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Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

PhDeac said:
The AAC has plenty of options. They could raid the Sun Belt for App, Coastal, and Louisiana to get some programs that have been ranked recently. They could raid C-USA to stay in character and add teams in large markets like FIU, Charlotte, North Texas, and Rice.
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Looks like the AAC is staying a large market conference. I'm surprised they're going to 14 teams. I guess when you're a waystation until something better comes along, since doesn't matter.
 
WakeForestRanger said:
UTSA should follow Charlotte’s lead and drop the UT from their name.
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Nah. That's annoying. Every now and then there will be a college hoops game like Portland vs. Denver or Memphis vs. Detroit I think they're NBA games. Give me UNCC vs. UTSA instead of Hornets-Spurs.
 
PhDeac said:
Looks like the AAC is staying a large market conference. I'm surprised they're going to 14 teams. I guess when you're a waystation until something better comes along, since doesn't matter.
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Heard that the reason that the AAC is pushing to 14 teams is to grab the Texas schools and block the WAC from the market, which is ridiculous because if the WAC wanted those Texas teams, they could just take them from the AAC.
 
Conference Expansion: Texas & Oklahoma to the SEC?

The Mountain West. The WAC is FCS now. The Mountain West and AAC are pretty even. I don’t think a team in one would leave for the other.
 
PhDeac said:
The Mountain West. The WAC is FCS now. The Mountain West and AAC are pretty even. I don’t think a team in one would leave for the other.
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You're right, my mistake - I always conflate the two due to so many of the MWC teams being original WAC teams before that conference ballooned in the 90s.
 
With the loss of Cincy, Houston and UCF, the American Athletic Conference is adding:

FAU
Charlotte
Rice
UTSA
North Texas
UAB

All of these teams with be departing CUSA.

So the AAC will have:

USF
FAU
Charlotte
ECU
Memphis
UAB
Tulane
North Texas
UTSA
Rice
SMU
Tulsa
Navy (football only)
Temple
Wichita State (not football)

Two FL schools
Two NC schools
4 Texas schools
Schools in LA, TN, AL, OK
Temple and Navy in the mid-atlantic

C-USA is left with:

Marshall
W KY
MTSU
FIU (got to be a bummer for FIU to be left out)
ODU
UTEP
LA Tech
S. Miss

It's rumored that the Sun Belt is looking to poach a couple of the remaining CUSA schools. Would guess Marshall and UTEP. CUSA may be on its way out of existence.
 
You'd think it would be the other way around, but I don't have a convincing case that C-USA is better off than the Sun Belt.

Florida has 7 FBS programs and no more than 2 in the same conference. Right off hand, I think CA, TX, and NC are the only states with 3 or more FBS programs in the same conference and CA and NC are the only ones with 3+ programs in a P5 conference.
 
PhDeac said:
You'd think it would be the other way around, but I don't have a convincing case that C-USA is better off than the Sun Belt.

Florida has 7 FBS programs and no more than 2 in the same conference. Right off hand, I think CA, TX, and NC are the only states with 3 or more FBS programs in the same conference and CA and NC are the only ones with 3+ programs in a P5 conference.
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The Sun Belt was always thought of as worse than C-USA, but by virtue of Coastal's recent rise along with App's and Louisiana's success, the Sun Belt has raised its profile. The conference just signed a contract with ESPN, better than anything CUSA has (I think they have contract with CBS Sports Network). FWIW, Board Favorite John Feinstein just wrote an article touting the success that Keith Gill has had as the Sun Belt commissioner. Gill played football at Duke, and worked for the NCAA, then at Vandy, OK, got the AD job at American University, and then was the assistant commissioner at the A-10 before getting the Sun Belt gig. Gill is the first African-American to get an FBS conference commissioner's job (Kevin Warren was the second), and he apparently has done well raising the profile of the conference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/10/19/keith-gill-sun-belt-conference/
 
PhDeac said:
You'd think it would be the other way around, but I don't have a convincing case that C-USA is better off than the Sun Belt.

Florida has 7 FBS programs and no more than 2 in the same conference. Right off hand, I think CA, TX, and NC are the only states with 3 or more FBS programs in the same conference and CA and NC are the only ones with 3+ programs in a P5 conference.
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but Texas has four FBS programs in the Big XII.
 
PhDeac said:
You'd think it would be the other way around, but I don't have a convincing case that C-USA is better off than the Sun Belt.

Florida has 7 FBS programs and no more than 2 in the same conference. Right off hand, I think CA, TX, and NC are the only states with 3 or more FBS programs in the same conference and CA and NC are the only ones with 3+ programs in a P5 conference.
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Texas as a state fits the last criteria as well. Baylor, Texas, Texas Tech and TCU all currently in Big 12. But for how long?
 
Yeah. I didn't think through TX enough.

The Sun Belt has three programs that have gotten on the national radar in App, Coastal, and Louisiana. Upgrading their bowl situation and TV deal would be the next step. Not sure which C-USA teams would be the best for them to add.
 
Thanks in part to Bobby Petrino's success there, Western Kentucky moved up from the Sun Belt to C-USA after the 2013 season. Now they will be left in an irrelevant C-USA while the part of the conference gets poached by the Sun Belt. Oops.
 
Heard rumors about CUSA just merging w/ the SunBelt... But that's 18 teams. Not sure how that would even work (or why you'd bother).

Definitely feels like a few schools from CUSA are going to be left out in the cold.
 
DeacsATS said:
Heard rumors about CUSA just merging w/ the SunBelt... But that's 18 teams. Not sure how that would even work (or why you'd bother).

Definitely feels like a few schools from CUSA are going to be left out in the cold.
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C-USA tried to pitch a plan to regionalize with the AAC in order to create smaller footprints instead of two large footprints.
 
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