Would there even be a viable alignment at 15?

Pod 1 - James Madison, Old Dominion, Marshall, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina
Pod 2 - Georgia Southern, Troy, South Alabama, 2 of WKU/MTSU/Kennesaw State
Pod 3 - Arkansas State, Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas State, Southern Miss

If Texas State leaves instead of Georgia State this might even work better as South Alabama would replace Texas State in Pod 3 and Georgia State would be in the middle of Pod 2.

(09-01-2023 01:38 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(09-01-2023 01:20 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(09-01-2023 01:16 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(09-01-2023 12:00 PM)RUScarlets Wrote:  

(09-01-2023 11:52 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  Name the southern schools ESPN doesn't already own?

I think Liberty is a decent fit as well if they can buy out of the GoR with their own money. Otherwise, it’s going to be TSU or GSU and the Fun Belt will backfill with a SFA or Tarleton in a couple of years.

If Georgia State is the school taken, I suspect Sun Belt will add Kennesaw State so fast your head spins.

If it is Texas State, it won't be as quickly determined but I'd put my chips on WKU.

My thought was if Texas State fills in the SMU gap, the Sun Belt reengages Missouri State who fits nicely in the West with Arkansas State.
Consolidate the Western footprint provide a travel partner for the schools going to Arkansas State

It does---and its a school with great potential. That said--LaTech and ULL are also reasonable western footprint replacement options for the AAC that are a bit farther along in their development.

I don't think the cost savings would justify the move

I'm operating under the idea that cost savings have to justify the move because ESPN isn't gunna make it financially viable

Louisiana Tech makes ZERO sense for Sun Belt as long as ULM and UL are in the league. A second school in the VAST Monroe television viewing area.

Bring no new casual audience, opens up no new recruiting field. Not the best history of "play well with others". I mean come on when UAB gotten beaten into submission by the Bama board and forced to drop football, it was Tech fans chanting "We got football yes we do, we go football, how 'bout you?" Then the AD who had to apologize for insulting ULM, the AD who boasted Tech would never step down to the Sun Belt roughly a year before the school begged for membership.

WKU can be annoying but they don't detour on a trip to go piss someone off.

Yes, Liberty is the only school, besides UConn (who are not returning), and MWC schools Air Force, Colorado State and San Diego State, whose exit fee makes a move unrealistic, who have AAC level budgets in Football and Men's Basketball. Note, Army is also on the AAC forever list, but nothing has changed as far as I know.

Liberty however is not considered suitable for institutional reasons, and the others are not coming. Hence my belief they will stand pat.

I did a quick look at budgets for the core sports and there are some who are similar to the bottom half of the AAC (most of the new schools and Tulane): Old Dominion, James Madison, UMass, Middle Tennessee. All make some sense for the AAC, with the first two in the Virginia market, UMass helping in Boston and New England, MTSU getting you a sniff at the Nashville market. I doubt the Virginia schools would consider moving (ESPN properties, finally in a regional conference with schools they feel are peers, not harboring P4 aspirations, no financial gain in a move since they'd be half shares like the other new schools). I'm not sure AAC schools have any interest in adding UMass football, but you never know. MTSU I'm not sure fits. Mass being an A-10 basketball school and investing in football facilities (still not great) might work, but I'm not at all sold, and doubt AAC leaders are either.

Hence, I lean toward no adds being most likely.

(09-01-2023 01:53 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Louisiana Tech makes ZERO sense for Sun Belt as long as ULM and UL are in the league. A second school in the VAST Monroe television viewing area.

It doesn't make sense for adding media money. I'll grant that.

As for the other stuff -

1. Tech band reminded UAB's terrible president about CUSA by-laws and the importance of football to that community, and then UAB brought back football. That program owes us its existence. UAB fans love us for that.

2. Historic dust-ups probably just mean more fan interest. To whatever extent your fanbases remember comments perceived as insults or home-cooking calls or bench-clearing brawls or scores that they thought were being run up (or obnoxious, know-it-all, sarcastic, opinionated message board posters), that's just driving ticket sales.

Does the "we hate these guys" fan interest and travel savings side out-weight potential better options for pitching a media deal? Or your ADs "having to deal with" our ADs? Or never-ending "at Lafayette" tag-ons?

Maybe not. I suspect I know how message-board fans would vote. But maybe the presidents see things differently. Hard to know. For the record, I always enjoyed our games with ASU (I was born in Jonesboro, as a matter of fact).

(09-01-2023 01:12 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  ... Sounds more likely that Pac-12 is the conference charter going away. There seems to be some concern over taking over P12 as a legal entity because Pac-12 owes money over the Pac-12 Network and is a party to litigation claiming P12 conspired with USC to not pay players. ...

I did not know about the second one, but the solution to the first one is to pay Comcast. The thing about debt is that if you pay it, it's not debt anymore. There's more than enough revenue coming in this current 2023/24 fiscal year to pay it off.

(09-01-2023 04:55 PM)BruceMcF Wrote:  

(09-01-2023 01:12 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  ... Sounds more likely that Pac-12 is the conference charter going away. There seems to be some concern over taking over P12 as a legal entity because Pac-12 owes money over the Pac-12 Network and is a party to litigation claiming P12 conspired with USC to not pay players. ...

I did not know about the second one, but the solution to the first one is to pay Comcast. The thing about debt is that if you pay it, it's not debt anymore. There's more than enough revenue coming in this current 2023/24 fiscal year to pay it off.

And the current members will have to pay it