(12-12-2019 05:47 PM)ericsaid Wrote:  

(12-12-2019 05:42 PM)Oldyeller Wrote:  Significant competitive accomplishment. Seeing Texas state shaken some sticks and USA adding a shiny new venue and additional investments and improvements around the conference we're in good shape. All points to a solid group taking the challenge seriously and seeing return on investment.

Our problem, as a conference, is that most everyone HAS to schedule money games for P5's. Some teams have to schedule 2. The AAC and MWC don't have to do this currently which makes their OOC play look more respectable. The AAC will boast about having an above .500 record when beating P5's but it doesn't take a deep 5 to look at who they are playing.

We finally get some mid-tier P5 games and Georgia State pulls out the win, Coastal pulls out the win, and App gets two. GS almost had one against a Top 20 Minnesota squad that historically would've been considered average.

The AAC gets their money games against Notre Dame and Ohio State, much like almost every school in the Belt has, and they get their teeth kicked in. But they also have sub-.500 teams to play to balance those out to where people ignore them; and not only do people ignore them, but Navy gets back in the Top 25, only 9 spots below the team that had them down 35-3 at halftime.

If you're a Sun Belt team with one money game, two G5's and an FCS school, and you lose that money game the way Navy did but win out, you'd be lucky to crack the Top 25.

All true but we have to have the money. We've made incredible improvements in all the right places. Attendance needs to improve and the only way to do that is to continue on the path we're on. Getting taken to the wood shed by the best is arguably working as well. Games that should have been just another beat down didn't turnout that way. Confidence building to see conference mates take down the likes of UNC, Tennessee, USC, Kansas, as well as another top 10 P5 game competitive in one season. That's crazy talk just a very short time ago. The calculations made to arrange the conference geographically in it's current form were obviously pretty solid. It's working like it is. Sorry I missed UNC.