Category: AAC

Why Tulane should be among top targets for Pac-12 expansion

Tulane would give the Pac-12 a footprint in New Orleans and serves as an obvious travel partner with Memphis.

The Pac-12 conference went from two programs to six last week with the announcement that Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State are leaving the Mountain West to join Oregon State and Washington State starting in 2026.

That puts the Pac-12 75% of the way to forming an FBS conference, where a minimum of eight is needed. Rumors have been swirling since the moment the announcement was made, including discussion on whether Cal and Stanford could come back after joining the ACC, if the Pac-12 would consider non-football schools like Gonzaga, and if there are other Mountain West schools – namely UNLV – that could be targeted next.

Perhaps the most notable programs discussed for continued Pac-12 expansion come from the American conference, with both Memphis and Tulane cited as targets for the Pac-12 by longtime beat reporter John Canzano.

Memphis was one of the first programs we analyzed as a candidate for the new look Pac-12, and today we take a look at the Tulane Green Wave – who make a logical travel partner with Memphis if paired together.

The Pros

Big Willie Fritz put this program on the map with a stellar run as head coach from 2015-2023, with Tulane going 54-47 in that stretch and 3-1 in bowl games, including a Cotton Bowl victory after an outstanding 2022 season.

Tulane struggled when they initially got into the American conference, but went 15-1 combined in 2022 and 2023. New coach Jon Sumrall has big shoes to fill to keep this program among the top shelf teams in the conference, but if he’s able to do so the Green Wave will remain one of the top Group of Five teams in the country – and an ideal pickup for the Pac-12.

Tulane is also located in the heart of New Orleans, the 50th largest media market in the country and a city filled with passionate football fans thanks to the success of the Saints at the NFL level.

Adding a footprint in that kind of media market is a big win for the Pac-12, and pairing them with Memphis makes sense for both programs as well.

The Cons

Tulane has a smaller student population than the schools currently in the Pac-12, as well as other programs being targeted, with a student body of roughly 14,500 – about half the enrollment at Colorado State and Fresno State and well below enrollment numbers at UTSA and Memphis.

Plus, as previously mentioned, Tulane’s football success is relatively recent. The Green Wave appeared in just two bowl games between 1999 and 2018, a Hawaii Bowl victory in 2002 in an 8-5 season and a loss in the New Orleans Bowl in 2013 coming off a 7-6 year. It’s too early to know if coach Sumrall is going to build on the momentum started by Fritz or not, and for the Pac-12 adding this program and hoping they don’t backslide is a bit of a risk.

Additionally, Tulane adds very little to the other revenue generating sport – men’s basketball. The Green Wave have not made the NCAA Tournament since 1995, and they are the 162nd ranked program in college basketball dating back to 1997 when Ken Pomeroy’s data begins.

Tulane went 5-13 in conference play last year, finishing 136th at KenPom, although they did win 20 games the previous season. Still, this is not a team that would move the needle in men’s basketball – which could give conference leadership some pause.

The league already added a marquee basketball brand in San Diego State, and if they are considering bringing in Memphis or even non-football schools like Gonzaga or St. Mary’s, a school like Tulane would be an outlier.

Verdict

New Orleans is an appealing media market for the Pac-12, and Tulane makes an obvious travel partner with Memphis. However, the program’s lack of long term success on the gridiron, and complete inability to compete in basketball, could make Tulane a risky addition for the conference.

Plus, while New Orleans is a nice market, getting a footprint in Texas should be the Pac-12’s top priority – which could make someone like UTSA or even Rice a more appealing option.

UTSA offers Pac-12 opportunity to secure footprint in Texas

UTSA would give the Pac-12 a much needed footprint in Texas, but are they a big enough brand for the league to consider for conference expansion?

The Pac-12 is up to six schools after swooping in and snagging four programs from the Mountain West last week: Fresno State, Boise State, Colorado State, and San Diego State.

With eight teams needed at minimum in order to qualify as an FBS league, the Pac-12 has about 22 months to add at least two more programs in order to be ready for a triumphant return in 2026.

Previously we discussed why adding another Mountain West school in UNLV and an ACC powerhouse program in Memphis could make sense for commissioner Teresa Gould, but today we want to focus on what is very likely going to be a big factor for the Pac-12 during this search: getting a footprint in the state of Texas.

