AAC just lost their big 3

[APPdiesel]

Joining the American right now with our current ticket sales and donations is like taking out a high interest credit card and trying to live off it. I would LOVE the perception bump of being in the AAC, but if the Sun Belt is being aggressive in getting beneficial new members for App I think the smart play is to stay put.

[Yosef10]

In terms of competition, without Cincinnati and UCF the AAC is nothing more than the Sun Belt with a stronger TV contract and better bowl tie ins. Who’s to say that either of those will remain in place once this all shakes out. I’m not real sure it would be worth a move unless a couple of regional big dogs join with App (with Louisiana being the furthest away).

This is specific to football of course.

i have to disagree. Go line by line of the 8 AAC teams remaining in the league and compare to the SBC teams not named App, CCU, and ULL. That’s a lot of AAC W’s they would have over the rest of the league. If Troy, ASU, and USA can significantly pick up the pace here in the next year or so and CCU continues its trajectory then sure, but until then the AAC is still a better collection of football programs than the Sun Belt. And it’ll be even more true once they backfill with the best of the rest G5’s. Better not hope one of those is ULL or CCU or we’re pretty screwed. If we get the invite it has to be taken unless Gillin knows for 10000000% fact no other SBC team is leaving.

[Yosef10]

Joining the American right now with our current ticket sales and donations is like taking out a high interest credit card and trying to live off it. I would LOVE the perception bump of being in the AAC, but if the Sun Belt is being aggressive in getting beneficial new members for App I think the smart play is to stay put.

You don’t think there’s any chance Gill put out that statement about being aggressive in adding new members because he knows his best members are being approached and he’s simply trying to play defense and bullshit his way through a bad hand?

Also, say either one of or both of ULL and CCU get poached, which is a real possibility. You really want to be in a Sun Belt with the rest of what we’re currently with and then most like 2 FCS additions? Really? That’s what all this has been for?

[JMappfan5]

BIG 12 Commissioner stated this afternoon that BYU will become a full-member in 2023 and the 3 AAC schools will join no later than July1st 2024.

[Yosef10]

Somebody convince me that Marshall is a good add for the Sun Belt. And please don’t say we were once in a conference together.

My philosophy, which seems to be antiquated these days, is i just want to see the highest level of competitive football I can. Marshall is a good football program and plays good football, so let’s add them to the football conference. We have let simple things get so complex. Money will always follow good football.

[spacemonkey]

It is almost like a group need to get together and decide what they want to happen.
App,Louisiana, Marshall....to keep one from telling the other two that I am staying in the Sunbelt and then taking the other's spot. I hope for 8 conference games and 4 ooc local or big name games and of course the championship game of any conference. The OOC games with the p5 may be hard to come by.

[AppSt94]

We can’t afford to move to the AAC. We don’t have the funds necessary to increase our budgets to compete.

Give me a break. This is the same tired loser’s mentality we heard from people when we started considering moving to FBS.

Don’t want to hear anything about budgets. We win in football and the rest will come, money included. It’s as simple as that.

It’s not a losers mentality. It’s called reality. We don’t have the funds to increase our budget in order to compete. If you don’t believe me, ask Doug Gillin. Winning isn’t going to make the budget grow.

The whole point in changing conference affiliation though would be to increase the budget, remember those TV $$$ are there for the chasing, even if it means more travel costs. The positives outweigh the negatives unless the American Athletic and Sun Belt Conferences become something different from what we currently know them as, a lot yet to be determined!

I understand your point, but it is a numbers game. The TV money is a drop in the bucket to what we need to stay competitive. I’m not making the argument because I am against it. It is going to take a great deal of effort to find the money to do this right and the administration will make the call. I trust that they have more of the facts than you guys saying we will find the money. The majority of you are only thinking in terms of football. There are a great deal more that goes into the equation. If it happens, then they found the money. Hopefully they don’t chase what might be.

[Appstate88]

Thoughts on this post… any merit?

