Gonzaga will not always be Gonzaga-like in basketball. They will have down years, like all programs.
The Top 40 football programs vary year to year. Several will not be in the SEC or Big10. Conference affiliation is not a lock for athletic superiority. It lets you gain more revenue and play better teams but doesn't guarantee you will be Top 40 in football. Have Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Illinois, Indiana, etc been Top 40 worthy in football in recent memory? No.
The thing that many are missing is that the SEC and Big10 cannot just go into a bubble and play themselves, nor stay elite by themselves. Are Oregon and USC still considered elite if they go 7-5 or 6-6 in the Big10? How about OU 7-5 in the SEC? Fans and donors will scream for an A$M type coaching buy-out if any of those programs fall below 9-3.
They need other FBS programs to get their 7 home football games and try to keep their fans happy with enough wins.
A$M's non-conference home football games this year are McNeese St, Bowling Green, and NMSU.
BVito had it in the sports capsules one day in the DMNews. I found it in his online blog....(copied here....amongst other items:
The American Athletic Conference renamed its MVP award for the league’s football championship after outgoing commissioner Mike Aresco and officially announced its basketball tournament will remain at Dickies Arena through 2028 at its annual business meetings this week.
The MVP will now receive the Mike Aresco Most Outstanding Player award.
The league announced those moves and a host of others on Friday, one day after the event wrapped up.
Aresco announced his retirement in December. He was named the fourth commissioner of the Big East in 2012 and oversaw its transformation as it became the American.
Friday was Aresco’s final day as the league’s commissioner. Tim Pernetti, the former president of IMG Academy, is taking over for Aresco.
The league honored Aresco with a celebration of his tenure on Wednesday.
“Serving as Commissioner of the American Athletic Conference has been the most rewarding experience of my career,” Aresco said in a statement.
UNT athletic director Jared Mosley was named to the conference’s athletic directors executive committee and will serve a term that runs through 2026.
The league made several other announcements following the meetings, including …
-- The conference’s 2025 softball tournament will be played at South Florida.
-- UNT will host the league’s annual Academic Symposium in 2025.
-- The league will increase the fees paid to softball umpires to attract top-rated officials.
-- The AAC’s finance committee said that the distribution pool for the 2024 fiscal year was higher than what the league budgeted, while expenses were lower than projected.
I love it being in Fort Worth better than Frisco because it's an actual basketball venue and closer to home.
However, pictures of the terrible attendance throughout the week went viral on Twitter and the showing was not only ridiculed by other AAC fans, but college basketball fans in general. I haven't seen the 2028 announcement on Twitter yet but it's sure to more widespread disapproval.
The teams have to take advantage of the opportunity and make it to the title game, though, and more fans need to show up. We couldn't have gotten luckier with the scheduling this March - all three men's/women's games started at 6 p.m. or later.
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