Doesn’t mean much, but it’s nice to hear someone outside the conference say something about it. Mizzou plays UCONN this week
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I would love to see the Coogs in the SEC East. That Division has Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt. That is an easier conference schedule than the one we have.
I like the AAC, I would just like the TV contract to pay us more.
How long can BYU stay independent?
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Not very long if they have many more seasons like this one.
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BYU’s fanbase is like Notre Dame’s in that they will have viewers whether they win or lose.
The bigger issue is whether ESPN will be able to continue paying them. I know they’d probably rather have them in a P5 conference where they could shoot for the playoffs and gain even more viewers; part of the big reason they pushed them for Big12 inclusion. Right now, I believe their TV contract runs out at the same time as the other big conferences so we’ll see if they can get in somewhere. If not, my guess is they end up in a “best of the rest” conference.
I tend to agree; however, I hope a potential Best of the Rest conference isn’t a coast to coast arrangement unless there are two distinct divisions (East/West). I would also like to see the Best of the Rest not include every current AAC member. I haven’t seen, don’t currently see and don’t forecast seeing any real value Tulsa, Tulane, SMU and ECU add. Most of those were panic decisions made by the messy Big East/American hand off . . . just an opinion. All of those programs really belong in the latest version of CUSA or even the Sun Belt.
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SMU has the history to get back in and ECU has always been good on field and in fan support. Also unlike us they seem to be able to schedule big name schools
What are you talking about?
I believe that ESPN extended BYU’s contract one year and now it ends at the same time as the AAC’s. Here is a link:
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/sports-media/2017/06/espn-extends-contract-to-air-byu-football/
In order to entice BYU to the AAC, we would need to match or surpass that approximately $5M-$6M they are receiving per year currently. Additionally, to balance the league we would need to add an Eastern team, I would say Army. They are becoming relevant and future rights of the Army/Navy game (one of the most popular television games of the year) would become part of future negotiations.
Don’t know what it does for balancing the geography, but Colorado St would be a good add too. BYU seems to be too snooty to join what they consider is a G5 conference…at least the fans seem that way. It would take elevating the AAC to ‘power’ status for them to consider it. Definitely getting the money up to what they are getting or more. They consider themselves as ‘independent’ at the same level as Notre Dame (hardly), but they were jockeying as hard as anyone to get into the B12.
If we brought that many eyeballs and fans no matter where we went, I would like to think we would sell our worth to bidders as well. We our P6, or did you forget?!? 
Oh yeah…I consider us P6, I was just saying BYU doesn’t, unless the $$$ is there in the next negotiations.
We definitely bring the eyeballs to TV when our games are on if you look at the TV stats. Definitely compete with so-called P5 teams, Definitely a valued conference. P5 is just a label…we’re P6 baby!!!
I’ll have some of whatever he’s having Bartender !
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from 08-20 ECU has had no less then 2 p5 schools on the schedule, 6 of those years they had 3 and 4 one year for 34 P5 games. In that same period we’ve played/scheduled 19.
On top of that its their LOCAL teams.
The biggest thing to entice BYU is offer them and a MWC member an all sports invite. That is where we went wrong with Boise State and San Diego State.
They are not a threat to their “local P5 teams” dominance while we are huge threat to our local P5s.
What is your definition of “not a threat” seeing as they have wins over NC State, Virginia Tech and North Carolina in recent years?
ECU is not a threat to the educational power structure of North Carolina while we are a threat in Texas
There’s a law on the North Carolina books that requires UNC and NC State to play ECU yearly.