No other major sport looks like football. Imagine if the New York Yankees could buy home games and play 2/3's of their games at home, with most of them against small market teams. Imagine if the Patriots could do the same thing. Then, imagine if the major market programs put in rules so that the Kansas City Royals would only be allowed to play in the playoffs if they had 5 more wins than a major market team while playing 60% of their games on the road. Would anyone watch a sport like that?
College football gets away with what it does because of history, but its exclusionary policies are going to turn off fans until football becomes a fringe sport.
Yes, you missed the part about Louisville being replaced with Tulane, Tulsa and East Carolina.
Show one sign of strength and you are gobbled up by a P5. The AAC will never amount to anything but a Group of 5.
There are 30 MLB teams. There are 32 NFL teams. There are 30 NHL teams. There are 30 NBA teams.
There are already 65 P5 teams. If anything, 65 is too many based on the traditional size of sports affiliations.
I know many G5 schools are thankful for those road games that pay out over $1 million. That money helps to keep those schools fielding athletic teams in sports outside of football.
Did the NCAA basketball tournament make more money with 32 teams or 64 teams?
Unfortunately, that is a headwind for the AAC conference. It's a lot easier to undermine potential success than compete with it.
CR is really about individual conference power, control and revenue. Consider that during the CR process there has been a net loss of just 1 team. The goal is still to get to four conferences, although that may or may not come to pass.
Football drives the realignment bus, not basketball.
There are 30 MLB teams. There are 32 NFL teams. There are 30 NHL teams. There are 30 NBA teams.
There are already 65 P5 teams. If anything, 65 is too many based on the traditional size of sports affiliations.
I know many G5 schools are thankful for those road games that pay out over $1 million. That money helps to keep those schools fielding athletic teams in sports outside of football.
I agree 100%. And the B1G, SEC and PAC 12 are three of those four conferences. The final one is whatever is left of the ACC/Big 12 combined that wasn't raided by the other three.
If I was a betting man, I'd take Temple over Indiana, head-to-head in football right now. Temple's QB is insanely good.Yes, I know some of the teams used to be in what is now a P5 conference. However, they were conferences that had to be blown up because they couldn't make it financially. Houston and SMU are left overs from the old Southwest Conference. Temple played Big East football for years. UConn played Big East football in the final phase of football for the conference, as did Cincy and USF, but UConn had traditionally been FCS prior to that, and Cincy and USF were CUSA schools that backfilled into the Big East. Navy is also an old power of yesteryear that will join next season. And we can't forget that Tulane was a former member of the SEC!
All that is left now is for the AAC to add former power independent Army; former SW Conference member Rice; and former what-became-the PAC12 member Idaho. Then the AAC would have every big name school in history that plays FCS football today that is not in the P5.
There are two arguments to be made here and depending on which argument a person makes is how I view the situation.
If the argument is "Should UConn be in a P5 conference?" I will agree 100%.
If the argument is "Should the AAC be a "P6"? Hell no!
If I was a betting man, I'd take Temple over Indiana, head-to-head in football right now. Temple's QB is insanely good.
Another way to look at this ---- TV Networks are in business to make money.
The Baylor-UCF Fiesta Bowl ratings were down 11% from the previous year's matchup of Oregon-Kansas State. The TV Networks expect big money teams to play in these big-money games. No team in the AAC can pull off the ratings of a Power 5 matchup.
If I was a betting man, I'd take Temple over Indiana, head-to-head in football right now. Temple's QB is insanely good.
I am reconsidering. lol But Temple can play.I wouldn't.
Yes, you missed the part about Louisville being replaced with Tulane, Tulsa and East Carolina.
Show one sign of strength and you are gobbled up by a P5. The AAC will never amount to anything but a Group of 5.
This is so wrong I don't know where to begin.
Baylor is a private religious school. Blame it on Baylor. Actually, I'm surprised the ratings of 11% were that good, given that there was a small religious private involved in the game as opposed to two state schools who are the best football schools in their respective states.
Ok, so if a B1G or ACC invite came, you would want to turn it down because the AAC is clearly on the move. Got it.
Just to be clear, most of the fans here feel the ex-CUSA schools are the equals of the old BE teams that left, and that the level of competition hasn't dropped. Much of our perception is based on competition against all these schools, and competition against some B1G schools like Indiana and Michigan, or many of the ACC schools, or Vanderbilt and South Carolina in the SEC, or Iowa St. and Baylor. UConn has lost some and won some, held its own. Which is about what it did in the old BE.
I agree that the AAC has no heavyweights like OSU, but after you get passed the top 2, the rest of the schedule is not all that different.
Why did you respond like this?
This is so wrong I don't know where to begin.
Baylor is a private religious school. Blame it on Baylor. Actually, I'm surprised the ratings of 11% were that good, given that there was a small religious private involved in the game as opposed to two state schools who are the best football schools in their respective states.
Ok, so OSU is a standout over the AAC. And one other school is as well. Michigan State I'm assuming? But Nebraska, Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Michigan are not all that different from Tulane, Tulsa, East Carolina, Temple and USF. I see.
I'm sorry, but UCF is not a national draw. They may be some day and completely deserved everything they earned last year. That being said, no one outside of AAC and hardcore college football fans knew what UCF accomplished last year. If they had beat S. Carolina last year, they would have had a claim to the championship game. Yet, a one loss Auburn team still would have been selected to play FSU.
IMO - Baylor was a bigger draw than UCF the casual college football fan.
You are talking about how great the AAC is. So I could only assume you want UConn to stay there forever.
Just to be clear, most of the fans here feel the ex-CUSA schools are the equals of the old BE teams that left, and that the level of competition hasn't dropped.