Could App get the invite to the AAC?

[Yosef10]

The AAC is nice, but we don't need to be in it to reach our next major program goal: winning a New Years Six bowl. Having more seasons like this one will get us there.

Boise is happy with the Mountain West because they can achieve all of their program goals from it. We can do the same from the Sun Belt.

Harsin actually expressed some frustration with the MWC this year. It’s going to take 13-0 with 2 P5 wins to get a Ny6 bid from the belt. Sure, you don’t need to be in it, but it’s very helpful and obviously should be the athletic departments aspirations.

[AppStFan1]

The AAC is nice, but we don't need to be in it to reach our next major program goal: winning a New Years Six bowl. Having more seasons like this one will get us there.

Boise is happy with the Mountain West because they can achieve all of their program goals from it. We can do the same from the Sun Belt.

Harsin actually expressed some frustration with the MWC this year. It’s going to take 13-0 with 2 P5 wins to get a Ny6 bid from the belt. Sure, you don’t need to be in it, but it’s very helpful and obviously should be the athletic departments aspirations.

Harsin felt it was unfair that the AAC got it over them but had they got it then the AAC would have been up in arms. This year the AAC was no doubt the best G5 league, which it usually is.You really need 2 other schools to look like a top 25 team and beat them both to have some real quality wins in the conference.

AAC had it this year with like 6 different teams receiving votes or being ranked at some point (Memphis, SMU, Cincy, UCF, Tulane, Temple, Navy). Navy, SMU, UCF, Cincy, and Memphis were all ranked or sustained for a few weeks. UCF was only team ranked in preseason but the other teams had such good years they moved in to the top 25. I think Tulane even snuck in one week. The AAC is much deeper in terms of top talent teams.

The problem Boise had was that nobody from the MWC could actually sustain a ranking. Yes Air Force is ranked now and prior to that SDSU had been ranked with Wyoming, Utah State, Hawaii, and Fresno State all getting votes at times but Boise and Air Force were the only two who really stayed in the top 30 range all year. If SDSU had been able to sustain ranking longer and if Utah State and Wyoming had not lost some games they shouldn't have then the MWC would have a much stronger argument.

[SayYesToTheRock]

The sad truth is that the AAC follows a market-size approach. Look at the schools in the AAC. Virtually all are centrally located in major cities.

Considering the AAC already has a presence in NC with ECU, I'd wager the American is more keen on other markets.

As others have previously said:

I’d love it, I just don’t see it.

[AppStFan1]

The sad truth is that the AAC follows a market-size approach. Look at the schools in the AAC. Virtually all are centrally located in major cities.

Considering the AAC already has a presence in NC with ECU, I'd wager the American is more keen on other markets.

As others have previously said:

I’d love it, I just don’t see it.

That has usually been the case and I do think Georgia State, ODU, and a couple others are more like the fits they want typically but they will want a football power when they lose some of their football powers. It would not surprise me if they need 2-3 schools and they go for some of the ones you mentioned but we are the 2nd or 3rd they bring in. If they lose Houston, SMU, Memphis, or Cincy they will need someone good in football. As long as we continue to sustain and become like Boise, UCF, Cincy, etc. and are fairly good year in and year out I think they would go for us. If we can somehow take the NY6 a couple times over them they will want us.

I honestly don't think the SBC should ever get the NY6 unless a team is undefeated and the MWC and AAC Champ have 2 losses in the current climate. The AAC is just too good. Could we win it? Possibly. Problem is the AAC has so much better talent than the AAC. Look at the leagues this year. We throttle the 4th and 5th best in our league while bottom feeders like Tulsa and ECU played close games with their top teams. I feel like that league just has so much more talent overall. App and Louisiana were the only two in the SBC who I think could have had a winning record there for sure.

[Oldlknapp]

Over the next couple years, the possibility exist that APP, GaSo, GaST & Coastal May change the character, perception and composition of the Sun Belt.

[ericsaid]

Over the next couple years, the possibility exist that APP, GaSo, GaST & Coastal May change the character, perception and composition of the Sun Belt.