While there are many options that could appeal to the Pac-12, today we start by discussing the University of Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners:

The Pros

The Pac-12 knows Texas is a vital market to tap into if they want to entice media partners to shell out big money for this new endeavor. Unless SMU finds its way out of the ACC alongside Stanford and Cal, the Pac-12 is likely looking at teams in either the American Athletic Conference or Conference USA to give them a market share in Texas.

UTSA seems like a great place to start. Located in San Antonio, ranked as the 31st largest media market in the country, the Roadrunners offer the Pac-12 a chance to get their programs on TV in Texas, which should not only help with getting a better media deal, it will help with recruiting as well.

UTSA isn’t just a means to the San Antonio market, however, they are a quality football program that transitioned seamlessly into the AAC with a 9-4 overall record in 2023, including 7-1 in league play and a 35-17 win over Marshall in the Frisco Bowl.

The team is 1-2 so far in 2024 after getting blasted by Texas, 56-7, in Week 3 – but don’t let that fool you this is a very good football program who has been to a bowl game in each of the past four years under coach Jeff Traylor.

The Cons

UTSA has been great on the gridiron in the coach Traylor era, but the program has only been FBS eligible since 2012, and while the recent success is very promising the program has very little brand recognition nationally, especially when compared to other potential targets like Memphis, UNLV, Tulane, or South Florida.

Additionally, adding a team in Texas comes with added travel concerns that would likely be mitigated by bringing a travel partner into the conference as well. That is a solvable problem – even adding Memphis and UTSA together would work – but it does make them a bit trickier of an add than some of the other potential targets.

Plus, while everyone knows football is the king, UTSA is a pretty terrible men’s basketball program that would dramatically lower the overall competition level in the new look Pac-12. The Roadrunners are 229th in Ken Pomeroy’s overall program rankings dating back to 1997, far below every one of the six teams currently in the conference (Oregon State is at 112).

A league with San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, and potentially Memphis is a competitive basketball league, and if the Pac-12 has any interest in pursuing Gonzaga or St. Mary’s to bolster the basketball side of things – a team like UTSA may give those programs pause.

Verdict

The Pac-12 is going to end up with at least one team in Texas when all is said and done. That feels like as close to a guarantee as you’ll get in conference realignment. UTSA feels like a very strong candidate thanks to sustained success on the gridiron and a location right in the heart of a major media hub in San Antonio.

However, as a relatively new FBS program without much brand recognition, UTSA isn’t as big of a needle mover as some of the other, more established programs on the market. Plus, poor basketball results would lower the Pac-12’s standing in that regard, which could be problematic if they hope to lure Gonzaga and St. Mary’s out of the WCC.

Mountain West could lose another program as conference realignment floodgates open

The Mountain West already lost four programs to the Pac-12, and now rumors are flying that Air Force could join Army and Navy in the American.

Anyone who was following conference realignment last summer knows that once the first domino falls, it doesn’t take long for things to start spiraling.

It appears that could be the case for the Mountain West, who already saw four huge programs depart for the new-look Pac-12 last week.

Losing Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Colorado State and going from 11 schools to seven was a devastating blow for one of the most well-known non-power conferences in college athletics, but it wasn’t a knockout punch.

However, the recent rumor that talks between the American Athletic Conference and Air Force are heating up is a frightening sign for the league, which has been around since 1999.

Air Force has been in discussion with the AAC since before the Mountain West was gutted, and certainly it’s easy to see the appeal as a service academy to join a league that already features Army and Navy.

The Falcons have been Mountain West members since its inception, posting an impressive 131-84 record since Troy Calhoun took over as head coach in 2007.

https://twitter.com/PeteThamel/status/1835757632793296985

If the Mountain West does lose Air Force to the AAC, it drops them to just six programs and creates an urgent situation for commissioner Gloria Nevarez to backfill the league as soon as possible or risk continued departures.

Teams like New Mexico State, UTEP, Texas State, or even FCS programs North Dakota State and South Dakota State are on the table for this league to sustain themselves in the ever changing college sports landscape.

Why Memphis is the most logical addition for Pac-12 expansion

Memphis is arguably the biggest non power conference brand in college sports, but are they a fit in the rebuilding Pac-12?

The Memphis Tigers have long been among the top candidates to join a power conference, and the recent additions of four Mountain West schools by the Pac-12 once again put the Tigers back in the conversation.

Memphis has been a powerhouse in the American Athletic Conference for a little over a decade, with a strong run in Conference USA before that.

The Tigers have won three bowl games since 2020, including a win in the Liberty Bowl over Iowa State last year to cap off a 10-3 season.

