SMU suffers because American Athletic Conference

[Harry]

UNIVERSITY PARK — The NCAA pronounced the SMU Mustangs guilty by association Sunday.

Guilty of association with the new American Athletic Conference.

There were five basketball teams from the fledgling AAC in the final Associated Press basketball poll last week: No. 5 Louisville, No. 13 Cincinnati, No. 19 Memphis, No. 21 Connecticut and No. 25 SMU.

Four of those teams were extended invitations Sunday to participate in the 68-team NCAA Tournament. SMU was not and will settle for the National Invitation Tournament, in which it will host UC Irvine in a first-round game Wednesday night.

“At the end of the day, I don’t think they felt our conference was worthy of having five teams in,” SMU coach Larry Brown said.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/columnists/rick-gosselin/20140316-gosselin-smu-suffers-because-american-athletic-conference-an-afterthought-in-ncaa-tournament.ece

[Mean Green 93-98]

Actually, the key sentence is probably

What seemed to matter was that three-game losing streak to close the season against Louisville, Memphis and, in the conference tournament, Houston.

Blaming it on the AAC is silly.

[Ben Gooding]

The AAC is really just the new CUSA. CUSA wouldn't get 5 teams in 5 years ago, so why justify 5 teams now? Next year the perception will fall off even more when Louisville moves over to the ACC.

[Andrew]

The AAC is really just the new CUSA. CUSA wouldn't get 5 teams in 5 years ago, so why justify 5 teams now? Next year the perception will fall off even more when Louisville moves over to the ACC.

Isn't Cincinnati and Ucon leaving as well?

I would love for them to leave and then have Tulsa and Tulane stay in CUSA and add western. Keep 16 teams.

[ragpicker]

The AAC is really just the new CUSA. CUSA wouldn't get 5 teams in 5 years ago, so why justify 5 teams now? Next year the perception will fall off even more when Louisville moves over to the ACC.

Good point.

[CMJ]

Isn't Cincinnati and Ucon leaving as well?

Not as of yet.

[Andrew]

Not as of yet.

Well hopefully they will leave it. I guess it's old rumors from a year or so ago because I did not know Lucille was going to the ACC. I at one time heard the big 12 was interested in them. I will never understand how conferences work in college sports. I would be fine with Texas state, TCU, SMU, Houston, Baylor, tech, SFA, UT, A&M, UTSA, Sam Houston state, rice, UTEP, and two other close colleges (maybe even OSU and OU). Just make it based in geography and states. Makes zero sense the way it is down now!

[UNTFan23]

Well hopefully they will leave it. I guess it's old rumors from a year or so ago because I did not know Lucille was going to the ACC. I at one time heard the big 12 was interested in them. I will never understand how conferences work in college sports. I would be fine with Texas state, TCU, SMU, Houston, Baylor, tech, SFA, UT, A&M, UTSA, Sam Houston state, rice, UTEP, and two other close colleges (maybe even OSU and OU). Just make it based in geography and states. Makes zero sense the way it is down now!

I'm guessing you meant Louisville? Also, Tulsa fans didn't know they were leaving either. Everyone on my row was laughing at the Tulsa fans.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Well hopefully they will leave it. I guess it's old rumors from a year or so ago because I did not know Lucille was going to the ACC. I at one time heard the big 12 was interested in them. I will never understand how conferences work in college sports. I would be fine with Texas state, TCU, SMU, Houston, Baylor, tech, SFA, UT, A&M, UTSA, Sam Houston state, rice, UTEP, and two other close colleges (maybe even OSU and OU). Just make it based in geography and states. Makes zero sense the way it is down now!

The Big XII took West Virginia instead of Louisville.

Why would you hope UConn and Cincy leave the AAC? The AAC will just plug its holes with the best schools from C-USA; and right now, that's probably not us.

[Ben Gooding]

I pray the AAC sends an invitation to North Texas. Extremely doubtful, but that would be a game changer. Tulane, Tulsa, and ECU are all getting ready to jump ship to the AAC. If we could follow suit that would be an everything game changer. CUSA is getting ready to be a laughing stock, much how the Sun Belt was/is. AAC is trying to bring up all the "big name" schools out of the CUSA, and the P5 conferences are plucking out whoever they want out of the AAC. North Texas getting to the AAC and out of the crumbling CUSA would be so big in every single aspect at North Texas, athletically and academically.

[Ben Gooding]

Because make no mistake the big12 will be trying to pluck a couple universities out of other conferences in order to keep up with the evolution of college sports. They won't be able to maintain with 10 schools. No way we would get pulled out of CUSA, but if we somehow could back door our way into the AAC and establish ourselves then who knows, the big12 might come calling. Point I am trying to make is that the step up from the Sun Belt to CUSA was an improvement in perception, but the conference perception that is CUSA is going to die off quickly. GMG

[Harry]

Because make no mistake the big12 will be trying to pluck a couple universities out of other conferences in order to keep up with the evolution of college sports. They won't be able to maintain with 10 schools. No way we would get pulled out of CUSA, but if we somehow could back door our way into the AAC and establish ourselves then who knows, the big12 might come calling. Point I am trying to make is that the step up from the Sun Belt to CUSA was an improvement in perception, but the conference perception that is CUSA is going to die off quickly. GMG

I think you make a very valid point about the Big 12. they will add 2 teams. They can't continue to let West Virginia be on an island. The other school could be Houston or possibly even SMU.

[Andrew]

The Big XII took West Virginia instead of Louisville.

