The BIG 12 may make news on Monday by adding two
schools. They also may not add any
schools, and that scenario is a scenario that I find intriguing.
College athletics is a business. Where the BIG 12 doesn’t see an opportunity
is a place where the American Conference should look for one.
The American Conference needs to grow their revenue and
become a better known brand in college athletics. They need to be taken seriously by winning
Championships in anything and they need to show that they can bring value to
television and media companies. They
also need to win in big sports on the national stage.
While they bring in revenue less than their peers, and will
for a long time, they will also need to help schools cut expenses. With this in mind, I advocate that the
conference, and it’s leading schools (UConn, Cincinnati, Houston, South
Florida, Central Florida, Memphis, Temple, East Carolina) come up with a plan
together. They should come up with
opportunities for the future, ways to cut expenses now and invest in schools
and sports of the future.
I think that idea should be for a conference that is 16
teams.
Criteria that should be important include: Geography, Rivalries,
Public Schools, Scheduling that allows for RPI Opportunities and Non-conference
Flexibility.
The geography of the American Conference is actually pretty
good. Think about it, it has schools in
established cities and growing places. Tampa,
New Orleans, Orlando, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, Cincinnati & Philadelphia
give the conference some geographic advantages that other conferences don’t
have. UConn gives the conference a hand
in New York and Boston and East Carolina adds the growing state of North
Carolina. Adding schools that are in
growing cities and states is a plus for media rights money and potential for
growth in those area universities.
The sports that matter in college athletics are
obvious. They are Football, Men’s
Basketball & Women’s Basketball. Men’s
Ice Hockey matters and so do Softball, Baseball and Men’s & Women’s
Soccer. The American should look at
adding schools that can help compete in all sports, not just Football and
Basketball. Football may not be as popular
in 20 years, and that is an opportunity that the Conference must exploit. I’d expect Soccer and Lacrosse to gain in
popularity. Schools with little value in
basketball or football, but lots of value in Men’s Soccer, is a school I’d
consider for entry.
USF & UCF and Houston & SMU can have natural
geographic rivalries, and that is good for a conference. UConn and Cincinnati don’t have close
rivals. Neither does Memphis or East
Carolina. Solving that problem or some
of that problem should be a goal of conference expansion.
Adding teams can dilute the product of the American
Conference even further. The conference
doesn’t need to have too many bad conference basketball etc. games. They need enough games to get the big anchor
schools to visit other cities and give every geographic part of the conference
a chance to watch the best of the best come to town. They need too little to give schools the
chance to schedule marquee non-conference match-ups or their own out of
conference rivalries.
The sport of basketball will be key in keeping RPI up for
the conferences best schools. In order
to do this you need to make sure that they best teams in the conference get to
play each other as much as possible. I
envision a structure that has two eight team divisions.
You borrow two ideas, Soccer’s relegation and the NFL’s
scheduling of those in other divisions that finish the same place as you.
10 conference basketball games come from home and home games
against teams from where they finished in the standings the year before. Teams that finished 1-4 in your division play
home and home games against each other.
Same goes for those that finished 5-8.
The two teams in the other division that finished 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8
play home and homes as well. This gets
you to 10 home and home games against what should be similar competition level. Then you play the rest of your division
alternating home and away games each year.
That gives you 4 more games. The
last four games include 3 alternating home and away games for the other
division and one rotating game in your own division. Confusing, probably. The point of it is to give schools stuck in
the bottom a chance to claw out of it and in to the top tier of play. The good thing to me about this format is
that it limits travel to far away places (because divisions will be split up
based on geography) while insuring that travel to far away places is limited to
schools that are usually similar in competition level to you. Less travel keeps student in class and keeps
travel expenses down.
This sort of RPI inflator for the best teams in the league
is important too, as it should prevent too much dilution in competition from
the adding of more teams. I’d hope that
other sports in the league could adopt a similar structure to suit the needs of
their sports.
The next important thing is to invest in some sports. Every school needs to get Men’s Soccer. East Carolina doesn’t have it. I assume some of the other southern schools
don’t. The American Conference should
bet that it can be one of the premier Men’s Soccer leagues one day, and that
being one of those conferences will pay off one day. Football
could very well be at its peak. Boxing
fell off in popularity, so did Horse Racing.