2024 is off to an even better start. After beating Florida State on Saturday, Memphis is now the top candidate to earn a guaranteed bid into the 12-team College Football Playoffs out of the Group of Five conferences.

The Pac-12’s four new additions from the Mountain West give them six programs, with a minimum of eight needed by July 2026 in order to compete at the FBS level. Could Memphis be moving to the Pac-12 in 2026? We look at the pros and cons:

The Pros

Memphis is arguably the most recognizable college brand that isn’t currently affiliated with a power conference, outside of maybe Gonzaga.

The Tigers have won seven or more games in nine of the past 10 full seasons on the gridiron, and 19 or more games in every single season in the AAC except one…when they went 18-14. The sustained success in both football and men’s basketball is second to none among Group of Five programs, making them an easy target for a conference hoping to bolster the quality of programs in its arsenal.

Memphis is also a premier media market, and while the geography isn’t exactly a fit with the current six Pac-12 members, the idea of adding a footprint in Tennessee and the southeast is no doubt a major draw for the conference. Getting to do so while also adding a program that elevates the competition level of the two revenue generating sports is a win-win.

The Cons

Geography. It’s easy to simplify the cons into one word, but effectively it is the biggest issue facing Memphis and the Pac-12 as a fit. Memphis fits far better in the Big 12 geographically, and if university leadership thinks that’s an option it could prevent them from accepting an invite into the Pac-12.

For the Pac-12 to make this work, likely another team joins alongside Memphis as a travel partner. Plenty of options exist for the conference to consider, including Tulane, Tulsa, and UTSA, but it does make Memphis a slightly trickier target as they would be on an island out east without a travel partner.

Recent reports surrounding the men’s basketball program and Penny Hardaway could give the Pac-12 some pause as well, although nothing substantial is confirmed as of this writing.

Verdict

Memphis is perhaps the most obvious target for the Pac-12 at this point, and unless the program wants to wait to see if a Big 12 invite is coming this should be a no brainer on both sides. The geography is a factor, but if another team (Tulane seems to make the most sense) emerges as a travel partner, this could get done pretty quickly.

Letter alleges Penny Hardaway personally involved in recruiting violations at Memphis

Penny Hardaway subject to massive recruiting violations according to anonymous letter turned over to NCAA by Memphis officials.

Memphis Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway fired a trio of assistant coaches, and one additional staff member, according to a team announcement on Wednesday morning.

Moving on from a coaching staff after a disappointing season is one thing, but doing so in September – when the practice period begins in less than three weeks – is a sign things are not going well for the Tigers.

That was confirmed by a report from Pat Forde at Sports Illustrated on Wednesday evening, detailing the existence of an anonymous letter which alleges widespread potential rules violations at Memphis – a letter which the university confirms has been passed along to the NCAA.

“The University of Memphis is aware of the anonymous letter and it has been turned over to the NCAA,” university spokeswoman Michele Ehrhart said in an email to Sports Illustrated on Wednesday. “That is all we can say on the matter.”

It’s unclear at this point if the four firings and this letter are related, but no reason was given for the firings, which came at a time in the offseason where hiring new coaches is far more difficult.

The letter alleges Hardaway, who is entering his seventh season at Memphis, is personally involved in the recruitment of a player who came to Memphis and a second prospect who ultimately did not enroll. The letter claims the violations occurred in 2020 and 2022, and also claims academic violations occurred in 2023-24 as well.

This is not the first time Hardaway and Memphis have come under fire. There was an 18-month investigation into Hardaway’s recruitment of James Wiseman, who was ultimately suspended 12 games and left the school before the suspension was up. While Hardaway was ultimately found not to have violated NCAA rules, the school was still put on probation.

Last year Hardaway served a three game suspension for recruiting violations, and one of his players, Malcolm Dandridge, missed the last five games of the season while the school investigated his eligibility.

All the off court drama is coupled with the simple fact that Hardaway has only made the NCAA Tournament twice in his six seasons with the Tigers, winning a game in 2022 against Boise State before falling to Gonzaga in the Round of 32.

With limited on court success, significant noise off the court, and massive roster and coaching turnover year over year, the Hardaway experiment in Memphis may be nearing an end.

Former Cincinnati quarterback released by Arizona Cardinals

Former Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder was released by the Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday.

Life comes at you fast. One day you’re a 23-year-old NFL starting quarterback, two years removed from a top ten finish in the Heisman Trophy race, and the next you’re losing the competition to be a backup and getting waived just before your third NFL season.

