Another C-USA/Belt Merger Article from Footballscoop.com

El Paso Eagle · May 26, 2020

Here is an article from Footballscoop.com

https://footballscoop.com/news/could-the-coronavirus-lead-to-a-conference-merger/

GrandGreen · May 26, 2020

Has any of these writers considered that it makes just as much sense for the AAC to combine with ether the Belt or CUSA?

Seems like that they have bought that P6 foolishness.

Aquila_Viridis · May 26, 2020

We get the worst commissioners in these sad conferences.

UNTexas · May 26, 2020

No. Just no.

NM Green · May 27, 2020

Non starter for this fan. Until you bring the AAC into the conversation I don’t want North Texas to even consider this nonsense.
GMG

Blue Horse · May 27, 2020

3 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Has any of these writers considered that it makes just as much sense for the AAC to combine with ether the Belt or CUSA?

Seems like that they have bought that P6 foolishness.

Nah, we've blocked you from enough conferences. You guys can have this one.

Rudy · May 27, 2020

A SBCUSA merger would likely be the death knell for this program, forever relegating NT to the lowest tier of relevance.

Not only no, but hell naw!

Wag Tag · May 27, 2020

For all out there that don’t believe in regional competition to save $$$, increase your donations dramatically. One or the other has to happen.

MCMLXXX · May 27, 2020

13 hours ago, Blue Horse said:

Nah, we've blocked you from enough conferences. You guys can have this one.

I assume you learned this from TCU.

MrAlien · May 27, 2020

None of the schools in the AAC will want to leave it for a "lesser" conference... and UNT is not going to be invited to the AAC with SMU down the street.

Coach Andy Mac · May 27, 2020

49 minutes ago, MrAlien said:

None of the schools in the AAC will want to leave it for a "lesser" conference... and UNT is not going to be invited to the AAC with SMU down the street.

Sadly I think you are correct.

TIgreen01 · May 27, 2020

Agree that something like this makes sense for non-revenue sports. Also, agree that if we are really prioritizing travel costs then it makes little sense to limit to just two conferences. Where do you draw the line, though? We have the following FBS schools in Texas alone:

North Texas, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, UTEP, Baylor, UT-Austin, Texas St, UTSA, Texas A&M, Rice, Houston

How desperate are each of these schools to cut costs? Probably to varying degrees. It seems highly unlikely that the P5 schools would ever consider this. I’m curious, though, if football and basketball should be treated fundamentally differently. Could a school have more than one conference affiliation? One for football and basketball, and another for non-revenue sports? If that is a possibility, then realignment options become more interesting. As it stands today, nothing resembling a true regionally focused realignment will occur. It will continue to be food chain based...

C Rod · May 27, 2020

18 hours ago, GrandGreen said:

Has any of these writers considered that it makes just as much sense for the AAC to combine with ether the Belt or CUSA?

Seems like that they have bought that P6 foolishness.

Follow the money. AAC has 11 years left on a lucrative 12 year TV deal with ESPN. Each school makes an average of $7M per year. Adding more schools to AAC would dilute each school's share of the pie. And from all reports, AAC is in no hurry to fill the vacancy left by UConn last year. If AAC wants to reduce travel costs, they can easily schedule games with eager schools in the C-USA and Sun Belt.

C-USA and Sun Belt TV deals are laughable compared to AAC. The C-USA TV deal pays us a paltry $200K per year. I couldn't find the exact numbers for Sun Belt but it's in the same ballpark. This disparity is why writers aren't suggesting an AAC merger with either conference.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · May 27, 2020

31 minutes ago, C Rod said:

Follow the money. AAC has 11 years left on a lucrative 12 year TV deal with ESPN. Each school makes an average of $7M per year. Adding more schools to AAC would dilute each school's share of the pie. And from all reports, AAC is in no hurry to fill the vacancy left by UConn last year. If AAC wants to reduce travel costs, they can easily schedule games with eager schools in the C-USA and Sun Belt.

C-USA and Sun Belt TV deals are laughable compared to AAC. The C-USA TV deal pays us a paltry $200K per year. I couldn't find the exact numbers for Sun Belt but it's in the same ballpark. This disparity is why writers aren't suggesting an AAC merger with either conference.

Tulsa and ECU are stinking it up money wise, so dropping them (now 9) and adding someone like App St and UNT or someone from the west would just make sense

C Rod · May 27, 2020

4 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Tulsa and ECU are stinking it up money wise, so dropping them (now 9) and adding someone like App St and UNT or someone from the west would just make sense

I agree. IMO, this is the most plausible path for us to jump to the AAC. We need Tulsa to fold like a deck of cards so we can take their place.

El Paso Eagle · May 27, 2020

39 minutes ago, C Rod said:

Follow the money. AAC has 11 years left on a lucrative 12 year TV deal with ESPN. Each school makes an average of $7M per year. Adding more schools to AAC would dilute each school's share of the pie. And from all reports, AAC is in no hurry to fill the vacancy left by UConn last year. If AAC wants to reduce travel costs, they can easily schedule games with eager schools in the C-USA and Sun Belt.

I wonder how they set it up for schools to leave and a new school to join? These are long-term deals but I doubt any school in the AAC would turn down an invite to a P5 conference.

UNTLifer · May 27, 2020

9 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

Tulsa and ECU are stinking it up money wise, so dropping them (now 9) and adding someone like App St and UNT or someone from the west would just make sense

App St. just dropped three men's programs.