App has helped the perception some. Had Louisiana not turned the ball over 5 times and beaten Mississippi State the Belt would've had two teams ranked this year. It's just a numbers game and for a Sun Belt team to get ranked, they have to beat a quality P5 team. Something Memphis didn't have to do.

[appdaze]

The AAC is not the only piece to this. Why in the world would the Sunbelt be willing to keep a non-football App State? If we leave for football our other sports would probably have to find another conference.

I truly don't think App would ever do this at this point in our growth. We are an all or nothing program.

[appstatealum]

App should be working hard to ignite the Charlotte Alumni chapter and grow our brand in the Charlotte Metro. App is definitely in the Charlotte Market (just as Athens is in the Atlanta market). It is all perception and we need to work on a campaign to change that. ODU will always be a doormat, UNC Charlotte is decades from relevance (ok, maybe I’m being dramatic), and Atlanta could care less about GaSt even if they do start winning games. Atlanta is UGA country and they aren’t far from Auburn and even UT. If the AAC is actually looking to grow their brand, they need a football program, and we top that list of available programs with access to major markets. Football moves the needle, all that other stuff means nothing.

[AppState89]

The AAC will go after Boise, not App because of their history. They want to be another power conference.

[VNova]

The irony is, we’re in a larger media market than Memphis (according to Nielsen), even if you include only Greensboro-High Point-WS. More so if it is just Charlotte. Combined, we have a top 15 media market.

https://mediatracks.com/resources/niels ... ings-2020/

It’s a perception issue. The more we win, the more that changes. The more we can get eyes on us in our state. It would help if we had ABC/CBS games, but that’s something we can’t control at the moment.

[appstatealum]

The AAC will go after Boise, not App because of their history. They want to be another power conference.

No offense to Boise, our future is a lot brighter than theirs at the moment. I think Boise has hit their peak and rode their Fiesta bowl game pretty far. In the end, they are still in Boise. App is trying to model ourselves off of Boise, but I think we also know of the cards fall the right way, we could surpass their accomplishments. It is a long rode for us, but we have alot of things in our favor.

[TheAppalachianState]

The AAC will go after Boise, not App because of their history. They want to be another power conference.

No offense to Boise, our future is a lot brighter than theirs at the moment. I think Boise has hit their peak and rode their Fiesta bowl game pretty far. In the end, they are still in Boise. App is trying to model ourselves off of Boise, but I think we also know of the cards fall the right way, we could surpass their accomplishments. It is a long rode for us, but we have alot of things in our favor.

I’d agree with that, that and we are not in Idaho, thank the lord.

I just wish App redid all of buildings to look like blowing rock, love that stone look

[appstatealum]

Then we may look like Lees McRae...

[Yosef84]

Yes, the AAC is the best G5 conference and is really the only desirable destination other than where we are. It would offer a lot but I am not in favor of accepting a football only invitation, even in the unlikely event that they made the offer. Even if there were a path offered for other sports, my feel is that separating the sports would make it almost impossible to meet the requirements that would be specified and the other sports would be on the outside looking in for a long time.

App is not yet in a position to dictate terms. I understand the concept of "strike while the iron's hot" but frankly, I think we continue to build our program and better opportunities will be presented (meaning all sports). If this season turns out to be an outlier and we don't continue to build, then frankly we weren't ready anyway.

[hotrod2001]

I just don’t see it.

Our athletic funding is nowhere near competitive with the rest of the AAC.

Most AAC schools are large market/commuter type institutions.

Houston
Cincinnati
UCF
USF
Memphis
SMU
Temple
Tulane
Tulsa

All in large cities.

ECU & Navy the only outliers. Greenville still has 100k people and Annapolis is a borderline suburb of DC.


I’d love it, I just don’t see it.


If I had to bet, I’d put my money on one of:

ODU
Ga State
UNCC
UAB

With probably Ga State leading the pack. Especially if they keep improving in football over the next couple years. They’d fill a giant void in Georgia. Huge enrollment. Good basketball. Massive stadium.