That’s the sad reality for former Cincinnati quarterback Desmond Ridder, who was released by the Arizona Cardinals on Tuesday, according to a report from NFL Insider Ian Rapoport.

Ridder was a four year starter for the Bearcats in the American Athletic Conference, twice winning AAC Offensive Player of the Year and finishing eighth in Heisman voting in 2021.

That year the dynamic quarterback completed 251 passes for 3,334 yards and 30 touchdowns, leading Cincinnati and coach Luke Fickell to a sparkly 13-1 record which ended with a 27-6 loss to Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

Ridder was then picked in the third round of the 2022 NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons, and by the end of his rookie year he had replaced Marcus Mariota under center – going 2-2 in four starts while completing 73 passes for 708 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Ridder then got the keys to the kingdom in 2023, but he took a step backward. The 24-year-old started 13 out of 15 games and went 6-7 with 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, which ultimately led Atlanta to not only sign Kirk Cousins in the offseason, but also draft Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

Ridder was then dealt to Arizona where he competed with former Houston quarterback Clayton Tune to back up Kyler Murray – a competition he ultimately lost.

With age and starting experience both on his side, Ridder will likely catch on somewhere as a practice squad/third string quarterback, but it is not always easy to get back atop the starting quarterback mountain once you’ve fallen off.

Former Memphis basketball star denied waiver request by NCAA

Memphis guard Caleb Mills had his waiver denied by the NCAA and is out of college basketball eligibility after five seasons.

The Memphis Tigers will not get another season of eligibility for guard Caleb Mills, who had his appeal denied by the NCAA according to The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday.

Memphis coach Penny Hardaway indicated the school applied for a medical hardship waiver for Mills after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in early January, which limited him to just 14 games on the year.

However, according to NCAA rules a medical hardship waiver can only be applied if a player appeared in 30% or less of a team’s scheduled games – and Mills appeared in about 44% for the Tigers this past season.

The 6’3 guard averaged 7.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.4 assists last year for Memphis, who went 12-2 while he was on the floor and 10-8 after he went down with his injury, ultimately missing the NCAA Tournament.

Last season was Mills’ first with Memphis. Prior to that he spent two years at Florida State, averaging 12.8 points and 3.0 assists in 58 games, and before that he was at Houston for two seasons, appearing in 31 games as a freshman in 2019-20 and four games as a sophomore in 2020-21 before suffering an injury.

Memphis rebuilt their roster via the transfer portal, adding four guards: Tyrese Hunter from Texas, PJ Haggery from Tulsa, Colby Rogers from Wichita State and Baraka Okojie from George Mason.

Mills would have given this team a familiar face and a veteran scorer, but the team is equipped to move on without him as his college career comes to an end.

Could Florida Atlantic’s latest hire make them ‘the next Gonzaga?’

Can former Baylor and Gonzaga assistant John Jakus keep Florida Atlantic among the premier mid-major programs in college basketball?

In March of 1999 the Gonzaga Bulldogs went on a magical run to the Elite Eight as an 11-seed, punctuated by a game winner over Florida which led to the iconic Gus Johnson call: ‘the slipper still fits!’

The next year head coach Dan Monson departed for a job in the Big Ten at Minnesota, and an unknown assistant coach named Mark Few took over the program – and the rest is history.

While the story doesn’t quite line up perfectly, there are a lot of similarities to what is currently happening in Boca Raton with the Owls of Florida Atlantic.

FAU went on a miracle run in the NCAA Tournament in 2023, going all the way to the Final Four under coach Dusty May as a nine seed. One year later, he too departed for greener pastures in the Big Ten – taking the head coaching job at Michigan. He will be replaced by John Jakus, a relatively unknown assistant coach who has a background at Baylor and – you guessed it – Gonzaga.

Will Jakus turn around and lead FAU to 25 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and cement himself as a future Hall of Fame coach? It’s unlikely, simply because of the extreme rarity that is Few and Gonzaga’s story.

However, a program coming off a great two year run, in an improved basketball conference, with an invigorated fanbase, hiring a coach who developed under Few and Scott Drew, and who has professional coaching experience in Europe, is certainly one that is trending in the right direction.

Many programs have at times been given the label of ‘the next Gonzaga’ and none have kept it long term – mostly because their coach departed for a bigger job before the program was able to grab a strong enough foothold to succeed without them.

Loyola Chicago lost Drew Valentine, VCU lost Shaka Smart, George Mason lost Jim Larranaga, Florida Gulf Coast lost Andy Enfield, Oral Roberts lost Paul Mills, the list goes on and on – and in the transfer portal era the ability to retain talent at the mid-major level is harder than ever.

