American Athletic Conference

[RoyalShock]

"TV ratings" and "TV markets" as they are currently viewed and constructed have, I believe, 2-3 more years - five max - before they fall apart. The move to streaming and ala-carte is going to make it much easier to determine who is watching what. Then it will be obvious that far more people in Wichita are watching WSU than people in St. Louis are watching SLU or people in Tulsa are watching TU.

Which school will look more attractive to a conference then?

[UofMemphis]

http://csnbbs.com/thread-733456.html

[shelback]

My preference is for the Valley to improve! Love for the Valley to
Set higher standards for its members and force them to improve
or take a hike. Its really not as bad as some make it to be.

[LandStander]

It's a medium sized town in the middle of nowhere lol. I do think the media market size is something that's a little overplayed. Look the the Green Bay Packers. One of the most popular teams in the league and plays in an incredibly small market. Look at the Jayhawks. Yes, they have KC near, but they are 1 1/2 hours away.

http://www.city-data.com/top1.html

By population Wichita is #50 in US
Above cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tampa and Pittsburgh
Small market my ass!

[jdshock]

http://www.city-data.com/top1.html

By population Wichita is #50 in US
Above cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tampa and Pittsburgh
Small market my ass!

Wichita may definitely be bigger than Cincinnati, Tampa, and Pittsburgh. I don't know. I know it is definitely not bigger than St Louis. We've got some weird stuff here in regards to the city/county that screws up the reporting. Metro area St Louis is about 2.8 million, even though on city lists St Louis is usually listed around 250k.

Edit: After looking at the metro area sizes, every one of those cities is actually over 2 million. Source

[UofMemphis]

http://www.city-data.com/top1.html

By population Wichita is #50 in US
Above cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tampa and Pittsburgh
Small market my ass!

You can't talk about Tampa without mentioning St Pete and Clearwater...

Tampa - 350k
St Pete - 250k
Clearwater - 110k

That's 710k without even mentioning the burbs...

That's like talking about Dallas, but not mentioning Ft Worth.

[UofMemphis]

Double post

[SHOCKvalue]

http://www.city-data.com/top1.html

By population Wichita is #50 in US
Above cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Tampa and Pittsburgh
Small market my ass!

You have to look at metro size (commonly referred to as MSA), not city proper.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

not really. those are P5 schools that get ridiciouls TV contract money, and are mostly The University of {insert state name here} or {insert state name} State University...they are State land grant schools, and flagship universities...they have crazy university endowments and even crazier athletic budgets.

at the G5 level, markets matter...esp for TV contracts.

Not to belabor the point, because I agree with you on the most part, but just because SMU is in Dallas doesn't mean they are delivering that market to the AAC. Loyola in the MVC is another prime example. LOL to anyone who actually believes having them in the MVC means we have a share of the Chicago market. I guarantee you there are more people watching WSU games in 600k Wichita than there are people watching Loyola games in 10M Chicago. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Loyola games aren't even on TV in Chicago.

Again, I'm not saying market isn't important at all, but I think fanbase size and passion need to be weighed as well--especially at the G5 level.

With that said, I am a major proponent of WSU to the AAC as I know you are as well. Thank you for beating our drum on the AAC boards.

[Shock Top]

Not to belabor the point, because I agree with you on the most part, but just because SMU is in Dallas doesn't mean they are delivering that market to the AAC. Loyola in the MVC is another prime example. LOL to anyone who actually believes having them in the MVC means we have a share of the Chicago market. I guarantee you there are more people watching WSU games in 600k Wichita than there are people watching Loyola games in 10M Chicago. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Loyola games aren't even on TV in Chicago.

Again, I'm not saying market isn't important at all, but I think fanbase size and passion need to be weighed as well--especially at the G5 level.

With that said, I am a major proponent of WSU to the AAC as I know you are as well. Thank you for beating our drum on the AAC boards.

Hell, there are probably more people in Chicago watching WSU games then LOLyola "games" ;)

[UofMemphis]

Not to belabor the point, because I agree with you on the most part, but just because SMU is in Dallas doesn't mean they are delivering that market to the AAC. Loyola in the MVC is another prime example. LOL to anyone who actually believes having them in the MVC means we have a share of the Chicago market. I guarantee you there are more people watching WSU games in 600k Wichita than there are people watching Loyola games in 10M Chicago. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find out Loyola games aren't even on TV in Chicago.

Again, I'm not saying market isn't important at all, but I think fanbase size and passion need to be weighed as well--especially at the G5 level.

With that said, I am a major proponent of WSU to the AAC as I know you are as well. Thank you for beating our drum on the AAC boards.

No problem :-)

I see former Presidents sitting court side with Cowboys players, in a renovated Arena (40 million), that's packed out...being coached by Larry Brown, no less...and I think SMU is doing pretty damn good considering where they were just a couple of years ago.

[Shock Top]

No problem :-)

I see former Presidents sitting court side with Cowboys players, in a renovated Arena (40 million), that's packed out...being coached by Larry Brown, no less...and I think SMU is doing pretty damn good considering where they were just a couple of years ago.

Man, I wonder what WSU could do to CKA with another $40M?!

Hell, right now, based on the vibe for WSU in the city, they might be able to pass a sales-tax increase to fund turning CKA (or a replacement) into a palace!! (not sure of all the legal qualifications for this)

[Cdizzle]

Larry Brown is a cheating sleazeball.

[ShockTalk]

No problem :-)

I see former Presidents sitting court side with Cowboys players, in a renovated Arena (40 million), that's packed out...being coached by Larry Brown, no less...and I think SMU is doing pretty damn good considering where they were just a couple of years ago.

That's a lot of jack for a 7,000 seat arena. That crowd would make our arena look pretty vacant. We haven't seen that few people in our arena since the dark days of the '90s. Guess they were planning for when Brown left and Jank takes over.

[SHOCKvalue]

That's a lot of jack for a 7,000 seat arena. That crowd would make our arena look pretty vacant. We haven't seen that few people in our arena since the dark days of the '90s. Guess they were planning for when Brown left and Jank takes over.

Average MBB attendance in the AAC is bad. Like bad, bad; relative to their conference strength. Really surprised me when I looked into it.

Makes me think debates about media market size (i.e. Wichita is a lot smaller than Philly or DFW) versus the possible inclusion of WSU into the AAC, are akin to chasing one's own tail. When only 3K-5K people are showing up for your games, does the media market really matter... like at all? The AAC has a lot of "Loyolas" if you know what I mean. Five out of eleven AAC MBB programs average less than 5K in attendance; eight out of eleven less than 6K. It is putrid.

Not that I am arguing against WSU moving to the AAC, should we ever receive an invite. Please, yes.