Blue Horse · May 27, 2020

3 hours ago, MCMLXXX said:

I assume you learned this from TCU.

A good joke is grounded in reality, or at least a perceived reality. UNT being blocked by SMU fits this. This is just you using TCU to take a shot at SMU, and not in a way that's clever or true.

So, first off I'm going to assume that you're completely throwing out how the schools were in the same conference for decades, which already makes the relationship between TCU-SMU vastly different from that of UNT-SMU. I'm guessing you just chose to ignore that and concentrate on more recent years. In that area, as recently as the Big East, TCU was actually advocating having SMU in the same conference as them. In fact, the vote was done and SMU was going to be in the same conference as TCU. Did this actually come to pass? No. Now, you might say TCU secretly had one foot out the door anyway so it didn't matter anyway, but nothing is a done deal until you sign on the dotted line. TCU was not yet in the Big 12. They could have voted against SMU just to be on the safe side if they really wanted to keep them down, but they didn't.

That brings us to the Big 12. TCU happens to be in the Big 12 these days, and SMU isn't. Why? Well, you say TCU is blocking us. This is really strange. I mean, I know TCU is ahead of SMU, but come on, you guys hate SMU, and you're trying to tell me that the only reason SMU isn't in the Big 12 is TCU is blocking us? Yes, clearly Texas and Oklahoma wanted us, but TCU voted against us so the whole conference got in line and told us no. TCU runs the Big 12, you know. What you're saying is so unnecessarily conspiratorial.

Lastly, only you are advocating this relationship between the two programs. Both SMU and TCU fans can admit that TCU's program is ahead of SMU's without having to resort to this idea that TCU is responsible for SMU's conference woes.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Blue Horse

C Rod · May 27, 2020

7 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

I wonder how they set it up for schools to leave and a new school to join? These are long-term deals but I doubt any school in the AAC would turn down an invite to a P5 conference.

UConn is paying the AAC an exit fee of $17M to leave for the Big East.

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2019/07/26/opinion-why-did-aac-cave-uconn-exit-fee-negotiations-big-east-basketball-football-fbs-fcs/1840567001/

TheColonyEagle · May 27, 2020

Sure wish we would've won more football games the past 4 years.....

We're 27-25 playing the worst competition in the country, no bowl wins.

Not sure that gets us any credibility with other conferences

aztecskin · May 27, 2020

I wrote about this on CR a couple of days ago. I think moving is ridiculous, and the rationale doesn't make sense to me. I get that nearly every member program is "unhappy" but that is no reason to leap when we don't know what is on the other side.

The writers repeating themselves saying "yeah they should merge" are never super familiar with either of the leagues and think of them as interchangeable. That is fine, for their entertaining HSOs, but not good analysis. There are few good answers.

https://cusareport.com/2020/05/25/cusa-is-hanging-on-by-a-thread/

GrandGreen · May 27, 2020

2 hours ago, C Rod said:

Follow the money. AAC has 11 years left on a lucrative 12 year TV deal with ESPN. Each school makes an average of $7M per year. Adding more schools to AAC would dilute each school's share of the pie. And from all reports, AAC is in no hurry to fill the vacancy left by UConn last year. If AAC wants to reduce travel costs, they can easily schedule games with eager schools in the C-USA and Sun Belt.

C-USA and Sun Belt TV deals are laughable compared to AAC. The C-USA TV deal pays us a paltry $200K per year. I couldn't find the exact numbers for Sun Belt but it's in the same ballpark. This disparity is why writers aren't suggesting an AAC merger with either conference.

I hope ESPN is is around to honor that contract, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it.

Most realignment speculation is predicted on the end of the B12 contract which ends in 2025.

The AAC deal also allows for flexibility with the addition or subtraction of teams.

So AAC realignment is at least theoretically possible, although the financial consequences make it much more unlikely than other g5's.

Harry · May 27, 2020

2 hours ago, Blue Horse said:

Lastly, only you are advocating this relationship between the two programs. Both SMU and TCU fans can admit that TCU's program is ahead of SMU's without having to resort to this idea that TCU is responsible for SMU's conference woes.

I don't think TCU wants you in the Big 12 for the same reason that Tech and Baylor, Okie State and Kansas didn't want to have UH back. I think they like having a leg up on you in recruiting via the conference affiliation. And let's honest the difference between the SEC and Big 12 is tiny when compared to P5 and G5. G5 is sort of like the short bus in term of perception. And I don't like it and don't think it is fair. There is no meritocracy in it.

Rudy · May 27, 2020

6 hours ago, Wag Tag said:

For all out there that don’t believe in regional competition to save $$$, increase your donations dramatically. One or the other has to happen.

I don't think it's a matter of not believing in regional competition to save money, just the understanding that a regional conference like the one being proposed is not going to bring any additional money in, and will be the same as what we have now, just closer. What we need to focus is the MWC or the AAC, whichever we can get into.

Wag Tag · May 27, 2020

22 minutes ago, Rudy said:

I don't think it's a matter of not believing in regional competition to save money, just the understanding that a regional conference like the one being proposed is not going to bring any additional money in, and will be the same as what we have now, just closer. What we need to focus is the MWC or the AAC, whichever we can get into.

You either save or generate $$$. Travel expenses would save a ton of $.