I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

(02-18-2015 07:52 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(02-17-2015 07:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  ACC expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. UCONN
3. Houston
4. SMU
But ECU, USF, UCF are off limits to ACC

Tulane and Memphis would be considered by the ACC as well.
In fact, Tulane has some sentimental support.

Of these, UConn, Cincy and Tulane would be considered by the ACC. Tulane has the academics and really is the same exact school as Wake Forest, just too far outside the ACC footprint. I have always thought Tulane was an outside shot for the B12.

I think UConn WILL be in the ACC some day. If the ACC really wanted to put the pressure on the B12, theyd add Cincy as well.

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

Keep in mind the sbc is captained by the same person that guided the wac to the abyss. However if this happened i believe the sbc would add back Jax st. Liberty, and eku easily with the possible additions of mo st. Jmu and perhaps lamar and or shsu.
this also might give nmsu and idaho football an fbs home longer. What the sbc has that the wac lacked is more candidates to choose from and from various conferences rather than just one.

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

I don't think it's that complicated other than UConn. For everyone else, the answer is the AAC picks a couple new teams from CUSA/MAC/etc. Maybe Marshall and Buffalo?

UConn MIGHT consider basketball only somewhere at that point, but who knows.

(02-18-2015 11:11 AM)uccheese Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

I don't think it's that complicated other than UConn. For everyone else, the answer is the AAC picks a couple new teams from CUSA/MAC/etc. Maybe Marshall and Buffalo?

UConn MIGHT consider basketball only somewhere at that point, but who knows.

I don't see Marshall getting in over Ohio for the AAC.

For one, Ohio is light years ahead of Marshall academically. For two, Ohio has the state name of a highly populated state, for three Ohio's facilities are generally better particularly basketball. For four Ohio's enrollment is 4 times Marshalls.

Now Marshall may have beat us to getting into CUSA 10 years ago but that was before a new pro athletic president at Ohio.

The question is more would Ohio still be interested in a move to the AAC without UCF, UC and UConn. My guess if they offer Buffalo too we would go but not without at least 1 other MAC school.

Miami has a better shot at the AAC than Marshall also. They could do both Ohio and Miami if they question how viable Buffalo will be on the recruiting front.

(02-18-2015 11:09 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

Keep in mind the sbc is captained by the same person that guided the wac to the abyss. However if this happened i believe the sbc would add back Jax st. Liberty, and eku easily with the possible additions of mo st. Jmu and perhaps lamar and or shsu.
this also might give nmsu and idaho football an fbs home longer. What the sbc has that the wac lacked is more candidates to choose from and from various conferences rather than just one.

To be fair, not that I have any compelling reason to be fair, CUSA's commissioner is on pace to lose more teams than Benson did at the WAC.

As for what happened in the WAC, it is really easy to pin it on Benson but if you go back and read the articles written at the time, the WAC ignored his advice repeatedly regarding expansion so it wasn't HIS strategy that failed, rather that of the presidents who ignored him.

But even if they had followed his strategy the reality is this.

MWC lost Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to Big East, and BYU to independence and the league gutted the WAC. From start to finish MWC took 15 schools from the WAC. CUSA took another three. When you consider 8 is the minimum for a FBS conference they lost 2 1/2 leagues worth of teams in a short span of time in a region that has very few FCS schools. In a two decade period only two FCS in the Mountain or Pacific time zones moved to FBS and Pacific dropped football at the start of that span.

There never was the replacement field out there to sustain losses.

UConn doesn't have the necessities to join the Ivy League, so it's MAC, CAA, CUSA or Indy for them in FB.
Big East in all other sports makes most sense.

The only way the ACC is expanding is if Notre Dame goes all in, which is probably never going to happen. But for grins, let's just say the playoff committee requires you to be in a conference to be eligible for the playoff, and Notre Dame has to join in football. It's a pretty safe bet that they'd have a large voice in determining the 16th school. So who has the best relationship with ND? Cincy? UConn? If I were President Ono, I'd consider directing some of his marketing efforts to South Bend.

(02-18-2015 07:52 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(02-17-2015 07:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  The AAC pecking order was clearly established by the Big East selection order although I think there are some exceptions like Temple and USF that were picked sooner than they should have, and the order changes depending on which conference is expanding

Big 12 expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. Memphis
3. UCF
4. USF
5. Tulane
6. Uconn
7. ECU
But Houston, SMU, Tulsa are off limits to Big 12.

ACC expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. UCONN
3. Houston
4. SMU
But ECU, USF, UCF are off limits to ACC

Tulane and Memphis would be considered by the ACC as well.
In fact, Tulane has some sentimental support.

