Report: AAC attempting to take all eight remaining Big 12 members

Greenrex · July 30, 2021

According to Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, the AAC is attempting to take all eight remaining members of the Big 12. Earlier reports stated just three to five, but a full merge of the conferences is wanted.

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/report-aac-attempting-eight-remaining-192507882.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=1_11

RBP79 · July 30, 2021

I would think a P5 would have a little better leverage over a G5 regardless of ESPN Television contracts.

This is going to get interesting as to who is the bigger dog...

TheColonyEagle · July 30, 2021

Like I said, I admire AAC's gumption here...but I still look at if from OK State and TTech's point of view. Both of which have been ranked in the top 10 and been in big national championship implication games the past few years. As they ponder that situation, look at being in a conference with Temple, Tulane and Tulsa and say "thanks....but we'll just go indy if we have to for now"

There is NO WAY those schools go to the AAC. Their fans and alumni would revolt.

greenjoe · July 30, 2021

How about if they lose the name AAC and become the Big XVII or whatever ?

Blue Horse · July 30, 2021

34 minutes ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Like I said, I admire AAC's gumption here...but I still look at if from OK State and TTech's point of view. Both of which have been ranked in the top 10 and been in big national championship implication games the past few years. As they ponder that situation, look at being in a conference with Temple, Tulane and Tulsa and say "thanks....but we'll just go indy if we have to for now"

There is NO WAY those schools go to the AAC. Their fans and alumni would revolt.

Okay, so they don't join to avoid a revolt. Now what?

untjim1995 · July 30, 2021

I'm sure the AAC would love all 8, but the probability is that they get 2 or 3. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the AAC lost a few members, either. I guess the same goes for the MWC in all of this, as well.

As I said, its pretty clear to me that, while the playoff will expand to 12, it will be for the 4 major conferences, ND, and whoever finishes at the top of the teams in the AAC, Big XII, and MWC, as well as BYU.

Its effectively over for the Lower G5s, as has been predicted for a long time now. It probably should be, too. The SBCUSA and MAC schools don't have budgets/deep pocketed alumni to compete with most of these schools above us. Do I still think it will be fun to go to Apogee and see us play against other SBCUSA schools? Of course--it has been these last 10 years, so this won't be changing.

What killed our chances was the 1-aa Fiasco of the 80's and early 90's. We nuked a fanbase, albeit one that wasn't huge, but had potential to be great IF the university showed any interest in the sports world back then. We would have been so much smarter to have followed Louisiana Tech, Arkansas State, Tulsa, and others back then and either avoided i-aa or gotten up from it ASAP. Its my belief, that unlike the schools I just mentioned (save for Tulsa), we would have been in the AAC/MWC already had we done that. But we didn't and the years that followed saw our fanbase decline significantly and never recover as we basically just moved up to I-A in 1995 and ran the entire athletic department off of bodybag games for the next 15 years. We earned our place at the conference table/classification we sit at today. This place isn't Rice, where the small academic school in Houston got into the SWC in its infancy, only to watch the entire landscape leave it behind. We never even got the chance to play with the cool jocks--we always had to be the band kids, the ones who had their own club, except we had no one else in the club, as literally nobody else put music and arts in front of their sports programs as the window to their university. The price to be paid for that viewpoint, athletically-speaking, came home to roost decades and decades ago, yet we have had many who believed, as I once did, the university might FINALLY be able to use its advantages geographically and enrollment/alumni wise to get into better conference setups. That day never came. And in the end, it is what it is.

UNT Football will still be fun to go watch at Apogee with your family and friends, it just will never be a place to go watch our team have the chance to make our way up into the playoff scenario in the years ahead, which was always something I wanted to see happen, even if my head knew my Mean Green Heart was lying to me about that possibility. SBCUSA and MAC schools have been FCS-like for the Power schools, buying us for easy wins and getting our ticket money for the opportunity to watch us get crushed the clear majority of time. That model has lasted a long time, but the NIL and TV deals eventually killed this setup, as people just wouldn't watch and the media began howling about the reality of these games being wipeouts. The networks and the fans want their money going to see power-on-power matchups, so the 12 team playoff setup allows for losses to not hurt as bad anymore--and it makes the rich get richer.

