MrAlien

Still a big rivalry game, means something to local recruiting, this is also a match up that boosters want to win and that means $$$.

I have seen a lot of articles about the Pac4 AAC merger. one idea the PAC4 in their own "pod" for football. The number $15 Million has come up in several other articles, seems like that what they want per school.

it all depends on the students, the alumni has done a good job in recent years of supporting the university at games, however student turn out has been down the last couple seasons.

Every team in this event has March Maddness aspirations, matching up in the first game against St Johns it going to be a real test, Pitino seems to have had a very good recruiting class. Hopefully this game is on ESPN with both schools coming from top 5 media markets.

there is a regular season and conference championships for a reason, take the top 8 conference champions and thats the playoffs. There will still be plenty of other bowl games for those that dont qualify.

for me its less about facilities and more about marketing and branding... Denton has evolved into a Dallas suburb, and UNT has that stigma of being just another community college in the suburbs.

I think it will come down to flexibility... none of these schools really want to move down to the G5 level, so if they are allowed an easy exit should a power conference come calling that will be an incentive. They dont necessarily need a conference for football, but they do for other sports, they could keep the PAC designation for football while playing in other sports in other conferences.

The AAC does offer a better media deal then the MWC, more money and more lucrative markets. I also think the AAC might offer more flexible terms, should these schools find a power conference that wants them.

the BIG12 is stacked for basketball, can Tech even make the tournament?

Bally's problem was they couldnt deliver. they couldnt get their product out because they failed to work out deals with cable and sat providers. they were late to the app game, which required you to have a cable subscription, at a time when everyone was cutting the cord. then they had an app that for $20 month you could watch just Stars and Mavs games locally, it didnt work great for me and I canceled. I am still not sure how to watch Ranger games. It took ESPN a while to get their streaming quality up, but they were ahead of the game, most people still had cable when they started streaming. Today its reliable, offering a variety of games, and still reasonably priced. They can deliver, and thats what its all about.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do think the MWC exit fee does change at a certain date. So I think they will still have some interest from MWC schools like SDSU and UNLV. Plus the conference still has their own Pac12 TV network, and can self stream. Gonzaga is also an option

So far I think he has done well recruiting, on paper this is a very strong team. We know he can coach the defensive side of the ball, its been said he was the architect of the defense under Mac. Assuming he can get the players to buy into his system then I think this team could be tournament bound in March. Getting to the Sweet 16... The AAC should be a multi bid conference, and the lowest seeded team would probably be a 12 seed at worst. Which means the match ups should be winnable in the first 2 rounds, so very possible that UNT could reach the Sweet 16.

so best bet is to have uber drop me at the west 7th area and walk over to the game? how far a walk is that?

Stanford and Cal might be able to survive football as independents, but will need to find a conference for other sports. Not being in a major conference is going to set recruiting back for all those sports. If I were the PAC, I would get a deal done ASAP, and if some schools dont like it then let them leave. the longer this takes the worse it gets.

Was that $20 Million per school offer made before or after Colorado left? I would assume that the payout decreases as more schools leave.

Of course he is the guy, in fact I think he deserves a lot of credit for some of the success that this team has had. My point is, should this team reach the Sweet 16, its going to be very hard to keep him.

Th PAC is in trouble... Their potential media deal is shrinking by the day... I dont think any of the MWC schools are going to pay the exit fee to leave. It doesnt look like that conference will have a easy way into the playoffs, and probably a 1 bid conference in March. I am not even sure a merger with the MWC is what the remaining PAC schools would want, certainly there would be a disparity with compensation and payouts.

How many of those schools are actually serious? Filing paperwork just gets everyone talking about you, donors ear's pop up, and your social media footprint sees a boost.

I dont see how their deal gets close to $30M, viewers tuned in to watch UCLA and USC play, those are nationally recognized programs, the rest are just regional draws.

UNT does not have the best track record when it comes to paying for coaches, a sweet 16 caliber coach (and staff) comes at a price, I just dont know that the university is ready to go there. Dusty May going to be moving, its just a matter of timing. The good programs making a change already have their next coaches in place by the time the final four happens.

as a power conference, no.

if UNT made the Sweet 16, I think Hodge and the coaching staff would be poached by other programs rather quickly.

The top team in the AAC should be a sweet 16 team... However would the university back a coach that takes us to the sweet 16?

It all comes down to money, if the PAC12 pay out is better then you could say its worth it. However I have to wonder based on who is left and who could possibly join the PAC12, is the pay out going to be worth it? Its safe to say, with out SC, CU, and UCLA the payout per school is not going to be close to $30 million... Will it even be half that?

Once you get past the SEC and Big10, the next best thing to have are the big media markets. This has been the AAC's game plan, and its one that I think will pay off in the next era of college sports media. Though I dont think I would take as many schools, 16 tops.