(08-10-2013 08:51 AM)MHSCard Wrote:  

(08-10-2013 07:11 AM)AirRaid Wrote:  

(08-09-2013 11:44 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(08-09-2013 11:11 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  The AAC has two flagship basketball teams in UConn and Memphis but you will not have a flagship football program.

Seriously?

The Memphis program is not on the same level as UConn.

It's better

UConn is a great program but Memphis has a consistant history over many decades.. So far Uconn is the house that Calhoun built. Not saying that the new staff will not be just as great, but Memphis has proven transcendent dispite league, coaches or decade. They tend to keep their own hands firmly grasped on their throats during cluch games and tourny times.. but they are every bit the flagship that UConn is.. But you all seem to be sleeping on Cincinnati which is never a great idea...

What in the world are you talking about? Memphis has proven transcendent? What have they transcended?

Memphis has been to 3 Final Fours in school history (2 of them vacated). UConn has 3 national championships in schools history. End of conversation.

(08-10-2013 09:07 AM)MHSCard Wrote:  It is to the AAC's advantage to have Louisville go as far as possible and here is why. Louisville is the only AAC team with a shot at a title game. It is not much of a shot it is a long long long one. But if the chips fall the right way the AAC could say we had a team in last years Championship game or even better we had the bcs champion from our league. That would be in the record books and could be ammunition for any future playoff inclusions, and opposition could always say look no non power 5 team has ever played for the bcs title.. why should they keep the others included. Like it or not Louisville is this years torchbearer for the little guys not TCU, not Boise State, the Cards are the AACs best chance to say the AAC can produce a Championship worthy team and should be considered a power conference. We have the hype we have the Star power that comes very rarely outside the old guard and you may hate us but you better recognize if Louisville bust the odds and actually wins it is only a good thing for the AAC.

With the schedule Louisville plays, their shot at a title game is slim and none. With Purdue and Illinois on their schedule, Cincinnati frankly has a better opportunity if they surprise everyone and come up big this year.

(08-09-2013 08:31 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  Louisville is hardly a flagship football program for this Conference. If it is anybody, it is Cincy

The American doesn't have a flagship program (e.g. Ohio St, Florida, Texas, USC, FSU, Alabama, etc). That was the same problem the Big East had when Miami left.

As for UC being the flagship football program of the conference, I disagree. While UC has been more consistent during the regular season than UofL over the last five years, UC blew both of its BCS appearances. Winning multiple Big East championships is a great accomplishment and UC fans should certainly be proud of that fact. But the only thing that will legitimize UC's program in the eyes of the media is winning on the big stage and thus far, UC has failed miserably do to that.

A lack of a championship game hurts us. This is the first year that UCF has been in a conference without a championship game.

(08-10-2013 10:06 AM)UofLgrad07 Wrote:  

(08-09-2013 08:31 PM)vabearcat Wrote:  Louisville is hardly a flagship football program for this Conference. If it is anybody, it is Cincy

The American doesn't have a flagship program (e.g. Ohio St, Florida, Texas, USC, FSU, Alabama, etc). That was the same problem the Big East had when Miami left.

Is lack of a flag ship really a problem?

A flag ship is by definition singular. Yet, you just listed 2 flag ships for the SEC. And within the past decade, we have LSU also winning 2 national championships from that same conference. Who is the flag ship in the SEC.

Is Ohio State really the flag ship of the Big Ten? Michigan has won many more national titles than Ohio State has. And what about Nebraska with all their titles? And Penn State?

Is Texas the flag ship of the Big XII? Oklahoma has won way more national titles than Texas has.

The ACC has both Florida state and Miami. Who's the flag ship there?

The problem with the Big East wasn't the lack of a flag ship; it was a lack of winning. Period. Who had ever won a national title in the Big East? Pitt? Yes, they won a bunch, but the most recent one was more than 35 years ago, before the Big East was born. And the rest were before WW II. You have to have done something for me lately to be relevant or else Army, Navy and the Ivies would still be relevant. Syracuse won a title more than 50 years ago. Same problem.