Jakus is a phenomenal basketball mind, and both the Gonzaga and Baylor coaching trees are rife with successful names – like Tommy Lloyd, Jerome Tang, Grant McCasland, Leon Rice, and Mills – but the journey to being Gonzaga in Florida will require Jakus not only to stick around long term, but to continue to fight through college basketball rule changes which heavily favor the Power-6 programs.

Perhaps it’s unfair to toss the Gonzaga label around before Jakus has even coached his first game, but FAU has the infrastructure and current momentum to keep it going in the post-May era, and they are a team well worth keeping on the radar going forward.

Amir Abdur-Rahim is this season’s best head coaching hire

Amir Abdur-Rahim is college basketball’s best head coach hire this season, leading the South Florida Bulls to a 12-1 record in the AAC.

Before the 2023-24 college basketball season began, a conversation about coaching hires would center around Rick Pitino at St. John’s. Or Chris Beard at Ole Miss. Or Damon Stoudamire at Georgia Tech. Or the Ed Cooley fiasco moving to Georgetown and Kim English replacing him at Providence.

And while those guys are all getting plenty of attention, good and bad, it looks like the best hire of the entire offseason is not in the Big East, or SEC, or ACC, but rather the American Athletic Conference.

Amir Abdur-Rahim took over a South Florida program that went 14-36 the last three years in conference play, who had not won 20 or more games since 2019, and who has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2012 when they were in the Big East. But in less than one full season, Abdur-Rahim has this team sitting at 19-5 overall and 12-1 with a two game lead in the AAC.

The season did not start off with this kind of promise. The Bulls began the year 2-4 with losses to Central Michigan, Maine, Hofstra, and UMass, but once Abdur-Rahim and his team got settled they immediately took off – winning 18 of their last 19 including wins over preseason conference favorites Florida Atlantic and Memphis.

Abdur-Rahim turned a Kennesaw State program that went 1-28 in 2019-20 into an NCAA Tournament team last year who not only won 26 games, but who nearly upset No. 3 seed Xavier in the first round.

So it shouldn’t be a surprise he’s already having this success at South Florida, especially in the transfer portal era which allowed the Bulls to add key pieces like Chris Youngblood, who followed Abdur-Rahim from Kennesaw State and is averaging 15 points on 43.2% shooting from deep.

They also added Kasean Pryor from Northwest Florida State College and Kobe Knox from Grand Canyon, providing Abdur-Rahim’s team with more floor spacing and rebounding.

There are a lot of coaches making a strong impression at their new jobs, including Danny Sprinkle at Utah State and Will Wade at McNeese, but it’s hard to understate how incredible this turnaround has been for South Florida under Abdur-Rahim.

After playing with fire in AAC play, Memphis Tigers get burned

South Florida was down 20 but managed to come all the way back and defeat the Memphis Tigers, ending their 10 game winning streak.

After two weeks of winning by the thinnest of margins, Memphis finally got burned on Wednesday evening – and it happened in spectacular fashion.

A 52-32 lead in the second half completely evaporated down the stretch and the Bulls of South Florida stunned the Tigers, winning 74-73, to end Memphis’ 10 game winning streak and hand them their first conference loss of the season.

Memphis climbed into the Top 10 of the AP Poll this week, but they hadn’t exactly been inspiring a lot of confidence with their recent performances.

Outside of a 112-86 win over Wichita State, Memphis needed late game heroics to win their other three AAC games against Tulsa (by 3) SMU (by 3) and UTSA (by six in overtime).

And while it looked like they were well on their way to a blowout against a South Florida team that was 2-1 in conference and 9-5 overall, the Bulls got hot from three and complacency from Hardaway’s team sent them packing.

“This one hurts because we worked so hard to get to this level,” Hardaway said after the game.

It was South Florida’s first win over a ranked team since 2012 and first over a top 10 team since beating Georgetown in February of 2010, and represented a signature win for first year coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, who led Kennesaw State to the NCAA Tournament last year.

“It’s not about us,” Abdur-Rahim said. “It’s about the University of South Florida. … This is a great win for the University of South Florida, and this group of kids who allow us to push them.”

Memphis becomes the latest ranked team to fall to an unranked opponent, but with far fewer opportunities to pick up Quad 1 wins thanks to their conference, every loss is magnified for the Tigers.

Memphis will try to get back on track on Sunday as they head on the road to take on Tulane, with tip-off slated for 1:00 PM ET.