AAC Conference Realignment Plan 2: Electric Boogaloo
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"Is There a Larger Strategy To This Move?
A lot of people are going to notice that the only teams on their way are decidedly southern. In particular, there are three schools from Texas that could be coming to the AAC. That’s likely because of the looming threat of the Mountain West trying to poach a school like SMU from the AAC. This gives SMU incentive to stay and means there is a replacement already in the conference if the Mustangs do leave. Also, remember that the conference headquarters are in Texas now.
What doesn’t make sense is that the media deal was already going to take a hit, but jumping up to 14 teams, while presumably making less money, doesn’t make a ton of sense. You’re just diluting shares at that point, which goes against the southern media market strategy. Maybe you offer further diluted shares to new members, giving larger shares to the eight remaining schools, but that’s just a maybe.
It’s also important to remember that before the season started, the Big 12 was scared that the AAC was trying to poach its schools. Then the AAC was supposed to be raiding the Mountain West. Now, it’s six C-USA schools. This wasn’t the first plan.
Oh, and that “Power 6” campaign is absolutely dead.
The Situation for Current AAC Schools
The current AAC schools, as in the eight schools that won’t be leaving for the Big 12, are in a tough spot. They’re going to be making less money than they did before, playing in a less prestigious conference, and with fewer opportunities going forward. The entire landscape around them is changing and if they don’t make decisions quickly, things can spiral. So, let’s look at this individually.
ECU
The Pirates aren’t going to love Charlotte joining the AAC, as that will continue to cut into their recruiting in the North Carolina/Virginia area. However, it’s probably a good thing for the conference as a whole. Now, the best thing to do for ECU is to continuing to build and work to be one of the best teams in this new conference.
Memphis
The Tigers desperately want to be on their way to the Big 12, but they’ll have to wait a while longer and invest in facilities a bit further. Luckily, for the Tigers, in this newly designed conference they’ll be in good shape if another round of upward realignment ever does come around.
Navy
Ever since Navy made it to the AAC, there have been questions about their fit. After all, being a military academy can make it difficult to win against a tougher, more fixed schedule than they used to play. Because of this, there were always rumors that Army or Air Force might be on the AAC shortlist, but that hasn’t materialized. Now, you have to wonder if Navy is weighing the pros and cons to being in the AAC. That’s all speculation, though, and with Navy AD Chet Gladchuk being one of four ADs to be on the AAC expansion committee (along with USF’s Mike Kelly, Memphis’ Lair Veatch, and SMU’s Rick Hart).
SMU
Located in Dallas and ranked in the top-25, SMU should be positioned to succeed no matter what conference they’re in. After the disaster that was rebuilding after the death penalty hit. They’d love to move to the Big 12, but there might just not be space. Keep winning and investing in facilities and hope for the best off the field.
Temple
Let’s talk about basketball and geography because they matter here. Temple, like UConn, traditionally sees itself as a basketball first school. They have a proud history there, and haven’t invested the way they need to in football. They’re also now looking at massive amounts of travel and expanded travel expenses with every other program being based in the South. It’s not unreasonable for the Owls to step away from the AAC as the decision that’s best for them.
Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
Tulane
A wise Tulane Twitter account (Fear the Wave) once said,
“I am starting to think we never should have left the Southeastern Conference.” That’s probably true, but hindsight really is 20/20. For now, Tulane is a team that deserves better than a collapsing conference. They’re improving, investing in the program, and in one of the best cities in the country. They’re academically strong, even if they’re not historically great at football. There probably just isn’t room for them anywhere other than the AAC, unless the Big 12 wants to get crazy.
Tulsa
Tulsa has largely been overlooked in all of the realignment discussions. They’re clearly not going to be heading to a new conference, and they seem happy where they’re at right now. More schools in Texas, and therefore recruiting trips, could help them a lot too.
USF
In the last two rounds of conference realignment, there is likely no bigger loser than USF. They went from playing in a BCS conference, the
Big East, where they had enough influence to block rival UCF from joining. Now, they’re being surpassed by UCF and will be sharing a decidedly worse conference going forward where the only other Florida school is FAU. These are mistakes that fall on their administrators and there are a lot of great fans and writers at USF who saw this coming when the school itself didn’t. That’s unacceptable."
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:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22937749/usa_today_16917081.jpg "NCAA Football: Temple at Cincinnati")
