AAC adding 6 teams

[Wuzee]

Just a quick look at the universities we're adding, ordered by driving distance.

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University of North Texas Mean Green
Denton, TX
Founded: 1890
Students: 40,796
Endowment: $200 million
Famous Alumni: Meat Loaf, Joe Greene, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Don Henley and Norah Jones
Colors: Green and White
Mascot: Scrappy the Eagle
Venue: The Super Pit (10,500)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 4
Other Postseason: 1
Most famous player: Tony Mitchell
Reason to like them: One O'Clock Lab Band will rock your world
Driving Distance: 323 miles

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University of Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners
San Antonio, TX
Founded: 1969
Students: 30,674
Endowment: $162.37 million
Famous Alumni: Michelle Beadle and Travis Scott
Colors: Navy and Orange
Fanbase: Meep Meep Nation
Mascot: Rowdy the Roadrunner
Venue: UTSA Convocation Center (2,650)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 4
Other Postseason: 1
Most famous player: George Gervin's little bro, Derrick.
Reason to like them: Changed their mascot logo because students thought it looked too much like a Jayhawk.
Driving Distance: 626 miles

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Rice University Owls
Houston TX
Founded: 1912
Students: 6,623
Endowment: $5.324 billion (!)
Famous Alumni: Howard Hughes and James Baker
Colors: Blue and White
Mascot: Sammy the Owl
Venue: Tudor Fieldhouse (5,208)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 4
Other Postseason: 7
Most famous player: 1991 NBA All-Star Ricky Pierce.
Reason to like them: School features a "non-marching marching band" called "The MOB" (Marching Owl Band) replete with cellos, harp, kazoo, whatever.
Driving Distance: 606 miles

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University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers
Birmingham, AL
Founded: 1969
Students: 22,563
Endowment: $495.3 million
Famous Alumni: Sam Hunt and Regina Benjamin
Colors: Forest Green and Old Gold
Mascot: Blaze the Dragon
Venue: Bartow Arena (8,508)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 15
Other Postseason: 13
Most famous player: Alan Ogg
Reason to like them: Alabama White Sauce
Driving Distance: 770 miles

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University of Charlotte 49ers
Charlotte, NC
Founded: 1946
Students: 29,710
Endowment: $202.7 million
Famous Alumni: Clay Aiken and Seth Avett
Colors: Green and White
Mascot: Norm the Niner
Venue: Halton Arena (9,105)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 11
Other Postseason: 7
Most famous player: Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell
Reason to like them: Coming off of seasons of 6-23 and 8-21, there's nowhere to go but up, right?
Driving Distance: 1,079 miles

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Florida Atlantic University Owls
Boca Raton, Fla.
Founded: 1961
Students: 30,808
Endowment: $275 million
Famous Alumni: Carrot Top and Mary Carey
Colors: Blue and Red
Mascot: Owlsley the Owl
Venue: FAU Arena (5,000)
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 1
Other Postseason: 1
Most famous player: Former WNBA All-Star Yolanda Griffith. No dudes of note.
Reason to like them: The average high temp in January is 76 degrees.
Driving Distance: 1,535 miles

[C0|dB|00ded]

Rice has got the Monopoly money, that's for sure. Podunk though. They belong in the Big P, but first... do. they. play. soccer???!!!!!

[WeWillShockU2]

Wuzee - I got a couple of good laughs on reason to like them. Well done.

[WeWillShockU2]

Since you go every year, what did you think of Ft. Worth last year? My opinion, first class venue in a horrible, desolate location. Not sure how you build excitement pregame and post game with the placement of that arena. probably less than 100 WSU fans on hand last year btw.

Been to the Times Square area and would enjoy an excuse for an annual pilgrimage.

Haven’t made it to Ft Worth yet because of COVID but we were going 2 years ago. Had tickets and hotel reservations. The hotel was only a couple of miles from the arena and the stockyard area looks better than the area around the arena in St Louis. We enjoyed St Louis but I think Ft Worth will be a upgrade. Memphis was good.

[Shocker Mama]

Way too many Owls.

[ShockerExpress]

out of the frying pan, into the fire. what a load of utter shite. b.s. this will be better than the valley.

This conference is significantly better than the Valley when we left.

I’m frustrated as well, but this is nonsense. I suspect you know it as well.

[wichshock65]

Way too many Owls.

[pie n eye]

I get that pandemic thing was a factor and how it affected attendance. It will continue to tamp down on WSU attendance since we have a large base of blue hairs and the fear factor it generates.

The location reminds me of Kemper in KC.

My point was to a consolidated fan gathering location for pre and post game activities. I never even addressed the plethora of activities in DFW area, wasn't the point. But, at the risk of offending our brothers in Texas, give me some Big Apple for a change of pace.

I’d be fine going to NYC for a tournament but it’s not something I would likely be able to attend every year in the same way I did St. Louis and plan to for DFW.

As far as a nearby consolidated fan gathering location, such a thing didn’t exist in STL either after union station withered away. Of course Ball Park Village came along and was great, especially for night life, but it’s a 15 minute walk from the arena.

TBD whether one or more bars in the Cultural District in DFW will eventually embrace the AAC tourney in the same way but it’s a similar distance from Dickey’s as Ball Park Village to Scottrade (or whatever it is now) and it could easily become a place fans go during the weekend. We sure did last year.

[WuTheOne]

If we had never dropped football, we'd probably be in CUSA and not getting an invite to the AAC.

[Topshock]

I don't understand this argument that the Big East won't work because the travel will be so Cumbersome.

A Big East Division consisting of WSU, Depaul, Creighton, Xavier, St. Louis, Butler and Marquette

An AAC Division consisting of WSU, Tulsa, Memphis, SMU, NTS, TSA and Rice.

The Big East Division is only an average of 148 miles further!


With Memphis and SMU leaving this conference the first opportunity they get, the Big East is obviously where we need to be if at all possible.

[SubGod22]

I have zero desire to ever go to NYC for any reason.

DFW is a great location for us and the AAC.

Some of you are way over dramatic about this whole thing.

[BOBB]

Norah Jones

I would have put money on Berklee.

[SubGod22]

I don't understand this argument that the Big East won't work because the travel will be so Cumbersome.

A Big East Division consisting of WSU, Depaul, Creighton, Xavier, St. Louis, Butler and Marquette

An AAC Division consisting of WSU, Tulsa, Memphis, SMU, NTS, TSA and Rice.

The Big East Division is only an average of 148 miles further!


With Memphis and SMU leaving this conference the first opportunity they get, the Big East is obviously where we need to be if at all possible.

Because presidents care about more than just basketball. We have not a damn thing in common with those schools outside of basketball and it wouldn't help us one bit academically or in student recruitment.

[WuDrWu]

Time to add WGU and perhaps the University of Phoenix......the Harvard of the West.

[WuDrWu]

Actually if we added Kennesaw State, WGU and Rowan we could have 3 divisions in the AAC, East, West and Owl. Sounds like a real hoot to me.