It could bet that concussions, less youth participation, sexual assault
and this years decline in viewership is the beginning of a decline in football. Is it a risky bet? Absolutely, especially
when you know you won’t make any money on this soon.
Now lets move to the fun part. Schools and Divisions.
Let’s start with the current teams and splitting them into
divisions. (This could change depending
on schools being added, but I’ll go with my scenario).
I envision a Stars and Stripes division for sports. It builds on the “American” theme.
Stars Division: UConn, Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina
Stripe Division: Memphis, SMU, Houston, Tulane, Tulsa, USF,
UCF
Now in my scenario, obviously the Star division has a lot of
schools to add.
The first school I would add would be UMass. UConn needs a geographic rival. It’s Boston College to many, but it still
needs one in it’s own conference. UMass
and UConn have history in Men’s Basketball, and UMass will add a respectable
basketball program to the conference. It’s
football program is new and while it will probably not deliver the Boston TV
market, it is still the state university of Massachusetts. That should count for something.
East Carolina does not have a natural conference geographic
rival in the conference either. Fitting
with the theme of growing southern cities and a respectable Men’s Soccer program
I’d advocate adding Charlotte. Charlotte
is a great city (Very biased as I am writing from the city now). It has a good Men’s Soccer program and gives
East Carolina a local rival and travel partner.
College athletics are big in North Carolina and having another team in
the state and the ability to have a rivalry in the future should be seen as an
opportunity.
Side note - Charlotte is another American Airlines hub that
would be added to the conference. Added
to Philadelphia (Temple) and Dallas (SMU) already. Maybe that can be leveraged into a
sponsorship or at least reduced travel expenses. American Conference and American Airlines
does go together pretty well!
Tulane doesn’t have a travel partner, and apparently
Hattiesburg, MS is a two hour drive away.
Southern Miss would bring the stripe division to 8 teams and would add
another team in the south for the conference.
It gives Tulane a geographic rival.
Southern Miss is also a good school to add for football and their
baseball is pretty good from all that I know.
What is more American than Army and Navy? Not much.
This is by far the part of this scenario that I am most unsure
about. I am not sure if there would be
issues with them joining a conference that are beyond my thought process right
now. I’m struggling with the, “What is
in it for me (or should I say Army and Navy?”) question. They do however fill out the Star division
well. They are both geographic fits and
both national brands. It also would make
the annual “Army & Navy” football game a conference game which would be
good for the conference (The conference should let Army and Navy keep every
penny that the annual game generates from CBS.
It should just be happy to have free publicity on major network television
every year). Additionally, it can’t hurt
that the conference already has Veteran and Military friendly states such as
North Carolina, Florida and Texas represented in the conference.
Final Division Lay Out
Star: UConn, Cinci, Temple, East Carolina, UMass, Charlotte,
Army, Navy
Stripe: Memphis, Houston, SMU, Tulane, USF, UCF, Tulsa,
Southern Miss
Football: Let the coaches and AD’s decide on eight or nine
conference games. I prefer nine, with
you playing your entire division, a game against the team that finished
opposite in the standings in the other division and a random team from the
other division to insure that everyone plays each other on occasion. Obviously, there would be a championship
game.
Possible Travel Partners
UConn & UMass
East Carolina & Charlotte
Navy and Temple
Army & Cincinnati (Not that great, but best I could do.
Wish I could find a better school for Cincinnati. Xavier would be perfect, but
they don’t have football and there is no reason for them to leave the Big East.)
USF & UCF
Houston & SMU
Tulane & Southern Miss
Memphis & Tulsa (Let’s just pretend Arkansas doesn’t
exist)
Other Schools Considered (Seriously or in passing):
Marshall, Coastal Carolina, James Madison, App State,
Bowling Green, Liberty
Now, hopefully other people can come up with some better
ideas from this. However, should the BIG
12 decide not to expand, this may be the best realistic option for the American
Conference and it’s members. Generate
some rivalries, reduce travel costs, and be in a conference that should allow
you to maximize your RPI. Invest in
growing cities and sports.
It’s certainly not going to result in a cash windfall like
your school ending up in the BIG 12 would.
However, in my eyes, it’s probably the option that gives everyone the
most hope for a better 20 years from now, if the expansion merry go-round skips
over them.
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