LOL - Wichita State (American new members)

[UEACES80]

Wichita State takes a hard body shot with the soon to be addition of these SIX basketball juggernauts to the American Conference:

Charlotte
FAU
North Texas
Rice
UAB
UTSA

(I will admit I can remember years where Charlotte and UAB have been good but the others bring ZIP in the way of hoops)

[squirrel]

All kidding aside, we all would want our institutions to get that kind of exposure in Tampa, Dallas, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Charlotte, Birmingham and Virginia, Florida and Texas more broadly.

It's not just athletics prestige that drives these moves. It helps these academic institutions build national (and international) profiles. (See: SLU in the A10, Creighton and Butler in the Big East have more students from states outside their traditional 5 state regions than they have ever seen.)

[MVC Phil]

This shows that market size was the key factor in the AAC thinking and could be going forward with a lot of the expansion decisions.

ESPN is more likely to keep those AAC Saturday football games and those basketball games on Sunday national TV with Dallas, Houston, Birmingham and Charlotte possible eyeballs over Boone NC, Myrtle Beach SC and Huntington WV,

Look at it from the football side and to a lesser extent basketball

Passed over App St, Marshall and Costal Carolina

[UEACES80]

While I understand the TV Market Share: I also know that none of these schools bring a lot of eyes to the TV screen for football other than UTSA.

Charlotte - a pro town then you have the various ACC fans

FAU - I cant speak of any knowledge whether they do or don't have a following though I imagine Florida, FSU and Miami are the teams of interest.

North Texas - Dallas Cowboys, UT, TAMU and OU then even Oklahoma State, SMU & TCU really make these guys an after thought.

Rice - a pro town as well (sort of as the Texans are really bad) but I live here and it is a TAMU, UT then a UH market and lastly Rice (though they beat out Texas Southern, Houston Baptist and Prairie View).

UAB - Can you say Bama and Auburn dominate the market.

UTSA - They are a sleeper program in a major market that doesn't have NFL and while UT and TAMU have influence here it is not as strong as the Houston presence for the big two.

[VUGrad1314]

North Texas has also been decent to good in basketball recently but I agree that that is a gnarly set of adds. Charlotte has not been good in basketball since they went FBS. Maybe the added exposure and media profile such as it will be will help them but I agree that that is not at all what the Shockers signed up for even if those three end up being solid basketball additions. It will get even worse if and when Memphis and\or SMU leave.

[RacerJoeD]

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status ... 44545?s=20

"It's time for Temple to go Colonel Jessup and order a CODE RED.

The Owls' program is straddling a fence: The school's administration is either going to prioritize its basketball programs or the demise of Temple in the hoops world is going to commence.

There is NO in between."

A reminder that this university is located in a large city, has 37,000 students, a solid tradition, very good academics, and a national reputation.

This is why i dont understand any school making decisions based on football, unless you are already in the P5 (and really some of them are already seeing massive losses). The Shockers didn't do that, but they did decide to align with those who do.

If you are a basketball school, embrace that, lean into it, make that your identity, and base your decisions around that. That is a major reason why I want my Racers in the Valley.

[VUGrad1314]

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/1451192667451244545?s=20

"It's time for Temple to go Colonel Jessup and order a CODE RED.

The Owls' program is straddling a fence: The school's administration is either going to prioritize its basketball programs or the demise of Temple in the hoops world is going to commence.

There is NO in between."

A reminder that this university is located in a large city, has 37,000 students, a solid tradition, very good academics, and a national reputation.

This is why i dont understand any school making decisions based on football, unless you are already in the P5 (and really some of them are already seeing massive losses). The Shockers didn't do that, but they did decide to align with those who do.

If you are a basketball school, embrace that, lean into it, make that your identity, and base your decisions around that. That is a major reason why I want my Racers in the Valley.

I hope Temple continues to embrace football because if they don't and they go back to the A10 our chances of holding on to Loyola decrease sharply. Hopefully a loss like that (or of Missouri State if they went FBS) wouldn't be enough to dissuade the Racers but those would be massive blows. Stay strong and embrace football Temple!

[Adunk33]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4fI3TruAOw

Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn.

The American is Conference USA. Conference USA is The American.

This felt like how this conference was going to trend. It felt like Cincy and Houston would move to the Big 12 at first chance and that's a big hit to the AAC. If Memphis had somewhat respectable football, I feel like they'd be gone too. Now you replace Top 25 teams with teams that don't bring a lot other than being in decent markets.

I saw a few weeks ago where SLU was making an announcement this week on "the future of SLU athletics." A small part of me felt like they could be announcing a move to The Valley, which as has been discussed...COULD open the door for a Wichita return. The announcement from SLU ended up being a new athletics facility. In a world of realignment, kind of a bummer announcement, but good for them.

[VUGrad1314]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4fI3TruAOw

Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn.

The American is Conference USA. Conference USA is The American.

This felt like how this conference was going to trend. It felt like Cincy and Houston would move to the Big 12 at first chance and that's a big hit to the AAC. If Memphis had somewhat respectable football, I feel like they'd be gone too. Now you replace Top 25 teams with teams that don't bring a lot other than being in decent markets.

I saw a few weeks ago where SLU was making an announcement this week on "the future of SLU athletics." A small part of me felt like they could be announcing a move to The Valley, which as has been discussed...COULD open the door for a Wichita return. The announcement from SLU ended up being a new athletics facility. In a world of realignment, kind of a bummer announcement, but good for them.

The SLU announcement is to position themselves for a future Big East invite which I think has a real chance of happening. I still think the door will eventually be open for a Wichita State return but it is contingent upon two things:

1. Memphis and\or SMU leaving the AAC and

2. The Mountain West passing on Wichita State.

if those two things happen Wichita State may have nowhere else to go but to return to the Valley, They are not an institutional fit for either the A10 or the Big East and they would not be a geographic fit for the A10 with SLU gone. if the Mountain West says no to them what choice do they have outside of sticking it out in the AAC? That doesn't mean we shouldn't make moves to continue to strengthen ourselves independent of whether Wichita State will return because that might make it easier for us to get them to bite but the door is certainly open and just got significantly more likely with the AAC's decision to go in such a football centric direction. If they had added schools like Marshall WKU La Tech and Old Dominion on top of North Texas and UAB (Charlotte I'm iffy on Good tradition but have struggled quite a bit in basketball since moving to FBS) I would say that Wichita State has a good chance of ending up happy enough with their new arrangement not to do anything but with FAU UTSA and Rice being part of the package that is not good for a school that cares primarily about basketball.

[VUGrad1314]

Things could get worse before they get better for the American... Wichita State would probably be well-advised to have their contingency plans ready...

https://www.dmagazine.com/sports/2021/1 ... =feat-sect