American Links - Following the AAC

Been a while since I posted anything.  I try to stay on top of things going on in the American Athletic Conference. 

Big weekend ahead for the AAC as Houston and Louisville play in NCAA baseball super regionals.  Houston travels to Austin to play the Texas Longhorns and Louisville hosts Kennesaw St. for berths in the College World Series.

Even though Navy doesn't join for football until 2015, it's never to soon to get acquainted with a future foe.  Eleven Warriors brings an interview with Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo.

For what it's worth Fan IQ is putting out game by game predictions.  They predict a 4-8 season for Temple.

 South Florida has a new baseball coach.

UConn lost it's leading rusher for the year due to team rule violations.

Football.com lists the Top 5 AAC Linebackers and Top 5 AAC Coaches.

From the BCSNN, a list of Fifteen UC Bearcats Land on National Preseason Lists.

Tulsa starting CB Darnell Walker is dismissed from team for undisclosed reasons.

 

New American Frontier - Way To Early Opening Week Spreads

Yes, I know it's a little to early for football spreads but it's a slow week and I want content for the blog.  I didn't say anything about quality right now...there will be time enough for that as we get closer to football season.

Courtesy of Jim and Sherri's Home Page (a less than inspiring website name), comes the document containing odds for the opening weekend of college football.  I couldn't find it on the website when I looked for an actual link.  I took it from C-USA message board over at NCAABBS.  I told you I scour message boards for AAC news....I'm AAC news starved.

For opening week, listed below are the AAC spreads:

• Vanderbilt (-17) vs. Temple
• Brigham Young (-11.5) @ Connecticut
• Ohio State (-9.5) vs. Navy (I included Navy as a future member)
• Central Florida (-4) vs. Penn State
• Houston (-12.5) vs. Texas-San Antonio
• Tulsa (-10) vs. Tulane
• Baylor (-23.5) vs. Southern Methodist

Only one conference game on the opening weekend with Tulsa and Tulane playing their first game as AAC teams.  Tulane beat Tulsa 14-7 in New Orleans last season.  Interesting to see Tulsa is a ten point favorite this year considering Tulsa was really bad last year and Tulane is on the upswing.

There is real opportunity for AAC teams to make some noise opening weekend.  Unfortunately I don't see any upsets happening week one.  You can't say AAC teams don't back down from a challenge with Vandy, BYU, Ohio St, Penn St. and Baylor on the first week. 

If I were a betting man, on this slate, I'd take Vandy, BYU, Ohio St., UCF, UH, Tulane and Baylor.

New American Frontier - Tulane to Big 12, SB Nation AAC Count Up, Orlando Sentinel Count Up, Houston vs Central Florda baseball, AAC Blogs

Tulane to Big 12
I came across an interesting blog entry on the College Expansion blog I follow.  Under the entry titled Neaux Tigers, blogger kclifton makes out a very hypothetical situation where LSU leaves the SEC for the Big 12.  kclifton even states it is a highly unlikely scenario.

LSU feels slighted that the SEC will establish permanent cross division games.  LSU is stuck with Florida.  LSU's AD Joe Alleva feels that set up is unfair and biased.

Alleva has a valid point.  To be fair, the SEC, like other conferences, should rotate cross division games.  It makes no sense to tie two teams together.  It already happens with in division.  Mix up the competition with the other division. 

How does this relate the AAC?  In the article, kclifton writes that the Big 12 should go ahead and sweep up Tulane also just to lock up the state of Louisiana.  In case he hasn't notice, LSU has the state of Louisiana locked already.  They don't fear Tulane. Nor should they.

SB Nation Count Up

SB Nation continues its count up of college football by conference.  Right now they are on the AAC.  So far previewed are

• UConn
• South Florida
• East Carolina
• Temple
• SMU
• Tulane
• Memphis

Orlando Sentinel Count Up

The Orlando Sentinel does a count up ranking all FBS teams from 128-1.  Currently the count is on #120 Purdue.  So far only one AAC team has cracked the list:

• #116 South Florida

AAC Baseball - #18 Central Florida @ #13 Houston

Another big series in AAC baseball as Houston hosts UCF for a three game series.  The Coogs were a top ten team flirting with a national seed but a sweep at the hands of Louisville and a few losses along the way have brought down the Cougars.  Houston is still looking at hosting regional and a win in this series will go a long way in bolstering their chances.

 

UCF comes in leading the AAC standings and as the hottest team, in my opinion, in the Conference. 

 

AAC Blogs

One of the reasons I started the New American Frontier blog is that I'm AAC news starved.  ESPN.com gave pretty good coverage of Big East football in its College Football Nation Big East blog.  With the death of Big East football, ESPN let coverage of the remaining teams die.  Gone were correspondents dedicated to AAC football or the lunch time links. 

