.
If we hadn't made those mistakes and added Wichita State as a corollary to Navy, the conference would look like this:

UConn
Wichita State (Navy in football)
Cincy
Memphis
Temple
SMU
Tulsa
Houston
UCF
USF

 

[pj]

just started reading a few posts about adding Wichita St. the conference should be VERY selective if considering expansion. we're suffering because of a lack of national brand, flagship type schools. Tulsa, Tulane, East Carolina... those schools do nothing for the conference aside from add to our mileage rewards. Tulane has great academics but does anyone really care? E Carolina was hot in football for a couple years so we added them and it's been a disaster. Tulsa... no clue what happened.

A tighter, niche conference just might combat these super conferences in an effective way. what we have now just isn't working. And let's not discuss adding midd tenn st. Picking up the hot team with no brand never works. we're just diluting ourselves and splitting the pie with programs who don't deserve it based on their lack of commitment to athletics. unless you're willing to run the type of sports budget deficit UConn goes through (maybe not to that extreme), you should have to fight harder for a place at the American table. Let's get tighter, not bigger

Core
UConn
Temple
SMU
Houston
Memphis
Cincinnati

Not sure who else and I'm torn on the Florida schools. but 1-2 strong programs in basketball or football only roles would help.

Wouldn't want to be commission by any means. It's such a mess

You have to include UCF and USF, Florida is a major state demographically and for recruiting in all sports, and UCF and USF are state schools in top 20 media markets. In fact UCF and USF are more valuable than SMU and Houston.

Among Tulane, ECU, Tulsa and Navy, Navy does add value as a football program with a national following. I agree, ECU and Tulsa add nothing, they were only added to get to 12 for a conference championship game and that was a miscalculation, the championship adds no value and now you don't even need 12 for it. Tulane is the only marginal program, they have potential, they are in a major metropolitan area with only one other D1 program in state. Drop Tulsa and ECU, keep the football championship game, and the AAC would be maximizing its value.