Discussion of Rice in previous threads got me thinking, would the Ivy League offer Rice membership?? I know Rice is nowhere near New England, but the Ivy League had considered offering Northwestern at one time, and Northwestern is located in Chicago, so why not at least give Rice a look?? As for Rice, who has mulled over D3 in the past, what not to love about the Ivy League?? Rice could still play Houston & Texas out of conference, for old times sake.

Well it is about twice the distance from Houston to Boston than Chicago to Boston. Rice to the Ivy League is a 0.000% chance of happening

In short, no. If Rice decides to move down it will probably be all the way down to D3 and into an elite academic conference.

It’s a shame that the Rice administration can’t build an athletic department that more closely resembles Stanford, Northwestern, or Vanderbilt.

I think it's weird that Rice isn't in the same conference as SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.

(11-17-2019 04:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I think it's weird that Rice isn't in the same conference as SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.

Third hand story is their President told ours the AAC would fail and CUSA was a safer bet.

No chance. The Ivy League sponsors 33 sports while not offering athletic scholarships, which means there’s a huge number of traditional “academics-first” student-athletes on each campus. Consequently the conference members highly value their close proximity to each other which keeps travel times down. Putting all of those teams and players on flights to Houston for conference games wouldn’t be acceptable.

Then there’s the snobbery factor. The Ivies have a history of inter-school competition that dates back to the 19th century, even though the conference wasn’t officially established until 1954. Rice isn’t part of that history. Also Rice is only ranked 17th among U.S national universities according to USN&WR, tied with Cornell which is the lowest-ranked of the Ivy League schools.

(11-17-2019 04:55 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  In short, no. If Rice decides to move down it will probably be all the way down to D3 and into an elite academic conference.

It’s a shame that the Rice administration can’t build an athletic department that more closely resembles Stanford, Northwestern, or Vanderbilt.

I know it’s semantics, but Vanderbilt doesn’t have an athletic department.

Rice in the Mountain West would work. Give them some more baseball pedigree.

(11-17-2019 05:39 PM)HawaiiMongoose Wrote:  No chance. The Ivy League sponsors 33 sports while not offering athletic scholarships, which means there’s a huge number of traditional “academics-first” student-athletes on each campus. Consequently the conference members highly value their close proximity to each other which keeps travel times down. Putting all of those teams and players on flights to Houston for conference games wouldn’t be acceptable.

Then there’s the snobbery factor. The Ivies have a history of inter-school competition that dates back to the 19th century, even though the conference wasn’t officially established until 1954. Rice isn’t part of that history. Also Rice is only ranked 17th among U.S national universities according to USN&WR, tied with Cornell which is the lowest-ranked of the Ivy League schools.

^^^THIS^^^

(11-17-2019 04:55 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  In short, no. If Rice decides to move down it will probably be all the way down to D3 and into an elite academic conference.

It’s a shame that the Rice administration can’t build an athletic department that more closely resembles Stanford, Northwestern, or Vanderbilt.

Rice to the UAA?

(11-17-2019 04:43 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  Discussion of Rice in previous threads got me thinking, would the Ivy League offer Rice membership?? I know Rice is nowhere near New England, but the Ivy League had considered offering Northwestern at one time, and Northwestern is located in Chicago, so why not at least give Rice a look?? As for Rice, who has mulled over D3 in the past, what not to love about the Ivy League?? Rice could still play Houston & Texas out of conference, for old times sake.

I always thought something along the old Magnolia league concept would work for Rice--especially if coupled with the academies. It would have made more sense 10 years ago than now (SMU, Tulane, and Tulsa are making too much money in the AAC to opt out at this point). If the AAC were to be ravaged by realignment--it might male sense again for those schools.

Rice
Tulane
SMU
Tulsa
Navy
Air Force
Army


You need one more school to get to 8. Maybe BYU would have interest in something like this. Maybe a reatively small AAU public like Buffalo---or a state flagship like UMass...might work as the 8th member.

The IVY League was set to take Northwestern a few years before their Rose Bowl miracle.