[t4pizza]

1 FCS school, 1 decent FBS school and two train wrecks. Not sure this improves the Sun Belts strength in football if in fact this rumor comes true.

[spacemonkey]

Thoughts on this post… any merit?

I copied this from Csnbbs posted from a Louisiana Poster. I think it would be great if we stayed put and added ECU, UAB, USM, MARSHALL. All of those would be great for me to be able to travel to a football game.

I’ve heard this weekend that there is a strong possibility that the SBC has a very good chance of grabbing 4 of the following programs.

Tulsa
ECU
UAB
USM
Marshall
Liberty
UTSA
USF

The feeling within the SBC is that the AAC is on borrowed time. Mainly due to the impasse that voting members find themselves. It is markets vs performance.

The MWC is strongly rumored to grab UTEP and SMU.

The Big 12 is likely to add Memphis and one other once Texas and OU exit the league.

[yosef69]

This makes sense but I don’t like it. JMU gets ODU and app gets Marshall. The west gets USM.

[citroknight]

Now that UCF's move is seemingly done for this round of realignment, curious to see how the AAC responds.

Curious if the AAC and SBC have any of the same targets, or if the AAC is eyeing any SBC teams. It's possible the SBC stands strong and becomes the aggressor, but the AAC said the same thing and then got sniped by the Big 12.
The AAC can only come out ahead if they don't swing and miss on market type schools that haven't done much yet like CUSA did last go around.

[APPdiesel]

I saw a map this morning…with the proposed additions of Marshall, ODU, and JMU that puts App squarely in the middle of an eastern division. Huntington, Harrisonburg, Norfolk, Conway, Statesboro, and Atlanta form a circle with App right in the middle…

I know many have their trepidations with adding an FCS and a football program that hasn’t been great the last few years, but strictly geographically speaking this is exactly the conference so many people on this message board want.

[JMappfan5]

I too wish we could get UAB, So Miss for the WEST and Marshall, ECU for the EAST. However, I will not be too disappointed with the proposed 4 schools being mentioned as long as the AAC doesn't poach a ULL or Coastal.

[Captain Morgan]

read some discussion yesterday that Luke Combs may have made a large donation to App to help facilitate a move to the AAC, but nothing confirmed yet that I know of.

[Howard Street Hooligan]

read some discussion yesterday that Luke Combs may have made a large donation to App to help facilitate a move to the AAC, but nothing confirmed yet that I know of.

where did you read that?

[Captain Morgan]

read some discussion yesterday that Luke Combs may have made a large donation to App to help facilitate a move to the AAC, but nothing confirmed yet that I know of.

where did you read that?

on the ECU board...just a poster, not a staff writer. The Ark St guy apparently has a lot of respect as someone who has an inside guy in the Sun Belt conference.



"According to an Arkansas State Insider, App State has been in contact with the AAC.

App States AD, Doug Gillin, stated that a large investment had been secured for "the program" from someone who "loved the direction that the program is heading". When asked about realignment, he said he was glad that the Big 12 had got members to remain a conference, because without those the Big 12 would've been dissolved most likely. He made no affirmation of the strength of the Sun Belt or comments of being committed to remaining in the Sun Belt, which is odd for him, I believe.

He then went on to talk about momentum in the program after App-ECU drew 37,000 and then Luke Combs (an App State Grad) had 32,000 in Boone on Saturday or Sunday. Apparently the Elon game has more than 30,000 tickets sold as well. In this talk, he went on to say that they had secured the investment in the program.

Which leads me to believe that App has been in contact with Aresco and that Gillin likely secured donations from Luke Combs. This bit is a supposition but the timing is too coincidental to not make sense.

I'm not sure if that means that App will be in the AAC, but I'm thinking it's possibly that an offer, or conditions of an offer, had been extended and that Gillin had to get funds raised to meet the conditions the AAC may have laid out. Again, suppositions, but like logic is sound.

[BallantyneApp]

read some discussion yesterday that Luke Combs may have made a large donation to App to help facilitate a move to the AAC, but nothing confirmed yet that I know of.

where did you read that?

on the ECU board...just a poster, not a staff writer. The Ark St guy apparently has a lot of respect as someone who has an inside guy in the Sun Belt conference.



