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Conference Realignment


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2 minutes ago, Buffalobonnie said:

UB to the ACC? Big 10?  Didn't you guys just get rid of soccer and baseball because they were too expensive? Did you get a new football stadium?    Don't forget us when you go to the ACC.

Got a lot of free time with your team bounced from the TBT years ago.  At least you have football season to look forward to now

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1 hour ago, Buffalobonnie said:

UB to the ACC? Big 10?  Didn't you guys just get rid of soccer and baseball because they were too expensive? Did you get a new football stadium?    Don't forget us when you go to the ACC.

Sorry we can’t all be passengers on a rudderless ship. Maybe we should adopt the no President / no AD model too - certainly saves on payroll.

 

p.s. we both know the only reason you’ve bothered to check this board is because our alumni are actually doing something after receiving their diplomas (fancy word for what you may know as a welding certificate).

Edited by BasketBull
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2 hours ago, Buffalobonnie said:

UB to the ACC? Big 10?  Didn't you guys just get rid of soccer and baseball because they were too expensive? Did you get a new football stadium?    Don't forget us when you go to the ACC.

In all seriousness, the costs/savings were a red herring. Only Men's swimming caused a real battle to try to reinstate. UB saw how several P5 programs had the minimum of sports so they re-evaluated the department. UB's athletics spending went from $31M in 2014 to $46M in 2019. And since the cuts occurred, UB won more contests and MAC titles then ever before. So most have forgotten.

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In all honesty, the "P5" leagues are going to contract over time, not expand.  There's a lot of comparable dead weight in those leagues.  Schools like, say, Mississippi State, Oregon State, Washington State (just as some random examples) have reason to be very worried.  The only reason some of those schools are considered "P5" is simply because they were grandfathered in.  The SEC, Pac 12, etc., will be happy to kick those schools out at the drop of a hat, if they can, if it means the remaining schools get more take-home.  

I think a contraction in itself won't necessarily ruin the sport overnight, but contraction + NIL will make it that much harder for non-P5's to recruit and retain talent.  What will absolutely ruin the sports are power conferences breaking away from the NCAA entirely, or possibly even these vague inter-conference scheduling alliances that we're hearing about now in football.

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I know there has been a lot of speculation out there, but there are a few facts to consider.

I posted this a while ago, but am too lazy to find it now.  The gist was that the MAC had about $7M in football TV revenue, but the AAC had like $70M.  It was an order of magnitude difference.  And, of course, the top feeders had TV revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Since I don't think we are losing anyone from the MAC, adding mediocre P5 teams, I don't think, will elevate the MAC.  It will just diminish those mediocre P5 teams.

The best strategy for UB, in my opinion, will be to get to the best conference they can.  AAC or C-USA seems more reasonable, but if something crazy happens and they can go higher, I'd endorse that 100%.  Yes...the football stadium is not close to what it needs to be.  And the donor base isn't there currently.  I am sure those in the various conferences know this.  But do they have the vision of what UB athletics could become?  

Buffalo is a sports rich town, with a rabid and loyal fan base for the Bills and Sabres.  That's attractive.  Can UB create an athletic product that can tap into that fan base on a consistent basis?  So far, they haven't, for a variety of reasons.  But sports fans are already there and many, many, many people in the region have a degree from UB (or a family member with a degree from UB), since the school is so large.    If I am an executive from another conference, UB has a lot to offer (overall) if you have a vision.

 

Go Bulls!

 

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Yes the Bona fan came in here to troll us on wanting to go to the Big 10, which I think most realize is a pipe dream.  I think the realistic hope for us is that things get shaken up enough that we end up in a new conference (or a conference that got ransacked by movement), with top G5 schools or P5 schools that got left behind.

The 4 end goals for me would be:

-Still a semi-regional geographic footprint

-The conference has schools in larger markets than the Oxfords and Athens we currently have

-The conference perennially gets multiple bids to the NCAA tournament

-The conference perennially has multiple top 25 FBS teams

Some schools that would ideally fit that imo are Temple, UMass, Cincinnati, Army, Navy, Rutgers, Toledo, Marshall.  Then push farther south or west to pick up teams to round out the conference.

There are some obvious weak links here (UMass football, Army/Navy basketball), but I think becoming something of a G5 super conference would "lift all boats" and put us around the caliber of the Mountain West and American currently which would meet my goals.

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11 minutes ago, trueblue32 said:

Yes the Bona fan came in here to troll us on wanting to go to the Big 10, which I think most realize is a pipe dream.  I think the realistic hope for us is that things get shaken up enough that we end up in a new conference (or a conference that got ransacked by movement), with top G5 schools or P5 schools that got left behind.

