My vote would be Tulsa.
You don’t do squat but you dangle it in front of everyone. No elevations from other conferences. If BYU shows interest you go hard for them.
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Ever since Herman came to UH and talked crap to them, they have given us some beat downs when we have played at their house. We have been trading wins with them.
I think BYU is in if you waive the entry fee and the exit fee. They look at the upcoming TV contract maturities and think (rightfully so) that a reshuffling could happen. Do they look at the AAC as a good place to be? Absolutely. Do they want to pay up to get in knowing that there could be significant changes on the horizon? Probably not.
True, I just wish they became more relevant. Most of our losses to them have been flukes due to bad coaching (Apple) or Herman’s UT shinanigans.
Houston/Dallas is a natural rivalry… if they could be great and even win more it would be better for the conference and give them a marquis game.
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Almost certainly Tulsa. They’re the only program that doesn’t seem to have even tried to up their game since joining. That and we have too many private schools.
But we won’t boot them or any full member.
I agree. Flip flop Tulane and SMU in that hierarchy.
With the new money coming in. Tulsa can improve their athletics dept.
They can, but will they? I hope so.
I think that there will become a sort of natural slow death for many schools due to financials alone. Look at the MAC/Sun Belt/CUSA schools that don’t have much attendance so low concession, parking, etc. money. Low TV money. How long can you last?
Tulsa falls into that bracket as does Tulane. Remember, It was not too long ago that Tulane was about to shutter their program.
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MAC does a decent job of keeping expenses under control, as far as these things go… Most of them are not competing to get into the next big conference. All of them pay their coaches under $1m a year and most of them under $700k. They’re probably better off financially than FCS teams, and aside from Eastern Michigan and a couple others are probably sustainable doing what they’re doing.
I think that’s also a model that Conference USA and the Sun Belt are more likely to follow than folding their programs (with a few asides). People have been talking about the folding of programs forever and the only one to scratch their program brought it back almost immediately.
Not sure where that will leave us and our peers if we don’t get a P5 invite.
They’ve beat us 3 of the last 4 times we’ve played in Dallas. That’s a lot of flukes.
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I would like to have BYU in the AAC since they do bring a strong presence to our conference but they are not a blueblood. If bringing them into the conference doesn’t add $700k or more per team payout then we should stay at 11 teams.
I think this is what the commish is talking about when he said the prospective school would have to bring value.
BYU would add an additional 5-10,000 people to each away game at AAC schools’ stadiums.
They would instantly become our biggest rivals. You could instantly market the “cat fight”.
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Actually, I think that out of all of the remaining G6 teams, BYU is the only “blue blood” type out there. They have the entire Mormon religion nationwide supporting them, have won a National Championship, and travel well since they have alumni and support everywhere. I don’t think any other school brings value.
We would be replacing a school that was awful in FB with one that has a history, tradition, and even it’s own network. What ever it tales to accommodate, we need to consider. We don’t play them in any sport on Sundays.
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BYU to the AAC just makes sense. We get a good football program and they get NY6 bowl access and November games that matter.
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BYU is a blue-blood in the sense they are a nationally-recognized brand. You can’t measure what BYU would bring to the conference on a current balance sheet.
They would exponentially grow the AAC brand, increase viewers not only coast-to-coast but around the world, and because of their tenacity every school in the conference would claim them as their rival.
BYU would be a whirly-bird slam dunk for Aresco. And that guy needs one.
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I have no problem with BYU joining the AAC; however, no special treatment should be given. They would be just a “regular” member.
If I had my way, I would dump 2 of the 3 (SMU, Tulane, Tulsa) and bring in BYU and have a 10 team league.
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With respect to the big money sports, I like this idea.
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I agree not to give BYU any special treatment. Although they will add a larger viewership than probably any other AAC school, the AAC will give them more exposure, chance to be in a NY6 bowl game and more access to fertile recruiting grounds like Texas and Florida.
It sounds like a win-win for BYU and the AAC but the only thing left is for ESPN to add $700K-$1M to each school payout.