"According to an Arkansas State Insider, App State has been in contact with the AAC.

App States AD, Doug Gillin, stated that a large investment had been secured for "the program" from someone who "loved the direction that the program is heading". When asked about realignment, he said he was glad that the Big 12 had got members to remain a conference, because without those the Big 12 would've been dissolved most likely. He made no affirmation of the strength of the Sun Belt or comments of being committed to remaining in the Sun Belt, which is odd for him, I believe.

He then went on to talk about momentum in the program after App-ECU drew 37,000 and then Luke Combs (an App State Grad) had 32,000 in Boone on Saturday or Sunday. Apparently the Elon game has more than 30,000 tickets sold as well. In this talk, he went on to say that they had secured the investment in the program.

Which leads me to believe that App has been in contact with Aresco and that Gillin likely secured donations from Luke Combs. This bit is a supposition but the timing is too coincidental to not make sense.

I'm not sure if that means that App will be in the AAC, but I'm thinking it's possibly that an offer, or conditions of an offer, had been extended and that Gillin had to get funds raised to meet the conditions the AAC may have laid out. Again, suppositions, but like logic is sound.

I'm not sure what we would need $$ wise, and Luke is pretty big time, but usually these transformative type donations come from industry rather than entertainment. I mean we're probably not talking about a million or a few million $$$.

Maybe Eric Church ahs finally seen the error of his ways and the prodigal son has finally returned.

[PennywiseEsquire]

read some discussion yesterday that Luke Combs may have made a large donation to App to help facilitate a move to the AAC, but nothing confirmed yet that I know of.

where did you read that?

on the ECU board...just a poster, not a staff writer. The Ark St guy apparently has a lot of respect as someone who has an inside guy in the Sun Belt conference.



"According to an Arkansas State Insider, App State has been in contact with the AAC.

App States AD, Doug Gillin, stated that a large investment had been secured for "the program" from someone who "loved the direction that the program is heading". When asked about realignment, he said he was glad that the Big 12 had got members to remain a conference, because without those the Big 12 would've been dissolved most likely. He made no affirmation of the strength of the Sun Belt or comments of being committed to remaining in the Sun Belt, which is odd for him, I believe.

He then went on to talk about momentum in the program after App-ECU drew 37,000 and then Luke Combs (an App State Grad) had 32,000 in Boone on Saturday or Sunday. Apparently the Elon game has more than 30,000 tickets sold as well. In this talk, he went on to say that they had secured the investment in the program.

Which leads me to believe that App has been in contact with Aresco and that Gillin likely secured donations from Luke Combs. This bit is a supposition but the timing is too coincidental to not make sense.

I'm not sure if that means that App will be in the AAC, but I'm thinking it's possibly that an offer, or conditions of an offer, had been extended and that Gillin had to get funds raised to meet the conditions the AAC may have laid out. Again, suppositions, but like logic is sound.

I'm not sure what we would need $$ wise, and Luke is pretty big time, but usually these transformative type donations come from industry rather than entertainment. I mean we're probably not talking about a million or a few million $$$.

Maybe Eric Church ahs finally seen the error of his ways and the prodigal son has finally returned.

I’m with you on the amount argument, and because of that I’m a little doubtful Luke Combs made a single donation large enough to push us over the edge. Based on some quick googling, Luke’s total net worth is $5-6 million. I’d imagine that any funding commitment the American would have required (assuming there is such a requirement) would likely have exceeded $1 million and would probably look more like several million, maybe even 10 figures. But, even if we assume that it was just $1 million, then that’s still almost 20% of Luke’s net work. I don’t see him giving away such a large proportion of his total worth. And, this assumes the American only wanted one million. This starts to look even more unreasonable as that number rises. Luke may have given a donation and the American may have wanted a funding commitment, but I don’t think Luke alone paid the entry fee.

[ah59396]