L
Wrong. This deal is a joke for the conference.
What is minor league is swallowing a dogcrap deal and trying to pretend it is anything but that.
If you want to run around screaming P6 - maybe start acting like it.
Navy needed the AAC more than the AAC needed Navy - that the leadership is so inept they didn’t realize that simple reality doesn’t change it.
Full-fledged minor league operation. The AAC gives them a legit schedule and a path to big bowls and in return they get to play Navy? Whooptie damn doo - they are such a national draw their games get played on an unrated network. Nobody cares about playing Navy - look at their pre-AAC schedules.
Their last indy home schedule was Rutgers, WKU, SJSU, VMI & Georgia Southern.
They played @USA and @Texas State.
Total and completely inept leadership. P0.
I think Navy was cautious about the AAC due to stability. Would the conference last, especially when the Big 12 was flirting with expansion or destruction. But, I think they were also nervous about what would happen if Notre Dame was forced to join a conference as they may have to rethink playing Navy every year. I think losing one of their 3 annual opponents, and a big money game, would make staying independent difficult.
That said, Navy could have remained independent as they have 3 important games every year: Army, Air Force, and Notre Dame. The media revenues from those 3 games would be fine. Then they could play BYU and UMass every year plus Hawaii every so often and they easily can get 2 or 3 other P5 games every season based on their past schedules:
2009: Ohio St., Pitt, Wake Forest
2010: Maryland, Wake Forest, Duke
2011: South Carolina, Rutgers
2012: Penn St., Indiana
2013: Indiana, Duke, Pitt
2014: Ohio St., Rutgers
What UConn football fan would not sign up for this schedule:
Army
Air Force
Notre Dame
Indiana
Duke
Pitt
BYU
UMass
Hawaii
1 FCS
2 G5
Yes, the AAC has made scheduling easier for Navy and access to one of the top bowls, but they still would have gotten a decent bowl game every year if they deserved it.
By the way, UConn played Army and Navy at home in 2015. Navy was the highest attended game that season by 5000 fans and Army was the second highest attended game. Navy also played at Tulsa, Houston, and Memphis in 2015. At Houston, Navy was the top attended game by 5000 fans. For Memphis, Navy was the second most attended game (Ole Miss was #1) by 10,000 fans over #3. Navy at Tulsa was their 2nd highest attended game. So, yes, fans will show up when Navy comes to town.