American Athletic Conference

[wufan]

I think we wait for the dust to settle on the AAC in the next couple of years. Louisville and Rutgers move on. Navy joins for football. Larry Brown takes off. If Cinci, UConn, and Memphis remain committed and WSU remains competitive with the rest of College basketball, I believe a WSU add to the conference will help the renegotiation of the TV deal. We have a reasonable geographic fit. I would absolutely LOVE to be aligned with Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Tulane and Memphis as a Western Division. Being in a Northern Division would be less attractive, but we would still be competing against Cincinatti, Connecticut, East Carolina, Tulsa and Temple.

As an alternative to joining the AAC, I think HCGM should schedule home and homes with Tulsa (currently happening), UConn, Cinci (in talks with both), SMU, Memphis, Houston, E. Carol., Temple, and Tulane as a trial run.

[IlliniShocker]

I believe the Valley will be displaying a couple of Illinois retreads next year with Shaw at Bradley and another big guy (who's name I can't spell, let alone pronounce) at SIU.

You're correct on both counts. So for a variety of reasons, it does go both ways.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't exactly followed Valley recruiting, but I believe when Shaw is eligible next year, he'll join FVV as the only top 100 recruits in the Valley. He was recruited by Weber, and it became clear pretty early that he just wasn't going to be a fit with the new coach's system. I have to imagine that having Geno Ford's brother as an assistant on Illinois's staff played a pretty good part in him landing at Bradley. The MVC should be a good fit, and I hope for him and the rest of the MVC that he's able to rediscover his mojo that made him a top 100 kid out of HS.

Ibrahima "Ibby" Djimde is the guy at SIU. We never got to see him much since he was the last big guy off the bench, so it's hard to say what he may do. With how he is in school, many of us thought he was going to end up transferring to an Ivy League school when it was announce that he was leaving.

[wufan]

You're correct on both counts. So for a variety of reasons, it does go both ways.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, as I haven't exactly followed Valley recruiting, but I believe when Shaw is eligible next year, he'll join FVV as the only top 100 recruits in the Valley. He was recruited by Weber, and it became clear pretty early that he just wasn't going to be a fit with the new coach's system. I have to imagine that having Geno Ford's brother as an assistant on Illinois's staff played a pretty good part in him landing at Bradley. The MVC should be a good fit, and I hope for him and the rest of the MVC that he's able to rediscover his mojo that made him a top 100 kid out of HS.

Ibrahima "Ibby" Djimde is the guy at SIU. We never got to see him much since he was the last big guy off the bench, so it's hard to say what he may do. With how he is in school, many of us thought he was going to end up transferring to an Ivy League school when it was announce that he was leaving.

Thanks for helping me out there!

[WSUSWer]

What do you guys think our chances are of joining the MWC? I think we would be a good fit...

[pogo]

Hey now, don't go running down my other team to make your point :D. But just to elaborate on it a little bit, Ekey is a 5th year graduate student who took advantage of that transfer rule, and Rayvonte is actually from Champaign. It doesn't diminish the point you're making, just shedding some light on those two particular situations.

But if we really want to keep that train rolling, in 2011-'12, Sam Maniscalco also used the graduate student transfer rule and transferred from Bradley to Illinois.

Come to think of it, thinking about all this is just depressing me again about the rebuild Illinois has been going through. Maybe that's why I've been clinging to the Shockers more than ever before :D

I think I see the problem here. Its not that these guys are moving onto bigger things its that we (the valley) are graduating these guys. Need to cut the graduation rate to keep these players.

[shock]

What do you guys think our chances are of joining the MWC? I think we would be a good fit...

Slim to none. MWC revolves around football

[Shock Top]

Our best chance would be for the BE to drop the "private schools only" requirement and add WSU and VCU.

Appart from that, without football, we have to hope for the other slim chance of the MWC or AAC adding us as a non-football member.

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Don't get me wrong, short of winning a national title, moving to a new conference would be my biggest dream for WSU.

[Shocker-maniac]

Our best chance would be for the BE to drop the "private schools only" requirement and add WSU and VCU.

Appart from that, without football, we have to hope for the other slim chance of the MWC or AAC adding us as a non-football member.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely any of those happen in the foreseeable future.

[wufan]

Our best chance would be for the BE to drop the "private schools only" requirement and add WSU and VCU.

Appart from that, without football, we have to hope for the other slim chance of the MWC or AAC adding us as a non-football member.

----------

Don't get me wrong, short of winning a national title, moving to a new conference would be my biggest dream for WSU.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely any of those happen in the foreseeable future.

I say no chance this happens this year, but I believe that the landscape will change just enough that there will be an opportunity in the next 2-5 years. The key is for WSU to stay relevant in the basketball world, similar to Gonzaga or Memphis, for that period of time so that when the opportunity does arise, we are the obvious choice.

[UofMemphis]

How long does that massive TV deal last? No doubt, losing Louisville will be a future negative to holding on to that at re-negotiations. And what impact would losing either UConn or Cincinnati, or both, have?

I like the idea of the AAC very much, but the new Big East could become more relevant for basketball than the AAC if more than Louisville leaves and the Big East makes a play for a couple of non-private schools.

The AACs TV contract with ESPN/CBS was worked out AFTER Louisville announced they were leaving...nothing changes going forward.

There is a clause that says if UConn/Cincy leave they can rework the deal.

[UofMemphis]

Perhaps this Houston fan would be happy to know that we spend over twice as much as they do on MBB ($2.5M versus $5.5M), average close to 3 times the fan attendance (3,707 versus 10,312), and have done far, far more over the past 10-15 years by any definable metric.

I especially like the part where he talks about putting together a package to lure away HCGM. Again, their entire MBB budget is only about 25% more than what HCGM makes. Half of the putrid MVC spends more on MBB than they do.

It's jealousy...bask in it.

[UofMemphis]

The AAC will feature coaches like Larry Brown, Mick Cronin, Kevin Ollie, Josh Pastner, Danny Manning, Fran Dunphy...

I'd love to add Gregg Marshall to that list.

[12eagle]

It's jealousy...bask in it.

We Want in. Make it happen LOL

[WuShock16]

You all want to throw up? Check this out.

Two lawmakers want one more Big Ten school in Illinois

"According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois Senators Michael Connelly and Matt Murphy have introduced legislation “to study what it would take for Illinois to get one of its current public universities – like Illinois State University or Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville -- to become a Big Ten school.”

The two think tough admissions standards at the University of Illinois are causing many students to continue their educations out of state. Illinois and the private Northwestern are the only two Big Ten schools in the state, and Connelly thinks being a “Big Ten school” carries a lot of weight."

[shock]

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