Conferences want to be in New Orleans. Premier destination city, perhaps the marquee NCAA city in the country, growing, always top 5 in TV rating for any FBall event etc. If Tulane ever got their act together on the field/court they would easily jump to the top 3-4 for the B12 and ACC. That, however, is a big if....

(02-18-2015 12:11 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 07:52 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(02-17-2015 07:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  The AAC pecking order was clearly established by the Big East selection order although I think there are some exceptions like Temple and USF that were picked sooner than they should have, and the order changes depending on which conference is expanding

Big 12 expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. Memphis
3. UCF
4. USF
5. Tulane
6. Uconn
7. ECU
But Houston, SMU, Tulsa are off limits to Big 12.

ACC expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. UCONN
3. Houston
4. SMU
But ECU, USF, UCF are off limits to ACC

Tulane and Memphis would be considered by the ACC as well.
In fact, Tulane has some sentimental support.

Conferences want to be in New Orleans. Premier destination city, perhaps the marquee NCAA city in the country, growing, always top 5 in TV rating for any FBall event etc. If Tulane ever got their act together on the field/court they would easily jump to the top 3-4 for the B12 and ACC. That, however, is a big if....

Currently New Orleans isn't a wealthy city (it could change - let's not get into the politics on that one) so there is less value than a Miami or Atlanta or more "wealthy" (think disposable income for tickets and merchandise) than in New Orleans plus, unlike Atlanta or Jacksonville or Tampa, the NFL team runs the town as far as sports are concerned. Tulane's upside is that of a lesser Vanderbilt. Academics are too important to be a top tier P5 school. Could they be a Wake Forest ? Perhaps.

(02-18-2015 11:09 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

Keep in mind the sbc is captained by the same person that guided the wac to the abyss. However if this happened i believe the sbc would add back Jax st. Liberty, and eku easily with the possible additions of mo st. Jmu and perhaps lamar and or shsu.
this also might give nmsu and idaho football an fbs home longer. What the sbc has that the wac lacked is more candidates to choose from and from various conferences rather than just one.

His assumption is that Idaho and NMSU don't count. If the SBC did ever lose 4 (unlikely)....Idaho and NMSU would suddenly become a lot more tolerable.

The SBC isn't going to die as easily as the WAC did.

(02-18-2015 11:46 AM)Kittonhead Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 11:11 AM)uccheese Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

I don't think it's that complicated other than UConn. For everyone else, the answer is the AAC picks a couple new teams from CUSA/MAC/etc. Maybe Marshall and Buffalo?

UConn MIGHT consider basketball only somewhere at that point, but who knows.

I don't see Marshall getting in over Ohio for the AAC.

For one, Ohio is light years ahead of Marshall academically. For two, Ohio has the state name of a highly populated state, for three Ohio's facilities are generally better particularly basketball. For four Ohio's enrollment is 4 times Marshalls.

Now Marshall may have beat us to getting into CUSA 10 years ago but that was before a new pro athletic president at Ohio.

The question is more would Ohio still be interested in a move to the AAC without UCF, UC and UConn. My guess if they offer Buffalo too we would go but not without at least 1 other MAC school.

Miami has a better shot at the AAC than Marshall also. They could do both Ohio and Miami if they question how viable Buffalo will be on the recruiting front.

If the AAC added three MAC schools I'd rather be back in C-USA.

(02-18-2015 11:59 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 11:09 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

Keep in mind the sbc is captained by the same person that guided the wac to the abyss. However if this happened i believe the sbc would add back Jax st. Liberty, and eku easily with the possible additions of mo st. Jmu and perhaps lamar and or shsu.
this also might give nmsu and idaho football an fbs home longer. What the sbc has that the wac lacked is more candidates to choose from and from various conferences rather than just one.

To be fair, not that I have any compelling reason to be fair, CUSA's commissioner is on pace to lose more teams than Benson did at the WAC.

As for what happened in the WAC, it is really easy to pin it on Benson but if you go back and read the articles written at the time, the WAC ignored his advice repeatedly regarding expansion so it wasn't HIS strategy that failed, rather that of the presidents who ignored him.

But even if they had followed his strategy the reality is this.

MWC lost Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to Big East, and BYU to independence and the league gutted the WAC. From start to finish MWC took 15 schools from the WAC. CUSA took another three. When you consider 8 is the minimum for a FBS conference they lost 2 1/2 leagues worth of teams in a short span of time in a region that has very few FCS schools. In a two decade period only two FCS in the Mountain or Pacific time zones moved to FBS and Pacific dropped football at the start of that span.

There never was the replacement field out there to sustain losses.