The Big East needed someone, anyone who had proven that they could be successful against national competition with all the marbles on the line. The lack of that is what relegated them to second tier status.

(08-10-2013 09:26 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(08-10-2013 09:07 AM)MHSCard Wrote:  It is to the AAC's advantage to have Louisville go as far as possible and here is why. Louisville is the only AAC team with a shot at a title game. It is not much of a shot it is a long long long one. But if the chips fall the right way the AAC could say we had a team in last years Championship game or even better we had the bcs champion from our league. That would be in the record books and could be ammunition for any future playoff inclusions, and opposition could always say look no non power 5 team has ever played for the bcs title.. why should they keep the others included. Like it or not Louisville is this years torchbearer for the little guys not TCU, not Boise State, the Cards are the AACs best chance to say the AAC can produce a Championship worthy team and should be considered a power conference. We have the hype we have the Star power that comes very rarely outside the old guard and you may hate us but you better recognize if Louisville bust the odds and actually wins it is only a good thing for the AAC.

With the schedule Louisville plays, their shot at a title game is slim and none. With Purdue and Illinois on their schedule, Cincinnati frankly has a better opportunity if they surprise everyone and come up big this year.

Cincinnati is way better than people may think same with most this league. However they are too far back in the polls to make a case. LOUISVILLE is ranked in the top ten in every poll so there is a chance if they do well they can break into the mix with the computers where as Cincinnati will be mathematically out of the running from day one.

(08-09-2013 08:22 AM)Carolina Stang Wrote:  Would a Louisville BCS Championship legitimize the AAC?

No, it absolutely would not. Not even Cincy, UCF, or anyone else going undefeated would help either.

You all need to know by now, that there is NOTHING the AAC can do to legitimize itself, at least in the eyes of the decision makers.

We signed with ESPN for peanuts, and we are now their whipping boy (or b*tch, or whatever term you prefer). The "worldwide leader" wants to do nothing more than to keep the AAC from getting "too big for its britches", so that it continues to re-up for the same amount of peanuts.

Question for everyone: Why do you think ESPN sang the praises of the MWC all these years (a conference not even on its network), while kicking dirt on the Big East? All the polls asking whether the MWC or BE should have the sixth bid should have told you something.

(08-10-2013 09:21 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(08-10-2013 08:51 AM)MHSCard Wrote:  

(08-10-2013 07:11 AM)AirRaid Wrote:  

(08-09-2013 11:44 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  

(08-09-2013 11:11 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  The AAC has two flagship basketball teams in UConn and Memphis but you will not have a flagship football program.

Seriously?

The Memphis program is not on the same level as UConn.

It's better

UConn is a great program but Memphis has a consistant history over many decades.. So far Uconn is the house that Calhoun built. Not saying that the new staff will not be just as great, but Memphis has proven transcendent dispite league, coaches or decade. They tend to keep their own hands firmly grasped on their throats during cluch games and tourny times.. but they are every bit the flagship that UConn is.. But you all seem to be sleeping on Cincinnati which is never a great idea...

What in the world are you talking about? Memphis has proven transcendent? What have they transcended?

Memphis has been to 3 Final Fours in school history (2 of them vacated). UConn has 3 national championships in schools history. End of conversation.

