American Athletic Conference

[1972Shocker]

I was wondering how all of our other sports compare with the AAC. I know volleyball will compete but what about our other sports.

There are discussions on the Women's Sports forum and Men's Sports forum about this.

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthread.php?22897-Shocker-Women-to-AAC

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthread.php?22902-Shocker-Men-to-AAC

[blunderbuss]

I was wondering how all of our other sports compare with the AAC. I know volleyball will compete but what about our other sports.

Your baseball will be a good fit. That's ECU's best sport probably so we're interested for sure. I heard that you hired UTEP's women's basketball coach, home run from what I understand. Football, men's and women's basketball and then baseball are what's most important and the only thing anybody else will remember. LOL.

[1972Shocker]

ECU fan here. Hopefully not premature but WELCOME to the AAC. The Shockers will be my adopted basketball program. We have a hopeless situation at ECU on that front. Never been good at it and have never seemed to care. I need good basketball to follow and I hate the ACC teams in my backyard. Good luck guys, hopefully this happens for next season. You'll see me around here during basketball.

Wichita State has great basketball tradition back to the mid-50's but we have had a struggles at times as well in particular the 1990's. It can happen at ECU but it doesn't happen in a vacuum. In any case, thank your for what hopefully will be a premature welcome. WSU fans are chomping at the bit to join you and your fellow AAC members.

[shocka khan]

Please tell me this isn't another caddyshack altered quote. Geesh.

Could have been. I probably would have used the Animal House scene where Blutarski (HCGM) gets read the riot act read to him by Dean Wormer (Elgin).

You know, the one starting with 'you've been on double super secret probation'.....

[1972Shocker]

The Eagle/Suellentrop has picked up on the SI report.

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article141871524.html

[pony94]

Hello - this has been happening for awhile. Thought it was odd to have WSU folks at our game in Tulsa a few weeks ago but now it makes sense since Arresco was there too.

By the way, Tulane and SMU are the top academic schools and in no way "middle of the pack"

[blunderbuss]

Wichita State has great basketball tradition back to the mid-50's but we have had a struggles at times as well in particular the 1990's. It can happen at ECU but it doesn't happen in a vacuum. In any case, thank your for what hopefully will be a premature welcome. WSU fans are chomping at the bit to join you and your fellow AAC members.

It CAN happen. I know that for sure. The problem is having the leadership and donors to want to MAKE it happen. We've been a football/baseball first and 2nd since we started an athletic program. One of our past presidents (our best ever) led the way to turning us from a regional colllege to a university, to having a med school... etc, etc, etc. He is the one that started football here with the intent to be "different" than our ACC counterparts. Problem is that we aren't a P5 and the money situation makes football competition really tough now. The leadership still hasn't broken out of that old mindset. Sadly we have A LOT of ACC basketball t-shirt fans in our football fanbase. Our baseball fans are our TRUE, to the death die-hards. You'll figure that out if you ever visit for a game.

Either way, as a guy who grew up playing and watching basketball a lot more than football it's really frustrating. We have GOT to get rid of this coach but our ex-AD signed an extension that makes it hard to fire him right now. He probably has 1 more season at least. It will be a statement hire the next go around. I believe that there will be pressure from the league to fix USF, Tulane and ECU basketball, especially on the out of conference scheduling. Ours has been a complete joke.

/rant

I'll be asking questions about your program here. So please bear with me. It's exciting to have you aboard.

GO SHOCKS!!!

[HockeyShock]

It CAN happen. I know that for sure. The problem is having the leadership and donors to want to MAKE it happen. We've been a football/baseball first and 2nd since we started an athletic program. One of our past presidents (our best ever) led the way to turning us from a regional colllege to a university, to having a med school... etc, etc, etc. He is the one that started football here with the intent to be "different" than our ACC counterparts. Problem is that we aren't a P5 and the money situation makes football competition really tough now. The leadership still hasn't broken out of that old mindset. Sadly we have A LOT of ACC basketball t-shirt fans in our football fanbase. Our baseball fans are our TRUE, to the death die-hards. You'll figure that out if you ever visit for a game.

Either way, as a guy who grew up playing and watching basketball a lot more than football it's really frustrating. We have GOT to get rid of this coach but our ex-AD signed an extension that makes it hard to fire him right now. He probably has 1 more season at least. It will be a statement hire the next go around. I believe that there will be pressure from the league to fix USF, Tulane and ECU basketball, especially on the out of conference scheduling. Ours has been a complete joke.