Id have to agree with all of this. I didnt mean to imply it was all bensons fault only that he lacked the capacity to motivate presidents to do what was necessary to survive. Perhaps they wouldnt have survived anyway, but i feel there was an opportunity to take montana and msu which could have opened up the big sky to further raids, but they allowed pride to refuse the package which led to their downfall.
under benson the sbc seems to be following the same path of not moving because of differences amongst president and an inability of benson to find a way to get presidents to do whats best for the conference.

If the best of the rest were smart they'd all create a new conference with your BYU, Colorado State, Boise, Cincy, UConn, UCF and other top G5 schools would create their own football-only conference to compete with the P5... the Old Big East came the closest (they had the right idea other than the "all sports" thing...)

Egos got in the way...

As it is, they are all left to tread water for a long time.

(02-18-2015 12:24 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 11:59 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 11:09 AM)cleburneslim Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 10:06 AM)Miami (Oh) Yeah ! Wrote:  I don't think this rumor holds, but would give it a low percentage and wouldn't be shocked either. Lets say 10% chance.

This would send a huge ripple through the G5.

- Who is Big East #12 in that scenario? St. Louis?

- Where does UConn put their football program? MAC? Drop it to FCS?

- AAC loses three, does that tumble all the way down to Sun Belt extinction? Sun Belt has 11, but really only 9 with Idaho and NMSU eventually going elsewhere. AAC grabs three from CUSA, CUSA grabs 2, 3, or 4 (sans UAB) from Sun Belt and they are down to 5 like the WAC.... An AAC without Cincy, UConn, and UCF would just have the original CUSA 2.0 reform.

- What does Temple do in that scenario? Back to A10? What about UMass? Does UMass try to follow UConn's lead into the Big East? Would the Big East want them? What would UMass do with football?

That rumor, if true, would send a lot of G5 pieces in motion...


.

Keep in mind the sbc is captained by the same person that guided the wac to the abyss. However if this happened i believe the sbc would add back Jax st. Liberty, and eku easily with the possible additions of mo st. Jmu and perhaps lamar and or shsu.
this also might give nmsu and idaho football an fbs home longer. What the sbc has that the wac lacked is more candidates to choose from and from various conferences rather than just one.

To be fair, not that I have any compelling reason to be fair, CUSA's commissioner is on pace to lose more teams than Benson did at the WAC.

As for what happened in the WAC, it is really easy to pin it on Benson but if you go back and read the articles written at the time, the WAC ignored his advice repeatedly regarding expansion so it wasn't HIS strategy that failed, rather that of the presidents who ignored him.

But even if they had followed his strategy the reality is this.

MWC lost Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to Big East, and BYU to independence and the league gutted the WAC. From start to finish MWC took 15 schools from the WAC. CUSA took another three. When you consider 8 is the minimum for a FBS conference they lost 2 1/2 leagues worth of teams in a short span of time in a region that has very few FCS schools. In a two decade period only two FCS in the Mountain or Pacific time zones moved to FBS and Pacific dropped football at the start of that span.

There never was the replacement field out there to sustain losses.

Id have to agree with all of this. I didnt mean to imply it was all bensons fault only that he lacked the capacity to motivate presidents to do what was necessary to survive. Perhaps they wouldnt have survived anyway, but i feel there was an opportunity to take montana and msu which could have opened up the big sky to further raids, but they allowed pride to refuse the package which led to their downfall.
under benson the sbc seems to be following the same path of not moving because of differences amongst president and an inability of benson to find a way to get presidents to do whats best for the conference.

The WAC had a problem in finding schools willing to accept.

Montana and Montana State turned them down more than once.

Portland State, Sacramento State and Cal Poly SLO toyed with moving but never went all in to get an invite. Cal Davis was discussed but at the time when they came up they were still in the Division I transition and would have had to complete it before starting the two years to FBS so they weren't viable at the relevant time.

The WAC did not want to invite Idaho. They asked North Texas and were rejected, the invited UL Lafayette and were rejected and even talked briefly with Arkansas State and Middle Tennesse.

The only "saving" deal that was viable was to go to 12 and creating a western Division comprised of NMSU, La.Tech, North Texas, UL Lafayette, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee State and in the long run the WAC's rejection proved to be the better deal.

Sun Belt would have been left with Idaho, ULM, Troy, and maybe still could have added FIU and FAU but they were clearly going to be three teams short because Georgia Southern and App leadership at the time had no interest in FBS. WKU and USA would not have made the move.

Idaho probably would have sunk beneath the waves and ULM might well have as well. It is debatable whether FIU or FAU would have been able to pursue FBS.