The 4 end goals for me would be:

-Still a semi-regional geographic footprint

-The conference has schools in larger markets than the Oxfords and Athens we currently have

-The conference perennially gets multiple bids to the NCAA tournament

-The conference perennially has multiple top 25 FBS teams

Some schools that would ideally fit that imo are Temple, UMass, Cincinnati, Army, Navy, Rutgers, Toledo, Marshall.  Then push farther south or west to pick up teams to round out the conference.

There are some obvious weak links here (UMass football, Army/Navy basketball), but I think becoming something of a G5 super conference would "lift all boats" and put us around the caliber of the Mountain West and American currently which would meet my goals.

I think through and through, for right now, for where our basketball team is, football team is, and our facilities, for all that it is, I think the best conference for us would be the American. I think big 10 and ACC is a little too big for the current state of our school. 

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You have an interesting mix on this board.  

best response was “we forgot you when we were in the Mac.”  Others were a little weak and making fun of our lack of president wen our president died in March due to Covid was a little harsh.  
Here is a legitimate suggestion for you.  I am a huge Bills fan.  I think they are going to have to build a new stadium.  NY taxpayer dollars are going to have to be part of the equation.  Why not push for a downtown stadium that both the Bills and UB football could use?  This would definitely help your exposure and might attract more fans.  Pitt does that in Pittsburgh. You just aren’t going to be able to go bigger with that stadium.  
 
just a thought.  See you in December. 

Edited by Buffalobonnie
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26 minutes ago, Buffalobonnie said:


Here is a legitimate suggestion for you.  I am a huge Bills fan.  I think they are going to have to build a new stadium.  NY taxpayer dollars are going to have to be part of the equation.  Why not push for a downtown stadium that both the Bills and UB football could use?  This would definitely help your exposure and might attract more fans.  Pitt does that in Pittsburgh. You just aren’t going to be able to go bigger with that stadium.  
 
just a thought.  See you in December. 

Wow!  Great idea.  There's something that's never been tossed about more than 1 or 2 thousand times already.

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20 hours ago, Buffalobonnie said:

UB to the ACC? Big 10?  Didn't you guys just get rid of soccer and baseball because they were too expensive? Did you get a new football stadium?    Don't forget us when you go to the ACC.

You act like any sport besides Football and Basketball matter. Every school in the country would get rid of all sports besides those 2 if they could. None have the ability to make money besides football and basketball. 

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18 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

The big 12 plans to add BYU Cincinnati houston and ucf. The American will be looking for new teams, I have to imagine that buffalo will be thrown around as potential replacement in the media no matter if its actually feasible or not

I think it's a great time to talk about that. Something like that, even though it may only be a small bump, might help retail FLJ and Coach Mo a little longer. Helping that transition while our teams are strong and help with upcoming recruits. Hopefully ADMA has expressed interest.

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11 minutes ago, Tee4three said:

The big 12 plans to add BYU Cincinnati houston and ucf. The American will be looking for new teams, I have to imagine that buffalo will be thrown around as potential replacement in the media no matter if its actually feasible or not

There are a lot of teams being thrown around, but you really need to know what vision of the conference is (conference leadership and current members).  Is there any information about that?

What would be left in the conference for football is:

  • ECU
  • Memphis
  • USF
  • SMU
  • Temple
  • Tulane
  • Tulsa
  • Navy

Basketball is the same, but add in Wichita State and remove Navy.

Is that better than what we have in the MAC?   Probably, but not by that much.  Is the travel worth it?  There are no teams really close to Buffalo (geographically).  Almost every MAC team is closer to Buffalo than the nearest AAC team.  I don't know the details of how this impact the AAC TV contract as well.

 

I still want the B1G to expand into Western NY!     We play our first conference game tomorrow...in Lincoln.

Go Bulls!

 

 

 

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9 minutes ago, UB92 said:

There are a lot of teams being thrown around, but you really need to know what vision of the conference is (conference leadership and current members).  Is there any information about that?

What would be left in the conference for football is:

  • ECU
  • Memphis
  • USF
  • SMU
  • Temple
  • Tulane
  • Tulsa
  • Navy

Basketball is the same, but add in Wichita State and remove Navy.

Is that better than what we have in the MAC?   Probably, but not by that much.  Is the travel worth it?  There are no teams really close to Buffalo (geographically).  Almost every MAC team is closer to Buffalo than the nearest AAC team.  I don't know the details of how this impact the AAC TV contract as well.

 

I still want the B1G to expand into Western NY!     We play our first conference game tomorrow...in Lincoln.

Go Bulls!

 

 

 

Good points, I don't see a BIG10 jump right now, unless the Bills/UB shared stadium becomes a reality. The positive for the AAC transition would open additional portals to recruits in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. Temple is in Philly, so that's pretty close and can become our natural rival. Selfishly I also like having Navy and Temple as conference games because I can get to either of them easily. In any case, I'm ready for a change. It just feels like the MAC schools and conference are happy where they are, I think Buffalo has more potential than that.