Why would you hope UConn and Cincy leave the AAC? The AAC will just plug its holes with the best schools from C-USA; and right now, that's probably not us.

I would prefer the AAC go away...

[CMJ]

I would prefer the AAC go away...

I doubt it does anytime soon.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I would prefer the AAC go away...

C-USA will go away first.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I pray the AAC sends an invitation to North Texas. Extremely doubtful, but that would be a game changer. Tulane, Tulsa, and ECU are all getting ready to jump ship to the AAC. If we could follow suit that would be an everything game changer. CUSA is getting ready to be a laughing stock, much how the Sun Belt was/is. AAC is trying to bring up all the "big name" schools out of the CUSA, and the P5 conferences are plucking out whoever they want out of the AAC. North Texas getting to the AAC and out of the crumbling CUSA would be so big in every single aspect at North Texas, athletically and academically.

I agree wholeheartedly. However, I don't think it's realistic that we'll get an invite. If there is an opening, SMU will oppose us, and I imagine Houston might too. They would rather keep a clear degree of separation between themselves and us, which they presently have via conference affiliation. Even if they didn't directly oppose us, we add nothing to the AAC in terms of TV market, since they already have the DFW market covered with SMU. And there are other teams that would be ahead of us because of their past associations with those schools. Southern Miss, Marshall, and Rice all get invites before we do for that reason, and for their good overall athletic reputations. UTEP is a notch below them, but they'd still be ahead of us for an AAC invite. Maybe UAB, but the UA BOR has been stabbing them bloody in the back lately, so maybe not. UTSA is probably ahead of us for the simple reason of TV market. And I couldn't confidently say that we would get an AAC invite ahead of LaTech or even MTSU.

So again, asking for volatility in the AAC is probably cutting off our nose to spite our face, because I don't see us as high on the AAC's radar right now.

[Ben Gooding]

I think TV market is an over analyzed aspect. UNC/Duke/NC State, UCLA/USC, UGA/GaTech all share the same TV market but all make it work. It's all about conference affiliation. If a team slips into a marketable conference the sky is the limit. We are sitting at a very pivotal point in North Texas history. We can sit in idle and sink with the inevitable sinking ship of CUSA or North Texas administration can make another real push and try to jump ship, again. Athletics is not the only thing on the line. Conference affiliation also boosts academics and is giant in monetary gains. I think we are eventually doomed if we sit here in CUSA. With the direction of college athletics is going conferences such as ours, Sun Belt, WAC, SMEAC, MAC, MW, etc. will be hung out to dry.

[CMJ]

Those other examples you mentioned were all in the same market before markets were a "thing" though Ben.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I think TV market is an over analyzed aspect. UNC/Duke/NC State, UCLA/USC, UGA/GaTech all share the same TV market but all make it work. It's all about conference affiliation. If a team slips into a marketable conference the sky is the limit. We are sitting at a very pivotal point in North Texas history. We can sit in idle and sink with the inevitable sinking ship of CUSA or North Texas administration can make another real push and try to jump ship, again. Athletics is not the only thing on the line. Conference affiliation also boosts academics and is giant in monetary gains. I think we are eventually doomed if we sit here in CUSA. With the direction of college athletics is going conferences such as ours, Sun Belt, WAC, SMEAC, MAC, MW, etc. will be hung out to dry.

UGA and Ga Tech are not in the same conference, so that one doesn't apply. TV market is way overemphasized, but it's a fact of life. Listen to what conference commissioners say, and one of the main things they look for in a new school is a new TV market. It's possible that a school could offer enough other positives to override its failure to bring in a new TV market (see ECU, Tulsa). But we don't. The main thing we bring right now is our TV market, but we wouldn't bring that to the AAC unless SMU left.

I'm not sure where you get your info, but I'm not sure anyone in UNT's administration or A.D. made any "real push" to get us into C-USA. It just finally got to a point where it was a no-brainer for C-USA, seeing were a perfect replacement for SMU and we were the best of what was left.

[Ben Gooding]

I assumed a push was made for it. If a push wasn't made for it then that's all the more reason for them to make a "push" for it. If you aren't trying to move up and get better then what are we doing? The amateurism in college sports will eventually be dropped. Where will that leave us? Practically or actually playing DII athletics.

[Mean Green 93-98]

I assumed a push was made for it. If a push wasn't made for it then that's all the more reason for them to make a "push" for it. If you aren't trying to move up and get better then what are we doing?

The amateurism in college sports will eventually be dropped. Where will that leave us? Practically or actually playing DII athletics.

If it actually does go that far, then I hope we are practically or actually playing DII athletics. Or we can drop athletics for all I care, because I will not support professional sports at the college level. In the meantime, I'd like to see us do all we can to move up. But reality says it's probably not going to happen anytime tremendously soon.

[Ben Gooding]

No not too new here, just have expectations. I think the younger generation will be demand a little more. Expect it, it's a good thing.

[Ben Gooding]

Those other examples you mentioned were all in the same market before markets were a "thing" though Ben.

yeah, that's why I chose them. Close proximity universities that thrive off of each other.

[Mean Green 93-98]

No not too new here, just have expectations. I think the younger generation will be demand a little more. Expect it, it's a good thing.

Uh, okay. That might work once the younger generation is employed in high positions in UNT's A.D. and administration.

[CMJ]

yeah, that's why I chose them. Close proximity universities that thrive off of each other.

My point is....UNC, Duke, Wake Forest, and NC State would not all be in the same conference today if they hadn't always been.