Then when CUSA and MWC got raided, WAC would have been left with NMSU, UL Lafayette, Arkansas State, and if FIU and FAU hadn't moved and WKU hadn't moved the WAC would have closed shop if CUSA went to 14 because no one was left and the Sun Belt would have already closed.

(02-18-2015 11:59 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  MWC lost Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to Big East, and BYU to independence and the league gutted the WAC. From start to finish MWC took 15 schools from the WAC. CUSA took another three. When you consider 8 is the minimum for a FBS conference they lost 2 1/2 leagues worth of teams in a short span of time in a region that has very few FCS schools.

Another way of looking at it: The MWC is the WAC, operating under another name, and the original MWC split could be viewed as effectively just kicking 8 schools out of a WAC that should never have grown to 16. (I think many of those behind the original MWC viewed it that way.) And, what was thereafter called the WAC was kind of like Big West football under another name, and like BW football was cobbled together with schools from the central time zone because of the shortage of FBS programs in the west.

(02-18-2015 01:20 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 11:59 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  MWC lost Utah to the Pac-12, TCU to Big East, and BYU to independence and the league gutted the WAC. From start to finish MWC took 15 schools from the WAC. CUSA took another three. When you consider 8 is the minimum for a FBS conference they lost 2 1/2 leagues worth of teams in a short span of time in a region that has very few FCS schools.

Another way of looking at it: The MWC is the WAC, operating under another name, and the original MWC split could be viewed as effectively just kicking 8 schools out of a WAC that should never have grown to 16. (I think many of those behind the original MWC viewed it that way.) And, what was thereafter called the WAC was kind of like Big West football under another name, and like BW football was cobbled together with schools from the central time zone because of the shortage of FBS programs in the west.

Pretty good analysis.
It seems everything is in equilibrium on the FBS side of things in the West. There could be 2 nice FCS conferences in the West with the Big Sky and a WAC FCS.

(02-18-2015 12:11 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  If Tulane ever got their act together on the field/court they would easily jump to the top 3-4 for the B12 and ACC. That, however, is a big if....

If Tulane ever got their act together (in a big way), you would be a candidate for the SEC.

(02-18-2015 12:40 PM)jskwrite Wrote:  If the best of the rest were smart they'd all create a new conference with your BYU, Colorado State, Boise, Cincy, UConn, UCF and other top G5 schools would create their own football-only conference to compete with the P5... the Old Big East came the closest

The Big East didn't get close to this, as the Big East was strictly a northeast-quadrant football league with USF way down south by its lonesome.

(02-18-2015 12:15 PM)jskwrite Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 12:11 PM)wavefan12 Wrote:  

(02-18-2015 07:52 AM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(02-17-2015 07:24 PM)goofus Wrote:  The AAC pecking order was clearly established by the Big East selection order although I think there are some exceptions like Temple and USF that were picked sooner than they should have, and the order changes depending on which conference is expanding

Big 12 expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. Memphis
3. UCF
4. USF
5. Tulane
6. Uconn
7. ECU
But Houston, SMU, Tulsa are off limits to Big 12.

ACC expansion candidates from AAC
1. Cincy
2. UCONN
3. Houston
4. SMU
But ECU, USF, UCF are off limits to ACC

Tulane and Memphis would be considered by the ACC as well.
In fact, Tulane has some sentimental support.

Conferences want to be in New Orleans. Premier destination city, perhaps the marquee NCAA city in the country, growing, always top 5 in TV rating for any FBall event etc. If Tulane ever got their act together on the field/court they would easily jump to the top 3-4 for the B12 and ACC. That, however, is a big if....

Currently New Orleans isn't a wealthy city (it could change - let's not get into the politics on that one) so there is less value than a Miami or Atlanta or more "wealthy" (think disposable income for tickets and merchandise) than in New Orleans plus, unlike Atlanta or Jacksonville or Tampa, the NFL team runs the town as far as sports are concerned. Tulane's upside is that of a lesser Vanderbilt. Academics are too important to be a top tier P5 school. Could they be a Wake Forest ? Perhaps.

But Miami and Atlanta are disjointed cities (meaning the people are from all over) with no viable G5 team to offer up. NOLA has more wealth than you realize as you are either terribly poor or pretty well off here. Yes the metro area is smallish but rabid sports fans. It would provide options to host championship games in the Dome/Arena and provide fans perhaps the #1 place that any college fan would travel to, not to mention people would be willing to come back every two years. AAU/research access is a plus. If we say had anywhere near the success that TCU had (before the B12 invite) or say what Cincy has done, we may actually already be in the B12/ACC.