If they are smart they take the best programs out there. Louisiana, App St, Coastal. Then maybe Charlotte and FAU?
The Sun Belt’s new deal with ESPN was like a 50% increase with more national television exposure, and it runs for the next eight years. I am not sure the AAC gets a deal that good the next go around if they lose the four teams rumored. I just don’t think there is an incentive for SB teams to leave for the AAC.
And are we getting to a point where SMU might just benefit the most from going independent? They can be a small fish in a big pond in the AAC and Sun Belt, but it lowers their profile quite a bit. The Mountain West makes sense on paper for football, but I am not sure how that would work for the other sports.
It’s expensive and difficult going independent. BYU is unique with the Mormon aspect and their brand recognition. I don’t think a school like SMU could do it
Herman did a great job embracing the Urban University as an asset when there . Not sure it would have lasted if he stayed long enough but was cool to watch from afar
Uh AAC gets $7 mill a school now. MWC $4 mill. Worst case for AAC in the re-negotiation is prob $4 mill. Still way better ratings than MWC. Even 2-3 million is a massive jump for the Sunbelt schools that get 500k now. These conferences are very different.
AAC gets that now, but what’s their value when their biggest schools are Memphis and SMU? And will the difference in contracts matter when they have to pay a hefty buyout to the SBC? You don’t see many deals where a conference takes less money, but I’m not sure there is any growth for the AAC if they lose UCF, Cincinnati and Houston.
Its still going to be in the millions. These teams are all worth more than SBC teams and those SBC teams would absolutely jump into a better football and basketball league. AAC is going to have their deal cut when the 3 leave, every TV deal has that clause but it won't be to under a million.
At what point does the Law of Diminishing returns finally end all of this? Big XII loses Nebraska, Colorado, and Texas A&M, so they replace them with TCU and West Virginia, two teams previously in lesser conferences. Then they lose Texas and OU and replace them with Houston and BYU, two teams from even lesser conferences (in terms of prestige) than TCU and WVU were in at the time. What happens if, say, Kansas leaves? Will they be replaced by Tulsa? Or when OSU leaves, will they be replaced with Sam Houston St.? Does the BigXII even deserve to be considered a Power Five conference anymore? Are they just grandfathered in forevermore even if their teams consist of Kansas St, Iowa State, Montana, SMU, Idaho St, UAPB, Georgia Southern, and the University of Phoenix?
Someone is gonna have to explain it to me like I’m 5 how or why WVU has more appeal to another conference than Tech or oSu or Baylor or KState.
Herman's recruiting at UH is vastly overrated once you get passed his ability to take Ed Oliver out of Louisiana.
Was hoping for TCU in our division so my trips to that game would be "work expense." Oh well, getting 2 of KSU, ISU, Cincy and WVU each year at home would be great.
Average travel distance between teams in the lower division: two hours Average travel distance between teams in the upper division: two days
realistically the texas schools will have to be split between the two divisions like in the pac 12 and probably tcu/baylor in the same division since they are rivals now we’re stuck with fucking houston as the texas school that we play on a regular basis shoot me in the fucking face
I feel like having houston on the same level as tech will really hurt them why would all of the kids who couldn’t get into bigger schools go to Lubbock when they could stay in houston or go there from the Dallas area instead
Commuter school so they’ve always kind of been looked down on. Solid athletics but it’s another Texas team and doesn’t exactly have a super involved fan base.
The Big 12 is gonna dominate whatever the division of athletics that doesn't include the Alliance or SEC is called.
I agree, I still think school experience is really important. At UH, 85% of students live all over Houston and drive to campus for class. It’s just not the same.
It depends on if we’re talking general undergrad recruitment or football players but kids have been going to tech from Houston since the 50s, and Harris county is now their 2nd biggest pool behind Lubbock. If we’re talking athletes I still only see actively traveling to see your family every other year for an away game as a positive. You aren’t netting out negative to Houston. If anything they’ll take kids from the Midwest and west coast teams who recruit here.
very funny to read hot takes on the new big 12s football quality from fans of schools that would finish 8th in the new big 12