You and I disagree on what makes a great team. If championships are all that matter then you can hang with the Kentucky Wildcat fans and swoon at their banners.. As a Louisville Cardinal I have had my fill with that ignorant babble, I know basketball history and I know Memphis and Cincinnati were winners before UConn was ever on the scene and they never stopped being winners. UCONN has done great! No team has grown more due to the ESPN relationship and involvement in the Big East than U Conn and your three Championships are a testimony to how great the Big East has been in the last 30 years and how they helped each other grow. But I think the CUSA fans as well as the Cards, Bearcats and Bulls fans on here can tell you while the big east was the best and UConn chief among them top level Basketball was still being played by others like Memphis and as a Cards fan that is hard to say... There were a bunch of Big East fans on this very board when Louisville first arrived telling us we would never break the top half of the Big East in Basketball and we did not know what we were in for. But the fact is that we did know we are basketball fans not just Big East fans and the same is true for Marquette and Cincy and Memphis, we know how great you guys are but the naysayers didn't know jack about what they were talking about when it came to us. Since we made the shift, Louisville Cincy and Marquette have all been excellent teams that have achieved well in conference. It is like how some Louisville football fans are bad mouthing SMU football (not many but some), we have not played them and we will not play them before we leave, we don't have any right to comment in anyway. Whereas I do know UConn basketball and Memphis and Cincy Basketball and the Tigers and Bearcats are just as worthy banner carriers in my opinion.

Louisville, Cincinnati, Memphis and Marquette have all had a long Basketball history with 3 of those schools winning National Championships while facing some of the greatest players known to play the game. It was a lot harder winning in the 1970's and 1980's as fewer tournament games were played, but those games featured the top AP ranked schools facing each other. not like facing the lightweight opening round foes You now have with 64 schools involved.

(08-09-2013 08:34 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  Actually it might make the league look worse. If they went undefeated and dominated all of the league and won the national title the talking points about the AAC would be they are beneath Louisville and Louisville was the only legit team in the league. The league long term needs someone that's going to be here to win the league and win the BCS game.

It's a catch 22 though. The biggest problem the Big East faced was the lack of a team actually doing this, and the league beating up on each other. The worst thing the Big East has going for it, is most years, the bottom of the league was better than the bottom of the other power leagues. Essentially teams in the bottom half had a "bad" habit of beating the top teams, which helped erode credibility.

If Louisville goes undefeated, combined with Cincy going undefeated outside of the Louisville game, and a third team only losing to Louisville and Cincy, then all three do well in bowls, it will help the AAC going forward. It would also greatly help is Tulsa or ECU had a great year outside of the conference, winning 10 or 11 games, as they are set to join next year.

(08-09-2013 09:09 AM)Knights_of_UCF Wrote:  agree with this, the AAC isn't holding UL back as much as their OOC schedule is. What a joke and it may cost them a chance at the big game this year. Still, even if they had LSU and Bama on the schedule, they'd still need no other undefeated P5 teams before they'd be considered.

I think ESPN actually accidentally neutered any valid argument for this being used against UofL:

Louisville Cardinals tried to schedule game against Texas A&M

Brett McMurphy Wrote:Texas A&M and Louisville were in discussions to square off in the season opener at Houston's Reliant Stadium, a showdown that would have featured reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and Cardinals star quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

Louisville coach Charlie Strong and Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin were in favor of playing the game, Strong told ESPN. Ultimately, however, the game could not be worked out.

...

"It would have been a great experience to play against last year's Heisman Trophy winner and arguably the best player in college football," Bridgewater said. "He lays it on the line like I do. It would have been a great matchup."

The Cardinals also had an outside shot to open the season against reigning champion Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta.

Alabama will play Virginia Tech, but the Hokies considered withdrawing from the game if quarterback Logan Thomas left early for the NFL draft. Louisville would have replaced Virginia Tech, but Thomas returned for his senior season

I think the publicized knowledge that Louisville was supposed to play Georgia at home this year - series was bought out to play Boise St in Chick Fil A Classic in 2011 and replaced with UNC last year and in 2011 and 2012 (instead of 2013) leaving Ohio to fill in - Kentucky on the road, and tried to play Alabama in Atlanta and Texas A&M in Houston, four SEC schools, with three virtual road games, combined with beating handily two SEC schools last year, puts a big dent in the argument that Louisville doesn't deserve to be there because of who they scheduled. It was not due to lack of effort. And lest we forget that Boise St and San Diego State were initially on the schedule too. Thus it's hard to really hold that against them, especially when the three teams in question are the ones likely to be in Louisville's way.