AAC Membership

[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.

[longtimefan]

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

[coach]

I wouldn't rule Byu out given their contract(and likely future) is with Espn.

[swilsonsp4]

As usual, it looks like ESPN heavily influences conference membership.

They hold the power of the purse.

[longtimefan]

As usual, it looks like ESPN heavily influences conference membership.

[Lobot]

I’m not sure about the source here but apparently the deal is this. If ESPN allows UConn’s revenue to be split among the remaining members we will stay at 11.

If ESPN exercises the composition clause in the TV deal, the league would move to replace UConn with BYU rather than pay a contract penalty to ESPN.

[swilsonsp4]

In a sport that gets little play in the media, the AAC began competition in women's lacrosse this past season with six schools, one of which was UConn. If the AAC loses them in this sport, there will be five schools, two of which are SEC in all other sports (Vandy & FL).

[swilsonsp4]

From "Lawless Nation", BYU's Fansided site:

"Yesterday, on BYUtv's Sports Nation, the AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco told Cougar Nation that as far as AAC expansion goes, there has been vitually no communication between BYU and the AAC and that in all likelihood the conference will stay at 11 teams.

"Sure, that doesn't completely shut the door on expansion, but the door is closing enough to not be worth talking about for now."

[coach]

IMHO bad idea to add BYU. Geographically isolated and as we saw, adapting to the altitude is very difficult.

I don't disagree, but with the options available making the fb league as competitive and quality oriented as possible is the best case scenario. Plus you only have to play out there every other year at max. so not like it's a high frequency. The more quality fball teams, the stronger the product.

[swilsonsp4]

Here's the push for UAB from the Birmingham perspective. Not my first choice, but worth considering:

https://www.al.com/uab/2019/06/ua-bo...onference.html

[Greg7173]

IMHO bad idea to add BYU. Geographically isolated and as we saw, adapting to the altitude is very difficult.

[coach]

Where did you see they were in Provo?

[Lobot]

Good interview with Aresco from Dennis Dodd. Edit: Aresco was in Provo when he did this interview.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-fo...it-with-uconn/

[Chewbacca2099]

Cool, so an extra 600K+ per school. Not a lot of money really, but better than nothing. I think I'd rather have the 600K than Army, etc... If we got BYU or Boise it'd be different but they are so far away don't know if it's worth it.

[longtimefan]

No renegotiation of the contract with ESPN.

"The $1 billion deal has a clause that would allow ESPN to renegotiate if a member leaves, according to the Sports Business Journal. A source said the clause is specifically tied to five schools (Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida, Memphis and South Florida), which UConn was not included."

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...r-14057439.php