(09-21-2021 11:34 PM)Milwaukee Wrote:  

(09-21-2021 11:20 PM)NoQuarterBrigade Wrote:  What about this? This is with the assumption that Boise stays put where they are because of the expected future Big12 invite. And I don’t feel confident about San Diego State coming, unless there are a number of other Mountain West schools brought into the mix.

So that leaves us with this. I think we will be at 12 football schools. Army and VCU are the big question marks. If we could get them both, I think we should try to go after two more solid basketball schools that carry baseball as well since we are losing so much with the departing schools.

Hesitant to grab two more football schools at this time, until we absolutely need to get them. Maybe two more later if we have more departures.

East
Army / VCU
ECU
Memphis
Temple
UAB
USF
Maybe Dayton here for basketball
West
Air Force
Colorado State
Navy / Wichita State
SMU
Tulane
Tulsa
And maybe Saint Louis here for basketball

That may be your best effort yet.

If Army's a no-go, substitute App. State or Coastal (whichever would do FB-only)

Otherwise, this might be close to what we can expect to see, though I would prefer Marshall, ULL, LTU, and Buffalo to UAB.

I like how you've penciled in Dayton and St. Louis (noting that one of those could equally go to a Loyola-Chicago).

If the AAC doesn't add enough good basketball schools, it will fall behind the "Major 7" BB conferences. . Crucially, being a "Major 7" (like the Big East) may be the only thing that keeps the American from being described as a "mid-major" conference.

Being referred to as a "mid-major" would be the kiss of death for the AAC.

Yeah basketball concerns me. We can’t focus too much on football. We are losing some good basketball programs. I was thinking Dayton and Saint Louis because of the association with VCU. Maybe they’ll come altogether. Hesitant on Loyola, because they have a new coach. Will they begin to fade again?