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13 minutes ago, UB92 said:

There are a lot of teams being thrown around, but you really need to know what vision of the conference is (conference leadership and current members).  Is there any information about that?

What would be left in the conference for football is:

  • ECU
  • Memphis
  • USF
  • SMU
  • Temple
  • Tulane
  • Tulsa
  • Navy

Basketball is the same, but add in Wichita State and remove Navy.

Is that better than what we have in the MAC?   Probably, but not by that much.  Is the travel worth it?  There are no teams really close to Buffalo (geographically).  Almost every MAC team is closer to Buffalo than the nearest AAC team.  I don't know the details of how this impact the AAC TV contract as well.

 

I still want the B1G to expand into Western NY!     We play our first conference game tomorrow...in Lincoln.

Go Bulls!

 

 

 

If the tv contract remains unchanged it would be a huge boost and I would imagine cover most of the increase in travel costs. It be good to know who else would be joining along with Ub to get a sense of where the conference is headed

The commissioner of the American has come out and said that they plan on staying part of the "power 6"

To get to the big 10 which if Ub and the state of new York is taking athletics seriously moving to the aac first then onto a bigger conference makes sense

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25 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

I think it's a great time to talk about that. Something like that, even though it may only be a small bump, might help retail FLJ and Coach Mo a little longer. Helping that transition while our teams are strong and help with upcoming recruits. Hopefully ADMA has expressed interest.

Was Memphis in the american while adma was there? If so should have some connections already 

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My worry on that remaining AAC lineup is that Memphis and SMU are as good as gone at the first opportunity.  There's no question that athletically, the "AAC leftovers" are a stronger conference than the MAC, but that changes dramatically if/when Memphis and SMU get poached by another conference.  

UB obviously should be pursuing all options, but I'd be very wary of walking into a Marshall/C-USA situation....leaving the stability of the MAC for short-term gains, only to be left floundering in the cold in a conference that, let's be honest, is essentially no better than the MAC at this point a few years later.

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I def think Memphis is gone the next opportunity they get. As for us it comes down to money. If the AAC makes us more money that could in turn upgrade our facilities which could then position us for another conference jump then I’m all for it. I think throughout all this the MAC has shown nothing. No forward thinking, nothing. I’ve had it with the MAC. We’ve outgrown it. But at the same time bc of money and politics we are being held back. We need better facilities if the end goal is the Big Ten. UB is a great school that profiles with the best of them. Time to treat athletics like it. Bc our athletics programs have been kicking butt.

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1 hour ago, UBlearns said:

My worry on that remaining AAC lineup is that Memphis and SMU are as good as gone at the first opportunity.  There's no question that athletically, the "AAC leftovers" are a stronger conference than the MAC, but that changes dramatically if/when Memphis and SMU get poached by another conference.  

UB obviously should be pursuing all options, but I'd be very wary of walking into a Marshall/C-USA situation....leaving the stability of the MAC for short-term gains, only to be left floundering in the cold in a conference that, let's be honest, is essentially no better than the MAC at this point a few years later.

Sure, Marshall leaving for CUSA turned out to be a disappointment compared to what they were expecting but they’ve still had plenty of success in football and basketball since with many in their fanbase looking down on the MAC. I’m sure they would make the move again knowing what we know now.

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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1 hour ago, UBlearns said:

My worry on that remaining AAC lineup is that Memphis and SMU are as good as gone at the first opportunity.  There's no question that athletically, the "AAC leftovers" are a stronger conference than the MAC, but that changes dramatically if/when Memphis and SMU get poached by another conference.  

UB obviously should be pursuing all options, but I'd be very wary of walking into a Marshall/C-USA situation....leaving the stability of the MAC for short-term gains, only to be left floundering in the cold in a conference that, let's be honest, is essentially no better than the MAC at this point a few years later.

You can’t move into the big world of college athletics without taking risks. Sure, the American could eventually blow up but UB’s profile would dramatically improve in the eyes of many with the step up in competition. 

The increased tv money would help with travel expenses. It would almost become a necessity to upgrade facilities up to the standard of the AAC. 

From a basketball perspective, the AAC is loaded. Games like Memphis, Temple, Wichita State would be tremendous attendance draws.

Even Memphis, SMU, Navy and Tulane from a football perspective would be fun to play and UAB sounds like a lock for expansion with their new stadium.

It’s risky but you can’t move up to the big time unless you make baby steps first. UB isn’t jumping to a P5 conference anytime soon so better to make a small leap, improve the program and see if any of the big boys want Buffalo included down the line.
 

Edited by Big 4 Hoops Blogger
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