AAC Membership

[longtimefan]

Fletcher Page of the Enquirer tweeting that AAC members don't want any football only expansion, even BYU. Interesting.

[swilsonsp4]

Justin Williams reported that the AAC have opted to go with 11 schools in 2020 & petition the NCAA to allow a championship game. Divisions would be eliminated. It would’t work with uneven divisions.

[Lobot]

I could have put this in the Media Day thread as well but Aresco is stating that they expect to hear from the NCAA on the waiver request to hold a championship game sometime in the next month.

1) If they don't get the waiver, the AAC might be forced to expand by one school.

2) I would expect a lawsuit from the AAC vs NCAA if the waiver is not granted seeing as how they granted the Big12 a waiver for playing with 10 members.



I'm seeing stuff elsewhere on Air Force being a candidate for this. I'll go on record saying this won't happen and is really a terrible idea.

The article where this stuff started is here: https://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...mountain-west/

If you read the article the whole reason this popped up is that AF's coach thinks the Mountain West is too hard for them and the travel stinks. Based on that there's no way they would be interested in moving to the AAC from a pure football standpoint. The conferences are pretty similar in schedule difficulty and the travel costs would be worse for the Academy going to the east coast in the AAC. The article doesn't even get into conference TV money which is the only way it would make sense for anyone financially and probably the only way to offset increased costs for the AFA.

[longtimefan]

You could put Air Force in the West and move Navy to the East. That way Air Force would only travel to ETZ three times every two years. But I agree I still don't see it.

[Geaux Juan]

And, if AF joins, the Commander-in-Chief trophy is being screwed with; AF and Navy would have to play every year, maybe sometimes as a conference game and some years non-conference. I can't see college football messing with tradition (somebody find me a sarcasm emoji quick). .

[cpawstoney]

You could put Air Force in the West and move Navy to the East. That way Air Force would only travel to ETZ three times every two years. But I agree I still don't see it.

One of the conditions set by Navy when they joined the AAc is that they be placed in the West division.

[red_n_black_attack]

It's the Air Force; put them on a C-130 or two and solve the travel cost problem. For the record, yes I am okay with using taxpayer resources to transport members of the military academies. The plane can be used for other purposes, this is only occasional travel.

[Lobot]

Moot point. The waiver was approved last night for 11 teams with CCG in 2020 and 2021 so very unlikely the conference would expand at this time.

[Bearcats1232002]

I think we should go after VCU for basketball before the Big East does especially since we have lost Uconn.

[longtimefan]

I still think Dayton as a BB member wouldn't be a bad idea. But I'd limit it to no more that 2 BB only members.

[swilsonsp4]

Mike Aresco was just on ESPNU radio’s Full Ride progam (Rick Neuheisel & Chris Childers). He was questioned about possible AAC expansion. He said that, while they currently are not seeking new members, it is their hope to get back to divisional play in football by adding one or possibly three schools. He wouldn’t take the bait as to targets of interest.

[red_n_black_attack]

Crazy thought, because I'm not a fan of playing the same team twice. Would there be any benefit to have a loose affiliation with a conference like the Mountain West where our 1st place team plays their first place team, and second plays second and so on during championship week? It could be the the highest ranked teams in CFP rankings. There could be some crossover with regular season games already scheduled, which could be resolved by switching a slot down, i.e. if the two 3rd place teams have played, 3 plays 4 that year. If the top two teams have already played, then they play again.

[coach]

I think the idea has been floated more in terms of a G5 championship game regardless of conference. My guess is they would likely play it between a season end and a bowl game if in fact there is a bowl invite for either team later in the year or new year's day. If Uc and Byu do run the table which is still tbd i would like to see a matchup. Likely would never happen with a bowl due to the conference affiliations, but i think that would be a widely watched matchup for obvious reasons.

[red_n_black_attack]

I think the idea has been floated more in terms of a G5 championship game regardless of conference. My guess is they would likely play it between a season end and a bowl game if in fact there is a bowl invite for either team later in the year or new year's day. If Uc and Byu do run the table which is still tbd i would like to see a matchup. Likely would never happen with a bowl due to the conference affiliations, but i think that would be a widely watched matchup for obvious reasons.

I am not fond of idea of G5 championship. I am thinking these really are the two conferences that could realistically compete for CFP or NY6 consolation. If this game replaced the conference championship and was billed as best of G5, could get bigger sponsorship. My hope is it is a high tier type of data point for CFP committee.

[coach]

I'm not either, but in this day and age you have to look at any avenue to make money, and that is one. I can honestly now believe that at some point football could go to 75 or 80 teams in one big football pool, and revenues from tv rights become specifically tied to games/schools. Everything seems to become more transaction specific as days go by, and i find it hard to believe that over time schools with big followings are not going to try and increase their paydays.