Tag: American Athletic Conference-expansion

College Conference Expansion, Realignment Scenarios. What Each League Should Do, What Will Happen?

College Conference Expansion, Realignment Scenarios. What Each League Should Do, What Will Happen?

Really? You want to make sense of all the expansion and realignment in college sports?

Good luck with that.

Even the most connected of college football insiders are trying to put together the shredded papers to create a clear picture as all the rumors, reports, and tidbits fly around. So read this at your own risk – there’s a solid chance this all blows up five minutes from now.

I’m prepared for everything below to soon look totally ridiculous because nothing appears to be off the table.

The Big 12 getting Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF was obvious, but seriously, Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC? Last summer that seemed insane, and then it hit like a ton of bricks. That was nothing compared to the failure of imagination – and the shock – of USC and UCLA to the Big Ten.

And how about the Sun Belt being the most proactive league of the bunch with Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss being snagged from Conference USA?

So be warned, while everything below is rooted in reality to some extent … nah. It’s all changing by the moment.

With all that said, what’s going on in realignment? What are the best and worst case scenarios for all the conference expansion options, what’s a crazy idea that might work for each one, and what’s about to happen – maybe?

Let’s do this.

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ACC Expansion

What’s Going On? Nothing at the moment, but the rumors are flying. The SEC is supposedly interested, and the Big Ten isn’t saying anything – but would LOVE North Carolina. Even so, everything appears to be fine … for now.

Best Case Scenario: The ACC vastly improves its long-term media deal, ends its friends with benefits relationship with Notre Dame and puts a ring on it, and gives some thought to West Virginia joining the fun.

Worst Case Scenario: ESPN – or some crafty lawyer – figures out how to blow up the horrible grant of rights deal that locks the schools into their football media deal until 2036, and the SEC and Big Ten have have an epic battle to see who can get North Carolina, and Clemson, Florida State, and Miami.

– 10 Most Attractive Group of Five School for Expansion

Crazy Idea That Won’t Work, But … READ … THE … ROOM. What did the Big Ten just do? It raided the Pac-12 to go coast-to-coast with its footprint. Who might be out there right now for the taking? Cal and Stanford.

Again, it’s crazy, but academically those two are rock stars, they make it very, very attractive for Notre Dame to join the fun, and even though college football interest is, well, fickle in the Bay Area, it’s still a monster market to totally own.

What Will Probably Happen: The ACC will stay in place as is, but that won’t keep everyone from trying to figure out how to steal the star schools.

It’ll be in discussions with the Big 12 and Pac-12 to try forming an alliance to combat the Big Ten and SEC menaces. In the meantime, it’ll look to improve the current media deal and won’t just sit by and wait for the inevitable defections from schools desperate to leave for more revenue.

Conference Expansion: What’s Going On?
ACC | AAC | Big Ten | Big 12 | C-USA | Ind
MAC | Mountain West | Pac-12 | SEC | Sun Belt

American Athletic Conference Expansion NEXT

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American Athletic Conference Expansion: Charlotte, FAU, Rice, UAB, UNT, UTSA. 10 Quick Thoughts

College Football Daily Cavalcade: American Athletic Conference expanded with Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, UNT, UTSA, UAB. 10 Quick Thoughts

College Football Daily Cavalcade: The American Athletic Conference has expanded by adding Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, UTSA, and UAB. What does it all mean? What’s next?

College Football Daily Cavalcade: American Athletic Conference Expansion

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Sorry if this take sucks, it’s not my fault …

It had a dream to get bigger with a slew of Big 12 takes, but it ended up expanding with thoughts on Conference USA.

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Not that it applies to other areas of our world or anything, but sometimes, you take the win and move forward.

The American Athletic Conference expanded with UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, and UTSA. What does it all mean? Here are 10 quick thoughts on the big move.

1. So now with these six, the American Athletic Conference, at least for football, will look like this when it all starts once they’re in – a specific date hasn’t been finalized.

Assume the league goes back to two divisions looking something like this …

East: Charlotte, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Navy, Temple, UAB, USF

West: Memphis, North Texas, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, UTSA

2. Beyond everything else, it’s a happy day – at least for everyone other than Conference USA.

It’s a good business move for the American Athletic Conference in a take-the-win sort of way, and for the schools, this is massive.

It’s a step up from C-USA for Rice and North Texas, and it’s a giant validation for the other four schools.

3. Remember, UAB football was in a self-induced coma in 2015 and 2016.

It’s a minor miracle that it still has a program, much less it getting to have a moment like this.

Florida Atlantic football started from scratch under the late Howard Schnellenberger and joined the FCS world back in 2004, UTSA has only been in the FCS since 2012, and Charlotte is still new to football, becoming a major college program in 2015. Now they’re all in the American Athletic Conference.

4. It might have been a necessary business move for the American Athletic Conference, but it’s a gigantic step back to what was potentially on the table a few months ago. No program-shaming here, but UAB, Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, and UTSA doesn’t move the national needle even a little bit.

5. There’s no replacing new Big 12 members Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF.

Think of expansion as Moneyball – the American Athletic Conference couldn’t replace Damon and Giambi. It has to hope that the six newly-added schools can add up to overcome some of the revenue hit. It won’t, but it’s a needed move to strengthen the league’s membership. But …

6. Things are a whole lot different than they were a few months ago.

When the Big 12 appeared to be mortally wounded with Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC, there was a real thought that the American Athletic Conference would go get Big 12 schools, not the other way around.

The AAC went from – at least in the sports media sewing circle – possibly pulling in West Virginia and maybe Iowa State and Oklahoma State to losing three of its biggest schools and adding five from Conference USA.

7. Again, not to dog the six programs coming in, but this cements the Mountain West as the sixth best conference in college football – at least until the Pac-12 wakes up.

The AAC landing Florida Atlantic gives USF a natural rival, and the state of Texas becomes more emphasized, but these six aren’t going to entice the big schools from the Mountain West to possibly flip leagues.

The AAC landing Big 12 schools wasn’t realistically going to work, but chatting up San Diego State – with the Pac-12 not claiming to be interested in expanding right now – and Boise State, and some of the others from the Mountain West in an attempt to become a giant national conference wasn’t crazy.

The six schools the AAC just landed don’t up the brand enough for the Mountain West schools to be interested.

8. Don’t assume this is slowing down.

At some point, the Big 12 will realize that going after USF – Tampa, rivalry with UCF, massive enrollment – makes a whole lot of sense, and the AAC hanging on to Memphis is a mild upset.

Conference USA still has a few attractive schools – most notably Marshall and Southern Miss. The American Athletic Conference might keep moving here, and going after FIU – to have three schools in Florida – might make sense.

9. So now what for Conference USA?

It just lost five of its 12 members, and others wanted to go, too – UTEP isn’t all that happy right now. That leaves FIU, Louisiana Tech, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, Southern Miss, UTEP, and WKU.

Raiding the Sun Belt would be an instant reaction, but the easier move might be to entice a few of the independents to join in. Adding Army, UConn and UMass would at least give the conference some bulk, but the big get – even with a whole slew of issues – would be Liberty. However, the Sun Belt is about to go hard after all the independents, too. And …

10. Get ready for some schools from the FCS world to start becoming factors.

James Madison, North Dakota State, and Sam Houston State are among several schools on the verge of stepping up. There’s nowhere else for the Sun Belt and Conference USA to go, so we might see as many as ten new schools in the FBS world in the near future.

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