 

Aside from ESPN, SB Nation had a pretty active Big East page called Big East Coast Bias.  Obviously it is no longer covering the remnants of Big East football or the additions.

 

So I've been scouring the web for dedicated AAC coverage. Right now about my only good source for gathering AAC news is on various message boards.  I finally book marked several message boards dedicated to either the conference or schools.  My hope is to go through them and when I find links and news, to post here.

 

Eventually I'd love to have more people from other schools involved to write articles, previews and opinion pieces.  My dream is to get coverage on SB Nation and have a place where all AAC fans can congregate for news and opinions.

 

While not on the level of ESPN or SB Nation for resources, the one consistent blog for AAC coverage I enjoy is from The Best College Sports Network aka BCSNN.  BCSNN's AAC Blog is actually updated unlike other websites that contain a dedicated AAC blog.  It is run by C. Austin Cox and he appears to enjoy covering the AAC.  He's also quiet witty and funny.  The blog is worth a follow.

 

Another good follow is Sean OLeary over at Quora.  While not a dedicated AAC blog, OLeary is a UConn fan, I believe he is, and a general supporter of the AAC.  He also writes good insightful articles on other sports too.  He writes good opinions supported by facts. I enjoy his works.

 

Signing off for the night...

CoogR4Life

#AmericanRising

 

Silver Brings the Hammer to Sterling

New NBA commish Adam Silver swung his Thor-like hammer down on LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling.  He slammed him with a $2.5 million fine, banned him for life from NBA and is seeking to have the NBA Board of Governors force a sale of the Clippers.

To which I say, OUTSTANDING, PVT. PYLE!

I really didn't think the new commish had it in him to make such a quick and unilateral decision.  He had to though.  Sterling already had a history of alleged racist incidents.  This time he was caught on tape and embarrassed the NBA.  He insulted a major demographic of NBA followers and fans in general. 

To me the only injustice is that Sterling will still profit from the incident.  He will add the final sale price of the Clippers to his $1.9 billion bank account.  A more fitting punishment, to me, is force the sell of the team and refund Sterling the original price he paid for the team.  With the profits from the sell, donate it to charity and let the owners pocket some of the change.

WHAT??? Let the owners pocket some of the blood money????  Yes and I'll tell you why.  It's probably the only way the owners would agree to such a drastic move.  Otherwise, they'd have no reason to force such a drastic move on Sterling.  He's still one of the brotherhood.  The rest of the brotherhood just wants him to go away even if it means he pockets millions.  So let them, to use a mob term, have a taste of the profit...wet their beaks...that should be incentive to hurt Sterling where it counts.

Why it didn't happen?  The lawsuit that would drag on for years and cost millions of dollars.  So the owners will be content to let Sterling ride off into the sunset, out of the league and pocket his hundreds of millions.  Incident over and that crazy Uncle Donnie will be crated away in the attic and the owners will pretend it never happened. 

The New American Frontier

#AmericaRising
America Rising is the battle cry of the newest athletic conference in the NCAA FBS division.  A cobbled together league from the shards of the Big East and C-USA.  The former Big East was raided into oblivion and the smaller Catholic basketball schools took the name with them and moved on.

What happened in the first year of the AAC?  Success and expectations exceeded.  Central Florida defeated Baylor in a BCS is bowl.  UConn won the NCAA Championship (and Justin Bieber is out there still looking for a Yukon hat). 

Despite the success in the first year, the effects of realignment continue to ripple through the league.  Gone this summer are Rutgers and Louisville for the Big 10 and ACC respectively.  UConn and Cincinnati have made no bones about wanting to move to a Power 5 conference.  No doubt, any team in the American will make the jump should one of the big money leagues call.  My own Houston Cougars would take say yes before the Big 12 finished the question.  No doubt about it.

For the time being though, the league is here and the current members need to make the best of it.  So far so good. While I don't see a banner year like this year for the American, I see some sustained success.  Which can only be a good thing. 

I think the main goal for the conference is to make the best of the situation.  Maybe they won't ever reach the stratosphere of the Power 5 but they can strive to be the next best thing.  They definitely need to distinguish themselves from the other 4 lower tier conferences.  Other than the Mountain West, the American has no real competition for the title of "Best of the Rest."  Right now the American, based on BCS and NCAA title win, can make that claim.  Next football season the race begins all over again.

One, I'd like to start blogging again on my sports blog.  The Houston Cougars have always been my college passion since I started attending in 1987 and receive my degree there.  Now I'd like to expand into The American Athletic Conference and watch it move forward. 

Part of my inspiration is the lack of a dedicated blog on SB Nation.  I love what they have built there and maybe in the future if I can get some help from fans of other AAC schools, I'd love to have a dedicated SB Nation blog.  But I have to start somewhere. 

For now, I'd like to subtitle this section of my blog The New American Frontier.