Winners / Losers if UConn joins the Big East

[FriarJ]

I'm about 95% now that Stever is StunningSteve on the boneyard. It all makes so much sense now.

[Gopher+RamFan]

Take away uconn's title run, and you'd think the A10 and AAC were startlingly similar. If I was VCU, I'd get Dayton and SLU together and form a pact to stay together unless called by the Big East. It's a good multi-bid conference and I'd hate to see it destroyed by getting VCU poached by a football conference.

I agree. I'm not so much concerned about Dayton bolting for the Big East. They're in the same geographical area as X which is a high hurdle that would demand great on the court success. Outside of Archie's Elite 8 there has been not much. Much of the counter-VCU argument from these past few years centered on how VCU would do post-Shaka; now that we're on the second coach since him to bring the program to the NCAAs I think that point has lesser value. Dayton post-Archie program has more questions and less answers. They have a great fanbase, which is close to VCU's as far as traveling to NYC for the conference tournament. Home games there are packed. I just don't think (barring a miraculous 3-4 year run) that the Big East would take them.

I'm scared that SLU will get poached, leaving Dayton and VCU in an extremely watered down A-10. SLU brings a new market, a decent fanbase but no great basketball history. Regardless, they fit the mold that the Presidents would want and bring a "bridge" to Creighton.

VCU in the AAC wouldn't be that great. Far flung conference filled with members who would want to leave at any opportunity. The A-10 gives VCU a 75/25 split of its own NCAA appearance revenue, unlikely to get that deal in the AAC and the football schools will demand their higher share of conference revenues. For VCU it has to be Big East or bust - the Big East probably knows this so no rush on adding them since they have no where else to go. I think VCU's add would bring a larger fanbase with proven travel to NYC for conference tournaments and the school's own media rights deal with an endowment of $1.83 Billion (larger than Georgetown by the list I saw) and an inroads to markets #56 (Richmond) and #6 (Washington-Alexandria, VA - Arlington, VA) and #37 (Virginia Beach - Norfolk). I'm from northern Virginia (inside the beltway) and the amount of VCU graduates from my high school has increased 10 fold in the last 10 years.

Either way, there's great risk in either staying in the A-10 or going to the AAC. One thing for sure, the Big East outpaces the AAC in my mind.

[GumbyDamnit!]

Strever can you do me a favor and list the total # of tourney wins for each AAC program since inception? And you are right, it’s not just about the loss of UConn. Cinci is in uncertain territory with a recent coaching change; same with Temple; Tulane too. UH loses all its talent and Wich St seems to have lost its mojo. It seems like it’s Memphis or bust. If things don’t fall into place there and the AAC could be in trouble. I know deep down you realize that too.

[adoraz]

I'm still trying to get used to the flipped scripts, where now the AAC fans are trashing us, while the Big East fans come to our defense. It's the real life upside down.

As a St. John's fan I have rooted against you the past few years the same way I root against Syracuse. However, I and most others have always said you'd be a great addition to our conference (see my "UConn smoke" thread from back in December). With this news our position hasn't changed. We never acted as if UConn was a mediocre property. A minority of Big East fans thought you wouldn't be a fit for our league, but hardly anyone questioned the value you'd bring.

Meanwhile, a lot of AAC fans are acting very hypocritical right now. The football fans in particular are fanning the flames while others like Stever aren't being genuine in assessing how valuable UConn is.

I think for Uconn- they're definitely valuable. I think you could make the case they're more valuable in the Big East than they were the AAC. Football wise, you can't argue that this won't help the AAC.... It is a true case of addition by subtraction.

As far as basketball, the league had developed a lot even w/o UConn doing much the last few years. If UConn had been dominating the league the last few years, it would be a far greater loss. Lets say the league brings in VCU and they continue the way they've gone- going like 11-2 OOC and then doing well in conference play. That's going to help the AAC get more bids.

I get that you want to shift the discussion to football, but this is a basketball forum and personally I don't care about college football (nor do I think you do). UConn leaving does not hurt the football side of the AAC, at least not directly, but it absolutely hurts the basketball side and also the conference as a whole.

I just can't take your continuous downplaying of UConn seriously when you've spent so much time over the past few years hyping up the return of UConn. You know UConn is critical because they're by far the most nationally relevant of all the AAC schools, and they also attract recruits like no other AAC school can (besides Memphis this year- obviously an exceptional class but still a massive outlier until proven otherwise). UConn was the safest bet of any AAC school to perform well long-term and that is why this hurts so much. Just because they haven't won a Championship in 5 years (lol...) doesn't mean they weren't still the AAC's #1 basketball property.

UConn leaving is brutal for the AAC, period. I'm not saying that they can't still be successful, but this is pretty much a worst case scenario for the AAC and a best case for the Big East.

Also, I wouldn't be so quick to assume VCU is getting an invite. The AAC threw UConn a bone in obtaining Wichita St, but now they have even less incentive to go with a basketball school rather than a football one. Things could get pretty ugly if VCU doesn't replace UConn.

[Wizard of Westroads]

I can't get my mind wrapped around Stever's position any more. Does this need to be updated?

[Husky_U]

^ OMG. LOL. That is amazing.

[stever20]

I guess my position with the AAC with Uconn levaing is that UConn last 5 years hasn't performed well at all- only made tourney 1 time- and the league still got on average 3 bids per year. So I don't see how losing a program that went 38-25 OOC the last 5 years is really going to damage the AAC that much.

My position is that it's far more of a positive for the Big East than it is a negative for the AAC. UConn will probably improve in the Big East(though I think they would have still given Hurley being around). For the AAC you're still going to find these old CUSA programs like UCF, Houston, Memphis, etc. with a lot more money and they've taken advantage of that. 4 of the 6 programs from CUSA have made the tourney in their first 5-6 years(the 2 that haven't ECU and Tulane are going into year 6). I don't see that changing.

I would argue that the thing that has the potential to hurt the AAC far more than UConn leaving is Cronin leaving Cincy.

One other thing. I've seen folks mention that the AAC might go round robin and so teams having to play the bad teams twice. I'd argue with the NET that means far less now than it used to. The concept of RPI killers where it'd be better to lose to a better team than beat a bad team- is gone.

[GumbyDamnit!]

I can't get my mind wrapped around Stever's position any more. Does this need to be updated?

Never gets old.

[hawkoooo]

Even without context that gif is hilarious.

Losers: Dayton, VCU

Winners: Dayton, VCU??

Hear me out. This could be the first domino in a long series. The American seems proactive about fortification and I don't expect they'll take long to replace UConn's football program to get back to 12 (Army for football-only seems like the most logical choice). What I also expect is they will quickly attempt to replace what UConn brings basketball-wise. That means the two most obvious choices (listed above) to improve basketball may get an invite soon, especially since there was rumored interest long before this. So my point is, these two schools are losers in the sense that a BE invite is now infinitely less likely, but they may be winners if this event leads to the AAC inviting when they may not have before, or inviting sooner. If you can't tell I'm of the opinion that the A10 is a sinking ship.

[Husky_U]

Sounding like the AAC is gonna stay at 11 members and move to a full round robin.

Losers: Everyone in the AAC not named ECU/Tulane for having to play each of those NET dregs twice a year.