2021-22 Basketball happenings around the American Athletic!

[pinstripers]

6 guys.......2 hand touch........the stands would be packed, I tell you! Packed!

[SubGod22]

I remember studying up on some of this a number of years ago for a class project. The scholarship ratio is also connected to enrollment numbers, but WSU wouldn't need a 1/1 match. It could pretty much be handled by adding women's soccer, which should happen anyway, promoting women's crew from a club sport and maybe adding gymnastics. None of these would be insanely expensive on their own. Soccer could be played at Cessna or off campus at Stryker.

I do remember hearing some talk about land north of campus over near Koch that could/would be available. I also remember hearing some talk about building a football stadium, should WSU bring it back, over off of 96 and Greenwich. Neither is on campus, but I think we've basically run out of room on campus for a stadium.

WSU would have to start at the FCS level and initial costs, not including stadium, would probably have to be in the 20-40 million range. You don't have to do everything at once. If a stadium were built, you'd probably want to start at at least 20k with it designed for expansion. There have been a number of schools in the last 20 years start football and some are now in FBS.

Football would also most likely increase enrollment and bring in new donors. Football is much bigger than it was in the 80s and you don't have to play SEC level football. And there are a fair amount of D2 and FCS guys playing in the NFL today. I can think of three playing for the Chiefs off the top of my head. Hell, you probably have a better chance at the NFL from FCS than you do from KU. And is you build up in FCS and grow support, you can start thinking about FBS. Now, would the AAC be open to it? Probably depend on what things looked like at the time, but if we had a strong FCS program and top notch facilities, our connection within the conference might just get us invited for that call up. If not, FCS football could still be a lot of fun and there are a lot of strong programs in the middle of the country.

I know the odds of WSU having the backbone to bring back football is slim, but I have thought for 20 years it would be a net benefit to WSU and still believe that. But I will continue to dream of what could be.

I'll still never forget the 12k or so that showed up to watch Butler play Blinn about 10 years ago. It was a pretty good atmosphere for a couple of JUCO teams.

[Wuzee]

My recollection is the reason it is a little "lopsided" is because the % of female enrollment was greater than the % of males enrolled which apparently factored into the equation to some degree. Although I would bet much on my recollection being accurate.

It is a little lopsided to the women's side, but not by much. It was enough that it was a problem to add only women's soccer or lacrosse without a counterbalancing men's sport to avoid triggering Title IX. It's pretty easy to see why. Pairing softball with baseball, we've got men's and women's teams in all sports except volleyball. That means there are a few more women participating than men.

[TrackSuitAndTie]

New article from the Athletic on conference realignment (with some citing of insider sources) has listed the following schools as potential expansion candidates for the American:

• Appalachian State
• Louisiana
• UAB
• Liberty
• James Madison
• Marshall
• Charlotte
• Georgia State
• UTSA
• Old Dominion
• Southern Miss
• Rice
• North Texas
• FAU
• The Western Wing (Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force)

The final option would evidently be a big swing and probably the best for AAC basketball. Of the other teams listed only UAB and Liberty offer immediate competition in basketball (in my opinion).

[yesimaKUfan]

KU Fan, you need to worry about the state of your own program. Your team is close to if not the worst team in the P5, AAC, MWC, and your stadium is an embarrassment to college football—- dilapidated restrooms, closed concession, depressing concourses, and empty seats.
Spend your energy trying to right your own ship before engaging in ship building at WSU.

Safely bottom 5-10 for sure. Yep, stadium is a disaster. We better be investing heavily and I'll be the first to increase my donations once the campaign ends the quiet phase. That said, I'm a Wichita native and one of my degrees is from Wichita State so I would like to see football added and would like to see the school's profile grow through stronger conference alignment. I enjoy engaging with fans even though I'm sure it annoys some people that I'm here. At least I'm up front about my allegiances and try to avoid behavior that might be considered trolling.

[SubGod22]

New article from the Athletic on conference realignment (with some citing of insider sources) has listed the following schools as potential expansion candidates for the American:

• Appalachian State
• Louisiana
• UAB
• Liberty
• James Madison
• Marshall
• Charlotte
• Georgia State
• UTSA
• Old Dominion
• Southern Miss
• Rice
• North Texas
• FAU
• The Western Wing (Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force)

The final option would evidently be a big swing and probably the best for AAC basketball. Of the other teams listed only UAB and Liberty offer immediate competition in basketball (in my opinion).

We all know a western wing is the superior play. Taking that off the table, and choosing four from the rest, I think you go with UAB (market and respectability in both sports), Liberty (fans, money and competitiveness in both sports)......it gets difficult after that.

I want to say North Texas, because I think they can be competitive in both sports, but they do share the DFW area with SMU. Is that an issue?

UTSA intrigues me as a potential based candidate but that's risky. It would give us another Texas school, which I think benefits everyone. It's a new market. Large enrollment if my memory is being nice today. New to football and haven't done much in basketball, but I believe they have good football attendance. A move up MIGHT be beneficial to them.

Rice is a no brainer IF you can get them to commit to athletics. That's a big IF.

The rest have more red flags, FAU (Miami) has a market and that does make one wonder how much growth potential they have. Markets obviously aren't everything, but we're also talking TV money.

App State has good football and is located in the middle of nowhere.

Louisiana is much the same.

