outoftown

Sorry, I keep thinking it is this year, but its 2024. In any case likely trying to improve NY6 chances in this case.

I doubt they will come out and comment on it. But seeing UTSA-Tulane in the last week has me thinking they are trying to divine which teams will be at the top of the league and getting them a showcase to increase playoff chances. UNT-UAB and SMU-Navy are also games between teams that were for the most part in the middle-upper half of their respective conferences the past few years. ECU-Tulsa were also doing similarly. USF plays Charlotte, both struggled last season. Problem is that this can backfire in multiple ways: divining which teams are gonna be top is difficult in leagues like the AAC, and even if you get it right, you risk that it could suck the interest out of the game if the week after you have a rematch in the championship game. SMU-UNT they already burnt earlier, because they want it as a tv game. At least they left themselves open as to which game will be the Friday game at then end of the season. I assume it will be the one that looks halfway through the season like it will bring the conference championship race the most attention.

A 2 seed in the NIT means NT is among the last 8 not in the NCAA tourney. That is approaching the bubble. It's similar in the drating one by the way. https://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/

Which tournament? It is in a good spot for the conference tournament. But those early season woes indeed did a lot of damage for at large chances at the NCAA one. I get how coach builts his teams. But it often comes with some annoying downsides early in the season that kill any margin of error a team like NT has to get an at large, and often you would need that margin for error at some point. Right now, there is only the tiniest of chance of NT getting in without winning the tournament. Like- NT has to run the table until the final and have looooooaaaads of carnage among the other bubble teams, plus NT needs to have its OOC opponents start to perform better down the stretch . Had they performed better in OOC (like staying close with st maries and beating UNC-W or beating FAU at least once, then they would appear in a lot of bracketologies now. Don't get me wrong: this IS a good team now. And they could absolutely get back to the big dance. But there is no margin for error because of how the early season went.

Doubt he will ever be a HC at Div 1 level again. May not even get a D2 shot. Doesn't help that NMSU also sucked the big one on the field, when they had been good before he arrived. I feel for NMSU fans, he managed to set the program back miles and into a deep hole on all fronts in record time.

Overall standing pat should really be an option to consider. The AAC can afford to play it slow. Where would anyone else go to? There really aren't any good options unless the PAC12 somehow tries to go further east (which seems unlikely, UTSA seems like the only potential option in my mind and that still seems very unlikely and being a case of things have gone terribly wrong for the Pac12). The ACC can't expand until their GOR is up, and none of the remaining schools do anything for the Big12. 13 teams is a bit annoying for scheduling, but other than that there really is no downside, especially since the conference already doesn't have divisions. It may also not actually be that easy to pry away sun belt schools, as they created a league with reasonable cohesion now. The AAC in any case must make sure that any joining school invests properly in its athletics or really contributes otherwise. That eliminates LaTech and UTEP and FIU off the bat, as they have simply failed to invest. So getting airforce or army would make sense, because of navy, or CSU because they invest, but geographics would be tricky. Also, none of those adds will happen in an instant, all those schools have reason to consider staying pat themselves. I can also understand the folks who say GSU as it may be a cultural fit that would likely invest properly. But they may feel safer in the belt, which is geographically better set up for them. You could get Liberty, but would have to wonder if academics minded presidents want to be associated with that brand.

This is an important game, because it does lots for NT to ascertain an NIT at large bid if it doesn't win the conference tournament. A loss on the other hand could really eat up all the margin for error real quick

this is actually pretty amazing, considering there was a coaching change in between and folks can now get poached left and right. Speaks to Morris' and maybe even the collective (but i am not privy to that info) doing a great job re-recruiting guys.

That is the thing. This obviously sucks for NT, as SMU gets out of being in a conference with UNT yet again. But it IS a risky move for SMU. Its really a big bet that the PAC12 in its current form will hold together. If it does, it is - financially beneficial (obviously), and likely (although not certainly) - increases exposure (potential downside: chance of being forgotten on Amazon, west coast start times) -increases chances at the playoffs (potential downside: is increased difficulty to win PAC12 really outweighing the chance that one gets in as AAC champion?). If the PAC-12 doesn't hold together however, SMU will really be out in the wilderness this time. There would be no Big12 invite, because the Big12 is set on defense and only needs to play offense for a while now (i.e. no backfilling only getting in schools that really move the needle, which does not include SMU for the Big12. Also this time its not like when the new big east-AAC first formed and they moved in a pack with similar schools. If the PAC-12 goes bad, SMU will have to come back hat in hand, because nobody else west of Dallas (i.e. the whole remaining AAC) is a logical fit for a bad Pac-12/MWC.

I agree.

Coach Mitchel has not had a great season. I too remember coach Astons season at NT positively. But in her two seasons at UTSA she is yet to make any real headway. That either says coach Aston is losing a bit of her touch, or about what a bad job UTSA is.

I like to look at this one, because it also tries to look at NIT seeding: https://www.dratings.com/predictor/bracketology/ Sadly hasn't been updated since before NT lost to Rice. Gonna be interested where that puts NT, which he had as a 4-seed in the NIT prior to that loss.

Was a bit worried after Ousmanes technical, but they came back out and just continued increasing the lead.

I think despite having been in the national championship game, TCU probably doesn't have all that much pull with the maybe dozen or two OCs that are really at that level. They also don't have money like a UT or any SEC B1G school. There probably actually are not as many similarly qualified options for them as you appear to think. Still that does not mean it was the right thing to do. But he has remained attractive to a number of schools because for a school like TCU the on-field quality gap to the next guy is probably fairly wide. Also, while I agree that this might be a quite sizable problem in terms of keeping the donor base together, I am afraid that this may not be nearly as high on some of the young mens minds, seeing as they were probably not yet watching the news when all of this happened, and not everybody is socially engaged.

Seriously though, this is awesome. softball is probably the second most important ladies sport attention wise (maybe tied with soccer). And it really is the consequence of investing in a winning coach and then providing him with the resources he needs. They'll get to prove it too. The OOC has games against three different top 25 teams (Texas, Kentucky and Arkansas)

Its really weird how much UNT and Cal have crossed paths in this offseason, and will then cross paths again to start the season. I mean that is not usually a school that NT has much interaction with. And I dare say UNT held its own, and hopefully also might on the field.

That may be the case. But I would venture Wren is at least gonna make him say no to a check first. I think footage of the conversation will go approximately like this:

Given the OOC opponents results I was a bit surprised. That said, 3 of the 4 conference opponents whom NT already played won, including FIUs surprise win over UAB

Sadly I fear the NET is gonna take a bit of a hit despite the MTSU win, because pretty much everybody NT played in OOC lost yesterday.

This halftime post aged awesomely

That is a great get.

Well, it was at least with a twinkle in my eye. The down votes tell me i should not have forgotten the comic sans font. That said, I have experienced that sometimes when I say things in that mood, apparently I am speaking them into existence. Also, I doubt coach Beard is gonna be as untouchable as coach Briles was after Baylor. If -as appears quite possible - the charges get dropped he will def get another shot at D1. But where, i have no idea.

so, when coach mac eventually goes elsewhere, say UT, does NT go and get coach Beard (i.e. could there be a "coach swap")

It doesn't hurt for sure. But not sure it does all that much to move the needle either, as they are still not even in the top 160 in NET (where the game they played with NT would at least become a Q3)