MrAlien · July 30, 2021

I dont see the remaining schools as a P5 conference anymore, because they will not generate the media revenue with out Texas and OU. Iowa st. might go to the Big10, and WV is looking to leave too, then the B12 is down to 6 schools. Its going to be hard enough to generate any revenue with 8 schools let alone 6.

TheColonyEagle · July 30, 2021

3 hours ago, Blue Horse said:

Okay, so they don't join to avoid a revolt. Now what?

Independent

Wag Tag · July 30, 2021

The Big 12 have the better TV deal. Cherry pick AAC and maybe MWC. OKS isn’t going to be in the same conference as Tulsa.

DeepGreen · July 30, 2021

Cherry pick CUSA and bring in UNT.

MrAlien · July 30, 2021

10 minutes ago, Wag Tag said:

The Big 12 have the better TV deal. Cherry pick AAC and maybe MWC. OKS isn’t going to be in the same conference as Tulsa.

with out Texas and OU, that TV deal will be nothing close to what it used to be.

Blue Horse · July 30, 2021

56 minutes ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Independent

What kind of TV deal can a regional school in Lubbock, Texas expect?

Edited July 30, 2021 by Blue Horse

untjim1995 · July 30, 2021

32 minutes ago, DeepGreen said:

Cherry pick CUSA and bring in UNT.

Yeah, in my dreams I also live with a supermodel!!

Monkeypox · July 30, 2021

18 minutes ago, MrAlien said:

with out Texas and OU, that TV deal will be nothing close to what it used to be.

After 2024, sure. But that's still 4 seasons of $37m per team, or 6x what teams in the AAC make, before they need a new home.

If ESPN could just NOT pay them at this point, it doesn't make any sense that they'd be trying to dissolve the rest of the conference. That's why I think there will also be lawsuits at this point.

Wait out the purge, steal teams from AAC-MWC if needed, try and find homes in remaining Power Conferences. Until all those options have been explored, I don't see them all deciding to go hang out with Tulsa, Tulane and SMU for chump change.

untjim1995 · July 30, 2021

Just now, Monkeypox said:

After 2024, sure. But that's still 4 seasons of $37m per team, or 6x what teams in the AAC make, before they need a new home.

If ESPN could just NOT pay them at this point, it doesn't make any sense that they'd be trying to dissolve the rest of the conference. That's why I think there will also be lawsuits at this point.

Wait out the purge, steal teams from AAC-MWC if needed, try and find homes in remaining Power Conferences. Until all those options have been explored, I don't see them all deciding to go hang out with Tulsa, Tulane and SMU for chump change.

If I’m Texas and OU, I just agree to play OOC series against Tech, OSU, Baylor, and TCU in the next decade as a trade off…it’ll be funny how fast those without a sure place to land will capitulate to get those teams on their schedules for the next 10+ years

wardly · July 30, 2021

48 minutes ago, Blue Horse said:

What kind of TV deal can a regional school in Lubbock, Texas expect?

Well, they can count on 100 tv sets in Las Cruces plus what they can pull from El Paso. Probably similar to what SMU could expect.

Blue Horse · July 30, 2021

7 minutes ago, wardly said:

Well, they can count on 100 tv sets in Las Cruces plus what they can pull from El Paso. Probably similar to what SMU could expect.

So you're telling me they shouldn't go independent. Thanks for the agreement.

TheColonyEagle · July 30, 2021

12 minutes ago, Blue Horse said:

So you're telling me they shouldn't go independent. Thanks for the agreement.

Dude. OK State and TTech will NEVER be in a conference with the the likes of Tulsa, Temple, Tulane, etc. Not gonna happen.

Blue Horse · July 30, 2021

1 minute ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Dude. OK State and TTech will NEVER be in a conference with the the likes of Tulsa, Temple, Tulane, etc. Not gonna happen.