Hope I’m wrong.

If the AAC is determined to be the 6th member of the Power 5, they're not going to add any of those teams...they're going to want heavy hitting football programs which boost up the quality of the conference's strength. And granted three out of the four teams you listed are on the rise, none of them have a long history of success like what we have...if I'm looking at the records right, there's only one conference championship won between all of them (UAB last year)

In regards to the TV market argument, when you compile up the markets App resides in, that would put us about 6th or 7th among their current members, and geographically there is not an AAC team through the I-85 corridor so one could maybe make an argument that having App in the conference would open up fans of both App and the other conference teams who reside in Atlanta, Charlotte, Triad and RTP who don't want to have drive all the way out to Greenville, Memphis or Cincinnati to catch a game. Yeah, Georgia State or Charlotte could also make that claim, but we have them beat in terms of butts in the seats and eyes on the screens...in fact our attendance averages are better than all four of those teams (in 2018 we were ranked #86, all the others are in the 120's.

Hopefully we get a look, if not we'll probably just have to settle for Boise State East. Like I said before one way to make a statement is pack BOA full with black and gold when we play ECU and show the AAC how well the App State fan base travels to neutral sites and how big of a presence the team has in the #23 television market.

[appstatealum]

Agree, the upcoming ECU contracted games will be a good opportunity for us to show off for the self proclaimed "P6" conference.

[Rekdiver]

Until we get some more pub out of the CLt market it will be tough. A concerted push by our media folks in CLt would be a good project. More appearances, more talk radio, DG coming onto the Sports radios. Social m3edia....

[bigdaddyg]

Hard to believe (not really though) that we have two active threads with discussions- one regarding joining the AAC and one about going back to FCS. Talk about two extremes.

[ah59396]

I just don’t see it.

Our athletic funding is nowhere near competitive with the rest of the AAC.

Most AAC schools are large market/commuter type institutions.

Houston
Cincinnati
UCF
USF
Memphis
SMU
Temple
Tulane
Tulsa

All in large cities.

ECU & Navy the only outliers. Greenville still has 100k people and Annapolis is a borderline suburb of DC.


I’d love it, I just don’t see it.


If I had to bet, I’d put my money on one of:

ODU
Ga State
UNCC
UAB

With probably Ga State leading the pack. Especially if they keep improving in football over the next couple years. They’d fill a giant void in Georgia. Huge enrollment. Good basketball. Massive stadium.

Hope I’m wrong.

If the AAC is determined to be the 6th member of the Power 5, they're not going to add any of those teams...they're going to want heavy hitting football programs which boost up the quality of the conference's strength. And granted three out of the four teams you listed are on the rise, none of them have a long history of success like what we have...if I'm looking at the records right, there's only one conference championship won between all of them (UAB last year)

In regards to the TV market argument, when you compile up the markets App resides in, that would put us about 6th or 7th among their current members, and geographically there is not an AAC team through the I-85 corridor so one could maybe make an argument that having App in the conference would open up fans of both App and the other conference teams who reside in Atlanta, Charlotte, Triad and RTP who don't want to have drive all the way out to Greenville, Memphis or Cincinnati to catch a game. Yeah, Georgia State or Charlotte could also make that claim, but we have them beat in terms of butts in the seats and eyes on the screens...in fact our attendance averages are better than all four of those teams (in 2018 we were ranked #86, all the others are in the 120's.

Hopefully we get a look, if not we'll probably just have to settle for Boise State East. Like I said before one way to make a statement is pack BOA full with black and gold when we play ECU and show the AAC how well the App State fan base travels to neutral sites and how big of a presence the team has in the #23 television market.

I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said here, I’d just remind you that these were all the similar arguments we made when we got ignored by CUSA in favor of ODU & UNCC when they both had like 2 bad FCS seasons under their belt.

I’ll hope for the best but again, I think we’ve seen how this kind of thing already works.

[yosef69]

I wont be holding my breath - they have some severe hubris over there in that conference and their fans would melt down if we were added.