JMU I guess has a market but nobody cares about them. Not sure how much they bring to either sport.

Marshall has decent athletics but I hear their academics are not something presidents look at in a good light.

Charlotte offers nothing but a market in which they're a small player.

Georgia State brings a new market, but does anyone care about them? I'm not sure where they stand in football, but basketball is not a plus.

ODU is ODU. Not sure anyone is excited about them in either sport and I believe their football attendance is poor.

Southern Miss has history with some of the remaining schools. They used to have good football and some occasional basketball success.

I'm surprised that Buffalo isn't on the list. I would have thought they'd be a favorite to be in the top 4 of a non western expansion.

[Shockm]

But you are thinking of how "amateur" athletics used to be. With NIL we have made it possible for an athlete to make a very respectable living playing for a university. If the rules regarding length of eligibility were lengthened or even removed, who's to say how much an athlete could make. Once football and (I predict basketball) splits from the NCAA, it's Katy bar the door.
The scenarios I'm suggesting wouldn't happen soon, maybe 15-20 years down the road.

I'm not talking about the highly rated high school athletes. Many high school athletes are overlooked, and end up going to the MAC, HBC, Sun Belt, and other non-football powers. but still are very good and move on to the professional ranks. Professional football has many non drafted athletes who make their rosters and more often than you realize, those non drafted or lower round drafted athletes on rosters, and often they become starters and stars.

Just to name a few (KC Chiefs only), Charvarious Ward, Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill, L'Jarius Sneed, Mike Hughes, Laurent Duvernay Tardiff, Harrison Butker, Jerrick McKinnon, Andrew Wylie, Tershawn Wharton, Khalen Saunders,Marcus Kemp, Daurice Fountain, Devon Key, Jody Fortson, Damone Harris, Austin Edwards, Cortez Broughton, and Mark Vital. Many of these players (from non-football power teams) have shown potential in the past, and moved into important roles, and some are developing future stars. For example, Mark Vital was just signed on the Chiefs practice squad, and played basketball for Baylor the past 4 years. He is 6'5 and 250 and shows potential as a Tight End, and Special Teams player, who isn't ready to play Day 1.

If you watch the college game, you would see very little of any of these players, and on a professional squad of 53 players and 16 more developmental players (with all players moving up and down depending on the injuries their team has), each of these players has shown a talent that helps their professional squad. In College, you have the Alabama's way on top (with depth), and then maybe Georgia, and Clemson, then maybe an OU. The depth and quality just isn't there. Professional football teams would eat college teams up for dinner, especially in a long season when injuries occur.

I will never watch the college football game with any regularity. There will always be some smaller basketball teams who can compete, because it takes fewer basketball players to make a very good team. College football will never compete with the NFL.

[Dan]

Southern Miss is my favorite school on the list, not counting the western wing.
Rice - great academics, zero fan interest, tiny student population.
North Texas is an oddball to me. They have a good student population (around 35k with 6-8k living on campus), but the student interest in athletics seems to be pretty low and the school is too far from DFW to attract people to the games. Denton is a cool little town, but again, not large enough to draw big numbers. I think the school has a ton of future potential.
UAB is probably my 2nd favorite after Southern Miss.
I would also be inclined to like one of the Florida schools (can't be worse than South Florida, right?).

[im4wsu]

New article from the Athletic on conference realignment (with some citing of insider sources) has listed the following schools as potential expansion candidates for the American:

• Appalachian State
• Louisiana
• UAB
• Liberty
• James Madison
• Marshall
• Charlotte
• Georgia State
• UTSA
• Old Dominion
• Southern Miss
• Rice
• North Texas
• FAU
• The Western Wing (Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Air Force)

The final option would evidently be a big swing and probably the best for AAC basketball. Of the other teams listed only UAB and Liberty offer immediate competition in basketball (in my opinion).

Wow, look at all the MVC schools on that list!

[Wuzee]

Wow, look at all the MVC schools on that list!

I popped over to the SWOMO board and they're salivating at the possibility of leveraging realignment chaos into D1 football and a CUSA or Sunbelt invite after the AAC opens up spots for them. (And some people on here think we should have stayed in the Valley? SMDH.)

[Dan]

a couple other schools I wouldn't be adverse to having in the mix:

Toledo
Marshall
Miami OH
Bowling Green

[rrshock]

a couple other schools I wouldn't be adverse to having in the mix:

Toledo
Marshall
Miami OH
Bowling Green

The last 2 have horrible football. That won't happen.

[Shockm]

The last 2 have horrible football. That won't happen.

Their basketball is really bad too. Marshall has had some decent basketball, but no one on that list is highly attractive for basketball.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

I popped over to the SWOMO board and they're salivating at the possibility of leveraging realignment chaos into D1 football and a CUSA or Sunbelt invite after the AAC opens up spots for them. (And some people on here think we should have stayed in the Valley? SMDH.)

As much as I hate to admit this, SWOMO probably has more potential than pretty much any other Valley school to get into an FBS conference and have some success.

[SubGod22]

a couple other schools I wouldn't be adverse to having in the mix:

Toledo
Marshall
Miami OH
Bowling Green

I've wondered about Toledo, but haven't done my research. I know they've had at least moments of good football and seems like basketball flashes from time to time. Wouldn't be the worst option at least on the surface.