You didn't answer my question.

What kind of TV deal can a regional school in Lubbock, Texas expect? Give me a number.

DeepGreen · July 30, 2021

1 hour ago, untjim1995 said:

Yeah, in my dreams I also live with a supermodel!!

I would expect nothing less than a supermodel. You went to UNT, didn't you?

TheColonyEagle · July 30, 2021

17 minutes ago, Blue Horse said:

You didn't answer my question.

What kind of TV deal can a regional school in Lubbock, Texas expect? Give me a number.

Doesn’t matter. They would rather have no TV deal.

let me restate that. AAC teams get $7 million a year?

how many OK State alums would it take to pay that off to NOT be in a Conference with Tulsa. Answer. Wouldn’t take very many to not have their fans say “oh….Temple is coming to Stillwater, I wonder what we’re paying them? What? We’re not? This is a conference game?”

no way

Edited July 30, 2021 by TheColonyEagle

Hunter Green · July 30, 2021

2 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

Cherry pick CUSA and bring in UNT.

Or, have all eight go to the AAC and UNT makes 20! Perfect set up!

GO MEAN GREEN!

Blue Horse · July 30, 2021

29 minutes ago, TheColonyEagle said:

Doesn’t matter. They would rather have no TV deal.

let me restate that. AAC teams get $7 million a year?

how many OK State alums would it take to pay that off to NOT be in a Conference with Tulsa. Answer. Wouldn’t take very many to not have their fans say “oh….Temple is coming to Stillwater, I wonder what we’re paying them? What? We’re not? This is a conference game?”

no way

Okay, now we're making some progress.

1. Let's say Oklahoma State goes independent. Where are they putting their basketball? The only conference that would accept them for basketball only could potentially be the mountain West conference, and that would likely require them to engage in a scheduling alliance with teams that are far worse than the ones in the AAC.

2. Oklahoma State needs to win a championship game to have the best shot they can have at making the playoff. Removing themselves from a conference at this juncture would require them to be something around top six to make the playoff. If Oklahoma State is that much better than everybody else, all the more reason to stick around a couple years, own the whole conference, and after five consecutive playoff appearances get taken by someone else. Going to the AAC provides a future elsewhere.

3. Money. Right now the American conference makes around $7 million a year per school. Yes, that is a big hit. However you cannot just not be on television. To say that a TV contract doesn't matter and Oklahoma State will just have to be principled and not joining with certain schools is misreading the situation.

4. Scheduling as an independent is actually very challenging. Look at the schools that last is independents. They either have limitless money or a national following. Oklahoma State does have certain boosters, but without a national following it decreases the likelihood that they are going to play marquee programs in Stillwater through an independent schedule that you say isn't even on television

5. Recruiting is last. If Texas tech and Oklahoma State were not members of a conference, they would not be playing the games in the larger Texas areas that produce talent. Without consistent games being played in these areas they would not be as relevant they would be in a conference. The best evidence I can give in this regard is Arkansas. When Arkansas left the Southwest conference they believed they would continue to get Texas recruiting while not playing Texas games due to their brand. That never worked out.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Blue Horse

Wag Tag · July 30, 2021

2 hours ago, MrAlien said:

with out Texas and OU, that TV deal will be nothing close to what it used to be.

Make up part of the difference with a $$$ buy in fee and new members give them a smaller share. I believe the Tx OU early buy out is $150m?

GrayEagle · July 30, 2021

Unfortunately, we can speculate all we want but ESPN is calling the shots. It is whatever they want it to be. It's likely that if AAC takes all there will be no repercussions such as a lawsuit if there is no one left damaged and the conference no longer exists.

Now if I had my druthers when the contract is up I'd like to see the AAC take West Virginia, Iowa State, Kansas and Kansas State. The remaining four (Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, TCU, Baylor) would take in Houston, SMU, North Texas, Rice, UTSA, Louisiana, Louisiana Tech and Texas State. Caveat...all must have at least a 40,000 seat stadium by 2025. As to AAC's replacement for Connecticut, I would hope that they could add Army.