ColoradoEagle

We're one of the largest universities in the country, next to two of the largest cities in the country, in the most sought after recruiting area of the country. Our head coaching position is paid higher than any CUSA school and top 10 among all G5 schools. We have a better football stadium than nearly any other G5 school. We have an IPF, which most G5s don't even have, and it's an amazing one at that. There's absolutely no reason that the job wouldn't be attractive or sought after by many, many coaches. We've had two coaches since Apogee was built. We all (?) know what happened with McCarney, but at least he got our biggest bowl win so far. Seth has been a disappointment towards the end of his tenure, but has gotten us to four bowls. To me, these are the initial signs of life in our modern era. There's no reason to think the pool of coaches who both want to work with the advantages above and an AD like Wren Baker won't be 14 feet deep.

What a woe is me thread. Baylor sucked until they didn't. SMU sucked until they didn't. Houston sucked until they didn't. TCU sucked until they didn't. Like, if your genuine outlook is that UNT can't be successful and forever is a loser because of x,y, and z then I'm not even sure why you're here.

The AAC's concern at this point is adding the 2-4 (8?) strongest all around programs, not ensuring they cover media market X. There is no combination of schools they can add to the conference that will offset their losses. The best they can do is position themselves for the next negotiation several years down the road. UTSA is not a strong candidate, and honestly neither is Rice. Where Rice may get a pass is in the "who you know" department, but that didn't work out real well for them in 2013 or 2014. I'm not saying we go to the AAC, but I am saying that SMU being in the AAC does not have the same impact it did 50 years ago or even 7 years ago.

Everyone has their teams. To me, the only interesting teams in CUSA are the Texas teams, La Tech, and Southern Miss to a lesser extent. We could play the rest of them for 30 years and I doubt my opinion changes. I do think that it's important if we move west that we take at least 1, but preferably 3, Texas/Louisiana schools with us.

If I were SMU, I'd be getting real friendly with the ACC schools.

The leftovers of the AAC in four years could possibly be: Wichita State, Tulsa, Tulane, ECU, and Temple. The leftovers of the MWC in four years could possibly be: SJSU, Fresno State, Nevada, UNLV, Utah State, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado State/SDSU, and Air Force. It's MWC, and it's not even close.

He's talking as the Chair of the Board of Directors, not as the President of UNT.

If it were just a matter of moving from one to the other, you're most likely right. The fact that there is $15 million involved ($5m CUSA exit fee, $10m AAC entrance) is what complicates everything. Even if the AAC were to waive its $10m entrance, there's still $5m exit that I'd wager most schools don't have just laying around. Especially after 2020. Judy feels like she has leverage, and that's why you're seeing this. Whether she actually does or not...who knows.

It makes sense for the AAC if they're unable to get new schools to join, which seems to be where we're at. As it stands, they are no longer an FBS conference after 2022-2023.

The letter...

Not saying I'd give him an extension, just that I wouldn't fire him in that case.

He'd have to win 6 of the final 7.

This is regional G5 wishcasting. SMU would sooner drop football than be in the same conference as ULM.

If I were the MWC trying to get into Texas, I would go with North Texas and Rice. Rice brings academics, hopefully their baseball gets back up to par, and they're just overall a good institution if they can start actually getting behind athletics again. From the CSU AD's comments, though, they're 100% looking at NT and UTSA. I guess they view UTSA and Rice basketball as a push, and easy enough to avoid scheduling UTSA home basketball games on TV. There are no formal invites until the school is willing to say yes. AAC has most likely offered to several schools without it being formal.

I just don't think any conference makes a decision based on this year of football alone. Best case scenario and UTSA goes undefeated in the regular season, their coach is gone anyway. So you really have to consider what else they have to that program, and it's not a lot. Alamodome isn't the worst thing, but it's not far off from us playing our games at Jerry World. At some point, they need to begin planning for an on-campus stadium. That alone will help with their attendance issue. But yes, the basketball gym is by far their most pressing issue, facilities wise. At this point, it's beginning to feel like the AAC will have to waive most or all of their entrance fee to get new members. The schools they're looking at simply don't have the means to pay an exit fee for their existing conference and turn right around and pay a $10m entry fee for the AAC.

No. Unlike the east coast, there is no equivalent to the Big East. Any move towards prioritizing basketball would, at best, land us back in the Missouri Valley.

Although I have no knowledge on the veracity of the source, this is basically what I've been saying. UTSA operates on a Sun Belt budget, plays in a rented stadium 20 miles from campus, and their basketball team plays in a HS gym. Any conference that comes calling is going to want to take a look at their plans for increasing their budget, building an on campus football stadium, and replacing their basketball arena. People on message boards want to latch onto UTSA being 5-0 this season and being 'the only game in their market' despite being closer to Austin than College Station is to Houston. They're not ready to move up, and they may never be ready.

It’s not that hard of a sell, and it sounds like it may have already been made. The SDSU AD said they’re looking at Texas schools who are investing in athletics. That’s definitely us. He also said that he wants to play Boise every year. Adding two schools to the East accomplishes that. CSU and AFA want bigger markets and a presence in Texas/CST. I would actually be surprised if within the next few weeks we don’t see MWC invites to North Texas and UTSA (or long shot Rice instead of UTSA).

Mountain West stays in tact, won't lose four schools to AAC (usatoday.com)

I'm not sure how La Tech qualifies as "bigger markets." Reading the tea leaves, my feeling is that CSU and AFA were assured that bigger markets will be added to MWC immediately. That would mean UNT and UTSA. In the past, Rice would be a shoe in. These days, I feel like their lack of focus on athletics has them on the outside looking in.

I know you said seen, but I decided to take a look at RPI's... Current MWC average rank is about 20 slots higher than AAC minus the schools leaving to the Big 12 (#74 vs #91). Even a few spots higher than the PAC 12, actually (#74 vs #82). If you add UNT and UTSA to the MWC, the average rank stays the same (UTSA's current streak balances out our record). If you add the talked about expansion teams to the AAC (UAB, FAU, Charlotte, and Marshall), they move up a few spots to #86, but they're still solidly behind the MWC as it stands in week 5. Doesn't really mean much, but it was interesting to see just how badly the three leaving has affected the AAC. They go from an average rank of #78 to #91 overnight. Similar to what happened when the CUSA schools left for the Big East. If MWC calls, we need to go.

It's increasingly looking like CUSA's bad media contracts will allow it to be picked clean to the point of either scrambling to find enough members, or completely dissolving.