American Athletic Conference attendance and TV viewership both way up

[NYUConn]

You are misremembering things.

Pitt, Georgetown, Notre Dame and others wanted the deal turned down.

Bad management was spectacularly profitable for some folks.

Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[gars44]

I thought it was Pitt that led the drive to turn down the offer. Am I wrong?

I think you're right. It was member schools with a realistic chance to get out that rejected the ESPN deal. Marinaro was just the poor guy supposedly "in charge." He was sitting on a time bomb.

 

[Ldandy]

The crazy thing is, usf right now may be the best team in the league. It shows that patience in a coach pays off, and in fball you can't just turn on the magic day one. If they could somehow manage to affiliate with some of the better western team, this conference would be as good as the Acc and B10. Once you strip osu out of the b10 equation, the rest is not heads above the crowd. Same with Clemson/fsu in the Acc. AAC may be lacking the one marquee team, but depth is there.

Add BYU, BSU, CSU, and The AFA to the conference, and suddenly you are the go to guys in the Mountain Time Zone for marquee names.

Unleash the dreaded pods...

Mountain West- BSU, BYU, CSU, AFA

Southwest- UH, SMU, TU, Tulane

Southeast- UCF, USF, Memphis, ECU

Northeast- UCONN, Temple, Cincy, Navy

Keep part of your media deal with ESPN to get week night exposure and Saturday Coverage. Go someplace else like NBC to get network coverage before or after ND Games. Additional coverage on NBC Sports and their other channels. JMO but this league would more than separate itself from the rest of the G5 and push for P5 designation. In an 8 team playoff there is room for 6 conference champs and 2 wild cards.