How long before the AAC implodes?

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Missouri State's AD was on the radio yesterday and was asked about this and he said he expects more movement in the near future. Thinks the SEC will add two more teams causing a ripple effect throughout again. Said his personal opinion for the Valley was to add a couple of new teams from the west to help Mo State out since we are now the outlier in the conference.

St. Louis :0

[VUGrad1314]

Missouri State's AD was on the radio yesterday and was asked about this and he said he expects more movement in the near future. Thinks the SEC will add two more teams causing a ripple effect throughout again. Said his personal opinion for the Valley was to add a couple of new teams from the west to help Mo State out since we are now the outlier in the conference.

Do you have a link to the audio? What do you think the next shoe to drop is? Something to do with the Big XII? Texas\Oklahoma moving?

[Kip Dynamite]

He said he thought it would begin with the SEC followed by moves in the Big 12. I don't have an audio link.

[VUGrad1314]

Has to be Texas\Oklahoma. It's the only thing that makes sense. Followed by a raid by the Big XII of the AAC led presumably by Cincinnati and Houston but others could be involved there. I suppose Cincinnati and West Virginia could be SEC candidates as well but they aren't nearly the prize a Texas\Oklahoma package would be.

[RacerJoeD]

Oklahoma seems likely, but Texas doesn’t. They are quite happy with the longhorn network.


But maybe Sooners joined by Oklahoma State?

[musiccitybulldog]

Through just sports talk I hear a lot of fans hope for Memphis to go to the SEC. Quite a "happening" area.

[uniguy]

I think the thing we are all missing here is that the Big East seemed to have somehow solved the "scheduling with 11 teams" impossible puzzle that has kept us from adding to our league. If someone could get the formula from them that would be great.

[Ali]

I think the thing we are all missing here is that the Big East seemed to have somehow solved the "scheduling with 11 teams" impossible puzzle that has kept us from adding to our league. If someone could get the formula from them that would be great.

Where this is going to end up killing mid-majors is that there’s now two fewer games that the Big East might schedule against us. Will be the same for other leagues who increase conference games.

For the Big East, it’s now twenty regular season games, plus league challenges against Big Ten and Big 12. Add in MTE and maybe a regional rivalry (Creighton - Nebraska, Villanova in Big 5) and what’s left? A couple buy games but not much else.

[uniguy]

I think the thing we are all missing here is that the Big East seemed to have somehow solved the "scheduling with 11 teams" impossible puzzle that has kept us from adding to our league. If someone could get the formula from them that would be great.

Where this is going to end up killing mid-majors is that there’s now two fewer games that the Big East might schedule against us. Will be the same for other leagues who increase conference games.

For the Big East, it’s now twenty regular season games, plus league challenges against Big Ten and Big 12. Add in MTE and maybe a regional rivalry (Creighton - Nebraska, Villanova in Big 5) and what’s left? A couple buy games but not much else.

I agree. I think the Power 6 conferences increasing their schedule to 20 is all-the-more reason for us to follow suit. Fewer scheduling opportunities already anyway. I'd rather play Murray State twice than a D2 and a D3.

[TheAsianSensation]

I think the thing we are all missing here is that the Big East seemed to have somehow solved the "scheduling with 11 teams" impossible puzzle that has kept us from adding to our league. If someone could get the formula from them that would be great.

The solution to this puzzle is to be on a network that doesn't have a lot of conferences under contract.

(this requires a bit of in-depth explanation).

A one-week schedule for a conference with 11 members would look something like:
Monday: 1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4
Tuesday: 5 vs. 6
Wednesday: 7 vs. 8, 9 vs. 10
Thursday: 1 vs. 11
Friday: 2 vs. 3
Saturday: 4 vs. 5, 6 vs. 7, 8 vs. 9
Sunday: 10 vs. 11

Every team has played twice in 1 week. Everyone has played on relatively normal rest. But notice a few things here. TV contracts are a lot more complicated with league games each night. Limited flex opportunities. Also note that travel partners don't work well in this type of setup, and scheduling officials might get tricky. Lots of moving parts.

There's a reason why many conferences avoid this, especially those with solid ESPN contracts. Look at the SEC and Pac-12 for example. Pac-12 has a pretty strict Thursday-Saturday schedule plan (with some Sunday instead of Saturday, and sometimes rivalry games on a Friday). SEC plays almost exclusively a Tuesday-Saturday schedule every week. Now the ACC has an odd number of teams, 15. But notice they also have a locked in spot on Big Monday, and notice how they get on TV 4 weeknights every week. Every other conference has a night (Big 12 has a Big Monday spot; B1G has a usual Tuesday spot, so does the SEC, etc etc). ACC, the one team with odd numbers, shows up everywhere.

Now, what does this have to do with the Big East and FOX?

FOX doesn't have a lot of CBB rights. They need to maximize the number of times they show the Big East. If the Big East just had 10 teams and a rigid Wednesday/Saturday schedule, that'd be awful for FOX. They need Big East games every day of the week if possible.

Now look at the breakdown of 11 teams on a weekly schedule. Going from 10 to 11 actually lets them do that.

If the MVC went to 11 teams, they would have to consider things like scheduling officials, making sure their best games always fall into the right TV windows, and the like. Certainly possible to do, but not the easiest. Big East is actually in a unique position thanks to the FOX CBB rights situation to go to 11 teams and make it stick.