Don’t Hold Your Breath On Realignment To Save Your Team

But you’re having to justify them in a different way than the author of this article. This stuff can be complex and you never what may happen in the future.

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The big 10 doesn’t mind growing new markets and although UH doesn’t totally rule the Houston market of 7 mil, if we’re in a major conf. , we’d bring in enough subscribers. The only conf. for which this doesn’t apply is maybe the big 12 they fear the recruiting hit.

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Utah, with a population of 3.16 million is less than half that of Houston. So the flagship is more of a harbor boat. There is also the fact that BYU is the real dominant university in Utah. Face it, the first university one thinks of when thinking about Utah is BYU.

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You’re right. BYU is a bigger brand than a lot of P5 teams and they have a built in national following. They should have been a P5 long ago but their beliefs and location are roadblocks.

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On the flip side we are also seeing what being in a power conference can do for a program. It’s done wonders for Utah!

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Utah was also contingent with the PAC 10 footprint.

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Just to clarify Houston alone is around 2.2-2.4 mil. . When you include Metro Hou area which includes Sugarland, The Woodlands, Katy, Baytown all of Harris County, parts of 8-9 other Counties – Montgomery, Ft Bend, Waller Cnty etc the Population is around 6.8–7 million.

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Right. The future is uncertain and we don’t know what might happen in the future. Which is why I’m still holding out hope that Kate Upton divorces Verlander and comes beating down my door.

Houston metropolitan is 7M.

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Yes correct. I meant to put 6.8-7 mil

Main point was Houston is very large city but it doesn’t have 6 mil people by itself.

Uh, we’ll be in a P5 before that ever happens. :smile:

Good luck. They look pretty happy though.

This is why the American does not need any more mouths in football. Any additions from this point forward just bleed our strength of schedule…and thus, hurt the league’s chances of the coveted top 25 ranking and all the media attention that comes with it.

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I’m sure Kate wants me. But, she will have to eat her heart out, I’m taken. That’s probably why she settled for Verlander on the rebound. :wink: :sweat_smile:

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Well, if the Big12 brought in schools in football-rich cities like Houston and Cincinnati, those programs could theoretically elevate the conference. I think Houston’s biggest roadblock to the Big12 is Texas, but I may be wrong.

The biggest problem Houston and Cincy face (at least from the conference and media perspective) is competition from other college programs in their home markets. Analytically speaking the conference and networks have to estimate the net value added by these programs and make a call whether this value is worth at least the value that will be paid to these programs.

Elevate the conference would require these programs to bring in net new value beyond just whats needed to meet their payouts.

It really boils down to how much risk the conference and networks are willing to take. They must have their risk and reward models, which will guide their decisions.

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Cincy has powerful OSU to deal with similar to us. That said, it was stated that the non-Texas schools didn’t want another Texas school. Well, with us and an addition of Cincy which also is close to WVU…

I like the way the AAC is made up…we aren’t going anywhere so I can only hope that we as a conference continue to get better in every sport. And oh yeah, I would like to win a few football championships along the way…and a national title in hoops and baseball.;
None of the greedy P5 conferences want us…period. Our best bet to move up, if you can call it that, would be to “allow” the Big 12 leftovers to join us when OU and Horn leave…

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I think the recruiting angle for keeping UH out of the Big 12 is a little perception only. There was a chart showing the recruiting in Texas before and after A&M went to the SEC. A&M recruiting went up as expected. UT had minimal impact. The big winners were teams in the SEC like Alabama, Miss, etc… Their recruits from the state of Texas went up noticeably.

If the Houston market were to go too strongly SEC, then I could see the Big 12 as a whole benefitting from bring UH in to help keep the Houston market as a viable recruiting option vs the SEC.