(11-17-2019 07:27 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 04:43 PM)DawgNBama Wrote:  Discussion of Rice in previous threads got me thinking, would the Ivy League offer Rice membership?? I know Rice is nowhere near New England, but the Ivy League had considered offering Northwestern at one time, and Northwestern is located in Chicago, so why not at least give Rice a look?? As for Rice, who has mulled over D3 in the past, what not to love about the Ivy League?? Rice could still play Houston & Texas out of conference, for old times sake.

I always thought something along the old Magnolia league concept would work for Rice--especially if coupled with the academies. It would have made more sense 10 years ago than now (SMU, Tulane, and Tulsa are making too much money in the AAC to opt out at this point). If the AAC were to be ravaged by realignment--it might male sense again for those schools.

Rice
Tulane
SMU
Tulsa
Navy
Air Force
Army


You need one more school to get to 8. Maybe BYU would have interest in something like this. Maybe a reatively small AAU public like Buffalo---or a state flagship like UMass...might work as the 8th member.

The Magnolia will only really work if FBS goes to pay for play model and schools like Vandy and Duke decide they still have principles.

(11-17-2019 06:00 PM)TrueBlueDrew Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 04:55 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  In short, no. If Rice decides to move down it will probably be all the way down to D3 and into an elite academic conference.

It’s a shame that the Rice administration can’t build an athletic department that more closely resembles Stanford, Northwestern, or Vanderbilt.

I know it’s semantics, but Vanderbilt doesn’t have an athletic department.

Vanderbilt dished out $25 million to buyout Drew and hire Stackhouse. Wonder what a school with a real athletic department like Georgia Southern could pull off.

(11-17-2019 05:30 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 04:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I think it's weird that Rice isn't in the same conference as SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.

Third hand story is their President told ours the AAC would fail and CUSA was a safer bet.

Assuming that’s true, who would they have got in over

(11-17-2019 06:43 PM)esayem Wrote:  Rice in the Mountain West would work. Give them some more baseball pedigree.

Hell no, we don’t want those losers.


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(11-17-2019 05:30 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 04:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I think it's weird that Rice isn't in the same conference as SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.

Third hand story is their President told ours the AAC would fail and CUSA was a safer bet.

FWIW—I heard something similar. I heard Banowski told Mack Rhodes that the AAC/Big East would fail and that UH (or any of the other schools that left) should understand that CUSA will not welcome them back when the AAC collapsed. That said, I have a feeling that the C7 and Notre Dame looking hard at leaving the Big East was a poorly kept secret as far back as late 2011.

In the late 90’s chaos, reps from Army, Navy, Tulane, Rice, SMU, and Tulsa all met at the Baltimore Airport. I think this was after SMU was snubbed by C-USA at the 11th hour, and before Army joined for football failure.

(11-17-2019 07:33 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  The IVY League was set to take Northwestern a few years before their Rose Bowl miracle.

Army and Navy were discussed some decades back.

(11-17-2019 11:14 PM)Attackcoog Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 05:30 PM)Pony94 Wrote:  

(11-17-2019 04:59 PM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  I think it's weird that Rice isn't in the same conference as SMU, Tulane and Tulsa.

Third hand story is their President told ours the AAC would fail and CUSA was a safer bet.

FWIW—I heard something similar. I heard Banowski told Mack Rhodes that the AAC/Big East would fail and that UH (or any of the other schools that left) should understand that CUSA will not welcome them back when the AAC collapsed. That said, I have a feeling that the C7 and Notre Dame looking hard at leaving the Big East was a poorly kept secret as far back as late 2011.

I never heard that about the AAC failing. Interesting that it came from Rice, one of the most underwhelming athletic departments. If Rice put more effort in sports, they could join almost any conference they wanted to join. I love Rice but they just don’t seem to try. Maybe it’s just bad luck?

Regardless, the AAC won’t continue to exist out of necessity. The schools in it now (and future) rely on its existence as a stepping stone to a power conference. Not a school in it would reject an invite to join the PAC, B1G, SEC, ACC, XII - barring extreme geographical barriers. The AAC will only go away when all members join another conference or it will be a shell of its former self if there is a significant overhaul in membership with additions only from non-power conferences. I can see a stronger AAC form if/when the XII dissolves.