/rant

I'll be asking questions about your program here. So please bear with me. It's exciting to have you aboard.

GO SHOCKS!!!

Welcome to the madhouse, and I'm happy that the league actually takes the level of competitiveness of the member institutions seriously. The league did kinda-sorta for a couple of seasons, then stopped. Maybe Dougie, Elgin got his feelings hurt when Gary Williams groused about it.

There were a lot of t-shirts with The Accursed Bird on it here in the early 90's too. Fortunately, we got rid of a phenomenally bad University President and started hiring a string of good Presidents that were interested in making WSU more than a commuter college and wouldn't be cowed by the Board of Regents. Time and continuous pressure will get you guys there, and I'd LOVE to see ECU ascend (especially since, you know, UNC shouldn't be even playing basketball for a year or two, if the NCAA would do it's job).

[shocka khan]

Are Tulane and SMU Tier-1? Pony, I know you're proud of your school, but I also live in Texas, and the tier-1 schools are UT, A&M, Texas Tech and U of H. Further, there is only one tier-1 schools in Louisiana (LSU) that I am aware of.

But I will also say Tulane and SMU's academics are waaaayyyy above the rest of the valley (for instance, the Edwin L. Cox school of business at SMU and the Medical School at Tulane).

[Dan]

Don't forget Tulsa. He was Commish when they left also.

So he replaced Tulsa with Evansville & Creighton with Loyola. What small, private, athletically irrelevant school will replace WSU? He must feel really good about these decisions.

[WichitaStateGuy]

Are Tulane and SMU Tier-1? Pony, I know you're proud of your school, but I also live in Texas, and the tier-1 schools are UT, A&M, Texas Tech and U of H. Further, there is only one tier-1 schools in Louisiana (LSU) that I am aware of.

But I will also say Tulane and SMU's academics are waaaayyyy above the rest of the valley (for instance, the Edwin L. Cox school of business at SMU and the Medical School at Tulane).

Going off of the TOP COLLEGE rankings (Forbes and NewsWeek)-- Tulane, UCONN, SMU, and Tulsa are certainly tier-one schools...

I'm an econ-masters student right now, and I have a huge comeuppance with how these rankings are formulated. How is endownment size a variable in the academic rankings?! Same with graduation rates-- ALL the military academies have dang near 100% graduation rates and are, coincidentally, top 20 colleges in the US.... There has to be a better ranking system.

In all seriousness-- I may have just discovered my thesis...

[jdshock]

Are Tulane and SMU Tier-1? Pony, I know you're proud of your school, but I also live in Texas, and the tier-1 schools are UT, A&M, Texas Tech and U of H. Further, there is only one tier-1 schools in Louisiana (LSU) that I am aware of.

But I will also say Tulane and SMU's academics are waaaayyyy above the rest of the valley (for instance, the Edwin L. Cox school of business at SMU and the Medical School at Tulane).

Tulane is an absolutely premier academic institution. Tier-1 etc. has been discussed on here some, but it has its limitations and should not be used as your only metric for determining a quality institution. Tulane may or may not be Tier 1, I don't know. But they're probably a top 50 university.

[Mike]

2016 US News & World Reports rankings of Best National Colleges & Universities

For what it's worth, these are the 2016 rankings of AAC universities and WSU:
Tulane - 39
SMU - 56
Connecticut - 60
Tulsa - 86
Temple - 118
Cincinnati - 135
South Florida - 159
Central Florida - 176
Houston - 194
East Carolina - 210
Wichita State - Rank not published
Memphis - Rank not published

[pogo]

There are discussions on the Women's Sports forum and Men's Sports forum about this.

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthread.php?22897-Shocker-Women-to-AAC

http://shockernet.net/forum/showthre...ker-Men-to-AAC

Thank you

[BOBB]

So he replaced Tulsa with Evansville & Creighton with Loyola. What small, private, athletically irrelevant school will replace WSU? He must feel really good about these decisions.

With Springfield now the real outlier geographically, I would expect another Illinois/Iowa/Indiana school. Keeping travel to buses whwre possible would be a big win for most programs. Ibsuppose Wisconson Milwaukee could work...glad we are leaving.